Shot in the Dark

Trojan Horse

To: Members of the MNGOP Judicial Elections Committee
From: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant
Re:  Weasel Words

JEC,

First things first; I’m an elected party officer, so I’ll support our party’s endorsed candidates.  So – yaaaay, Ms. McDonald.

Of course, Ms. McDonald’s candidacy has turned into a Bolivian Goat Rodeo;  the DFL and Media (ptr) on the one hand are caviling and gamboling about the story like happy little pixies.  And some of the Ron Paul clacque – who were non-factors in this year’s caucuses, for the most part – have latched onto the whole episode as a way to try to stick it to the state GOP.

Now, I’ve asked a number of members of the JEC – in this space, in other online fora, and in person – to explain…:

  • Why the committee voted to endorse Ms. McDonald, if they did, and…
  • …more importantly, why the committee voted to suppress the “minority report” – supported by the committee chair – that would have informed delegates about Ms. McDonald’s legal issues.

The “answers” I’ve gotten have been, to be charitable,  weasel words.  The kind of thing that would shame a punch-drunk fourth-grader.  Silence, or idiotic little cutiepie resopnses (“Ask Chairman Downey!”).

So far, I’ve thought of this whole episode as incompetence on the part of the JEC – and knowing a few of the people who are on the JEC and/or heavily involved in JEC business, it’s not a stretchy theory.

The other possibility that jumps out at you, seeing some of the people involved?  It was an intentional sandbagging of the GOP by people who have a bone to pick with the party’s leadership.

The more I hear about this sorry episode, the more I’m leaning toward “sabotage”.

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Comments

8 responses to “Trojan Horse”

  1. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    McDonald’s state fair performance was unnecessary, but let’s not avoid the fact that she’s getting Borked.

    Stinking leftists, the same stinking leftists that swooned when Hakim X Ellison waved his Koran, are mostly upset with her display of the Bible. They’re using the GOP infighting to make her look teh crayzee, and that should piss Minnesota Republican’s off. Start digging the messy details of Democrat politicians out of the DFL clown car and paint the town with them….start with Pappas and Dawkins support of Kathleen Soliah and follow up with some Hakim supporting the Vice Lords while sporting his FAraKKKhan bow tie.

    When it comes to Minnesota conservative media Mitch, you’re pretty much it. Get to woik.

  2. SmithStCrx Avatar
    SmithStCrx

    Greg Wersal called into Dave Thompson’s show last week (Wednesday if memory serves). It didn’t help the JEC’s case. Best case scenario as I currently see it is this was the result of equal parts incompetence and arrogant naivete about the realities of politics. Other possible explanations quickly go downhill. I’ve reached the point of thinking that the JEC should be demolished and any future Judicial nominations go through the standard Nominations Committee.

  3. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    It’s fascinating to watch a train wreck in realtime.

  4. thorleywinston Avatar
    thorleywinston

    McDonald’s state fair performance was unnecessary, but let’s not avoid the fact that she’s getting Borked.

    No, she’s really not. She made the decision to run for office knowing that (a) she was going to be on trial less than two months before Election Day and (b) she couldn’t even legally drive herself to do any campaigning. After she received the “endorsement,” she then proceeded to compound her original ethical and legal problems by creating new ones while in the public eye.

    This has nothing to do with her “judicial philosophy” which appears closer to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s than Robert Bork’s. It has everything to do with her actions and her judgment all of which have demonstrated that she shouldn’t be trusted to judge a dog show, much less serve in the highest court in our State.

    She’s proven by her conduct that she’s unfit and we do ourselves no favors by defending her or by saying “yeah but the DLF . . .” The least awful option to us at this point is to repudiate her and her campaign without qualification and distance ourselves from her.

  5. thorleywinston Avatar
    thorleywinston

    I’ve reached the point of thinking that the JEC should be demolished and any future Judicial nominations go through the standard Nominations Committee..

    I’ve reached the point where I’ve gone from being agnostic about endorsing judicial candidates to being dead set against them. While the members of the MN GOP are generally concerned about the judiciary, I’m not convinced that the majority are really that gung-ho about being in the business of endorsing judicial candidates (which Minnesotans appear not to be in favor of if the last decade or so is any indication) so much as we latched onto this because Wersal, Clayton and a few others said that it help “hold judges accountable.”

    It hasn’t done that and if anything, it’s hurt our brand as a party and paved the way for “retention elections” which I don’t think most of us want. Time to cut our loses and focus on reforms that actually stand a chance of passing and making things better rather than continue down a path that has given us nothing but grief.

  6. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    I don’t disagree Thorley, I wouldn’t vote for her either. But, as I say, if you peruse the leftist internet you’ll see that what SHOULD disqualify her (mendaciousness and poor judgment) isn’t what they object to, it’s her bible.

  7. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Solid points, Thorley, but what good does it do if you work for reforms that can be (and are) passed if they get thrown out by a partisan hack in black robes?

  8. M. Thompson Avatar
    M. Thompson

    I’m writing in my housecat in disgust over the whole damn thing.

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