Acting Republican Party chair Kelly Fenton released the fully-digested list of Republican Party debts this morning.

From the email, which went to State Central Committee activists:

In addition, from the email, Fenton notes:

In addition to the amounts above, there are two major considerations that must be acknowledged. First, several law firms did considerable work in late 2010 on the Emmer-Dayton recount. These law firms claim they are owed approximately $719,000. The Party’s position has been that those obligations belong to a separate corporation set up in 2010 to fund the recount. At least some of the law firms are claiming the obligations belong to the Party. We are not acknowledging these bills as Party obligations, but are reviewing the claims with attorneys.

The other consideration is a request from the receiver in the Tom Petters receivership to recover funds contributed by Petters to the RPM in the amount of $75,000. Again, we are not acknowledging that as a Party obligation at this point pending legal review.

Although the last $800K of that debt is in question, expect the media to roll all of that into a nice, round “RPM owes $2 million” headline.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work – just in time for the State Central Committee meeting tomorrow in Saint Cloud.

My opinion – and I’m not a State Central delegate, so that’s all it is?

• The Executive Committee – the various heads of the Congressional District units – need to take a much more active role in overseeing the activities of the Chair, Deputy Chair and Treasurer.
• The State Central Committee needs to stop acting as a rubber-stamp body – even if it means asserting its means to do so at the meeting tomorrow.  The operations of the MNGOP have tended – in my experience, anyway – to be exceptionally top-down, which is perhaps fitting for an organization whose last four chairs (Cooper, Eibensteiner, Carey and Sutton) have been business executives in their pre-party lives.

Sunday is New Years Day – and that means only one thing.

It’ll be the sixth annual Shootie Awards!

The awards – given every New Years Day since 2006, catalog the worst and worst-er in Twin Cities blogging.

Coming up on Sunday, here on Shot In The Dark.

I met my old friend, Inge Carroll (whom everyone calls “Lucky”) at a local watering hole to compare notes about politics the other day.  Lucky is a DFL operative.

CARROLL: So did you see teh article?  Teh Republican party said came into offices saying they were going to create jobs,but they have cost 16,000 jobs!

MITCH: For starters, why do you always pronounce “the” as “teh” after you drink cosmpolitans?  And then, huh?  You’ve missed the news? Minnesota’s unemployment rate is down.

CARROLL:  You are teh lier!  Didn’t you hear it on teh MPR?  Teh Republican policies have cost 16,000 jobs!  That means all of you Rethuglicons are TEH LIER!

(CARROLL orders another cosmopolitan)

MITCH: Um, what on earth are you talking about?  Minnesota is recovering from the recession faster than other states, largely because the GOP stood off Dayton’s orgy of taxes and regulations.

CARROLL:  Hah!  You didn’t read the article, did you?  You don’t even know what I”m talking about!

MITCH:  Well, that’d make two of us, if it were true – but yes, I read it. It says that because of LGA cuts, local government are having to either raise taxes, or cut government jobs, or both.

CARROLL:  Yep?  16,000 jobs!

MITCH:  OK.  Well, sorry to hear that – being out of work sucks. But what, you think government jobs are sacrosanct?

CARROLL:  Oh, I think people kind of like having teachers and firemen and cops and services.

MITCH:  Well, at face value, it looks more like people in towns around Minnesota like to have them – provided they can get someone else to pay for them.  When they have to pay for them themselves, not so much.

CARROLL:  (Glares at MITCH):   Why do you hate the troops?

(And SCENE).

Lucky had to get back to her job at “Alliance For A Better Minnesota”, where she power-sands memes.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Yet another lefty writer has discovered that Republicans are TEH HYPOCRITES HYPOCRITES HYPOCRITES! 

In this case, it’s one Brad Friedman over at the HuffPo:

For all of their years of claims that massive voter fraud is going on at the polling place, such that photo ID restrictions are required to ensure the integrity of the vote, youd think that when Republicans have a chance to run their own elections, theyd be sure to want it to be as “fraud”-free as possible.Nonetheless, despite onerous polling place photo ID requirements now passed into law in about a dozen states where the GOP controls both the legislative and executive branches, voters will be able to cast their ballot in next Tuesdays “First-in-the-Nation” Republican Iowa caucuses without bothering to show a photo ID — even though the Republican Party itself sets their own rules for voting there.

