Category: What The Hell…
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Open Letter To The MNGOP Legislative Caucuses
To: The MNGOP Legislative Caucuses From: Mitch Berg, Peasant Re: You Never, Ever Learn, Do You? Deaar MNGOP Legislative Caucuses – House and Senate Today, after months of wrangling, word dribbled out that the Stand Your Ground and Constitutional Carry bills were not going to get a floor vote. While the bill wouldn’t pass into…
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Open Letter To The House And Senate MNGOP Caucuses
To: House GOP Caucus, Senate GOP Caucus From: Mitch Berg, ornery peasant Re: Focus Dear Cauci, Congrats on taking the majority. I’m truly overjoyed. Now, let’s get real. Focus: Ever watched someone doing karate? When they do a strike, they focus all their energy, from their waist on down through their hands, into their knuckle.…
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Death Is Easy: Survival Is Hard
Walter Hudson says if there’s to be a civil war in the GOP, let’s fight it to win: hat said, the risk of a general election loss was first assumed by embracing Trump to this point. As our nominee, Trump will decimate what remains of our credibility. Our candidates up and down the ticket will…
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What Conservatism Needs In Minnesota
In the middle of a year that promises to be a good, if not great, year for Republicans nationwide, Minnesota Republicans are hoping to flip the House, so as to at least contest control for the state, and praying for an upset in the Senate and a come-from-behind miracle for Governor. It was ten years ago…
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Twins
When it comes to politics, Corey Sax is a little like Jesse Ventura. He makes a a lot of noise. No, more noise than that. Think “professional wrestler”-level noise, only in writing. Some of those noises are vaguely libertarian, mixed in among a lot of self-promotion and background noise [1] And like Ventura, once in…
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Money And Organization
Great piece here from Mother Jones about how the DFL went from disorganized and on the ropes after Paul Wellstone’s death, to pretty much controlling Minnesota today. I know. It’s MoJo. It shows obvious signs that it’s written from Alliance for a Better Minnesota press releases (did the DFL really “lower property taxes?” Because I sure…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP: 2013 Edition
It’s almost 2014. Almost time for another mid-term election that’s going to pit the MNGOP – the party of plucky volunteers, creative fundraisers and circular firing squads – against the Minnesota DFL, the policy body on whose narrative’s behalf the Unions, the non-profits, the trial bar, the media, the Alliance for a “Better” Minnesota and…
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What The Hell Is Up With The MNGOP?: Truth And Consequences
There has been much sturm und drang within, and especially outside of, the Minnesota GOP over last spring’s coup de main by the Ron Paul campaign in Minnesota. Paul activists, organized as tightly as a Marine basic training company, swarmed the precinct caucuses, the BPOU conventions, the CD conventions, and finally the state convention. They completely took over…
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But Let’s Be Honest Here
Over the past couple of days, I’ve been listing a few reasons conservatives should take some limited encouragement from the outcome of the stadium vote. The “Tea Party” freshman class largely did the job they were sent to Saint Paul to do. But there’s an (heh heh) elephant in the room. Every Republican in MInnesota…
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So Now What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP?
Wow. It was a rough week for the Minnesota GOP, wasn’t it? It’s not entirely a rhetorical question. We’ll come back to that. ———- When I am smack in the middle of a crisis, there are a few little aphorisms and bromides that I run through my mind; like rosaries if you’re Catholic, or mantras…
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What The Hell Are We Supposed To Think About The MNGOP?
