Can money stop bridges from falling?

As you may have heard, Minnesota's most traveled bridge, the 35W over the Mississippi in the middle of the Minneapolis, fell to earth last summer. It's been a political football since. The storyline offered up by Minnesota Democrats is that the Republican approach to starving government of needed funds leads to a failure to serve the needs of the people and as a result bridges fall down. Our governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, and Republican cohorts insist that no additional money in the transportation budget would have been at all helpful in preventing the bridge from falling; the problem was antiquated design, not money.

So it was no help to Gov. Pawlenty when McCain this week took the position that the reason the bridge fell was because money was spent in the wrong places. McCain's theory implies that money could have prevented the disaster. Pawlenty is McCain's co-chair for his campaign. Thanks alot, Boss.