SCENE:   Velma pulls an “Elliot Ness” mask off of the crook, revealing Governor Tim Walz.  

DAPHNE AND SHAGGY:  “It’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz”

WALZ:  “And let me tell you, I’d have gotten those fraudsters if its weren’t for…”

SCOOBY: “Rose Doggone Resky Kids?”

WALZ:  “No, knucklehead, those ICE agents.  I was just about there!”

He was —>this close<—-. 

Look, it’s not possible for me to respect Tim Walz any less than I did in 2022 – when he’d abandoned his National Guard unit, and then spent eighteen months as a pocket Mussolini to deal with a three month crisis, completely trashing the notion of “science” – much less today. 

But somehow he’s still trying.   

The quote speaks for itself:

I don’t have any words to describe my revulsion.

Fortunately, someone does:

How long til Walz or one of his toadies calls the Holocaust Museum “Nazis?”

…or does this…

“I’ve issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard,” Walz added. “These National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight.”

Asked how he planned to deploy the National Guard, Walz said he didn’t know yet before acknowledging the extraordinary nature of the situation, telling reporters, “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”

 

…sound kind of like an insurgency?

The governor sounds like he’s losing his mind.  

Governor Walz appears to be losing his mind:

Because it’s all Trump’s/Joe Thompson’s fault, of course. 

By the way – watch for a concerted campaign by Big Left – or even just Walz’s crowd – to paint him as the victim in all this:

I try to stay on an even keel, to give people the benefit of the doubt. 

But I’ve never wanted to see someone hauled out of the Capitol in handcuffs – or, given this video, maybe a straitjacket – this badly in my life. 

I started hearing blips last week that Governor Walz was going to get defenestrated from the Governor’s race.  The big donors that run the DFL were worried he’s going to be a drag on the ticket.  

It got a little more official last night:

Reports say Amy Klobuchar may get in the governor’s race. 

This is, of course pretty brilliant for the DFL.   Rumor has it they want to run on an “Anti-Fraud” platform next year.  Klobuchar hasn’t been implicated – so she’ll make that a little less incongruous.  And if she loses, she keeps her Senate seat, and if she wins, Walz appoints her successor.   

The only two risks?  

• The GOP getting its act together and running a well-funded, universally supported candidate that can deliver the right message with enough force to get past mid-Minnesotans Fudds and their attachment to two generations of the Klobuchar name, and
• The Feds bringing in a lot more indictments that make, er, other parts of the ticket squirm a little.  

I’m thinking “B” is more likely, but I’ve love to be suprised. 

To: Governor Walz
From: Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant
Re:  Good People

Governor, 

You wrote this earlier:

That would be a great message, if you hadn’t spent the past year calling Republicans “Nazis” and “Fascists” on four occasions, and repeatedly referring to the Feds as “The Gestapo”. 

But I’m worried that if I criticize you for being a hypocrite for going all “let’s bget along” now that you’re embroiled in scandal, I’ll wind up in your thoughtcrime database. 

You see the conundrum, here?

That is all.  

I

I wonder if the DFL really thought this through?

We’ve seen what is possible, all right.  

Squandered surpluses.

Erased civil liberties – snitch lines, thoughtcrime databases, and a precedent of abusing emergency power.

Burned neighborhoods, including mine.

A productive class that’s fleeing the state.  

A per capita state product that was in the top 10 nationwide that has fallen to the middle and isn’t done dropping.

Catastrophic social division.

A collapsing Minneapolis  once called “the Athens of the 20th century”, now just another blighted city with nice lakes.

Educational outcomes that just keep getting worse and worse. 

Contempt for the rule of law – by prosecutors.  

The worst Covid aid fraud in the country.

An emerging reputation for corruption. 

Humiliation after his awful VP run.  At least Walter Mondale wasn’t an embarassment.

Eight years of sloganeering and double-talk. 

Yes, MNDFL.  We have indeed seen what is possible.  

I, for one, would love to get unburdened by what has been. 

The Piglet can’t be happy about this latest Star-Tribune poll:

Gov. Tim Walz’s approval rating has dipped below 50% since his failed run for vice president last year, and about half of Minnesotans say he shouldn’t run for a third consecutive term in 2026, according to a new poll. The results suggest the DFL governor could face headwinds if he runs for re-election again, particularly from voters in greater Minnesota and the suburbs outside Hennepin and Ramsey counties. He also faces opposition from a majority of independents who disapprove of his performance.