Wow.  That could mean the GOP are a bunch of TEH HYPOCRITES HYPOCRITES HYPOCRITES! 

Or it might mean that a statewide caucus is open only to registered activists, and that a party precinct will have a better-than-fair idea of who their registred members are, and it’s completely different than an actual election.

Government’s assault on human rights finally hits it where it lives; in its budget.  

The District of Columbia owes the plaintiff in Heller Vs. DC for legal fees and expenses:.

Dick Heller sued the city in 2003 over its ban on handgun ownership and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban in June 2008, saying it violated the Second Amendment.

A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller’s attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses. The attorneys had argued they should be awarded $3.1 million. Attorneys for the city said the figure should be closer to $840,000.

Governments can try to ignore speedbumps like “the Constitution” and “the law” and “morality”. But once you start talking money?

This could get fun.

Matthew Torgerson – who claims to be a lawyer, I think – claims that “15% of Minnesota GOP legislators have a college degree”.

Here’s one of several tweets on the subject:

Now, Torgerson, like many DFLers, confuses “education” with “schooling” – but beyond that, he’s utterly wrong.

Here are the notes on legislators’ education, taken from the Senate and House bio pages, broken down by district, chamber, party, legislator and level of education.

Dist	Chamber	Name	Party 	BA
1	Sen 	Stumpf	D	MPA
1	A	Fabian	R	BA
1	B	Kiel	R	 -
2	Sen 	Skoe	D	BA
2	A	Eken	D	BA
2	B	Hancock	R	BA
3	Sen 	Saxhaug	D	BA
3	A	Anzelc	D	BS
3	B	Mcelfatrick	R	RN
4	Sen 	Carlson	R	BS
4	A	Persell	D	MA?
4	B	Howes	R	 -
5	Sen 	Tomassoni	D	BS
5	A	Rukavina	D	BA
5	B	Melin	D	JD
6	Sen 	Bakk	D	BA
6	A	Dill	D	 -
6	B	Murphy	D	BA
7	Sen 	Reinert	D	MS
7	A	Huntley	D	PhD
7	B	Gauthier	D	MS
8	Sen 	Loury	D	BA
8	A	Hilty	D	MA
8	B	Craford	R	BA
9	Sen 	Langseth	D	 -
9	A	Lanning	R	MS
9	B	Marquart	D	MS
10	Sen 	Hoffman, 	R	RN
10	A	Nornes	R	Cert?
10	B	Murdock	R	 -
11	Sen 	Ingebrigtsen	R	AA
11	A	Westrom	R	JD
11	B	Franson	R	BA
12	Sen 	Gazelka	R	BS
12	A	Ward	D	MA
12	B	LeMieur	R	 -
13	Sen 	Gimse	R	 -
13	A	Anderson	R	BA
13	B	Vogel	R	 -
14	Sen 	Fischbach	R	JD
14	A	O'Driscoll	R	BS
14	B	Hosch	D	MA
15	Sen 	Pederson J	R	MBA
15	A	Gottwalt	R	BA
15	B	Banaian	R	PhD
16	Sen 	Brown	R	BA
16	A	Erickson	R	BA
16	B	Kiffmeyer	R	RN
17	Sen 	Nienow	R	 -
17	A	Daudt	R	 -
17	B	Barrett	R	BS
18	Sen 	Newman	R	 -
18	A	Shimanski	R	AS
18	B	Urdahl	R	BS
19	Sen 	Koch	R	BS
19	A	Anderson	R	BS
19	B	McDonald	R	AA
20	Sen 	Kubly	D	MD
20	A	Falk	D	BS
20	B	Koenen	D	AA
