A Couple of Questions for Tim "Not The Author" O'Brien
"Blog House", the Strib's weekly DFL puff piece disguised as a column about blogs, pulled off a first last Friday; it quoted this blog.
Which brings up all sorts of interesting questions.
O'Brien was writing about the aftermath of last Tuesday's primary, and Keith Ellison's victory in the Fifth CD:
It was politics closer to home that had local bloggers engaged this week. Keith Ellison's win in the Fifth Congressional District's DFL primary dismayed Republicans, to say the least.
Dismayed?
Hm. By way of support, he quoted CH from Cold Hearted Truth:
..."America will have its very first Muslim serving in Congress. Not just any Muslim, but one with very strong ties to the Nation of Islam and a history of alleged racial and religious bigotry. ... He is also known to have offered support for Sharif Willis (a local leader of the gang called the Vice Lords). ... In spite of all this ... Ellison won the bid and will be the Democrat on the ticket. Short of a miracle he will represent his district in the United States congress. ... God bless America."
And yours truly:
Mitch Berg at Shot in the Dark (5) agreed. "Keith Ellison -- supporter of cop-killers, unapologetic Kathleen Soliah fan, and a person whose past includes episodes that, if mirrored to a candidate on the right, would have provoked a media frenzy -- wins the MN CD5 primary."
Now help me out here; where's the "dismay"?
Oh, I think Ellison is a terrible candidate. Leave aside the fact that he supports Kathleen Soliah, that he backs cop killers, and of course he's lied (with the active connivance of the Strib) about his past. The best things anyone on the left can come up with to defend him is "The's the most progressive candidate..." - which is bad enough.
But there's not a jot of "dismay" anywhere in my heart. This race is a :can't lose" for me; if Alan Fine pulls off the biggest upset in American electoral history and wins, life is good. If Ellison wins, I'm guaranteed two years of Grade-A material, the kind of thing that people usually have to move to Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi's turf to write about (and the stuff Wellstone would've been great for, had blogs really taken off while he was alive).
So Tim "Not The Author" O'Brien, where on earth did you get "dismay" from anything I've said? Do you have a source that had my swimming in the bottom of a glass somewhere, groaning about the spectre of an Ellison victory? You certainly never called me or anyone I know to confirm my "dismay", like a journalist is supposed to do. Or did you - to pick a reason out of the clear blue sky - say it because your story was written long ago, and you could have picked any conservative blogger's statement and fit it in there?
O'Brien goes on to quote some insignificant leftyblogger ("Phoenix Woman" from "Mercury Rising". Tim - how long did you have to surf to find this flake?) who gritted her teeth and shouted...:
Tough, said a jubilant Phoenix Woman at Mercury Rising (6). "The Republicans weren't allowed to control the outcome. They wanted to cow the Democrats into staying away from a black man and a practicing Muslim. They failed."
Wow. I had no idea we were so all-powerful.
Quick, "Phoenix Woman" and Tim O'Brien; show me one significant conservative effort to "cow" anyone. (And "Failure" was never an option, no matter what GOP's motivation: the DFL could nominate John Gotti or Fidel Castro or Ed Gein in the Fifth CD, and he's win by 20%. Fifth District DFLers are to voting as Pavlov's Dog was to drool).
You can't show any such example, of course. Except in the sense that's become more and more clear lately - where, to liberals, anything a conservative says and does is some variety of "hate" or another. In the world of the Twin Cities left, any Republican activity, thought, speech or action is by definition a form of oppression or hate. Question: If a conservative orders a pizza in the woods, and "Phoenix Woman" ant Tim O'Brien aren't there to hear it, is it still "hate"?
Bring on Ellison. He'll join with R.T. Rybak in making Minneapolis more a laughingstock than it already is. Not because he's black and Muslim, but because he's "progressive", and because eventually he's going to have to pay back his debts to those who got him here. And that's going to be fun to write about.
