As the sun pulls away from the shore

And our boat sinks slowly in the west

(c) Craig Stellmacher 2012

The civic embarrassment formerly known as Steve Sviggum appears ready to resign as a Regent of the University of Minnesota. He's been asked.

Here's a bit from the MPR article at the first link:

Sviggum is both a university regent and works as chief spokesman for the Senate Republican Caucus. The board of regents is meeting today 11 am to discuss whether the two jobs are in conflict. 

A three member regents panel said last week that Sviggum does have a conflict of interest. Sviggum has rejected that idea, but Dayton says he told him that there is a problem. 

"I think he's got to make a decision between one and the other," Dayton said. "I told him I have great respect for his years of service and we always gotten along very well and my advice as a friend is that this was an embarrassment to him and to the university and he needed to resolve it."

And according the Minnesota Daily (second link), Sviggum left the meeting this morning like he'd been jilted by his girlfriend:

Minn. Daily

In an emotional speech in front of the entire board Thursday, Sviggum challenged the board’s reasoning and the fairness of the process that reviewed whether he could simultaneously hold his board position and a new job with the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus. 

“My reputation means a lot to me ... I love this University unconditionally. This hurts bad," Sviggum said. 

“For the good of the University, for the good of Minnesota, I will again, again leave something that I love." 

He handed out a resignation letter and promptly left the board room.

The photo of Sviggum leaving the Regents meeting is from the Minnesota Daily. And thanks to Bill Gleason for the tweet to the Daily story.