Far be it for me to call Politico an unbiased, non-rumor-mill-based media source...but this report actually sounds reasonable enough. Norm Coleman became the personification of the GOP's firewall against a nearly veto-proof majority in the U.S. Senate in the last election cycle, and despite their base's great gnashing of teeth over the controversy that ensued, it sounds like top-level leaders in the Republican Party recognize that Coleman might have something yet to offer.
A recent appearance on CNN alongside Democratic pundit Paul Begala was likely a piece of this puzzle. Always political and usually pretty strategic about it, Coleman made sure to bash the Obama Administration's deep-water drilling moratorium while finding a way to get in a line about agreeing with Begala on a piece of the issue. It was curious to see Coleman on TV discussing the oil spill and related issues until the question of the RNC chairmanship came up -- then it made perfect sense.
For one thing, Coleman wouldn't be saying some of the stupid things that Michael Steele has said in his tenure at the helm of the RNC. Coleman probably wouldn't be too friendly to the Tea Party base either, a thing that, while it might make the GOP more viable in some swing districts, is likely a good thing for our nation's political discourse. In the Senate Coleman was a generic conservative Republican, but he generally didn't go to the lengths that the Palins, Bachmanns, Bartons, Kings, et. al. have taken to advance their political agendas.
Of course, who knows -- the RNC chair race was wide open last time. Lots of things could happen. Should be fun to watch.
Here's an update on a national trend that will impact Minnesota races. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is hurting for cash. The RNC will need to spend money to help protect Michele Bachmann and keep the Minnesota Governor's seat in Republican hands. They don't have it and under Michael Steele, they aren't likely to get it. The Mooney Times has the details:
Just months before critical midterm elections, the Republican National Committee is hurting for cash more than at any similar period in memory, according to figures reported this week to the Federal Election Commission.
Next month's shortfall is shaping up to be as bad or even worse, a senior official with knowledge of committee's financial status told The Washington Times.
The RNC under Michael Steele has been a disaster and fundraising has suffered. Republicans ability to take back the House and win a few Senate seats will be affected because typically the RNC has used their warchest to fund attack ads in key races.
In addition, the RNC under Chairman Michael S. Steele spent some $12 million to help win the off-year gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia last fall, and spent an additional $500,000 on the unsuccessful bid to win a special congressional election in Pennsylvania.
"All that could have boosted our cash on hand to $29 million," [RNC spokesman Doug] Heye said.
Nonetheless, the RNC's total for May of this year is well below the average cash on hand of $35,434,123.45 that the RNC reported each May between 2002 and 2009.
Plus, they incurred their first debt since 1994.
The NRCC reports having $12 million in cash for May - on paper $600,000 less than the RNC. But the RNC is carrying over from April unpaid bills to the tune of $760,141, which should be subtracted from its $12.6 million cash on hand for May. That leaves the RNC with slightly less cash than even the NRCC.
The RNC debt is the first reported to the FEC for any one-month period since then-RNC Chairman Haley Barbour - now governor of Mississippi and head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) - borrowed funds to help finance what was to be the 1994 GOP electoral sweep of both houses of Congress.
With RNC Chair Michael Steele embarrassing the Republican party in nearly every way imaginable, DC pundits have begun talking about who might replace him when and if he gets fired or in 9 months when his term is up. They mention former senator Norm Coleman among others.
The insane pick would be Santorum. If he gets it, the teabaggers would be happy as Santorum will spout whatever nonsense is popular amongst them. Gillespie and Bush would be safe, boring picks.
But if Norm were to get it, he would certainly be able to give Tim Pawlenty's campaign a boost it desperately needs. I believe it would also signal that the RNC will be doing all it can to squelch a Palin candidacy.
Because Norm would push Pawlenty over the teabaggers favorite, I believe they would be unhappy with Norm as chair. Furthermore, the base in Minnesota doesn't like Norm (they consider him a RINO) and I'm sure his unpopularity would spread rapidly. With Norm, familiarity definitely does breed contempt.
