Back during Desert Storm, Saturday Night Live – which still had Phil Hartmann, Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks and Dana Carvey, and was hence still funny at the time – parodied one of the military press conferences that were such a staple of the coverage of that war, way back when.

In it, a stoic military officer (played, if I remember correctly, by Kevin Nealon) stood, trying to remain unruffled, as “journalists” asked a series of increasingly absurd questions:

REPORTER:  “Tell us, Colonel:  what will be the targets, strike times and units involved in any air raids today?” 

OFFICER:  “Um, I am afraid I can’t, er, discuss that…”

ANOTHER REPORTER:  “Colonel, when exactly will the ground attack take place, and where?”

OFFICER:  “Um…”

The media’s coverage of Tom Emmer’s gubernatorial campaign reminds me of that skit.

I noticed this bit in Erik Black’s piece in the MinnPost that I covered yesterday (and that Black’s old colleague John Tevlin, in true “Circle The Wagons!” style, also covers today, in nearly identical thoughts if not words):

[Emmer] owes the voters of Minnesota some straighter talk, not about what he could do, but what he would do to balance the budget. (Not to say that all the other guv candidates have been clear abut how they would do it. They haven’t.)

I asked yesterday – Emmer “owes” the people “straight talk”, while the DFLers merely get a mild joshing nod?

Still, I’ve heard this from a few people; “If Emmer’s so great, and if he’s going to rebuild government, then where is his master plan on how he’s going to do the whole thing?”

I gotta confess sometimes, I”m curious myself.

But it doesn’t take a political consultant or an especially curious journalist to see that…:

1. We are still two months away from having a DFL candidate.
2. We do, however, have a huge pool of establishment journalists, “alternative” media figures who are dying for material, and…
3. …a legion of DFL hacks and flacks whose mission it is to try to take the battle to Tom Emmer during these two months, to try to derail any momentum he builds while the Dems are noodling around with their primary process (and, let’s be honest, most of the “establishment” media in #2 above is at the very least sympathetic with, if not actively working to promote at some level, the DFL).

So with that in mind, tell me – what sense would it make for Tom Emmer to release “the master plan” for his administration, two months before there is an alternative to compare it to?  All that would do is give the DFL and the media (that is, let’s be honest, largely on the DFL’s side) time to define, frame, and re-spin it, long before the Dems ever have a candidate, much less a “plan” to “scrutinize”.  Which I put in scare quotes, since I’m not willing to take it on faith that anyone in the Twin Cities’ establishment media will “scrutinize” the DFL’s “plan” so much as run cover for it; that’ll be, as usual, the job of the conservative alternative media.

What’s Emmer’s plan?  I dunno.  His rhetoric is certainly building up expectations; if he’s not swinging for the fence, he’s at least aiming for the outfield. He’s be nuts not to, in my humble opinion; this is a year when people want to see results, and are showing everyone who cares how sick they are of arrogant, rapacious, thud-witted goverment and the bills it leaves us.

But is he wrong to sit on that plan until it matters?  Even if , horror of horrors, it leaves the state’s chattering classes and the designers of the DFL’s Chanting Points less material for the time being?

I’ll give you my answer when I see Mark Dayton’s plan.

…which, I confidently predict, will be “raise taxes on “the rich” (people making over $80,000, by the time he, heaven forfend, takes office), and keep the public employees unions happy at all costs”. 

DISCLAIMER:  Since two people have asked – I am not employed by, or affiliated with in any way, official or under-the-table, the Emmer Campaign or Republican Party of Minnesota.  I get nothing from either entity; no money, no in-kind consideration, not even a free drink outta this.  I am a private citizen who wants better for Minnesota, and I”m convinced beyond any rational doubt that Tom Emmer is the best choice – the only choice, really – to get us there.