21	Sen 	Dahms	R	BS
21	A	Swedzinski	R	BS
21	B	Torkelson	R	BA
22	Sen 	Magnus	R	BS
22	A	Schomacker	R	MPS
22	B	Hamilton	R	 -
23	Sen 	Sheran	D	MS
23	A	Morrow	D	JD
23	B	Brynaert	D	MA
24	Sen 	Rosen	R	BS
24	A	Gunther	R	BS
24	B	Cornish	R	 -
25	Sen 	DeKruif	R	  -
25	A	Gruenhagen	R	ChFC, CLU
25	B	Woodard	R	MBA
26	Sen 	Parry	R	 -
26	A	Kath	D	MS
26	B	Fritz	D	LPN
27	Sen 	Sparks	D	BS
27	A	Murray	R	MBA
27	B	Poppe	D	MS
28	Sen 	Howes	R	BS
28	A	Kelly	R	BS
28	B	Drazkowski	R	M.Ed
29	Sen 	Senjem	R	MA
29	A	Quam	R	MS
30	B	Norton	D	BS
30	Sen 	Nelson	R	ME
30	A	Liebling	D	MS
30	B	Benson	R	MNA
31	Sen 	Miller	R	AAS
31	A	Pelowski	D	MS
31	B	Davids	R	BS
32	Sen 	Limmer	R	BA
32	A	Peppin	R	MBA
32	B	Zellers	R	BS
33	Sen 	Olson	R	BS
33	A	Smith	R	JD
33	B	Doepke	R	BA
34	Sen 	Ortman	R	JD
34	A	Leidiger	R	MA
34	B	Hoppe	R	BA
35	Sen 	Robling	R	 -
35	A	Beard	R	BA
35	B	Buesgens	R	BS
36	Sen 	Thompson	R	JD
36	A	Holberg	R	BA
36	B	Garofalo	R	BS
37	Sen 	Gerlach	R	MBA
37	A	Mack	R	BA
37	B	Bills	R	MA
38	Sen 	Daley	R	MBA
38	A	Anderson	R	BS
38	B	Wardkiw	R	JD
39	Sen 	Metzen	D	BA
39	A	Hansen	D	MS
39	B	Atkins	D	JD
40	Sen 	Hall	R	BA
40	A	Myhra	R	BA
40	B	Lenczewski	D	BA
41	Sen 	Michel	R	JD
41	A	Downey	R	MIS
41	B	Mazorol	R	JD
42	Sen 	Hann	R	BA
42	A	Stensrud	R	BA
42	B	Loon	R	BA
43	Sen 	Bonoff	D	BA
43	A	Anderson	R	BA
43	B	Benson	D	MA
44	Sen 	Latz	D	JD
44	A	Simon	D	JD
44	B	Winkler	D	JD
45	Sen 	Rest	D	MBA
45	A	Pederson	D	BS
45	B	Carlson	D	BS
46	Sen 	Eaton	D	RN
46	A	Nelson	D	 -
46	B	Hilstrom	D	JD
47	Sen 	Kruse	R	BA
47	A	Dittrich	D	BS
47	B	Hortman	D	JD
48	Sen 	Jungbauer	R	BA
48	A	Hackbarth	R	 -
48	B	Abeler	R	Doc Chiropractic
49	Sen 	Benson	R	MBA
49	A	Scott	R	Cert
49	B	Peterson	R	 -
50	Sen 	Goodwin	D	BA
50	A	Laine	D	MA
50	B	Knuth	D	MS
51	Sen 	Wolf	R	BA
51	A	Sanders	R	BA
51	B	Tillberry	D	MA
52	Sen 	Vandeveer	R	BS
52	A	Dettmer	R	MA
52	B	Dean	R	BA
53	Sen 	Chamberlain	R	BS
53	A	Runbeck	R	BA
53	B	McFarlane	R	AA
54	Sen 	Marty	D	BA
54	A	Greiling	D	MA
54	B	Scalze	D	 -
55	Sen 	Wiger	D	JD
55	A	Lillie	D	BS
55	B	Slawik	D	MPA
56	Sen 	Lillie	R	MPA
56	A	Lohmer	R	 -
56	B	Kieffer	R	BS
57	Sen 	Sieben	D	BS
57	A	Kriesel	R	 -
57	B	McNamara	R	BS
58	Sen 	Higgins	D	BS
58	A	Mullery	D	JD
58	B	Champioin	D	JD
59	Sen 		D
59	A	Loeffler	D	BA
59	B	Kahn	D	MPA
60	Sen 	Dibble	D	BA?
60	A	Greene	D	MBA
60	B	Hornstein	D	MA
61	Sen 	Hayden	D	BA
61	A	Clark	D	MPA
61	B	Hayden	D	BA
62	Sen 	Torres Ray	D	MPA
62	A	Davnie	D	M Ed
62	B	Wagenius	D	JD
63	Sen 	Kelash	D	MPA
63	A	Thissen	D	JD
63	B	Slocum	D	BA
64	Sen 	Cohen	D	JD
64	A	Murphy	D	MA
64	B	Paymar	D	MA
65	Sen 	Pappas	D	MPA
65	A	Moran	D	BS
65	B	Mariani	D	BA
66	Sen 	McGuire	D	MPA
66	A	Lesch	D	JD
66	B	Hausman	D	MA
67	Sen 	Harrington	D	MA
67	A	Mahoney	D	 -
67	B	Johnson	D	MA

