Shot in the Dark

Category: MN Legislature

  • Tri…er, Bifect…er…uh… (Part 1)

    So, last week was a big week. A good one, by Minnesota Republican standards. For the DFL, less so. Both chambers of of the Minnesota legislature flipped to “tied” last week – one by via human tragedy, and one by hubris and stupidity. Let’s talk stupidity and hubris first. The House As we noted last…

  • Business Before Pleasure

    Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic passed away last Friday after a protracted battle with cancer.  She was 62. “Senator Kari Dziedzic was a passionate legislator, a respected leader, and a trusted colleague and friend. She will be remembered for her integrity and her compassion for Minnesotans, something that we all saw as she…

  • They Had One Job

    A Ramsey County judge has tossed out the election of DFLer Curtis Johnson: This gives the MNGOP a one-vote lead in the House. The “trifecta” was dead even with 67-67 tie – tie votes are defeated. But this means the Speaker will be a Republican, not some jury-rigged power-sharing arrangement. I strongly urge the GOP…

  • The Real Victim, Here

    Governor Klink – who two years before had arrogated emergency powers that Francisco Franco would have envied, who sicced the Attorney General on anyone who defied him – as the trifecta started marauding: “You got political capital, you gotta use it”. Two years later and facing two years of tie votes in the House: “I…

  • Friends In High Places

    The big that confuses me so much about this story – the DFL jamming down a $10K appropriation to help one of their colleagues settle an issue with her “day job” outside politics – isn’t that the DFL is basically pickpocketing taxpayers to help one of their own with a private matter. (Emphasis added): No,…

  • Remembering What Pepperidge Farm Doesn’t

    Since we have an election coming up, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Here’s Rep. Dave Pinto, progsplaining last session why DFL prosecutors won’t go after straw buyers – because the sentences are “too low”… …before joining his entire caucus in voting down a bill that would have increased the sentence. Pinto will get…

  • Place Your Bets

    The DFL and Media (should almost be one word, shouldn’t it) are howling about allegations of domestic abuse against a GOP legislator, six weeks before the election: In 2008, Dotseth was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic assault and he later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct. In a sworn affidavit by…

  • Minoritarian

    What’s the next front in the specious war on “white supremacy?” We’ll come back to that. Redundant And Extraneous: Something I’ve always wondered about; why does Minnesota have a Senate, but the Senate just replicates each pair of House districts? It give you all the disadvantages of a purely majoritarian unicameral legislature, which an added…

  • Scenes From The Gun Safety Renaissance

    As the Minnesota state legislature, led by the no-way, no-how insane Nicole Mitchell, meanders toward passing a “safe storage” bill, I went out to try to take the community’s temperature on the issue. I started out at a Menards. There was a line of people in various gang colors, lined up waiting for new safes…

  • Just Asking Questions

    Just a quick point before we get started. The “I’m just asking questions’ school of opinion journalism – whether Rachel Maddow or Tucker Carlson or anyone in between – is a particularly toxic practice. “Asking questions” that aren’t intended to elicit the truth is pointless at best; doing it as a substitute for seeking the…

  • Senator Mitchell, Redux

    Senator Mitchell (DFL Woodbury) was arraigned for First Degree Burglary in Becker County yesterday. I’ll cop to the fact that I honestly hope someone who has attitudes about civil liberties and rights like she has, has a short political career. Now, I really need to follow my. own counsel here; Berg’s 18th Law applies. We…

  • Some Animals Are More Equal…

    So last week, the DFL introduce this amendment to existing state statute on “reasonable force” self-defense in this bill. And the amendment includes some curious bits of language: A Kiss Is Just A Kiss Minnesota law allows the use of “Reasonable” and non-lethal force (that’s another statute altogether) in some circumstances: when you’re: So far…

