Tag: minnesota

Michele Bachmann to not seek fifth term.

Michele Bachmann‘s either about to be under investigation or running for Senate; either way, good luck trying to pick up a R+8 district in this election cycle, Democrats.  The woman’s not on my Christmas card list, for various and sundry reasons, but I will forgive her a bit for providing me with some indirect amusement next year.  You see, the Left is telling itself that they were going to win this district next year anyway, and now they’re going to be sure that the Democrat candidate that couldn’t win last cycle is going to win this cycle.  Despite the fact that his candidacy will be doomed the moment somebody demands, point blank, that he explicitly reject House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi*…

Moe Lane

*Now there’s a person that the Democrats should be conniving to force into retirement.  But they won’t, bless their hearts.

DCCC brags about already-withdrawn candidate?

In the grand scheme of things, this in itself is not necessarily a world-shaking event…

Sona Mehring, a political newcomer who founded the CaringBridge website, won national attention this month earlier this month when she said she would challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline.

Now, just three weeks into a run, the Democrat says she is dropping out of the race.

…except for this (alleged) little embarrassment for the DCCC:

Oops. Oh, well, I guess people didn’t have their coffee this morning over there.

…I don’t know how this turned into a political filk of Baby Got Back, either.

It was just supposed to be a post about how Minnesota Democratic businessmen shouldn’t be surprised that helping to elect Democrats who campaigned on a platform of raising taxes would then turn around and… raise taxes. Really, that’s all it was supposed to be.

And then this happened.

Some governors try to diss
‘Cause here’s Perry and his list;
They had firms but they chose to screw ’em
Texas pulls up quick to go woo ’em.
C-E-Os, if your firms are sound,
And you want to see that tax go down?
Dial 1-800-TEXAS-01 and kick them nasty thoughts.
Never look back.

Apparently this is where my brain lives today.  Don’t ask me why.

#rsrh You know who’s loving life today? Joe Freaking Biden, that’s who.

Normally the collective scorn of the blogosphere would be focused like a laser on his… Bidenesque… statement that Senator Stuart Smalley of Minnesota* was a “leading legal scholar.”  As it is, everybody’s all Oh, yeah, Joe Biden opened his mouth and stupidity came out.  Again.  Which is not great, but it’s not actually driving the news.  On the other hand, one presumes that Vice President talks because, somewhere in the recesses of his own private universe, he clutched to belief that doing so will still help his friends?  Somehow?

On the gripping hand, this is possibly the first time in months that Al Franken was actually in the news, even in passing…

Moe Lane

*Also: Fox Nation using that picture for Al Franken was so subtly nasty that I completely missed it at first.

RS Interview: Gretchen Hoffman (R CAND, MN-07).

On a practical level, there’s not much call for Minnesota’s Seventh district to be represented by a Democrat; it trends Republican, and its current faux-moderate representative Collin Peterson is best known for sneering “Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the twin towers down… That’s why I don’t do town meetings.” Not incidentally, 2010 was also Peterson’s worse showing in an election since 1994, and state Senator Gretchen Hoffman is one of the Republicans vying to make sure that his next showing is even worse.  We talked with Gretchen this afternoon:

Gretchen’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Pawlenty for MN-SEN?

The word is that the Minnesota Republican party is going to approach Tim Pawlenty to challenge freshman Democrat Amy Klobuchar; which is something that Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and Erick Erickson of RedState would likely get behind.  And myself, for that matter; like Erick, I respect that Pawlenty knew when to make a clean break of things.  And I think that I am correct in thinking that Ed & Erick would agree with me that replacing Klobuchar – who, after all, supported the ‘stimulus,’ cap-and-trade*, & Obamacare – with Pawlenty would be a definite step up for both Minnesota and the nation.  I mean, I hear that Klobuchar is supposed to be personable and everything, but since when did that become an adequate substitute for voting not-stupidly?