Note that of 109 Republicans in the House and Senate, 91 have some sort of post-high school education,from certificates or RNs or AAs up through JDs and PhDs.  28 Republicans have graduate degrees – MA, MS, MEd, MBA, PhD, and so on – alone, to say nothing of the 51 BA and BS, plus a variety of RN (which may or may not be four-year degrees), AA, AS and certifications.

And of 18 who don’t list post-high-school education, 14 are listed as business owners – the rest are farmers or tradespeople…

…and, most importantly, all of them convinced a majoirty of the people in their district that they should be in the Legislature,which is the only “credential” that means jack.

We’ll see if Torgerson changes his “story”.

UPDATE:  Torgerson apparently believes 74 GOP legislators are lying about having degrees on the legislative bio pages.  He’s sticking his (koff koff) “story”.

UPDATE 2:  He’s now saying he spoke in “gest”, which is I think a way of saying “jest”.

Say what you will about Romney – personally, I caucused for him in 2008 (as the most conservative option available on the ballot at the time), and if he gets the nomination, I’ll bust my ass to see him in the White House; he’s not perfect, but he’s a lot better than what we have.

And the key part is, if you believe in polling (and I generally don’t, but Rasmussen has earned a bit of a dispensation, being generally more accurate than the others), a lot of other people think so too:

The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president. Ten percent (10%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A week ago, Romney trailed Obama 44% to 41%. The week before that, he held a slight 43% to 42% edge over the president. The two candidates have been essentially tied in regular surveys since January, but Romney remains the only GOP hopeful to lead Obama in more than one survey. Despite Romney’s current six-point lead, his latest level of support is in line with the 38% to 45% he has earned in matchups with the president this year. However, Obama’s 39% is a new low: Prior to this survey, his support has ranged from 40% to 46% in matchups with Romney.

And I thought this bit was interesting:

Romney earns an overwhelming 75% of the vote from those Tea Party members, while the president leads 49% to 37% among those who are not part of the grass roots movement.Obama has 65% support from the Political Class [Ha ha ha! – Ed.]. Romney leads 51% to 31% among Mainstream voters

So for all the media’s – and conservatives’, for that matter – focus on the Tea Party’s ideology, they are as pragmatic as they need to be, too.  And I like that “Mainstream Voter” figure;  it’s the key to the “Reagan Democrats”, I think.

According to Rasmussen, none of the other candidates is topping Obama at this point.  Not that a poll eleven months before the election is dispositive – but it’s not chicken feed, either.

After three years of a president that may well be worse than Jimmy Carter, having John Huntsman in the White House would be an improvement (although that’s waaaay too subtly incremental for me; I’m just saying).  Is Romney “the best” choice, especially for a conservative?  No – but if he’s the one we get, it’ll be a step in the right direction.

I mean, let’s be realistic; if he has a conservative House and (fingers crossed) a Republican Senate, I think a Romney administration will be more amenable than Bush, to say nothing of The One.