Personally, I'm one of the few people fluent in Norm-speakTM and I'd gladly lend a hand interpreting. If you're not fluent, you can listen to him speak and have absolutely no idea where he stands on the issue upon which he was bloviating or if he actually answered the question he was asked.
The last week has not been good for Republicans in Washington -- first, the RNC's nightclub scandal broke, and now it's caused some leading officials to resign, which in turn causes the committee to scramble to replace those leaders with...other ethically challenged people.
More on the scandal and its effects here, but that's not really the larger point. Nevada Sen. John Ensign may be indicted soon for his little scandal involving a former staffer and (ahem) the staffer's wife, Georgia's Nathan Deal resigned from Congress to avoid investigation by the Ethics Committee, and the list of Republican scandals, sex-related and otherwise, goes on.
This isn't to say D.C. Dems haven't had their share of scandals -- they have. Eric Massa was cut loose pretty quickly once news of his little faux pas broke, and the recently deceased John Murtha was no stranger to controversy.
But for the Republicans, this is an existential crisis for their "Return us to power" argument. Democrats have won two straight wave elections, and the Republicans' big-picture message sounds a lot like "we're not Democrats." That isn't necessarily a bad message in and of itself (see 2006), but in conjunction with a corrupt approach to handling the levers of power, it loses some of its luster.
The same party that brought you Tom Delay, Michael Brown, Larry Craig, and all the rest is still up to its old tricks. It hasn't changed a whit. And they want America to return them to a semblance of real influence in our nation's capital? By advocating repeal of the things for which America voted (twice) and keeping up the corruption and scandal that, in part, got them booted in the first place?
A recent ruling by the supreme court essentially guts the fourth amendment right to protection against unwarranted search and seizure of our homes. Now corporations have all the rights of people without even risking jail, risking termination or risking running out of time. Well, it is getting worse. Before the Republican National Convention, Sheriff Fletcher and the FBI used pre-emptive raids and pre-emptive arrests on basically no evidence.The justification was fear of terror. Now in the calmest no-fear time, one person, Carrie Feldman has been jailed for contempt of court for 12 weeks. There was no trial and no conviction, and it appears that there is no end to the jailing. So we, as a nation, have gone from 3 days of jailing without due process of law to 12 weeks and continuing. Anyone of us could now be held endlessly for not testifying about something that we know nothing about.
Cuddle up with your (progressive) one true love and lower your political hackles for just a second. If you are able to laugh at yourself a little (and we all know you can laugh at the GOP), visit GOPValentine.com and look at this year's tongue-in-cheek electronic love notes to Democrats the RNC has generated on its' romantic fundraising site (donations to send a GOP e-card are encouraged, but not required, so maybe send one and scare your honey into thinking you've flipped!).
Oh, and don't miss the one with Senator Al Franken (which refers to when Franken interrupted Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor) which says: "In My Capacity As The Senator From Minnesota, I Object To This Valentine's Card." Others are funnier. See the complete 2010 selection here .
By now we have all heard the story about the Facebook poll "Should Obama Be Killed' and the secret service investigating. We also heard about the military coupe that is allegedly linked to the Republican National Committee's web site.
On CNN's American Morning today, host John Roberts asked RNC Chairman Michael Steele about the Facebook poll that asked "Should Obama be killed?" - which the Secret Service is investigating - and whether it was "spawned by racism." "No, I don't think," replied Steele, adding that he's "always very careful about going down that road, you know, so blindly and so quickly."
Roberts followed up by asking Steele if he agreed with Tom Friedman's column this morning, in which he wrote that "Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination." "Where do these nut jobs come from? I mean, come on, stop this," replied Steele. He then said that America didn't have "this kind of conversation" when people were "complaining and protesting" about President Bush.
"Not to say that it's about the color of his skin or his background, ethnic background or whatever, but threats against this president are at a level 400 percent higher than they were against former President Bush," replied Roberts. "What explains that?" Steele was skeptical of Roberts' numbers, saying "how do we know that?" When Roberts said it came from the Secret Service, Steele largely dismissed the concern:
STEELE: Well, I don't - I don't know - I don't know that because I don't have a report to compare that to. The Secret Service has it. I haven't seen that publicly put out there statistically to show that.
