Meeting controversy head on.

Whenever MN state GOP legislators hold a press conference to convey legislative proposals and/or fixes to current laws, our petulant governor Mark Dayton often accuses them of "grandstanding." That's pretty rich coming from someone who himself has a tendency to make mountains out of molehills.

The latest offing from the erratic chief executive of our state has to do with his concern over a lack of umlauts on a certain small town sign. That's right. Umlauts. 

See, there is a city in Minnesota that had been known as Lindström — or, if you saw the signs greeting you on the way in or out of town in recent years, Lindstrom.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation replaced the signs welcoming people a few years back. These signs are generally replaced every decade or so after the U.S. Census takes place, and after the last such survey, new signs were brought to Lindström.

The state transportation authority relies on federal guidelines that outline what it can put on signs, and these rules say signs must use only “standard English characters,” said Kevin Gutknecht, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

“So when we replaced the sign, we didn’t put the umlaut in,” Gutknecht said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

OUTRAGEOUS I tell ya!!

No way Gov. Dayton will allow such an egregious offense to stand. As such, a press release came out Wednesday indicating Dayton will sign an Executive Order requiring the MN Dept. of Transportation to "reinstate the use of umlauts on roadway signage, when appropriate."

BREAKING: Umlauts Win! Gov Dayton signs executive order forcing MnDOT to use umlauts in road signs. #Lindstrom pic.twitter.com/CMtcsDIL1G
— Timothy Blotz (@TimBlotzFOX9) April 15, 2015

Glad to see our governor has been focused like a laser beam on such salient issues as umlauts and taxpayer funded travel to Indiana.

“Nonsensical rules like this are exactly why people get frustrated with government,” Dayton, who grew up in Long Lake, about an hour southwest of Lindström, said in a statement.

Ah, but people are totally OK with being fleeced for sports stadiums, having their preferred healthcare become more costly or canceled altogether and be overtaxed yet have you, Governor, refer to the extra revenue taken in as "our collective good fortune." Nope, all's hunky dory there.

“Even if I have to drive to Lindström, and paint the umlauts on the city limit signs myself, I’ll do it.”

Anybody else have a feeling that Little Lord Fauntleroy Dayton likely hasn't come in contact with paint since Kindergarten finger painting?

Besides, painting is a form of manual labor. Such exertion is probably not the Governor's strong suit given his struggles to shovel a small amount of dirt.

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