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St. Paul (AP) ― Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau's hot seat is even hotter now that the top-ranking Democrat in the Legislature is seeking her dismissal.

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, of Minneapolis, said Wednesday she wants to see a "fresh start" at the Transportation Department and has grown concerned about Molnau's ability to run the agency. Molnau is also Minnesota's lieutenant governor.

"I think the appropriate thing to do is for the lieutenant governor and commissioner to step down as commissioner and do the right thing and not even make the governor go to the next level of that discussion or make the state Senate do the work to clean up the department," Kelliher said.

Also Wednesday, a joint legislative committee looking into the Interstate 35W bridge collapse moved toward hiring a special independent counsel or technical consultant to review inspections and maintenance decisions made by the Transportation Department before the disaster. The committee plans to seek approval from senior legislators.

Molnau, who has been commissioner since 2003, hasn't been confirmed to serve in that role during Gov. Tim Pawlenty's second term. She can keep the job unless the Senate votes to remove her, which is a growing possibility.

Last week, other Democratic legislators called for Molnau's resignation, saying they had lost confidence in her since the Aug. 1 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Pawlenty's spokesman said then that the Republican governor won't fire Molnau, and added Wednesday that nothing had changed.

Support for Molnau came from GOP Sens. Ray Vandeveer and Warren Limmer, who characterized her as a reformer who's doing a good job under trying circumstances.

"The partisan attacks that we're seeing -- I mean, there are two games that people could play in Minnesota this year. One is fantasy football and the other is the DFL fantasy disaster blame game," said Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake. "Every disaster that happens, it's some Republican's fault."

Pawlenty was asked if he thought Democrats were trying to score political points with a series of hearings into the department and the collapse.

"When you have a state that goes through this kind of trauma and crisis, it's important that leaders step forward and take actions and use words that are constructive and oriented toward finding solutions rather than bickering and fingerpointing," Pawlenty said.

Hours later, the Legislature's Bridge Investigation Committee met for the first time, pressing for information on inspections and maintenance of the state's bridges. One of the panel's goals is to "examine the extent to which the decisions that permitted the I-35W bridge to deteriorate to the point of collapse were similar to those made regarding other bridges."

State bridge engineer Dan Dorgan cautioned the lawmakers against jumping to conclusions about the cause of the bridge failure before the National Transportation Safety Board and a private firm hired by the state finish their investigations.

"There seems to be some presumption that condition was the cause here. I think we need to wait until the NTSB investigation and the forensic investigation is complete. Because I think at this time that's very speculative," Dorgan said.

"The jury's still out on that," said Sen. Steve Murphy, one of the panel's chairmen. "I think what this committee is trying to look at is are we in jeopardy of having another bridge fall down because of lack of maintenance or something else that we could be doing collectively."

In response to legislators' questions, Dorgan said the state will have to start spending more on its aging bridges in the coming years. But he defended the bridge budgets of past years as adequate.

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According to a Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Web site, Molnau was born and raised on a farm in Carver County. She attended Waconia public schools and the University of Minnesota.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)