Cage Match at the Capitol Sans the Public

The media reported a "lock-in" for the Governor and Legislative Leaders for Friday and Saturday to wrestle with the state budget.  To the public it may be more of a cage match. What is the definition of "cage match."

An event in which wrestlers battle in an enclosed location escaping over the top to win.

In this corner we will have the GOP Legislature, full of vigor, after a swift move to power last year.  Full of volcanic pressure ready to burst with energy to deliver the knock out hold for what they ambitiously want.  It has been more than forty years since the GOP grappler has had full sway and strength at the Capitol.

In the other corner, the DFL Governor, no newcomer as a matman who has gone through several tough matches and has been able to pull through all right.  It has been over twenty years since there has been a DFL tangler in the ring as Governor. The DFL contender with other DFL grizzled veteran wrestlers will try with the dragon sleeper choke to preserve their standing with an ambivalent public of what they have won in other grueling matches.

Where the event may take place is the Reception Room of the Governor's Office.  This is a large room with soft and plush carpets.  One could get a rug burn.  This has been the sight of previous wreck matches over the past four years.  It is ironic if this is the sight for the rassling event because there are scenes of battles facing down on this ring, battle scenes of the Civil War.

One thing though will be absent from this historic match.  There will be no public/audience in the stands watching the grapplers in action.  No referee either.  Will there be sly moves and pins by the participants which the public would not tolerate if they were in the stands?

Will there be a fly cross armbar to the Dayton budget push or can there be an octopus hold stretch to partially to do away with the GOP no tax pull?  The public will not know.

I do not expect this match to be public because the wrestlers are not interested to have the public see their holds, pins, and moves.  The wrestling ways the Governor and Legislative Leaders do to immobilize or lead to a submission of their respective ideas and proposals are not for public view.

So what is the next best thing?, as a woman said to me today, as we were going past the Capitol, "maybe I need to be in that room and straighten them out with a stick" to make sure they come out with a compromise.

A compromise that the opponents can come out of the match, not as a loser or winner, but both as ALL-STAR wrestlers.

The public may not be in the direct stands of the match, so when the cage match is over there will not be the boos or cheers.  But when the doors are "lock-out" from the lock-in, we all will be in the grandstand, and in our own way we will be the referee.