rybak-pawlentyGov. Pawlenty and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak don’t agree on much these days, but plans for a simple moment of silence to commemorate the second anniversary of the I-35W bridge collapse have earned the endorsement of both men. 

Last year Rybak and Pawlenty promoted a public gathering near the site in Minneapolis. (At the time, Pawlenty was still in the hunt for the GOP vice-presidential nod but managed to be in town, between trips.)

This year is different. Earlier in the week came news that Rybak’s office would heed victims’ families’ wishes for no public ceremony on the anniversary day.

Then on Thursday, the mayor and governor jointly announced an organized moment of silence at 6:05 Saturday, with flags across the state ordered to fly at half mast.

Momentarily, their cooperation appeared to collapse today when the mayor’s office retracted a just-sent joint press release. But the problem was only one of “layout” differences, Rybak spokesman Jeremy Hanson told the Minnesota Independent.

An effort to construct a permanent memorial has so far taken in only $20,000 for a project estimated to cost more than $1 million.

Rybak, a Democrat, is jockeying for position among the pack seeking to replace Pawlenty after he voluntarily relinquishes the governorship at term’s end in early 2011 — some say in pursuit of the 2012 Republication nomination for president, a scenario boosted by his address to the party’s national committee tonight.

The two have sparred bitterly over state and city budget reductions, coming together only rarely on issues like cutting Minneapolis’ civil-rights complaint unit and Saturday’s low-key memorial for 13 who died when the I-35W bridge fell two years ago.