The new Star Tribune/Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Minnesota Poll found 49% approve of Walz’s performance and 50% disapprove. A previous Minnesota Poll conducted last September found 53% of Minnesotans approved of Walz’s performance while 44% disapproved.

It’s only the second time Walz’s approval rating has fallen below 50% in the Minnesota Poll.\

It’s hard to read much history into this “Minnesota” Poll; the poll has changed hands so many times since its heyday from 1989-2012.  

But this is not great news for Walz.  

I don’t expect him to go out without a fight, of course; he – or Gwen – palpably craves national office.  The question is, given:

• the extraordinary nature of a third term as governor
• Walz’s unpopularity (which I’m going to guess is worse than even this latest re-dressing of the MN Poll shows, becasue that’s never a bad bet)
• The emergence of other contenders in the DFL – radicals like Peggy Flanagan (who’s terribly overmatched in her Senate race against Angie Craig), and relative moderates like Dean Philips…

…will the Tim Walz brand support another run?

I suspect we’re going to see a huge reconstruction effort.  Which I frankly hope succeeds, at least through DFL convention season. 

Postscript:  wouldn’t now be a great time for the MNGOP to suspend its circular firing squad and actually focus on fundraising and fighting a campaign?

The top-line number seems depressing, if you’re a Republican. And the DFL wants to double that down while it can:

I know, I know – it’s Survey USA. They oversample metro voters and Democrats.

It’s the second-tier result that’s interesting; on the question of whether he should run for Governor again:

He’s underwater among independents.  I think that’s a first; for some reason, “independent” voters have had a thing for the little Mussolini.  

So you can expect a huge PR effort to burnish his image as he tries to make that two year jump from 2026 to 2028 in some kind of office.  

Here’s the biggest takeaway to me:  you can ask youself who those 58% of idiots are.  Even if you write off a few percent because it’s a SUSA poll, that still means his approval is way above water.  

Which means that the “shut down the government and stick with pure conservative principle” crowd –  I’m looking at you, Action 4 Liberty – would be swimming up the PR stream from the word go, trying to convince voters of the merits of a government shutdown when they still don’t see what national voters plainly saw.  

I’m just the messenger.   

Is there another way to look at this?

He’s gonna run for Governor again:

Of course, the little gnome will spend the next 18 months dodging debates.  But his Veep bid last year, and his newfound rise to national prominence, have given people a whole lot more material. 

As has the governor himself:

The little gnome never gets tired of “Nazi” references, does he?

I bet he does not see (badda boom) the problem with this…

Hey, look!  The guy who banned  family Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, limited the Cathedral of Saint Paul to ten worshippers (and Kissin’ Cousins’ Sports Bar in Newfolden to 50) and tried to get you fired for not getting vaccinated…:

…is suddenly a liberty hawk!

“…I believe the children are our greatest probleeeeeeemmmmm”.

Hope Walz uncorks on the most insidious form of “privilege”:

Forget for a moment that barefoot running is kind of a fad these days:

Forget the corn-fed American runners.  Let’s talk about Abebe Bikila, the legendary Olympic marathoner who…grew up dirt poor, trained barefoot, and was one of the greatest marathon runners ever.  

Look, nobody’s ever accused Hope Walz of being an intellectual titan. Nobody expects it. Seeing her parents, one would be mad to even think about it.

But you just know she’s going to be running for office soon, don’t you?

For all the aggressive rhetoric that accompany his flouncing and jazz hands, Tim Walz is not exactly a self-assured man.

He almost comletely avoided debating Scott Jensen in the 2022 Governor tilt – limiting it to one debate at a small TV station in Rochester.  For good reason

How good, we learned last summer

It would explain his debate performance in Minnesota; he avoids them like they’re a…

…well, there’s nothing Walz avoids more than a debate.  Even deployment. 

I could fling more pithiness.  Indeed, this weekend on the air I most likely will.

But I’ll leave it to John Kriesel – former state representative, and veteran who lost two legs in Iraq – to do that:

It’s gonna make a presidential run kind of interesting.  Presuming he gets anywhere near endorsement. 

…could Tim Walz have just skipped the whole thing?

After squandering an $18B surplus and, by the way, governing like a dictator (and not even a competent one), Walz’s state of the state mostly tried to gaslight the viewer into thinking Donald Trump caused the state’s problems:

…not to mention trying to haul another bid for national office slowly, painfully off the ground.

