Undercutting the Governor and Conservatism
By Mitch Berg
Andy Aplikowski gets the scoop of the week, over at RezFor and True North.
The DFL plying Republicans to try to get them to override another gubernatorial tax-bill veto:
I followed a tip this evening down to Monte Carlo in downtown Minneapolis. I was told that Republican Reps. Bud Heidgerken (R) 13A & Dean Urdahl (R) 18B had dinner date with Democrat Speaker of the House Margaret Kelliher. I had earlier hinted at some detective work for the evening over at True North and lo and behold, my source was correct. There was a 3rd man who was there who I think I recognized as a possible legislator, but I am not sure, it could have been an aide, although he arrived between Urdahl & Heidgerken and when Kelliher got there.
Dinner at 7:30PM ….. well truth be told, Kelliher was a little behind time and arrived at 7:44, the boys were early.
Monte Carlo is a rather fancy establishment and the meeting was in one of the private rooms in the rear of the restaurant out of sight. My girlfriend came along on the outing. We had a meal and desert. Our tab with tip was just over $100 with 2 drinks per. No doubt the combined per diems for Bud, Dean, and Maggie were more than enough to cover their cost.
No word on whether Andy’s girlfriend paid the tab – although with this kind of scoop, hell, I’d have paid for ’em both.
I digress. Andy continues:
While we were waiting for them to arrive, I got an email from someone at the Capitol.
Andy –
Not sure who gave you your info, but here is some more accurate people to list on who is thinking of overriding the Governor.
1) Remove Abeler. He isn’t doing it. You can call his office and find out.
2) Add the following people to your list. Again, if you call/email any of them and ask, I believe each refuses to sign the veto pledge.
– Neil Peterson
– Pat Garafalo
– Larry Howes
– Mike Beard
– Dennis Ozment C
all /email anyone of them and they should confirm this unless they’ve changed their mind.I can do one better on calling and asking if they have signed it, and let my readers know that as of 5 PM only 5 of the 49 Republicans have signed the Veto Protection Pledge and there was reported (to me) to be no Caucus pressure to do so. Also in regards to Abler, the person close to him I spoke with earlier was unable to confirm if they would support the override if the Metro Wide sales tax was removed, which was his main sticking point of initial support.
All kidding aside, great work, Andy.
And if you are a conservative in a district represented by a Republican, you need to get on the phone today and light a fire under their butts. Call, Twist arms. Put the pressure on.
For all the lumps Governor Pawlenty takes from conservatives for one stance or another (mostly wrongly, I think), in this case he’s doing what we conservatives demanded of him six years ago.
It’s time for actual conservatives to step up and cover his back with the legislature as best we can. Call. Email. Hell, storm into their offices in a fury, for all I care – but get the word across.
And as to you, in the GOP caucus? Get with the program! If you want to become a third party in this state, just keep on betraying conservative principle!
February 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Of course Andy paid, and paid handsomely as we took our time trying to wait for the “subjects” to leave.
Although, to be fair, I would have gladly paid to not only enjoy a great date but also to pretend that I was a spy!
February 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I had an alternative take on the issue.
http://anti-strib.blogspot.com/2008/02/mn-politics-as-usual.html
I’m not sure we should be “spying” on our representatives.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m all for that but I’m ‘represented’ by a old-fashioned Democrat named Larry Haws. I’m putting the pressure on him, too. As I noted here, the DFL’s support for this bill isn’t as solid as they’d like us to believe.
My point is that we should put pressure on everyone
February 19th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I’m represented by Education Minnesota. Might as well send telegrams to penguins.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I’m represented by Kate Knuth, a silly perpetual graduate student who has probably never paid any real taxes in her life. But we’re going to get rid of her in November.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Ya know, the more I think about this, and after reading Tracy’s excellent post, I started to wonder. If this was a Lefty Blogger spying you would emblazon the headline with . . . wait for it . . . STALKER!!
February 20th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Kate Knuth!
A little bird tells me that Kate Knuth is the daughter of Joanne Knuth, the “Zone Superintendant” in this story.