I also note with some interest that Tim Pawlenty’s site is not yet reflecting the change in his campaign’s status; for that matter, there’s been no rumors on what’s happening to Pawlenty’s staff.  Neither is precisely predictive of everything, but there are some heavy hitters in the political world working for Pawlenty.  You’d expect to hear more about what they were planning to do, even this early.

Moe Lane

*And unlike Pawlenty, Klobuchar declines to learn better.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D, MN) budget surrender ceremony.

The formal capitulation took place yesterday, and signals an end to Gov. Dayton’s ill-conceived, ill-timed, and ill-executed attempt to dominate the Minnesota legislature in the same way that predecessor Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R, MN) did during his term in office.  The very short version, for those not following along: Minnesota Republican legislators wanted a $34 billion dollar, two-year budget with no new taxes; Dayton wanted $3 billion in business-killing tax hikes.  Republicans told him no, and sent him a budget, which Dayton vetoed.  The Minnesota government shut down – which meant, among other things, that Minnesotans were in critical danger of running out of beer and not being allowed to fish.  Faced with such proven evidence of abject incompetence and idiocy on Dayton’s part, eventually the Governor was brought to heel like a whipped dog; his formal capitulation soon followed.  Final score: $35.7 billion over two years with no tax hikes – and legislators in Minnesota have to pretend that Gov. Dayton was not savagely politically beaten.  No, seriously… apparently this is supposed to be framed as being a ‘compromise.’

Interestingly enough, post-capitulation news articles on this don’t seem to mention Pawlenty nearly as much as they did, pre-capitulation.  Although that may just be a sort of terrible pity towards Dayton, who did turn out to be a very slender, and trivial to break, reed…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D, MN) budget surrender ceremony.

#rsrh Gov. Mark Dayton (D, MN) broken on the wheel.

Oh, this is entertaining.  The government shutdown in Minnesota is about to end not with a bang, but a whimper:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he “reluctantly” agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30 if it will end the government shutdown .

Hey, Dayton can be as reluctant as he wants about being brought to heel. Just as long as he’s brought to heel. Continue reading #rsrh Gov. Mark Dayton (D, MN) broken on the wheel.

#rsrh Obama getting in digs against Pawlenty early.

Why else lie about the Minnesota bridge collapse?

Mr. Obama noted that the United States has been given a “D” grade for its infrastructure and said U.S. roads, sewers and bridges are “all deteriorating.” He added: “We cut transportation by another third and what’s going to happen to America? We’re just going to have potholes everywhere? We’re just gonna have bridges collapsing everywhere?”

While experts say America’s aging infrastructure is a significant problem, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, which killed 13 people, was found to have been caused primarily by a design flaw.

Admittedly, that’s about the only thing that the Democrats actually have on Tim Pawlenty, so I suppose that they think that they might as well try to milk the deaths of 13 people for partisan gain.  One has to have one’s priorities in order, after all – and there’s almost nothing more important to President Obama right now than getting re-elected*.

Via Hot Air and Jim Geraghty.

Moe Lane

*I refuse to believe that he’d do anything to hurt his kids.

Tim Pawlenty to make 3PM Facebook announcement…

…I can’t begin to imagine what it could possibly be.

Seriously, at this point in the game Governor Pawlenty’s my first choice: he’s got the right credentials (two-term Republican governor in a Blue State), there’s no scandal attached to him, his major problem policy-wise (cap-and-trade) is not really a game-breaker for me*, and he lacks drama.  I am done with drama, thank you.  I’m putting this in RedState’s diary section because the site itself is not endorsing a Tim Pawlenty run, of course; it’s far too early for that and we haven’t really made up our own minds, yet.

At any rate, the announcement will be at 3 PM EST, on Facebook.  Friend Tim Pawlenty to see it.  And I suspect that this site will be getting a major update soon.

Continue reading Tim Pawlenty to make 3PM Facebook announcement…