Munsterman Timeline: Evolution of a Question

South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Scott Munsterman has graciously replied to a question I posed here on the Madville Times last week. To review:

• Friday, August 21: Munsterman posts to his blog a quick little rah-rah note about the need for fiscal leadership in government. Specifically he bemoans our reliance this year on $71 million of federal stimulus money to fill our state budget hole. "Crawling on our knees when times get bad is not a good sign of a healthy, fiscally responsible state that budgets for the future," says Munsterman. (Perhaps, although if you've been knocked on your can, you might have to crawl a step or two and reach for a hand to help you up... but that's a different argument.)
• Monday, August 24: I wonder aloud just which $71-million worth of programs Munsterman would cut to close that gap and wean us of federal dependency. (Oh, that Cory, always niggling over details....)
• Same day: Munsterman campaign manager Pat Powers leaves a comment saying I should call the candidate myself with that question. PP says I should also prepare a list of other questions, to make the call worthwhile for all participants.
• Tuesday, August 25: In another victory for citizen journalism, frequent commenter Stan Gibilisco takes PP up on the offer and calls Munsterman himself. Stan learns from Munsterman that the candidate is unequivocaly against any sort of income tax in South Dakota (there goes one deficit plugger) and that he thinks education needs to run more like a business (putting my humanities hackles on alert).
• Sunday, August 30: PP e-mails his invitation to call the candidate with questions to the entire South Dakota political blogosphere. I appreciate this outreach to the non-mainstream media (perhaps we can call ourselves the woodshed of the Fourth Estate?). Nonetheless, I issue a grumpy Reply-All saying, essentially, "Just answer the dang question!"
• Same day: Munsterman answers the dang question, by e-mail. He also leaves me a nice message on the phone while I'm away in Sioux Falls discussing further digital revolution.
  
• Monday, August 31: A couple other bloggers (Bob Mercer, Bill Fleming) find my response amusing.

So what did Munsterman say... and do I buy it? This post is already long enough... and I'm still trying to reformat the table Munsterman included, so stay tuned!