Smart people were not fooled:

…but DFL messaging isn’t aimed at the smart people. 

Just in time for Christmas – and President’s Day [1] – the Governor Walz action figure!

Pull the string on his back to hear ten realistic-sounding phrases! –

• “One Minnesota!”
• “While billionaires feed their greed, we’re feeding kids!”

…and, like 6-8 more! [2]

Also – realistic “deer in the headlights” look when you ask him a question!

Corn dog, smart phone and DFL Comms Brodude sold separately.

[1] Too soon?

[2] Updates may be required.

After six years in office, four of them plagued with massive scandals including the largest Covid-aid scandal in the US, in absolute numbers (forget about per-capita), Governor Walz is swinging into action!

For those unfamiliar with government – say, who never watched “Schoolhouse Rock” as children – the Governor is in charge of the executive branch of state government.

Which means it’s his job to enforce the laws of the state, along with the rest of the executive branch. It’s literally one of duties, defined in the state’s Constitution.   He’s supposed to be aided by the Attorney General, who is the state’s lawyer, and the State Auditor, ostensibly the state’s bookkeeper.  Walz, Keith Ellison and Julie Blaha already have not only the power, but the duty to be dealing with the fraud that happened on their watch.

And fraud is already illegal.   There is literally a law for that, as evidence by the fact that the Department of Justice is currently prosecuting Minnesota fraud cases. 

The only need for a “legislative package” is to try to deflect some responsibility for the feeding frenzy of this past four years to the newly (and temporarily) GOP-controlled House of Representatives, and evade his and the MNDFL’s culpablity for the four years the Governor spent taking selfies eating Pronto Pups and standing by liked a hog that’d been smacked on the head with a hammer as his voters looted and pillaged a billion dollars or more from the state treasury.

The media will try to help him with this evasion.

And if the “conservative media” in this state ever had a mission in life, making sure they can’t enable that evasion is it. 

SCENE:   Former Governor Mark DAYTON’s house, on Lake Minnetonka [1].  

He’s sitting in his bathrobe and slippers by a roaring fire, reading the Strib. His wife , Ana ORKE-DAYTON, enters the room.

ORKE-DAYTON:  I’m taking a stack of credit cards and taking the Porsche to the Galleria.

DAYTON:   Mpfmbfh. 

ORKE-DAYTON leaves, as DAYTON’s eye alights on a news item:

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, has missed votes in Congress and has been “having some dementia issues late in the year,” her son told The Dallas Morning News. Granger, 81, last cast a vote on the morning of July 24…The congresswoman now resides in a Fort Worth senior living facility called Tradition Senior Living. There are two locations on the same property, but Brandon Granger confirmed it is not the memory care facility, as some media outlets have reported. Granger said his mother is staying in the independent living facility to be around other seniors.

DAYTON: (Thinking to self) Huh. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on pretending to be in office?

And SCENE

[1] I have no idea where he lives. It’s gotta be Minnetonka, right?

So, here’s a picture of Governor Walz with Lt. Governor Flanagan, taken back during the “trifecta”.

She was inescapable. She was in every photo with Walz. Her name may have been more prominent on their campaign signs.

The media actively dolled her up:

The camera and their photo selection didn’t do half bad by her.

At times it seemed as if the local media were just as much her PR firm as Walz’s. 

And now – this:

And this:

That – combined with the Rochelle Olson/Ryan Faircloth piece we talked about earlier – makes it look like Walz is trying to distance himself from Flanagan.

Why?

Because polling isn’t showing “DSA whackjobbery” is doing well?

Or because they’re both going to be running for Governor?

Tim Walz is back

And he’s pissed. 

It seems a bit of a squabble has broken out between his camp and Lt Governor Flanagan‘s:

Walz was asked in a recent interview if there was tension when he returned given Flanagan would have succeeded him as governor if the Harris ticket had won.

“No,” Walz responded. “There would be time to figure out all that afterwards. I was solely focused on making sure the state of Minnesota was going, we were getting things done. The lieutenant governor was here doing the work that she needed to do, reaching out to community.”

Others who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Walz team was not pleased at steps Flanagan had taken to assume the governorship, conferring with potential key hires and preparing for a possible run herself in 2026. “If the people of Minnesota want me to continue to serve, I am absolutely open to that,” Flanagan said at the State Fair in August.

The Walz camp was especially irked because Flanagan had tapped Walz’s gubernatorial campaign fund without authorization for some work, multiple sources said.

