It’s been a crazy week.
No, I know – it’s a crazy week for everyone. It always is. Among the urban, urbane, working-guy’n-gal set, every week is set to puree, these days. If people aren’t constantly complaining about being too busy and too swamped, other people wonder if you’re abusing Xanax or something. But suffice to say it’s been worse that most; most of it “not good”, none of it catastrophic. One of those “not red-letter” weeks, let’s just say, the kind that make me look forward to biking-to-work season, which opens (come hell or high water) next week for me.
But Mr. Dilettante notes something that I, and a lot of local bloggers, missed covering this past week; Senator Coleman announced his candidacy on Wednesday.
Local center-right bloggers were muted in their coverage:
I wasn’t especially worried about missing the event, since I figured that other bloggers would be there and would write about the event in detail. The ever-reliable Michael Brodkorb was there of course and there’s substantial coverage of the event over at MDE, as you’d suspect. But as yesterday spread into today, I started to notice something. Many of the other prominent center-right voices in the Minnesota blogosphere hadn’t written anything about the event, either. Nothing from Powerline. Mitch Berg was otherwise occupied. AAA hadn’t weighed in. No barking from the Freedom Dogs. Not a peep at Anti-Strib. Bupkis at TvM. And most notably, nothing at True North.
I’d chalk it up to a couple of things:
- Most of us center-right bloggers – not having a Soros-like sugardaddy – have to work day jobs. Coleman’s announcement came amid a very busy work day; perfect timing for the dead-tree and broadcast media news cycle, bad for a guy who’s gotta get to meetings and deliver stuff. I sent my regrets to Coleman’s press people, who – I have to say it – have done a great job at reaching out to center-right bloggers this past year. Kudos to them.
- Some center-right bloggers – the ones farther to the right on the continuum – are upset at some of Norm’s votes. Norm is not a pure movement conservative; he is a consummate pragmatist, as befits someone who ran a highly liberal city for eight years as a conservative DFLer against a hostile majority, and had to win election against not just Paul Wellstone, but his memory borne into eternal hagiography by the swooniest mob since the Beatles played Shea Stadium. Norm is not the perfect conservative; he is, however, good enough on all issues, and leads the pack on a number of issues, most notably shining a light on the cockroach den on the East River, the UN. But for Senator Coleman, “Oil For Food” would be just another Texaco marketing promotion. He’s generally right on the war, mostly right on spending, generally on the ball on judges; against that, I’ll forgive ANWR and his few other not-quite-conservative miscues.
So while I was remiss in not covering the Senator’s announcement, let me make it perfectly clear; I am fired up for Norm, and I’m going to do everything in my meager power to keep Norm in the Senate.
Mr. D:
As bloggers we’re all independent actors — despite what some people would have you believe, there’s no “ScaifeNet” or “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” afoot. We all make independent, idiosyncratic judgments concerning what we write about. And there have been some interesting local stories in the last few days, including the controversy at Forest Lake High School and the light bulb bill that Rep. Bachmann introduced, among other things. In all of that, Norm seems to have gotten lost. I’m not sure what it means, but the apparent lack of interest in Coleman’s event must mean something. And it would seem to be a good idea for Norm’s campaign people to see if they can ascertain the larger meaning.
Well, there’s no larger meaning at Shot In The Dark. D’s right, of course; this week was a mad blender of breaking news, and – events aside – while Norm’s announcement is important, it was hardly “news”; I don’t think anyone woke up Tuesday morning wondering if the Senator was going to bow out of the race.
But let nobody misinterpret my silence; this blog and the voter behind it supports Norm Coleman. I support him against the DFL’s nominee (I’m rooting for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer!), and would do so against anyone the DFL could or would conceivably put in the race. While I differ from Norm on a few things – and tell him so, and tell you, via this blog, as well – Minnesota has had no better Senator in the two decades I’ve spent in this state; if Minnesota Republicans screw that up because of the odd ANWR vote, we’ll all be the poorer – literally and figuratively – for it.
Go, Norm!
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