It’s about jobs and the economy, stupid.
Let me repeat that: Jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy. That sorta sums it up.
Well, not to the DFL and their various paid, unpaid and indirectly-paid hangers-on on the left. Over there, it’s about “dirt”. Because it’s all Mark Dayton – bumbling underachieving trust-fund baby and former Worst Senator in America – has. He was a failure as an Economic Development director. He was non-entitity as Auditor. He was a spectacular failure as a Senator.
“Dirt” is all these hamsters have.
Now, Sally Jo Sorenson isn’t one of the dumber, more venal leftybloggers in Minnesota. Indeed, in and among the various bits of moral and intellectual cat-box effluvia one meets at “Drinking Liberally”, she may well be one of the better ones.
But the DFL machine needs dirt:
Last month, Sally Jo Sorensen posted on her Bluestem Prairie site that Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer had taken out seven mortgages on his Delano home since 2002.
[Yesterday], the Minnesota DFL gave that tidbit a much bigger megaphone, blasting Emmer in a press conference for unconventional borrowing that most Minnesotans wouldn’t recognize.
So what exactly is the problem, here?
It appears that Emmer bought his Delano home in 2002 for $425,000 with the help of a $300,000 mortgage. He then took out a series of (very) short-term mortgages,each to pay off the previous one.
Ah. So in other words, he used the financing the market made available to handle financing his house. Just like a huge preponderance of other American home owners did, via one means or another.
At one point, he was threatened with foreclosure.
So he’s unique, then?
And this is…what? Illegal?
Nothing illegal is alleged. But the DFL, and Sorenson, have pointed out that the creative financing runs counter to Emmer’s sloganeering about state government having to live within its means.
And the DFL and Sorenson are wrong.
Emmer’s finances are between him and his family. We the people are not paying Tom Emmer’s mortgage. If Tom Emmer comes up short on his payments, it’s up to him; give the house back, or solicit more business at his law firm, or get the kids out there working. It’s his business.
The state budget is not a personal matter. It’s all of our money. And if Emmer has had to do some juggling to make the mortgage work…
…well, he can join the damn club. Many of us are doing the same these days; working harder, scrimping, doing what we have to to keep the roof over our kids’ heads. Wealthy Minnesotans, poor ones, and whole lot of us in the middle…
…who are not a bunch of trust-fund babies who inherited real estate from grampa, anyway.
Emmer spokesman Cullen Sheehan in a teleconference insisted that his boss’s refinancing deals were nothing unusual for a Minnesotan and that he’s paid his bills.
Unmentioned in any of Sorenson’s or the City Pages’ intrepid reporting: is Emmer paid up now? Has he shafted anyone?
And how is that different that what tens of thousands of Minnesotans are doing to make things work out?
And how is Brian Melendez’ little scorched-earth attack anything but a finger in the eye of all of us who weren’t born to the manor, like the hamster his party is stuck trying to prop up?
Has Emmer, indeed, done anything in his personal finances quite as dim and incompetent as release two consecutive budgets that on their face fail to resolve the budget issue, and have absolutely zero chance of ever passing the Legislature?
Because as near as I can tell, while his family may have had to do some mad fiscal juggling over the past eight years, just like the rest of us, Emmer’s got his family’s budget balanced today.
Has Dayton managed the same, even on paper?
If you think so, you may be qualified to be a City Pages reporter.
“Threatened with foreclosure.” Means he missed a payment or two while he was marketing one of his Renoirs, I guess, since that’s how ordinary people pay their bills, don’t you know. Glad he’s caught up now.
What was the point again?
.
He then took out a series of (very) short-term mortgages,each to pay off the previous one.
I’m not a loan officer, but I did work for B of A’s home mortgage division for a few years in the corporate relocation business. Just a guess — Emmer was moving from one home to another and was selling his previous home. If there was a snag in the sale transaction on his previous home, it’s hardly surprising that he would have had trouble paying two mortgages. If that’s the case, he probably took out bridge loans until he was able to get hold of the proceeds from the sale of his previous home. If that’s what happened, this story is ridiculous, as there’s nothing unusual about this practice at all.
I don’t know if you have any loan officers in your readership, but they would be able to explain it in greater detail.
I went back and read the Sorenson article. Looks like Emmer was using the equity in his home to make improvements to the property. Gasp, anything but that! He rolled some HELOCs into mortgages and refinanced a few times. That practice was hardly unusual in the mid 2000s. This story is an utter nothingburger.
Did he get a sweetheart deal from Countrywide (like Chris Dodd)? If not then who gives a rip?
What about the fact that Emmer Bros. Lumber was in bankruptcy protection while being sued for concealing assets? Emmer may vomit out the talking points but when it mattered he choose to suckle at the teat of dreaded “big government” when overall mismanagement drove the family business into the red, and eventual collapse.
Reference it: F & M Marquette National Bank v. Emmer Bros. Co. (In re Emmer Bros. Co.), 52 B.R. 385, 390 (D.Minn.1985).
Indeed, in and among the various bits of moral and intellectual cat-box effluvia one meets at “Drinking Liberally”, she may well be one of the better ones.
How many Drinking Liberally nights have you attended, again?
I was never a victim of the Manson family, an inmate at Auschwitz or been to DrinkLib. I know enough about each by reputation to comment at some depth about their basic natures.
1985, Cupcaake? Hell, Emmer didn’t even graduate from college — in Alaska –until ’84.
Maybe you have the inside dope on an ethnic slur uttered by Emmer’s grandfather during the Eisenhower administration?
What have you got against Emmer that actually took place this century?
I know enough about each
You can’t judge a place you’ve never been to. That’s what they do in Russia.
At some level? Of course I can. I don’t need to go to Murmansk to judge that it’s cold in winter. I don’t need to go to Sturgis to know it’s probably not my kinda party.
I think you should go to one o’ them “drinking liberally” things, Mitch, dressed up like Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. This will work on four levels:
1) Liberals hate Mel Gibson.
2) Everybody hates Wild Scotsmen, even other Wild Scotsmen.
3) Brave Heart is the favorite film of white supremacists.
4) You will be able to “moon” the liberals, while claiming “It’s an homage!”.
Also bring a sign that says “Reserved for our friends with irritable bowel syndrome” and post it next to the bathroom door.