"Bridge? What Bridge? Governor? What Governor?"

MINNEAPOLIS -- So maybe they'll cram the I-35W bridge down the memory hole after all. The authorities are doing everything they can to keep sight-seers and victims' attorneys as far as possible from the scene.

It is now virtually impossible to see the site, unless you live in one of the river view high rises near by. They have the streets in the area sealed off. They've re-closed a nearby bicycle bridge that had opened briefly as well.

As for the victims' attorneys, a federal judge denied their request to have their experts visit the scene. If he let attorneys for a few victims dispatch experts, he'd have to let attorneys for all victims do so.

Mum's the word. Ix-nay on the idge-bray.

Ix-nay, too, on any public appearances by Governor Tim Pawlenty. This in spite of a literally-unbelievable poll by Survey USA that puts Pawlenty's approval rating above 70 percent in the wake of the disaster (you'll recall Bush's numbers went meteoric after 9/11 -- he had to really work hard to drive them over the brink and into the abyss where they are now).

If Pawlenty's handlers want to keep him out of sight -- and away from the site of the bridge collapse -- they're going to have their hands full between here and Labor Day. The Minnesota State Fair starts a 10-day run in Saint Paul next week. It's traditionally a chance for pols to press the flesh and palaver with the great unwashed.

Unfortunately for Pawlenty, several routes to the fairgrounds -- routes traditionally congested at fair time -- are going to be all but impassable as commuters and fairgoers mosh in the tight space on the remaining highways and bridges.

It's not fair to blame him for the collapse, although his cavalier approach to vetoing tax bills and his appointment of the Lieutenant Governor to head the Department of Transportation are certainly symptoms of the Republican disease that is a refusal to underwrite the true cost of infrastructure.

That's the take among many Minnesotans, if not the majority. And while the powers that be work to hide hundreds of thousands of tons of bridge at the bottom of the river, you can look for his handlers to keep Tim Pawlenty out of sight at the Fair.