Walz is claiming to know nothing, NOTHing, about the matter. But I’m not the only one thinking something’s amiss:

Steven Schier, Carleton College political science professor emeritus, said it’s not uncommon in Minnesota for the governor and lieutenant governor to maintain a distance from each other. “What is notable are the timing of this and the apparent reasons for it,” Schier said. “Peggy Flanagan and Walz were joined at the hip for six years and now they seem separated by their individual ambitions.”

Joined at the hip is an understatement. I rarely recall seeing Lieutenant Governors consistently appearing with the Governor before Walz. One rarely saw Tina Smith or Mae Schunk or Joan Growe outside the odd campaign event or the State of the State.

But Flanagan was in every photo this past six years.  They had hundreds of shots of the two of them cavorting about the Fair, her feeding him corn dogs and playing fetch with him.  Her name was arguably more prominent than his on their campaign signs:

And the optics – literally – are absolutely strange on this.

More later today. 

Last night, someone on social media had a slightly different angle on the weekend rally featuring Governor Walz. 

Earlier in his failed VP bid, he said “to some people, “socialism” is just neighborliness“.

And over the weekend, the guy who called over half the nation “Nazis” hopes we can look at each other as neighbors.

So apparently his goal is to come back to Minnesota, take your stuff, and put you in a camp?

Last week, we talked about Gene Pelowski (DFL, HD26B) about his reservations about the DFL’s trifecta.

Now, retired GOP Senate leader (in both the majority and minority) Paul Gazelka is publishing a book about Tim Walz.

And it‘s not a flattering look (emphasis added):

During his time leading the Minnesota Senate, Gazelka had a front row seat to observe Gov. Walz’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 riots that occurred in Minneapolis, and many other facets of Walz’s time in office. As such, Gazelka has written a book documenting the “daily battles” he fought with Gov. Walz.

“Now that Governor Walz has been elevated to the national ticket, I believe I have a duty to inform the nation’s voters about Walz’s failed leadership record,” the former majority leader said in a statement. “For that reason, I moved up the release of my book that chronicles Walz’s missteps handling the pandemic, freezing under pressure during the George Floyd riots, mishandling the state budget and more.”

This oughtta be good.

Why yes, I will be interviewing the Senator on my show. Saturday, 2PM.

Hope you can tune in.

To:  Governor Tim “Wilhelm Klink” Walz
From:  Mitch Berg, former Rock, Cow
Re:  Your Heardland Credentials

Governor Klink, putatively a Veep candidate – is burnishing his “heartland” creds:

You know what it’s really not about?

Calling most of “your” state “nothing but rocks and cows”.   We’re really not about that. 

In theory, we’re not into being something different today than you were yesterday which was different than 2006…:

One thing you do still have is your “badthink” databvase. I bet I’m on it.

That is all.

Governor Klink – or his social media intern – turned the gas on the living room lamp down:

Biden may be a good man – signs say “no, not really” – but the “steadiness” of his “leadership” have left the Middle East and Ukraine in flames, and I’m not betting against bad things happening in Taiwan.

But let’s focus on Klink’s other bit: how Trump is “fascinated with dictators”.

Governor Klink:

• Set up a snitch line
• Presided over setting up a “badthink” database with no public visibility whatsoever
• Classified people as “non-essential” – along largely political grounds
• Enriched his and the Democrat party’s donors while squashing small business
• Hid the math by which he justified his “emergency powers”…
• …which, speaking of which, he kept for a solid year after the “emergency” was over.

I’m no Trump fan – but Klink is the one who actually cosplays dictator in office.

The Governor’s “State of the State” was last night. And Berg’s 24th Law was in full effect:

Progressive politicians can, and routinely do, say anything they want, regardless of honesty or even factuality, confident that their audience, while theoretically “educated”, has no capacity for critical thought”.

The gaslighting was, as with all things Walz, pretty ovewhelming:

Better schools.

Safer streets.

Governor Klink says this with a straight face, counting on “his” voters being too gullible and uncritical to know he’s whizzing on their legs and calling it “rain”.

Governor Klink lies about “censorship”.

Hey, he’s the head of the Democrat Governors Association. He’s got to serve as a model for the rest of them.

Now, I think I read “Charlotte’s Web” in fourth grade. So it’s been a bit.

And I’d forgotten this bit – which is something that makes me seriously wonder…

…if there’s a Democrat school district out there that’s banned it because of its violent overtones?