  • Make This Make Sense

    This is your brain on crack: This is the DFL’s brain on DFL ideology: You have no agency re your behavior until you’re in your thirties, but you can choose to have yourself neutered when you’re 8. I suspect there’ll be a bill in the next session, if the DFL maintains the majority, banning logic…

  • EdMinn’s Curious Self-Indictment

    Wait – didn’t the DFL in the Legislature spend most of April and May of last year doing the endzone happy dance celebrating having “fully funded” education? I do believe they did. So – what is up with this? Now, when you asked a DFL legislator or an EdMN partisan what “Full Funding” meant, the…

  • Seasons Greetings

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year, for people who love to control other people: And right back atcha – happy first day of session to all you DFLers who treat it like an orgy!

  • The More Things Stay The Same, The More Things Change

    So, Erin Murphy is the new MN Senate Majority Leader, replacing Senator Dziedzik (whom I wish the best in her ongoing battle with cancer). What this means is that the old “Labor” coalition that ran the DFL and often Minnesota has been demoted to the back seat. Dziedzik’s father was a long-time Northeast MInneapolis politician…

  • I Heard It On The NARN

    Anna Matthews joined me to talk about Cynthia Lonnquist’s race to replace Ruth Richardson in MN HD 52B. Interested in helping out? Write “info@mngop.com”, or join them Sunday morning at 10AM at the McDonald’s at Dodd and Crosstown. Today’s song list.

  • Not For Turning

    If you’re a conservative in Minnesota, you’ve got friends moving elsewhere. I personally have friends, including some of the regulars here, who’ve moved or are planning to move to any of the less-insane states; the Dakotas, Tennessee, Texas, Republican northwest Wisconsin, and of course Florida – a state where expats from Minnesota are almost as…

  • Law School

    If there are two bright spots in this current legislative session, it is the emergence of Harry Niska and Walter Hudson, as two of the best state legislators in the United States. Here, Walter finishes the job Harry started, giving the single best explanation of why the DFL, and the StarTribune, are lying about the…

  • Irrelevant

    Members of the House of Representatives routinely vote for each other. The Minnesota House’s hours-long floor sessions are often mundane and monotonous, the chamber regularly half full at best. But when members get to voting on an amendment or a bill, the chamber suddenly looks as bustling as a bee hive. Members press the green…

  • Conflict Of Interest

    The new head of Planned Parenthood Twin Cities is Ruth Richardson. Who also happens to be a Minnesota state representative: Wonder if she plans on recusing herself from votes on Planned Parenthood funding if the media would say anything about it even if she didif the media would say anything about it even if she…

  • Ray Of Hopelessness

    I wouldn’t say there was much in the way of “surprises“ in the primaries last night. Mostly confirmation of existing hunches, and a brief stab of hope followed by waves and waves of confirmation that Minneapolis is not only screwed, but seems hell-bent on participating in its own screwing. The marquee race, Don Samuels tackling…

  • “Common Sense”

    Whenever your Democrat friends condescendingly coo “nobody is coming for your guns”, just remember – they’re coming for your guns: Gun owners in Minnesota had a pretty easy session last year. This year, the Dems have to try to turn out their base. Grabbing guns certainly gets the Karens and Mascists and ninnies of the…

  • What A Difference A Little Access To Power Makes

    Senator Melisa Lopez Franzen took what some called a “brave” stance in going after the perps in a sexual harassment scandal at the MN STate Capitol earlier this year. A Senate staffer, Cynthia Callais, reported being harassed by a Legislative staff manager who happened to be related to Senator Jason Isaacson, a prominent DFLer. The…

  • Let’s Do The Political Math

    Tim Walz joins Melissa Hortman, Ryan “Uncle Tom” Winkler, and Ken “Alita Messinger’s Shih-Tzu” Martin in calling or John Thompson’s resignation. The reasoning? “…he can no longer be effective”. He was “effective” enough after his “Burn Hugo Down” antics for the same three people to endorse him for election. So – what are they thinking?…