But even if it is, this is my point. You know, I think that we need to be very smart and very careful about jumping, making these leaps on race and connecting dots that may or may not exist there. We are engaged as a country right now in a very important public policy debate, whether it's the war in Afghanistan or health care cap and trade or what happens to be. There are passions that run deep and long on both sides of the aisle.
Don't necessarily jump to the conclusion that, because someone says something vitriolic or hot that that's necessarily from the right or necessarily from the left. It's reflecting deep-seeded frustrations that people have. We don't excuse it but I just - I want us to be very careful because I just - I see ugly things happening down the road if we're not smart approaching these types of issues.
As news of Pittsburgh G20 security measures reminds us of last years St Paul Republican Nation convention, I hear that people as still want a final accounting of what happened at the Republican National Convention just over a year ago. Here is my evaluation based a years worth of research and active participation in the event.
While we may not have achieved our St Paul vision of calm, friendly streets, I do think that we did achieve a relatively more peaceful and safe city with people being able to actively march and parade to the target site, than other security dominated events.
As a peacemaker, I know that violence creates more violence in an escalating cycle. Actually, for creating peace "means" are more important than "ends". This is the moral imperative where "who you are" is way more important than "what you have achieved". In the moral judgment of violence, the circumstances matter.
Police are not one group but several groups: Secret Service, FBI, St Paul Coalition forces and Sheriff Fletcher. Each group had different decision making responsibilities and actions that they should be held responsible for.
I was very active on the streets of the Republican National Convention, even in covering the pre-emptive raids. I thought I might be a victim due to being a citizen journalist. I have done comprehensive research, with the problem that many testimonies will not go on the record. So there is some grayness to facts, however I am comfortable in the general conclusions and rankings. Feel free to comment on what you know.
Here are the rankings with 10 being the best.
Peace Team 10
Medic Team 10
Secret Service 10
Independent Journalists 8
National Lawyers Guild 8
Coldsnap Legal Cooperative 7
St Paul Coalition Police Force 5
Citizens of St Paul 3
Other groups are best defined by their actions as peacemaker failures. They have negative rankings.
FBI, a failure of -3
RNC Welcoming Committee, a failure of -3
Legacy Media Companies, a failure of -5
Non-violent anarchists, a failure of -6
Republican National Government, a failure of -9
Black Bloc of Anarchists, maximum failure of -10
Sheriff Fletcher, maximum failure of -10
In these rankings, I have held groups responsible for what they actually did not the mission that they claim to have. For me, the actual acts trump the words every time. I no longer buy the marketing hype.
The feudal city of St. Paul and the lands outside the moat in Ramsey County continue a strange quest to return to medieval times with the conviction in Ramsey County Court of the, "Other RNC 8." (Previously superbly reported by Coleen Rowley. http://www.mnprogressiveprojec... Take a look at the video and cringe in fear of these nasty protestors. These true loyalists speak to the truth as so few dare. Their courage in defending the Constitution is a sight to behold!
I still don't understand how two of those complicit in the disgrace of the RNC police riots consider themselves serious candidates for the DFL nomination for Governor. Mayor Coleman carefully averted his gaze as the sheriff and police chief cheerfully trampled and burned the Constitution. The police high command even deployed helicopter gun ships and a Coast Guard gunboat in the Mississippi. The County Attorney continues to pursue prosecutions of people the police think that might be thinking of doing something naughty. How much shame do we allow our candidates?
(This great story by Colleen describes what real civil disobedience and real heroes look like! - promoted by Grace Kelly)
Despite the cogent efforts of eight peace and anti-torture activists charged with trespass a year ago, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, a court in St. Paul could not bring itself to admit evidence of the Constitution, binding treaties creating war crimes and the right of conscience embodied in the Minnesota Constitution. Blinders came down that nothing of this legal magnitude could be at stake in the small St. Paul courtroom last week.
