Never to be confused with a real outlet of journalism, Fox News already has their talking points in place with regard to Al Franken: emphasize his "high unfavorables." Of course, the poll they cite, duly repeated by Politico, was a national poll, which often doesn't turn out well for congressional leaders.
Can someone remind me of the last time we were supposed to care about a national poll about a junior Senator who hasn't even been sworn in for his first term yet? Or better yet, when was the last time a poll like that actually mattered?
Still, good to see Fox News is on the ball with their attack strategy.
Two trends are really changing the way politics will happen in next couple of years. Video is now the language of communication. Now "talking back" is even done in video, as this sample video shows.
This effect counters the endless-repeat lies done by mainstream media. In fact, "getting it" and knowing the lies is a major factor in the youth universe. One of the political cartoons was making a joke about seeing two shadows. A very smart teenager asked me why that was supposed to be funny. I told her that the famous man-on-the-moon photo has two shadows when there was only one light source. A single light source can only create a single shadow, so many people believe that landing on the moon was faked. She was thoughtful and not at all fazed by the idea that a common belief could be totally wrong. I think she could go places in myth busting that I have not imagined. The point of all of this, is that one has to be able to consider the possibility to investigate, which I find that older people are unable to do, while young people do consider possibilities with ease.
Coleman is not that popular. He's run for statewide office three times, losing twice, and winning only after his opponent, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), died in a plane crash and was replaced on the ballot by former Vice President Walter Mondale. Coleman's clever and delicate 11th-hour campaign against Mondale was impressive, but it still only netted him 49.5 percent of the vote in a very good Republican year. The last Minnesota poll, conducted in April by the Star-Tribune, gave him a 17-point net negative favorable rating. And for much of 2007 and 2008, he was considered the heavy favorite for re-election, considering Al Franken's long record of potentially controversial jokes, a strange tax issue (he failed to pay taxes on speaking fees in different states) and his difficulty uniting the Democratic base. (After Franken locked up the Democratic nomination at a state convention, he drew a bitter primary challenger who attacked him for his "record of pornography and degradation of women and minorities" and drew 30 percent of the primary vote.)
Add this to Coleman's ongoing legal problems and considerable debt and it's really quite strange that reporters handicap his chances for a comeback in an election only 16 months away.
Tough to disagree, really. Where would Coleman find a base in the Republican primary electorate? Social conservatives aren't his biggest fans, and they're more likely to go for a Brod or a Bachmann anyway. Establishment party-line types are more likely to support a Seifert or a Hann. Low-tax-at-all-costs corporate types might support Coleman, but are they enough to get through a potentially crowded primary?
(Mark My Words has some valid concerns about the Obama Administration's foot-dragging on equal rights -- hopefully this can be a positive dialog focused on pushing the right kind of action. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
"After Monday's meeting, I am persuaded that President Obama is committed to working with our community to advance the visions and hopes of our entire country. I know that he has heard the message of frustration from our community about lack of meaningful action and the damage inflicted by missteps of the last few months. I am grateful for such a unique opportunity to present these issues to him, and I hope the messages we all brought to the White House resonate with the administration. I look forward to more rapid progress on change for the better."
And I'm curious on why you feel persuaded that President Obama is committed to anything related to our GLBT Community.
Going back to my rural roots, Tom Rukavina is a Ventura-like candidate who could do surprisingly well if he ever got organized. While I am always second-guessing whether a candidate will do what he or she says, I never, ever doubt Tom Rukavina. His courage and honesty should appeal to any progressive. Tom wears his heart and his soul wide open. With this wide open populist approach, Tom Rukavina frequently captures the media stories. This is a talent that would be critical in a governor's race. Even his opponents are entertained!
Tom Rukavina is a DFL House Representative from Virginia. This is an area with wide open spaces and many bars, a drinking culture. So it will probably not surprise you to find out that Tom Rukavina was driving erratically and was therefore cited for a fourth-degree DUI in 2004. Tom Rukavina cooperated with the Sheriff. In the next election, Tom Rukavina won by a higher percentage than before.
Minnesota Brown described Tom this way:
State Rep. Tom Rukavina is one of the great characters of the Iron Range. I mean great in that he personifies our unusual culture rather well and that his heart is usually in the right place, too.
(Minnesota Brown)
Tom Rukavina can champion surprising populist causes. Tom championed into law the requirement that alcohol be available to all legal-age buyers at the new TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota or that no alcohol at all be available. Previously, the U of M's plan was just to offer alcohol in the premium seats.