So if Kate is merely silly and trite, she’s an improvement over her mom.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Meh, like I said, it was a fun excuse for a spontaneous date on a Monday night. Plus, we were the only ones who could verify that the meeting did in fact take place. It wasn’t like we were recording their conversation or sitting and staring at them. We were enjoying each other’s company and laughing at the reason that we were there.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Flash,
There was no intent to harass – as with, say, certain people in the regional blogosphere. It was an on-the-fly observation about three public figures meeting in a public place. If that’s “stalking”, then someone’d better file charges against CJ at the Strib.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Hey, I didn’t say it was stalking. I said if it was a lefty blogger you would call it stalking. Just saying. You accused MNO of stalking just because you thought they ran down to a clerks office to get a judgment order. That is much more benign than finding out a ‘secret’ dinner meeting was taking place and making arrangements to be at a table nearby to peek.
Flash
February 20th, 2008 at 10:44 am
“And as to you, in the GOP caucus? Get with the program! If you want to become a third party in this state, just keep on betraying conservative principle! ”
That statement is wrong on several levels. First of all, the “caucus” is not betraying the conservative cause, and in fact are doing a great job of holding together and supporting principle. Second, there are only just a few, and well-known, apostates and heretics among the caucus, and they should be taking the heat. Why are they still in office? If you want to threaten Republicans, threaten the ones who are damaging the cause, not Republicans in general.
We’re 90% of the way to where we need to be. But until conservatives can be the make or break factor in all these legislative elections, we’re going to suffer a few RINOS. That brings me to my biggest complaint about this item: It isn’t that the caucus, or even these few RINOS, are failing to follow conservative principle. It’s that the grassroots hasn’t stood up and replaced these RINOS, or held them more tightly in check at least. It’s not their fault, it’s ours.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
You accused MNO of stalking just because you thought they ran down to a clerks office to get a judgment order.
Er, no, I didn’t. It was a quote from an email correspondent, and it was a part of an either/or question. I said no such thing.
That is much more benign than finding out a ’secret’ dinner meeting was taking place and making arrangements to be at a table nearby to peek.
Actually, they are both equally benign. Public records, public places.
The difference: AAA is trying to present evidence of how elements in the MNGOP are undercutting the governor (and, lest we forget, making time for “date night” in the bargain, which is pretty dang cool for a guy). MNob was trying to support her public interpretation of the summary dismissal of Olson V. Brodkorb which, as I showed in the post linked above, was sloppy and misleading.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I’m wondering why they mentioned that the tab at the Monte was $100. So what?
February 20th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
We were just saying that the Monte is not an inexpensive place to wine and dine people. Your tax dollars at work paying for per diems.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
The Monte is not that expensive at all. I’m poor, but I make it a point to go there with the guys whenever we get the time. Rare, but the prices are not too steep.
As far as I’m concerned, with the drinks at least you’re getting an effing bargain. Made very well, served swiftly, and they don’t skimp on the good stuff if you know what I mean.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
In fact, that’s the typical place you would go… pricewise.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Really? I dunno, that is about the typcial tab for us and I wasn’t overly impressed, I guess (by the food, not the service which was quite good). If I’m going out for a steak, it wouldn’t be my first choice by any means.
But I agree, the drinks were quite nice and I loved the bar. I’d definitely go back to hang out for that reason, would just prefer someplace else for dinner.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am
I gotta admit that I don’t often go there for dinner… as in the past 15 years my trips there are 70% likely to be purely for cocktails and appetizers (seasoned green beans and DEFINITELY the ginger wings… YUM!!!)
Like you say, for the drinks and the service (and again, those tasty wings!) it is well worth the trip to go to the Monte. Parking is usually easy, too.
About a year or two ago I saw Brian Setzer walk in to the place. Apparently, he’s got a place in St. Paul (for whatever reason… possibly a girlfriend lives here).
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
[…] As we noted last week, a number of GOP legislators were considering abandoning the governor in his veto of the DFL’s Mass Transit Subsidy “Transportation” bill – and the DFL was actively wooing wobbly Republicans. […]