At the time of their arrest, the eight were carrying messages, including a letter to President Bush, placards describing victims of the indiscriminate killing and copies of international and constitutional law documents concerning the illegality of the Iraq War as well as the illegality of torture. The city's assistant prosecutor insisted however, that the case involved nothing but the power of the police to control crowds and property rights. The judge readily accepted the prosecutor's argument that the issue of trespass was more important than the issues of international and constitutional law. (In other words, the type of narrow legal reasoning prevailed that could be used to convict Rosa Parks of sitting in the wrong seat on the bus without letting her argue the illegality of the wrongful, illegal racial discrimination that restricted the seating.) The prosecutor went so far as to generally paint "acts of conscience" and morality as being in opposition to the law. At one point he even declared that the law has nothing to do with right and wrong.
We, peacemakers, get really down on the war because of the method not the goals. We, peacemakers, get really down on the torture because of the method not the goals. We, peacemakers, get really down on the Neocons because they hold the loyalty ethnic higher than any other principles. However do peacemakers hold themselves to the same standards of principles first, no matter "who" and no matter "what goals"? What if instead of using the word "loyalty", we used the term "solidarity". Isn't solidarity simply another term of blind loyalty where we elevate the importance of who over the ethics of how?
At the Republican National Convention (RNC), the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee endorsed "solidarity" as their principle. To be fair, most of the peace community did not endorse this, and many peace groups were conspicuously absent from everything but the main peace march.
The reassurance that Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee gave was that different groups would maintain a distance in time and space. That failed on Labor Day, when the anarchists including the Black Bloc anarchists were acting at the same time as the main peace parade. They came within two blocks of the main parade and were headed off by parade marshals and police. Yeah, like someone who says that they are going to break legal rules is going to suddenly respect another set of rules? Duh!
As a peacemaker and as an American, I am deeply troubled by the erosion of our freedom of speech and our freedom to assemble. I also am troubled that due process of law instead of being used to protect us is now used as expensive punishment to exercising civil rights.
One of the peacemaker ways of healing a social wound is to gather everyone around in a circle and have everyone tell their stories. This goes in rounds. In our modern world, we have too little time and too many people to have a chance to do this physically. However, I will interview and tell the stories of a circle of representative people from Republican National Convention (RNC).
Nigel Parry, originally moved from Palestine to St Paul, so he has a unique perspective of an actual war torn city. This was not that bad, although the police numbers were similar. After his Republican National Convention (RNC) experience, he wants boring St Paul back!
I am a freelance web/print designer, writer, and musician who currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am also an alternative media activist concerned with Palestine, the Middle East, the US Criminal Justice system, and the 2008 RNC.
Here is a summary of what Nigel Parry said:
The media covers on the "if it bleeds it leads" principle. The RNC welcoming committee tried to set up the St Paul principles of a different time or a different space for actions. To make that work, it would have to be a different city to have to have been a different enough place or it would have to have been a different day to have to been a different enough time. The St Paul principles didn't work because basically one group was acting just a few streets away at the same time as the main peace march. The actions and message of 10,000 marching for peace were lost in the actions of a few.
The Black Bloc part of the Anarchists are going the way of cheap and easy protesting, the McDonalds type of protest.
During the Republican National Convention(RNC), the pre-emptive raid on the Whalen house, at 949 Iglehart in St Paul was the most outrageous. The people in the house were I-Witness, a group of citizen video journalists (like me), lawyers and other people who pledged to be both law abiding and peaceful. This search was extremely long and vindictive, holding people in uncomfortable positions for hours. And NOTHING was found. The boxes that needed to be searched could be opened in the post office, by post office authority.
The FBI, specifically Agent Zimmerman, was responsible for this raid. Justice Smith authorized this warrant on this information:
Michael Whalen was advocating direct violence by saying on his webpage:
"We support the struggles of oppressed and colonized peoples for self-determination. Self-determination is a fundamental right to be obtained through whatever means necessary, including armed struggle, Imperialism and the nation-states' militarism which permits and encourages it must end".
Apparently the FBI is totally against the American Revolution and considers the first generation of Americans to be terrorists! Oh hail George Washington, our first and foremost terrorist, according to the FBI! And all of us must be terrorists too, for we think the American Revolution was a good thing!