Here’s what I’m hoping happened on Tuesday:

1. The Senate took a move to reassure people in and outside the party that the GOP is a sane, sober, grown-up party that, despite the press’ giggly and untoward obsession with the Koch “scandal”, is in the business of running a solid government in pulling former minority leader Senjem off the bench.
2. Senjem – called a “pro-business conservative” by some of the leftybloggers (which means “moderate enough to not make them wet their pants with fear”), and a relative moderate by the rest of the world, is a calming, reassuring figure – partly to the caucuses (one of which he’s run before), and mostly to the rest of the world.
3. The Senate, however, has recognizes the invigorating reality that the majority Senjem leads is mostly freshmen, swept into office on a wave of Tea Party conservative fervor, and who both went there to do what they were sent there to do and who haven’t, so far, gone native.   The assistant leaders include Roger Chamberlain, a straight-talking conservative from Lino Lakes, upperclassman Paul Gazelka of Brainerd, Ted Lillie of Lake Elmo and Claire Robling of Jordan, who may have been the architect of any non-tax “solution” we have on the Vikings stadium, among other things.  If you’re a Tea Partier, this is a pretty acceptable rounding-out of the leadership.

In rough order (i.e., either can move up or down 2-3 positions in the list depending on my mood):

“So you’re willing to see the Vikings leave?”:  I’m a baseball fan – and to the extent I care about the NFL, I follow the Bears.  So I really don’t care.

Seriously?  No more or less so than I am to see Medtronic or Bill’s Gun Shop or the corner deli or 3M leave.  They’re businesses.  In a perfect world, they’d all stay here because taxes and regulations and just plain living and doing business in Minnesota were attractive enough.  And let’s be honest, we do subsidize businesses, to an extent; tax-increment financing is the main tool Minnesota cities use to draw and keep businesses, which is a sort of subsidy.  And we constantly trade public infrastructure spending – road, water and sewer improvements – for business commitments.  And in some cases, we do it because business owners say “cut us a break or we’ll move to Texas”.  And sometimes we cave, and sometimes we just let ’em go – usually depending on the business’ or its’ executives’ political clout.  I oppose it then, and I oppose it now.

“For Only $122 Per Minnesotan, It’ll Create Jobs!”: Oh, don’t be a doof.  That $122 will create jobs anyplace you spend it.  Whether I spend it at the corner grocery store, or at Guitar Center, or at Bill’s Gun Shop, or on Amazon, or at Keegans Irish Pub, it creates jobs.  In fact, if I recall correctly, a dollar spent on stadia creates fewer jobs than a dollar spent elsewhere, on average (and King Banaian will let me know if I’m wrong on that, I’m sure).

“Wow – “No Public Money For Billionaires?”  Some Republican you are!”: It’s a fair cop.  I’m a libertarian/conservative first, and a Republican second.  Corporate welfare does the economy no more good than subsidizing eternal poverty does.

“The Vikings are a part of our cultural heritage!”:  So is the Minneapolis music scene.  Tell you what – I’ll drop $122 on your stadium (on penalty of going to jail if I don’t) if you throw $122 and buy me the Replacements boxed set (on penalty of going to jail if you don’t).  Or, I don’t care, any other part of our “cultural heritage” – mallard carvings or Guthrie tickets or polka lessons or lefse ingredients or New Ulm beer or Edmund Fitzgerald books or Saint Paul Saints swag or any other part of our “cultural heritage”.

Sound fair?

“No – the Vikings are an integral part of our cultural heritage!”: Oh, they’re integral?  Then problem solved.  If they’re an “integral” part of Minnesota, they can’t leave; they – and/or presumably the state itself – would cease to exist.

“Wow, Mr. Conservative Talk Show Host – “No Money For A Stadium” is the same position John Marty takes!””  Wrong.  John Marty takes the same stance that I take.  Since he favors all manner of other government subsidies – arts, MPR, eternal poverty – I’m the one being consistent.