"There was an overwhelming feeling in the Legislature that what the Board of Regents did was elitist," Rukavina said. "If you can afford to sit in the premium seats, you can drink chardonnay, and if you sit in the cheap seats, you get water or pop ... We didn't think that was right."
(Uwire)
I stood up and cheered to this one!
While Tom Rukavina has not formally declared, he spoke in the time sent aside for gubernatorial candidates at a Minnesota DFL central committee meeting. Could this guy catch fire? Tell me what you think!
As for what lines of argument Seifert might take with state Republican caucus-goers, to show that he's the better candidate: "I think my appeal is that I'm electable and that -- you know, the bottom line is, I love Norm as a person and as a public servant, but he lost to Al Franken, for goodness' sake."
I asked Seifert about a thought experiment I'd been doing, putting myself in the shoes of a Minnesota Republican activist -- that I would think "we was robbed" in the 2008 Senate race, and a Coleman candidacy for Governor would immediately be an appealing way to put things right again.
"It never should have been close, there never should have been a recount," Seifert responded. "So most people in the party, I think, are looking at the analysis and saying, we should have never had 42% against Al Franken. It should never have been close to start with. And that's with all due respect to Sen. Coleman, but it never should have been close."
A couple of threads to suss out here -- Seifert is going against the official party line of "Franken stole the race!" and admitting that, while extremely close, the race was ultimately won fair and square by Senator-elect Franken. But he's also providing us a preview of the kind of bloodletting that's going to happen in the GOP endorsement process -- and with so many candidates, there's a strong possibility of a primary as well, especially if big names like Coleman and Bachmann jump into the race.
Sen.-elect Franken himself has made the point that a lot of people voted against him. 58%, in fact. Of course, 58% (plus 300-some-odd votes, of course) voted against Coleman as well. The difference now between the two is that one is theoretically considering whether to run statewide just two years after nearly six in ten Minnesotans voted against him.
The Avista Capital Partners-owned Star Tribune still cannot abide the thought of former senator Norm Coleman out of politics. After all, they invested significant time, effort and copy inches pushing his campaign and then propping it up after it was clear he was going to lose. Mike Kaszuba, seeming to follow company orders, ignored several key facts in writing his analysis of Norm's political future.
The biggest mystery, now that Democrat Al Franken is heading to the U.S. Senate, is how soon Republican Norm Coleman will let Minnesotans know whether he wants to be their governor.
Kaszuba glosses over Norm's legal troubles, ignoring three of the four problems Norm faces. He doesn't even note what Norm is in trouble for:
But Coleman would face potential roadblocks. The FBI is still investigating his relationship with Nasser Kazeminy, a major political donor accused in lawsuits of funneling payments to Coleman through a business where Coleman's wife worked.
Maybe the Strib is too short-handed right now to assign someone who knows the political history of Norm. Maybe they're on vacation. At any rate, Kaszuba ignores three other probable corruption investigations:
Kazeminy bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of designer clothing for Norm.
Norm got a below market rate for his apartment in Washington, DC from a political ally and the guy who received millions in business from Coleman's campaign and senatorial office.
Norm's landlord's company may have paid Norm's utility bills.
In all four cases, Kaszuba fails to mention Norm's legal problem ... he didn't report these gifts. If Norm is indicted, if Norm spends time in prison, it will be for not reporting these gifts.
And there's one more problem with Kaszuba's analysis ...
(Editor's note: TwoPuttTommy is on vacation; this post was originally published on May 27th, 2008 at MnBlue. While TPT discusses then-Party Chairman Ron Carey, Current Party Chairman Tony Sutton was Party Treasurer.)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
"And we anticipate filing some amendments..."
...is an exact quote from a July 20th, 2007 letter from the Republican Party of Minnesota to the Federal Elections Commission.
"SOME" amendments?
How about SEVENTY amendments!!!
One for each month of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and the months of January through November of 2007.
Is that "some"?
Ladies and Gentlemen, under Ron Carey's "stewardship" in leadership roles, the RepubliCan Party of Minnesota has been paying fines to the FEC, going back to 2001 and a fine of $16,000. Since 2002, the FEC has repeatedly and continually asked for clarification of those monthly reports because, well, they simply don't add up nor make sense.
And since Ron Carey began criticizing Al Franken's bookkeeping problems, demanding Franken answer questions, republiCon Ron began ducking questions and re-filing amended monthly reports to the FEC for a period covering almost SIX YEARS. And who knows? There may be even more amended returns coming up. After all, what's republiCon Ron gonna say about the latest batch of amended returns - "Well, sure, we've amended a bunch of previously amended reports, but THIS time, we got 'em "right"!!!"