Posted by Mitch at
September 17, 2006 07:06 AM
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"Dismay," "Ranting," "Hate," etc...all in the arsenal of Things the Left likes to ascribe to the Right when they're hesitant to discuss the actual issue at hand. Except for recognizing it as such, ignore it. If you don't, you've allowed him to choose the grounds for your discussion and guess what? YOU and your dismay (or lack thereof) are the grounds, not Keith Ellison and his support for terrorist cover organizations.
Posted by: Brian at September 17, 2006 08:35 AMCan you explain to me the "Not the Author" monniker?
As for Keith, If you think he is a 'terrible' candidate, then you must have Michelle Bachman ranked right down there with him, because leaving party aside, Keith is an incredible candidate, campaigner, and fundraiser. He has remained positive and is running on his ideology, as opposed to the likes of Bachmann, Kline, Kennedy and the likes who are running Fear campaigns, beginning the negative attacks, and hiding from their GOP ties and base. Seems Obi Sium is the best candidate the Right has. An honest and sincere individual who is sticking with issues and ideology. I may even vote for him!
Again, leaving party aside, wouldn't you think a candidate that can succeed with the electorate without turning to slime and smear be a better candidate when compared to one who's only choice is to attack?
Just saying.
Flash
Posted by: Flash at September 17, 2006 09:46 AMBrian,
You're probably right. Suffice to say "Don Quixote" is one of my favorite books.
Flash,
There's a Tim O'Brien who is a rather prominent author, from Minnesota.
"As for Keith, If you think he is a 'terrible' candidate, then you must have Michelle Bachman ranked right down there with him, because leaving party aside, Keith is an incredible candidate, campaigner, and fundraiser."
I don't doubt that Ellison plays the political game quite adeptly. But I'm attacking him for what he *stands* for.
"He has remained positive"
Of course he has. He has the Strib, MPR and the rest of the Twin Cities' media to do his hatchet-jobbery for him.
Mark Dayton never needed to attack Rod Grams; he had the Strib to do it for him. And they did it, while covering Dayton's back, making sure *nothing* negative got reported about him. Just as they are for Ellison, about whom the coverage has been one softball after another.
"and is running on his ideology, as opposed to the likes of Bachmann, Kline, Kennedy and the likes who are running Fear campaigns, beginning the negative attacks,"
If a Republican read from the menu at Denny's, and no liberal were there to hear it, would it still be a negative fear campaign?
"Seems Obi Sium is the best candidate the Right has. An honest and sincere individual who is sticking with issues and ideology. I may even vote for him!"
Obi Sium is the kind of Republican every Democrat likes. He's honest, he's smart, and he has no chance of winning.
And I say this as a guy who plans on pulling out the stops to support Obi, who is, I agree, a great candidate.
"Again, leaving party aside, wouldn't you think a candidate that can succeed with the electorate without turning to slime and smear be a better candidate when compared to one who's only choice is to attack?"
I dunno. Ask me when the media playing field is actually level.
Posted by: mitch at September 17, 2006 10:10 AM"Obi Sium is the kind of Republican every Democrat likes. He's honest, he's smart, and he has no chance of winning."
Fair enough
"making sure *nothing* negative got reported about him. Just as they are for Ellison, about whom the coverage has been one softball after another."
So the day after the primary you have in the Strib:
"GOP foe Fine says Ellison’s unfit"
and right next to that article"
"Some Democrats remain silent on Ellison"
Seems that the Strib is pulling as many pucnhces as you want us to believe.
Flash
Posted by: Flash at September 17, 2006 12:01 PMSo exactly what kind of Muslim is this Ellison guy? The black seperatist type? Sunni, Shia, Sufi? Has anyone from the Strib asked him his feelings on sharia?
Posted by: Terry at September 17, 2006 06:01 PM"So what kind of a Muslim is this Ellison guy?" Wonderful question. It will sadly never be asked in the local press or TV.
Posted by: Kermit at September 17, 2006 07:04 PMFrom what I've gathered so far the answer is ANGRY. And the love and support he has provided to the absolute dregs of our society speak volumes about the type of representative he will be.
But none of this is surprising. The DFL is a sad and degenerate institution. That's why so many of us have abandoned it.