“It’s an investment in the community!”: Well, you’re half right.  It’s an investment – in Zygi Wilf.  Wilf is a real estate mogul; he makes his money by having his investment appreciate.  The Vikings, even with their current awful season, have appreciated considerably since he bought the team.  A new stadium – especially attached to immense parking concessions and a vast swathe of retail and entertainment space, as in the Arden Hills site – will tack a huge premium onto that investment.  Now – what’s the only thing better than a huge premium?  A huge premium that someone else pays for so you can reap a huge windfall and not have to pay – or at least not have to pay full price – for.  Zygi’s a big boy.  He can pay for his own immense freaking windfall.

Any more?

Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:

Long article, gist is Obama administration creating new statistical model to define “poverty” which will have the effect of making it look as if millions of people suddenly are no longer poor, just in time for the election.

Gotta be careful – we could all be “the rich” at this rate.

Who who would make the perfect President of the United States?

Well, here’s what I think:

Economic Policy – the ideal President realizes the best thing government can do is get out of the way.  That cuts both ways – there’s no such thing as “too big to fail”.   Enforcing the laws that exist – against things like fraud and the like – is government’s proper role. And the goverment needs to get out of the systematic structural debt business.  Since jacking up taxes to pay for Obama’s level of spending would be ruinous to business, that means slashing goverment spending. Which is fine, because my ideal candidate realizes that…

Role of Government – …our government has poked its nose into a lot of areas where it has no business.  We could do without massive swathes of the Federal Government; the Departments of Education and Energy need to be abolished. We need a flat tax (on income above the poverty line, or some reasonable multiple of it).

Of course, every bit as important as the “role of government” is the “role of the citizen”.  Nearly half of Americans pay no taxes to the Feds.  The burden on the individual taxpayer needs to be lowered – but there need to be more of them.  Democracy can not work when a minority is working to pay the bills about the majority.

Oh, yeah – the Tenth Amendment needs to be taken seriously.

Law And Order  – Part of our crime problem is that we create so many criminals.  It’s time to end the war on drugs.  This would end the black market for drugs, which is the motivation for the criminal enterprises small and large that have gutted most of America’s cities and made poverty in America such uniquely and recently nasty and criminality-prone state.

Foreign Policy – Our policy toward our friends and allies are still mired in the days when we were the only nation that could stand up against Communism.  The Soviets are gone, the Europeans, Japanese and South Koreans have more than enough economic power to see to their own defense, and we should be out of that business.

We should also make it clear that while we seek redress of international grievances, we will not stand for the destruction of the democracies in Israel or Taiwan.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the US needs to have

Defense – In the eighties, Edwin Luttwak wrote “The Pentagaon and the Art of War”, which argue that the US was spending an obscene amount of money to no visible goal; we were planning, essentially, to re-fight World War II.  And while the Pentagon updated its approach by the end of the Cold War, it’s time to do it again.  We need military – but what kind? What are America’s interests,and how are they best defended?

So what candidate best meets all of those criteria?

None of them, of course.

So I guess I’ll take my toys and go home.

…where we will, hopefully, pick a State Chair that’ll lead the party back to solvency and effectiveness, I was thinking about writing an article with a challenge to the new Chairman.

But then I thought about it for a while; the real challenge isn’t for the Chair; it’s for all you grassroots members across the state.  You’ve got the real work to do.

It’s time for the grassroots to stop taking leadership for granted; we don’t do it in Washington, we should not do it with our party.

So this February, when we start the series of conventions, from precinct all the way up through your Congressional district, that send the next flight of delegates to the State Central Committee with the ability to vote for things like “state party budgets” and “State Chairpeople”, it’s time to make sure that we send people who are committed to making sure that things change for the better and stay that way.

It won’t change anything for this coming Saturday – but it’ll be the group of people who run the party going into the next gubernatorial election, in 2014, when, once again, it’s for all the marbles in Minnesota.

So all of you Ron Paul fans out there?  The point is, if you want to affect how a major party works, you have to show up – and keep showing up, until you actually start having an effect.  The Caucuses in February are just the beginning.