Hey - if they didn't get 'em "right" the first time, nor the second, why would anyone believe republiCon Ron got 'em "right", this time?
Think about that - since 2002, the Republican Party of Minnesota has not gotten a single month's report done correctly. Not a single one.
How's THAT, for a track record?
Now, one thing to remember, is this: the whole time republiCon Ron was in front of a microphone, piously criticizing Franken's paperwork, he KNEW that those seventy amendments to the previously amended reports were going to be filed.
He KNEW.
Yet he hypocritically ripped Franken anyway.
Why?
Unfortunately, that's a question that can't be asked, because although republiCon Ron is fond of demanding Franken answer questions, answering questions isn't something Ron likes to do, himself.
(It's tempting to fall back on "you lost, get over it." But as ericf notes, does that really get us anywhere? - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I've heard Franken speak enough about Wellstone's death to be sure that it was this that propelled him the get active beyond satire. In fact, not just Wellstone's death, but the lies the right told about the memorial service, which Franken wrote about in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and talked about on his radio show, propelled Franken to run. If Republicans would just have acted like human beings, like Wellstone's opponent Rudy Boschwitz did, and recognize the political speech was just a grieving friend saying things he shouldn't have, and offered condolences instead of deceptive spin, Franken's win probably wouldn't have happened, because he probably wouldn't have run.
That's where the intensity of this race came from, the lies, the phony outrage, and the "he's dead, get over it" bumper stickers. Frankly, they motivated many DFLers to step up and try to fill part of our Wellstone-sized hole.
I'm not sure we realized how big a hole Wellstone would leave behind until it was there, and we discovered we couldn't just have Walter Mondale jump in to fill it. While we were mourning, Republicans brought out the meanness and used public misunderstandings to spread lies that lead to a political empty jacket defeating Mondale for the seat Wellstone looked likely to retain. We felt like the floor fell out from under us, but the Republicans handed us the motivation to rebuild, and do more than win the seat Wellstone had occupied.
Al Franken spoke on the steps of the State Capitol to around 500 to 600 supporters today. Despite the overcast sky, U2's "Beautiful Day" blared over the speakers and perfectly summarized what today is like for DFLers across the state.
Norm Coleman is vanquished and we finally have a Democrat back in the seat that Paul Wellstone held.
Rep. Betty McCollum, Rep. Keith Ellison and DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez warmed up the crowd. Franni Franken introduced Sen. Amy Klobuchar who introduced Al.
More pictures after the break. Plus I hope to get my hands on the transcript of Al's speech.
(Peace, single payer health care, honor for gays in the military, no torture, civil rights - these are the issues that we worked for. How are we doing? - promoted by Grace Kelly)
I've become a cynic on the entire subject related to President Obama's ovations he made towards the GLBT community while he was running for president.
In fact, I've become skeptical to the entire Democratic Party's views towards the GLBT community. The GLBT has been ferociously loyal to the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party has reacted to that ferocity by turning the GLBT's support into nothing short of a cliche'.
The other day, I had a volunteer call me from the DFL looking for my husband life-partner, and when I identified myself as his partner, she identified herself and wanted me consider a donation.
Mega-mistake. Oh boy...
She got an earful. When I said my partner wasn't available, she said; "Then maybe his wife is around?!"
Oh boy....
I said: "ummm... It's illegal for him to get married. I'm his life-partner. We're a gay couple. Is there something that I can help you with?!"
That's when she told me that she was from the DFL and was looking for some cash.
Oh boy...
The DFL is clearly out of touch with the GLBT.
Short version of that conversation: She agreed with me 100% and she admitted that the DFL and the Democrats have treated the Gay Voter as a free meal ticket. Her tone was pretty queasy, you could hear a couple of tears in her tone. She apologized twice I think, but I lost count after I got to the part where the DFL simply walked away from bills in both the state House and the Senate in hopes that they would just go away.
I had the honor of attending a gathering with President and Michelle Obama at the White House on Monday, June 29, at an event marking the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, commonly cited as the modern beginning to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equal rights movement, alongside about 250 other LGBT citizens, allies and families. I was especially encouraged to see so many young people there.
This was a unique opportunity to remember those who began fighting for equal rights so many years ago, and honor the work that has been done since that time. It also was an opportunity for members of the LGBT community to speak with President Obama about how much work is yet to be done, and how we would like to work together to ensure equal rights for everyone in our country.
Because it was important for the President to know the thoughts and feelings of those from across the country the about the state of our movement and the pace of change, I brought two letters with me. I personally delivered each to the President's Senior Advisor, David Axelrod.
