There Will Be Blood
By Mitch Berg
So where do we go from here?
It’s really fairly simple.
First: Remember This List of Names. These are the “Republican” legislators that stabbed the governor, the party, and every single fiscally-responsible voter in the back:
- Rep. Abeler, Jim (48B) – 651-296-1729. rep.jim.abeler@house.mn
- Rep. Erhardt, Ron (41A) – 651-296-4363. rep.ron.erhardt@house.mn
- Rep. Hamilton, Rod (22B) – 651-296-5373.rep.rod.hamilton@house.mn
- Rep. Heidgerken, Bud (13A) – 651-396-4317. rep.bud.heidgerken@house.mn
- Rep. Peterson, Neil W. (41B) – 651-293-5373. rep.neil.peterson@house.mn
- Rep. Tingelstad, Kathy (49B) – 651-296-5369. rep.kathy.tingelstad@house.mn
- Sen. Frederickson, Dennis (21) – 651 296-8138. mailto:sen.dennis.frederickson@senate.mn
- Sen. Dille, Steve (18) – 651 296-4131. sen.steve.dille@senate.mn
Call them. Write them. Make your displeasure known. Make it very plain that you’re tired of being “represented” by “Republicans” who act like Democrats.
And call the other Republicans – the ones with integrity – and thank them. They’re feeling incredible pressure from the overgrown spendthrift teenagers that are running things in the Legislature these days.
2. Ignore the BS. The Gang of Eight’s excuse is going to be that the DFL committee chairs extorted them by telling them their bills won’t be heard if they didn’t vote to override.
Tough. That’s what elections are for. And that is on you, the voter.
3. Retire Them From Office. Maybe it’ll be this coming month at the endorsing conventions. Maybe it’ll be at th next round of caucuses. It doesn’t matter. Get rid of them.
4. Ignore the Strib, the Leftymedia, and the DFL. They’ll do what they always do – try to paint tax hawks as ignorant peasants beating on the observatory door with pitchforks and torches. It’s an attempt to play on peoples’ insecurities – their desire to appear as smart as their neighbors. The left has spent four generations setting itself up as the “smart” party – and given us a catastrophically-failed school system, a decaying post-secondary system, and a population that thinks “Audacious Hope” is a policy position. Don’t buy it.
All of this is predicated, of course, on getting, being, and staying involved; on not staying home because of John McCain’s alleged slights or Tim Pawlenty’s trip to the arctic or whatever.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Yup. If your representatives don’t represent you on issues you feel strongly about, throw the bums out — and preferably early, rather than late.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
All of that is good, Mitch, but we also need to do something else. We need to put a big honking bullseye on the back of every first-term DFL rep that voted for this thing as well, particularly in cases where the DFLer took over a Republican seat. We need to ask the voters of such districts if the representation of these solons is worth the extra money that we’ll now shell out. I can think of two in particular who can be brought down and should be — my own rep, the lovely and talented perpetual graduate student Kate Knuth in 50B, and especially Paul Gardner in 53A, who knocked Phil Krinkie out of office by about 50 votes. They can and should be held personally responsible for this, just as much as Tinglestad and the RINOs.