There is no blogger in MInnesota who has had a greater impact on Minnesota politics than Michael Brodkorb.

Michael’s a friend, a former NARN colleague, and one of the sharpest political minds I know.

And Minnesota Democrats Exposed has been both a juggernaut and a lightning rod for the past five years or so; it’s been a powerful force for transparency in Minnesota govenment; it’s broken more stories about DFL malfeasance than, I think, both the dailies and all the TV stations put together.  Naturally, it’s drawn ten blogs’ fair share of ire from the local left; the smart lefties know Michael’s a sharp, canny opponent; the rest of them just bay at the moon until they soil themselves, and then go put up a post on Minnesota Progressive Project.

Michael has written, by his count, 7,000 posts (it’s amazing how it adds up, isn’t it?) – and he says he only regrets one of them:

There is one post that has never really fit into the focus of my blog, one post that never felt right, one post I wish I hadn’t posted on Minnesota Democrats Exposed. In almost 5 years of blogging, I have never issued an apology – until now.Back on January 4, 2008, I published a post awarding Drew Emmer with the first ever first-ever Minnesota Democrats Exposed Man Not In The Arena Award and Mitch Berg an “honorable mention.” