I spent most of yesterday watching Twitter traffic relating to the Deadbeat MnGOP's State Convention in St. Cloud, where there was plenty of bleating about "fiscal responsibility." Yeah, "right." One tweet I sent: How pathetic has the #MnGOP become? When asking if they paid their #mngop12 tab before splitting town is a serious question. #StribPol
So I go out to the mailbox yesterday, and what do I find in it? A 12 x 8 1/2 inch, full color "PUBLIC DOCUMENT -- OFFICIAL BUSINESS -- This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense" sent from none other than Postage Stamp Paulsen.
This is the front - and at 12 inches by 8 1/2 inches, it's too big to make a full scan of it, let alone a full screenshot - let's look!
And before we tee'd off; before the "Gentlemen, start your golf carts!" announcement, Tim got up to speak (before cutting the IRRRRRRRRRRRB ribbon): "So I'm on the way over here, and my aide goes: "Governor, you ready to play? Got your sticks? Shoes? Glove? Balls?"
Tim continues: "Listen, I'm a Republican that travelled willingly to the Range; I got plenty of balls!"
Don't care who ya are; that's a funny joke.
And: it doesn't excuse Timmeh's horrible record as Governor.
But: it does help explain why Timmeh won - TWICE. He's personable, and he knows how to tell a joke.
DFL endorsed candidates should pay attention.
Well, the Party, on Plato, too.
So, watch out for Kurt Bills. He's personable; the jury's still out on if he can tell a joke. If he can, and with the Ron Paul Anointment, it may spell trouble.....
Common sense is that which everyone has, which everyone trusts, and which is usually wrong. Common sense is great for figuring out that the stove that was just burning is probably still too hot to touch. When it comes to public policy and politics however, not so much. This brings us to charges that the Obama campaign is politicizing the anniversary of killing Osama Bin Laden, where common sense is clashing with experience.
Common sense says that using Bin Laden as a campaign selling point looks unseemly, and it's going to hurt. The opposing party and candidate has gotten predictably upset. Better to be quiet and humble about it. Pretend it's some bipartisan triumph, and not Obama benefiting from taking a huge risk. Voters will punish someone who politicizes a war or terrorism and reward a candidate who acts more numbly and non-partisan. Right?
Funny thing though: experience says otherwise. Remember 2004? I recall a cartoon after the GOP convention of an elephant saying "911" over and over and over in a spot-on mockery of every speech from every speaker. Politicizing 911, politicizing the war in Iraq, how awful! How petty! How ... effective. When the Democratic convention didn't produce the usual post-convention bounce for Kerry, the favored theory was the country was so intensely divided that everyone has already decided. Then Bush and his party talked about 911 incessantly ... and oh look, a bounce in the polls. Apparently, seeing the most blatant politicizing of a war or attack on the US in maybe any campaign ever, most voters had no problem with it.
Common sense was wrong then. I'm pretty sure it's wrong now.
Maybe Republicans would have Obama be properly demure about Bin Laden, like Jimmy Carter was about spending more time in uniform than any 20th president except Eisenhower, and like George McGovern about combat experience in World War II. Didn't know about those? They didn't make much about it. Voters...appear not to have given much credit.
Reward the humble hero? Maybe in everyday life, but in politics, not so much. Not common sense, but apparently so.
So Joe Biden got it right, "Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive". Consider it as boastful as we want, but experience shows the voters are far more likely to reward it than punish it. So if you want to win, blow your own horn. Talk it up. Stick it on your bumper stickers. Spike the metaphorical football. Laugh at W metaphorically spiking the football at his own 20 yard line, but remember the voters saw him land on the aircraft carrier and still voted for him.
This past winter, George Fraley got a certified letter from a Republican attorney demanding payment of more than $219,000 in overdue legal fees from the 2010 gubernatorial recount.
There were two problems: The letter listed Fraley as CEO of a company he'd never heard of -- Count Them All Properly Inc. Second, he never agreed to bankroll the recount for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.
"This has been, without a doubt, one of the screwiest things that has ever happened in my life," said Fraley, who is not politically active and who has no ties to the GOP.
Fraley's fight to get his name removed from the corporate filings for Count Them All Properly is coming to light as state regulators and a watchdog group are probing whether the company was created chiefly to keep debt off the books of the state Republican Party, which owes creditors $2 million, including recount debt.
It would not be fair to characterize what the MNGOP did as a pattern of mismanagement, so please stop. That's not fair at all. Fraud is not the same as mismanagement, OK?
Sure it's possible both Fraley and the other CEO who never heard of the company, Jon Schroeder, are making up the same story. We don't know with any certainty what the truth is, at least not yet. If they're telling the truth though, then someone listed them as CEOs without asking them. If they had no political ties, were their names pulled out of a phone book? Randomly collected first and last names? A dart board?
It doesn't get any simpler or truer than that, folks: Mary Franson, first-term Republican State Representative from Alexandria is an abject moron, devoid of anything resembling rational thought. And a conspiracy-theory-fearing moron, at that.
This fact, of course, is something she seems to wear as a badge of honor. After all, after stepping in it over issue after faux issue, you'd think she'd smarten up. But alas, here she is again, taking to Twitter to crow about how cars represent freedom and trains are socialism blah blah blah:
Collectivists don't want you to own cars Cars make you free. Free to go where you choose. Light rail not so much, government controls tracks
Collectivists? Where? Rep. Moron would have us believe that providing affordable transit options instead of forcing everyone to sit in the same fumes on the same seven-lane highway for hours every day is COMMUNISSSMMMMMMMM. You'd think it was the 1950s, or something.
In another tweet, she went further: "Light Rail/Sustainable Development -- control the method of transportation and you control the world."
Has this idiot read anything but Atlas Shrugged since high school? Conspiracies abound everywhere, wrapped in efforts to, you know, help people get to work safely and more quickly than forcing them to sit in a seven-lane parking lot for two hours each way. Or something. I'm not about to posit a rational explanation for this stupidity.
Look, rational people can disagree with transit projects on their merits -- sure, they cost a lot. Sure, it's lots of construction and delays. Of course, they also bring in revenue, lower greenhouse emissions, alleviate traffic, and provide a way for thousands of Minnesotans to avoid owning and/or regularly driving cars, but whatever -- at least those are things we can talk about.
This is a person who imbues everything with which she or her party bosses disagree with some bizarre, fever-induced notion of global conspiracy, and walks away from any attempt to question her on her idiocy declaring victory over the forces of global hippy hegemony or some such foolishness. Because she said so.
This is a person who doesn't care a whit about the future or well-being of anyone who doesn't live, work, and worship exactly like she does. Here, now, in the 21st century, when all it takes to learn about someone different from you and yours is the click of a mouse, is the very image of a moron.
Oh, and she's currently serving in the State Legislature.
Wonderful. At least that last part we can work on. Her opponent is DFL-endorsed school teacher Bob Cunniff -- go throw him a few bucks to help him in his campaign to remove this blithering idiot from the Legislature.
On June 3rd, 2007, Dan Browning and Pat Doyle broke a story that rocked Minnesota's political world and would have repercussions we're still feeling today; it dealt with the now-infamous "Tostenson Memo". Written by long-time MN GOP Finance Director Dwight Tostenson, it detailed the financial shenanigans - "Cooked Books" if you will - of the party, and became the basis for the Federal Election Commission's near-record $170,000 fine last year. The GOP is still paying that fine off (unlike their rent). That newspaper story came out just before the MN GOP's State Convention, the current chair, Ron Carey, was being challenged by a guy named Joe Repya on, boiled down, a "clean up/reform the party" platform.
Joe lost, Ron (and, status quo) won, and the Party's problems Joe was running to correct: got worse.
The 2008 MN GOP State Convention in Rochester is mostly remembered for the shabby treatment of Ron Paul and his supporters. Paul was a bona fide candidate for the GOP nomination for president, even though he didn't have a (deleted, for censors) chance in (deleted, again) of getting it. Doesn't matter; as a party member, he should have been allowed to speak - Ron Paul wasn't.
And then there's the treatment of Ron Paul's supporters at the Convention. Well, leading up to it, too - as you can read by linking here for but one account. There's plenty more out there, like this one.
One significant event at that 2008 MN GOP State Convention isn't remembered so much; fortunately, one Convention Delegate caught it on tape - let's look!
Oh, and pay very, Very, VERY close attention to what then-Chair Ron Carey says, "right" at the very end!!!
To recap that video: there's a white-wash/cover up concerning the GOP's FEC Reports; Joe Repya asks two pointed questions; Tony Sutton goes ballistic; Ron Carey bloviates! And what exactly did Carey say, "right" at the end?
"At the end of the day, those that are criticizing us are to be shamed - because the truth will get out and the truth shall set us free."
WHAT??!?
And then, in compete violation of Robert's Rules, State GOP "leadership" ended the convention.
I'd recommend everyone read it, and remember: the problems Repya was talking about five years ago, back in 2007? Repya was correct.
I'm still wondering, though - isn't it about time a prosecutor started taking a hard look at the problems Repya has been talking about all these years?
The Gallup daily tracking poll, which kicked off eight days ago with Mitt Romney leading by two points, now has President Obama in front by 7 points, 49% to 42%.
Meanwhile, a new DailyKos/SEIU poll shows Obama leading Romney 49% to 44%.
Good. For reference's sake, a seven-point national win would likely net the President somewhere around 350 electoral votes -- a HUGE landslide.
Many secular Democrats, by contrast, may start with the assumption that religious orthodoxy produces irrationality and intolerance... Democrats may exhibit greater suspicion of Mormonism, in other words, because they exhibit greater suspicion of all organized religion. It's just that anti-Mormonism is still socially acceptable enough to confess to a pollster.
Interesting findings, and Beinhart's analysis seems relatively sound. I'd be curious what these numbers look like if "Mormon" is replaced with "Evangelical Christian", "Muslim", "Jew", "Hindu", etc -- is it possible that the bias against Mormonism actually might have something to do with a perception of the Mormon church as a dominionist, top-down corporate structure, or is it the faith itself? Perhaps worth exploring, if polls can be constructed properly to study it.
A new Pew Research study finds negative coverage of President Obama outweighed his positive coverage in each of the last 15 weeks -- the only presidential candidate where that was true.
"If Romney wins the election, it's almost a sure bet that Republicans win control of both the House and the Senate. And that matters. Right now, the GOP's agenda is the Ryan budget, and that's entirely fiscal: It's a premium support plan for Medicare, and tax cuts, and deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other domestic programs. All that can be passed through budget reconciliation -- which is to say, all that can be made immune to the filibuster."
Don't see daylight between the major candidates? Get your head out of your ass, and quick. If Mitt Romney is allowed access to the White House, the New Deal is finally over, and we go back to the 1920s right when we need to be planning for the 20202s. Period. End of story.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Bloomberg TV that the Obama government is "proving to be" the "most corrupt in history."
Said Issa: "We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that. This money going though the hands of political leaders is corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, GSA, or a number of other scandals."
So investments started during the Bush administration worth half a billion go south, the GSA makes some minor accounting errors with their conference budget, and the single biggest reason why a global economic collapse was prevented is suddenly grounds for calling the Obama administration the most corrupt on record?
I mean, really? This guy is allowed to chair the House Oversight Committee?
Ladies and Gentlemen, in Part 9 of the continuing Cooked Books Series we looked at a MN GOP Campaign Finance Report line item that looks mighty clear: when it comes to paying rent, these Republicans are deadbeats! And back in that March 27th, 2012 post we wondered: So, how is it that the Minnesota GOP - the self-proclaimed "Party Of Fiscal Responsibility" - gets away with stiffing their Landlord for office rent for so long?
Well, the GOP's Landlord finally decided to pull the plug, and yesterday filed paperwork with Ramsey County to get those deadbeat GOPers to "pay up or get out." The Court is scheduled to hear the case next Tuesday, at 8:45am.
Also yesterday, a highly charged political memo from MN GOP Chair Pat ("Enron Boy") Shortridge surfaced in the media. As a public service for you, our Gentle Readers, the following is a complete translation of this important document -- from the original Republican into modern English - let's look!!!
Last Thursday, I sent the below update on party finances to local and statewide GOP leaders.
English Translation: Somebody leaked this, so now I've got to pretend I wanted it to go public.
Wow. Just wow. Kelly already posted on the in-progress First District GOP endorsing convention, but wow.
23 ballots, followed by a deadlock and a call to reconvene the convention at a later date.
I don't care on which side of what issue you fall, watching conventions play out like that is awesome. For observers, I mean. For those stuck on the floor as delegates it has to be somewhere between waterboarding and being forced to watch American Idol audition re-runs.
It looks like the final straw occurred on the 21st ballot -- after a long, pitched battle, Mike Parry's support hit its floor and then started inching back up. At that point in the night, I can't blame the delegates for calling for a deadlock and reconvention.
What now? Depending on party rules, they might actually be able to bring the delegates back together, or they could simply call it "no endorsement" and let both candidates run in the primary. Mike Parry will run with Ron Paul supporters and the tattered remnants of the Tea Party in his corner, and Quist could get Michele Bachmann to drop in and do a few appearances for him (and if you don't think Bachmann's cult of personality balances out the entire Tea Party, well...). That'll be quite a show, and meanwhile Tim Walz will be doing his job in Washington and banking dollars and support back home on the DFL side.
Honestly, if neither of these candidates can get 60% of GOP convention delegates, it's tough to see how one branches out beyond the base enough to have a chance against Walz. The new CD1 has a fairly balanced PVI, and Walz has advantages in money, name recognition, and accomplishments in office. Hopefully Team Walz won't sit back and put it on cruise control -- we have Senate and a Presidential contests to win and a couple of constitutional amendments to defeat.
"...and the Mn GOP is finally - FINALLY - getting around to the stadium issue."
When the Twins needed a new stadium, the Vikings and Gopher football teams were told, in essence: "be patient; your turn will come" - and the Twins stadium got the necessary votes in the legislature.
When the Vikings and Gopher football teams needed a new stadium, the Vikings were told, in essence: "be patient; your turn will come" - and the Gophers stadium got the necessary votes in the legislature.
Now it's the Vikings turn to have the votes held for the stadium they were told would be voted on, would they only be patient.
The GOP is in control of both the state House and Senate. Have been, for two years.
Now it's coming down to the proverbial "4th quarter, less than two minutes to play" in this session - and there's no lease on the Dome; nothing keeping the Vikings in Minnesota.
Why wait until the very end of this session, to take the vote everyone knew - KNEW - the Vikings were promised?
Simple, IMNSHO: The GOP couldn't take the votes in the legislature before their senate district endorsing conventions were held, and the incumbent GOPers got their local endorsment.
Put their Viking stadium vote on the record, BEFORE endorsement?
Today's tea-party crazies in today's GOP would more than likely challenge incumbent GOPers voting for a stadium. And likely endorse a fellow Tea Party Faithful.
That's my take: the GOP Legislatures delayed a vote for the Vikings to save their thin political skins.
After all, from an incumbent GOPer's perspective, isn't it better to be endorsed and then face a primary challenge, than try to primary an endorsed tea bagger?
The biggest problem with what looks like the GOP's shallow, self-serving protect their political @rses strategy, is it puts them in a horrible position, negotiation wise: it's fourth down, with less than two minutes to play...
...and Ziggy and the NFL Bigwigs are in town, and they have the ball.
Biggest losers? Citizens of the great State of Minnesota. Thanks, Senjem; thanks, Zellers!
I got it off of a tweet by a GOPer; it was hanging at the GOP CD3 Convention last Saturday in Edina. Look real close, in the lower right-hand corner...
"Spend Less!"
Yeah, "right." I wonder what THAT banner cost??!?
Paulsen flew that banner last Saturday, and what does The St. Cloud Times report the very next day? Let's look!
House spending reflects priorities Bachmann spends on offices; Cravaack on travel, supplies
WASHINGTON - Rep. Michele Bachmann spent more on maintaining her congressional offices in 2011 than any other Minnesota member of the House of Representatives.
Rep. Erik Paulsen spent more than any of his Gopher State colleagues on printing and publications, as well as sending out unsolicited mail.
And freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack led the delegation in spending in three categories: equipment, supplies and travel.
Those are some of the highlights from a review of the House Statement of Disbursements for the final quarter of 2011. The three-volume, 2,794-page document is a window to how much tax dollars lawmakers spent in nine categories.
(emphasis added, more, here)
Let's repeat that:
"Rep. Erik Paulsen spent more than any of his Gopher State colleagues on printing and publications, as well as sending out unsolicited mail."
No surprise there!
Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann, is notorious for, well, I won't say "abusing" the franking privilege, but: I don't have to! Somebody else will!!! This is from an editorial, naming Paulsen by name, from North Carolina - yes, North Carolina!
The idea that a representative would use as much as one third of his office budget, money meant to be spent in ways that benefit constituents, on thinly veiled re-election entreaties, is unconscionable. It's an inappropriate use of the funds, and it presents an unfair advantage for incumbents.
Such spending should be eliminated. If politicians want to send glossy, self-promoting pamphlets about themselves, they can pay for them themselves.
Last Saturday (April 14th), the CD 3 GOP had their Endorsing Convention - and to no surprise, they selected career politician Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann for another term. I noted a tweet by Derek Brigham - who at that time, was on the GOP CD3 Executive Committee; more on that later) - where Paulsen told the gathered faithful "I will not be out-hustled." That reminded me of what I wrote when Paulsen first announced for Congress back in '08, which I reposted yesterday: Deja Vu All Over Again: "The Hustler".
I actually wrote two posts back in '08, immediately after Paulsen announced. It's worth going back and taking a look at them again, especially after we recently compared the voting records of career politician Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann, and, well, Michele Bachmann. In somewhat of a surprise, Paulsen toes the party line even more than Bachmann! OpenCongress.org also noted:
Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen have voted together 2723 times on roll call votes since January, 2007 in votes where neither abstained, representing a voting similarity of 92%
Which is exactly why I'm bringing up the 2nd post I wrote 4 years ago, about Paulsen -- let's look!
Hmmm... "I will not be out hustled." --Erik Paulsen
Hmmm...where have I seen that before?
Hey! I wrote about that before - let's look!
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The "Hustler" Submitted by TwoPuttTommy on January 29, 2008 - 11:58am.
At his announcement, Erik Paulsen claimed to have, and I quote from his press release: "...years of working in bipartisan fashion, across the aisle, to get results in the business world and in the Minnesota legislature."
Yeah, "right." Anyone even slightly paying attention understands Erik Paulsen did not rise to Republican state House leadership position by being "bi-partisan."
Right out of the box, Paulsen forces the interested citizen to question his credibility.
The very first line of the press release says, and again I quote: "Saying 'Congress is broken, I will work to fix it,' Erik Paulsen...."
Just who does Erik Paulsen think he's kidding?
Jim Ramstad tried to fix it, and for that he was rewarded by GOP Leadership with backbench status.
If Jim Ramstad couldn't fix it, what reasonable person could possibly believe Erik Paulsen could?
Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" fundamentally changed how power is structured in the Republican Party, in Congress.
Serious academics can explain exactly how power was removed from committees and placed in party leadership, leading to things such as the strong-armed ouster of Gingrich and the installation of Dennis Hastert as Speaker, with Tom DeLay the muscle. Not to mention the Abramoff Scandal, the K-Street Project, etc etc etc.
To the layman, the following explains it clearly: when it comes to Republican Congressmen, "the people elect them, but the GOP Leadership directs them."
Paulsen's claim he's going to "work to fix it" is simply not credible.
Like Erik Paulsen is really - as a freshman congressman - going to take on and challenge John Boehner and Roy Blunt's power and authority?
Quite frankly, in a one page press release, Paulsen seems to have a knack of saying things that simply don't ring true.
Consider this: "Failed ideas and yearning for the past stand in the way of change. So do the politics of blame, division and partisan spin. Minnesotans are weary of this brand of politics." (emphasis added).
Say, Erik?
THAT'S YOUR PARTY YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
Especially in Eden Prairie, in Paulsen's home town. Paulsen's party's website is the epitome of blame, division, and partisan spin.
Gentle readers, that's the local GOP website that blamed the DFL and spun the per diem issue; that put Erik Paulsen (along with David Hann) in the position of: "Well, I voted against it, before I profited from it."
And that per diem issue is but one example of the "blame, division, and spin" Paulsen's party's website is known for; not to mention dirty politics and distortion.
Is Erik Paulsen really condemning his party, here?
Right before he's going to ask them for their endorsement of his campaign?
Will reasonable people really think Erik Paulsen is being sincere?
Just who does Erik Paulsen think he's kidding??!?
In his speech, Paulsen claimed to be the moderate candidate, like Frenzel and Ramstad, that accurately represents this district, Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District.
ROFLMAO!!!!!
Erik Paulsen, "moderate"??!?
Ladies and gentlemen, Erik Paulsen is no moderate. He represents the extreme right wing of the GOP. He always has. If Erik Paulsen is saying he's a "moderate", I'm asking "since when - tomorrow?"
At the end of his speech, Erik Paulsen stated:
"I will not be out-hustled in this campaign."
Clearly, those that look into Erik Paulsen's past - his verifiable record - and compare that to what Erik Paulsen said on Sunday, can only conclude that Erik Paulsen is indeed a hustler.
Because he certainly isn't believable.
This is crossposted at The Eden Prairie News
* * *
Gentle Readers, Pulsen is indeed a "hustler" - and he's also today's example of this:
I spent most of yesterday watching Twitter traffic relating to the 
Ladies and Gentlemen, in 
