The Center of the American Experiment, a think tank in Minneapolis, hosted Margaret Thatcher at its May 9 annual dinner. But the visit of the former British prime minister was not universally welcomed. Six members of the city council -- one short of a majority --- worked themselves up into a snit. Three days before her arrival, they wrote to Mitch Pearlstein, president of the think tank, to "express our serious concern" over the invitation (translated: please disinvite her). "Our City Council," wrote the Minneapolis Six, "has supported the struggle for justice and civil rights in Ireland. Margaret Thatcher has opposed that struggle . . ." Pearlstein wrote back, after the event, calling the letter an ugly example of both "political correctness" and "old style, ethnically flavored pandering" and "the most remarkable piece of political grandstanding I've ever seen up close and personal." He said it was an "embarrassment" to all Minneapolitans. In the context of Minneapolis politics, Pearlstein's response was positively Thatcherian. And Lady Thatcher was a big hit.