Brian Lambert at the MinnPost h quoted me the other day: Minnesota’s most prominent conservative bloggers are oddly quiet about the party’s exciting weekend. Minnesota’s “most prominent” conservative bloggers – Powerline, Ed Morrissey – don’t do much coverage of local politics much less the inner workings of the MNGOP. Of course, those of us who do…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP, Part V
More about the GOP Chair race,and the future of the position, later in the week. The question for today is “what should a party look like these days?” The DFL has followed a model similar to many IT companies; they are basically a shell.that administers groups of programmers in India, Ukraine and the Philippines. The…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP, Part IV
OK, no substantive contributions to the debate this time – at least not me, myself. But the ruling junta at True North has dedicated a section at the blog to the race for chair – and, more importantly, has sent out a questionnaire to the known candidates for the office. And True North will run…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP Now, Part III
OK – so we’ve established that the MNGOP needs to fix its finances, and knock off the circular firing squads. That’s all fairly obvious – although seemingly inscrutable to some in the party. But where do we go from here when it comes to leadership? Derek Brigham at Freedom Dogs and True North wrote up…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP Now: Part II
I remember going to my first Fourth Congressional District convention. It must have been in 2000; it was long before I had a blog. I had been elected as a delegate from House District 66B; this was my first Congressional District convention, and my second convention of any kind at all. And I sat in…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP Now?
Last week was a big one for the Republican Party of Minnesota. On the eve of the winter Central Committee meeting, chairman Tony Sutton resigned. As I noted last week, Sutton – and his deputy until last October, Michael Brodkorb – were transitional figures for the MNGOP. Speaking as a D-list pundit rather than an…
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What The Hell Do We Do Now?
So now we control the Legislature in Minnesota, and the House in DC. So what do we do about it? Yesterday, I said the new GOP majorities need to “go on the attack”. Let me be clear; I don’t mean that in the Chicago Democrat/DFL sense of the term. The GOP was sent to DC…
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How The Hell Does Emmer Win This Thing, Part II
In this past week, Minnesota has been presented with four different polls on the Minnesota governor’s race; the risible Minnesota poll, the oddly-disconnected Humphrey Institute Poll, the Rasmussen Poll (which may or may not have overpolled Republicans, as opposed to the MN and HHH polls, which certainly overpolled Democrats) and, late last week, the SurveyUSA (SUSA)…
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How The Hell Does Emmer Win This Thing?
Let’s make no mistake about this; I’m predicting Tom Emmer is going to win this fall’s gubernatorial race. It’s going to be tight – 3-4 points, very likely less – but he’s going to win. On the chance – heaven forefend – that he doesn’t? In the wake of Jesse Ventura and Al Franken,…
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What The Hell Is The Republican Party’s Problem?
The Republican Party stands on the brink of an epic comeback. Dropping to near-third-party status in 2006 and 2008 in Washington and in state houses around the country, things looked very, very bleak for the GOP. But the Obama administration’s overreach, and the Democrat-dominated Congress’ ham-fisted pettifoggery in enabling the overreach, and the spontaneous uprising…
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What The Hell Do We Do With The MNGOP Platform, Part II
Last week, we discussed what to do about the Minnesota GOP Platform. It wasn’t just idle talk. Last weekend at the 3rd CD GOP convention, Derek “Chief” Brigham of Freedom Dogs and True North brought the draft result of the work of a small group of us who wanted to see the platform change to…
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What The Hell Do We Do About The MNGOP Platform?
One of the most useless exercises at any business is the process of “writing a mission statement”. If you have a business that has a chance at success, the mission is pretty self-evident. “The Mission of Muffy and Ian’s Kites ‘n Koffee is to provide better coffee and kite supplies to the consumers of West…
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MNGOP Platform: From Scratch
John “Policy Guy” LaPlante, writing at True North, h talks about his experience at his first-ever BPOU convention last Saturday. It’s a good story – read the whole thing, naturally, because reading John LaPlante is just a generally good idea. Now, my own BPOU convention – District 66 – is tonight. An I echo John’s…
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What The Hell Is An “Extremist”, Anyway?
Earlier this week, I wrote about Dave Mindeman’s take (on his MnpACT blog) on the gubernatorial election. His basic assumption; without Norm Coleman in the race, the DFL will take the governor’s office. I noted that that conclusion would indeed reflect the “conventional wisdom” in Minnesota, normally; that Minnesota likes center-left DFLers and “moderate” Republicans.…