Capitol Retort: Kabuki dance, Mueller report, Berri-ace.

Byline: Kevin Featherly

Editor's note: Welcome to Capitol Retort, our weekly review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of legal and political people in the know. Answers are edited for length and clarity. Any instances of agreement are accidental.

Question 1: Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka now says he will grant Judiciary committee hearings on two DFL gun-safety bills this year. Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday he thinks the hearing will probably be a kabuki dance where the bills go to die. "But at least that's a dance," Walz said. "And that's moving in the right direction." Do you expect the bills to get a fair hearing in the Senate?

Brian McDaniels, GOP lobbyist, attorney: I think it will be a fair hearing. The Senate majority does not support those bills but it will be an opportunity for both sides of the issue to make their case. I suspect it will be interesting to see how the Democrats on that committee vote on those bills much more than how the Republicans vote.

Mike Freiberg, DFL House member, attorney: Well, the cannabis bill certainly didn't. So I guess I'm not very optimistic about the chances of these bills. But who knows? Maybe I'll be surprised.

Peter Bell, conservative think tank fellow: Actually, I have no idea if they'll get a fair hearing. But I think it's a good idea that the Republican Senate does take this up because I think the public across the political spectrum wants to see some gun legislation. And I think that this is a necessary and needed first step.

Pete Orput, Washington County attorney: I'm hopeful they will, because I think these gun bills are all about harm reduction, not about politics or people's freedom rights. I think they should at least be heard and discussed. And I think they will.

Question 2: Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation is said to total almost 400 pages of material. Yet the public and Congress have to date received only a four-page summary from Attorney General William Barr. How much of the actual report do you think we will ever see?

McDaniels: It is my understanding that what is released is not really under Congress's purview and control, though there was a vote of 420-0 [in the U.S. House], to release the whole report. I think we see more than we've seen, but we don't, we don't ever get to see all of it.

Freiberg: I certainly hope we will see the whole thing. I mean, obviously, it was paid for with public dollars. I think there is really important...