Early on in the Koch mess, the rumors and mumbling started; the “inappropriate relationship” between Senator Koch and the “unnamed male staffer” was the symptom, not the disease.  More to the point, it may have served as a facile, sensational, headline-grabbing pretext for a much deeper conflict in the GOP – a conflict driven by money, by ideological rifts within the GOP on a third-tier issue, and by their influence on key figures in the MNGOP, up and down the food chain.

The issue is gambling – an issue that matters not an iota to the vast majority of Minnesotans, other than as the odd bit of recreation.  But it’s where Big Business and Big Morals butt heads.

And Big Tribes.

There are really three sides to this battle:

1. The Tribes, who by dint of Rudy Perpich’s compact legalizing reservation casino gambling compact in 1989 have an almost-complete legal monopoly on legal non-charitable, non-pari-mutuel  gambling in Minnesota.
2. The Anti-Gambling Crowd, the variety of social conservative groups that oppose all gambling – certainly any expansion of the status quo.  Among others, the party’s official platform in theory puts the Minnesota GOP in this camp.
3. The “Racino”, Canterbury, The Block E Casino and other non-tribal gambling proposals.  This is any and all combinations of non-tribal gambling, including expansions of gambling at Canterbury Downs.

(Here’s a handy history of gambling legislation in Minnesota).

All three groups pour money into the issue – into lobbyists, PR, campaigning, and all the other things that money buys in politics.

And the three groups form an uneasy troika.  The Tribes want their monopoly, and see Racino and further expansion of Canterbury Downs as a threat to their long-term…well, if not “livelihood”, at least a good chunk of their prosperity.   The various non-tribal interests, Racino and the rest, pay good money to get their views across to legislators.

And like the Troika in the old Soviet Union, politics always pit two of those groups against the other.  In this case, the anti-gambling forces and the tribes have united against “Racino” and the other non-tribal proposals to stymie any further expansions of non-tribal gambling and, from the tribes’ perspective, erosions to their very profitable status quo.

(And don’t get holier-than-thou, DFLers – the tribes are the second-biggest donor to the DFL and its candidates, year-in, year-out, behind only the Teachers’ Union (and, some years, even beating the teachers out for the top spot).

Sarah Janecek, whose blog is the most essential new blog in Minnesota this year, is covering the entire flap.  Over the next week or so, I’m going to look at some of Sarah’s coverage of this story.

Brian Lambert wants someone to do the reporting for him, in re my piece last week on the Koch flap:

Mitch says he’s friends with the two names involved in the incident. So call them up and have them, you know, emphatically, explicitly deny on the record what everyone is tittering about.

Heh.  Brian’s a kidder. He kids.

Nobody’s denying anything to me – partly because I’m not calling anyone to ask anything.  At this point, I don’t much care, because:

• All I care about is the way forward for the GOP.  There’s a much bigger story in this flap than a bunch of high-level canoodling – and the MNGOP needs to focus on its future – not on feeding the Media’s agenda. Speaking of which…
• Any digging I do do, will not be for the benefit of the mainstream media.  Any of them.  The Twin Cities’ mainstream media is nothing but the PR arm of the DFL.  Don’t believe it?  Compare the “rectal exams” the mainstream media gives to GOP candidates compared to the gauzy, soft-focus fluff jobs that Barack Obama and Mark Dayton got and continue to get.   Major, serious quesitons about Mark Dayton’s alcoholism and mental health were “covered” by one single Strib piece run eleven months before the election – which is about ten and a half months before anyone outside the wonk class was paying attention.  This is the template for all Twin Cities media political coverage.  Pass on details about GOP rhubarbs to the media?  Why not call them in to Ken Martin while I’m at it?
• Mr. Lambert? If you can’t show me some evidence that you never, not even once, said about Clinton and Lewinski “It’s just about sex!  Moooooove on!”, then really, we have nothing to talk about.

It’s been a long, difficult year.  And this past couple of weeks have been doozies.

So I think I’m going to extend my Christmas break another day.

Have a happy holiday, everyone!

Not your mother’s Rebecca Black:

Merry Christmas from the whole staff at Shot In The Dark!

Picture courtesy Angryclown

The Northern Alliance Radio Network is taking the Christmas holiday off.  We’ll be running “best-of” broadcasts for both days today.  Enjoy the holiday!

On behalf of King, Ed, Bradley, Tommy and the folks at Salem Radio, Merry Christmas, all the best for any other holidays you observe, and thanks for making this past year the best in NARN history so far, which is, indeed, the best Christmas present of all!

(Short of all that “our savior is born”, “peace on earth and good will to men”, and time with our families stuff, which I’ll be honest and tell you is is way more important, but you know what I mean, right?)

Every once in a while, someone asks me “why doesn’t True North write more nice things about Ron Paul?”

I wrote their answer over at True North.  Go check it out if you’ve a mind to, as all those people in the Appalachian hollers to whom I’m not at all related would say.

For my part?  I’m a libertarian-conservative, and a former Libertarian conservative.  But Paul has always bothered me, for a variety of reasons; I’ve wished, fervently, for Libertarianism to have a better spokesman that Rep. Paul.  Still, he’s the farthest they’ve gotten; if Paul had happened when I was in my four-year stint as a Libertarian, I’d have no doubt been an enthusiastic supporter.

To a point.

Anyway – check the whole thing out at True North.

And sometimes “I haven’t said anything” has an implied “…yet” after it.

One the most dull-witted bit of comment-section rhetoric is the old “I see you’re silent on…[some issue you haven’t written or spoken about]”, usually written to imply “silence equals assent”.

I’ve had a few commenters, tweeps and other people say “I notice you’re completely silent on the issue of the MNGOP “Sex Scandal”, the “coverup”, and the principals involved”.

Well, there’s a grain of truth to that, in that I haven’t written anything on the subject.

Yet.

There are a few good reasons for that.

I Have Little To Say:  All of the principals in the case are, to some degree or another, friends.  More importantly, they all have families.  Others may believe that their ends – pillorying the opposition – justfify their means, including piling on a couple of families who, let’s be honest, didn’t ask to be part of this.  So go read them, if that’s what you want.  But before you do, remember…

If You Ever, Even Once, Said “It’s Just About Sex” During The Clinton Administration, You Need To Just Shush: Seriously.  It’s private business.  It didn’t affect government.  Move on.  Just mooooove on.

Some might respond “But the relationship was inappropriate!  What kind of management style is that?”  To which I respond:

It’s An HR Issue:  Is every complaint about “inappropriate relationships” aired out in the media where you work?  Not until it goes to court, if at all.

Yeah, I know – Koch is an elected official in a position of some considerable power, so it’s a little different.  Suffice to say I have no opinion.  Yet.

But…

Much Of The Discourse On The Subject Has Nothing To Do With Amy Koch:  The “relationship” with the unnamed male staffer is the issue that’s got a good chunk of the Twin Cities leftyblogosphere cackling away with their prurient, projection-addled glee.  A name has been popping up, over and over again.  But none of the MSM’s sources on the subject have gone on the record with that name yet – not to a standard that a “real” news media outlet can run with yet.

And I’ll confess this to you all right now – I hope the “rumor” is wrong.  And I hope that the reason the subject of the tittering speculation is lawyering up is because so many of the Twin Cities’ leftybloggers and less-scrupulous media outlets have stuck their tender extremities into a meatgrinder; that they’ve defamed the “rumored” staffer, and done it because they  ignored the standards of fact-checking required to defend a defamatory assertion, and exercised “reckless disregard for the truth” – which is a form of “malice” under Minnesota defamation law that might, with a good lawyer, be enough to void the First Amendment protection they’re all hoping to hide behind.  I’ll cop to it; my Christmas cheer is marred by a hope against hope that the next year sees an awful lot of smug leftyblogging and City-Pages-writing prigs bussing tables at Panera to pay off a humongous legal judgment.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

But What About The Coverup?:  We’ll see.  I’m going to do something that a whoooole lot of – I’ll be frank – dumber bloggers could stand to try; waiting until I know enough to have a perspective worth writing.

Now – as to all of you leftybloggers and comment-section-lawyers who haven’t specifically condemned the massacre at Katyn Wood?  Why do you support Russian genocide against the Poles?

Does your silence speak volumes, or what?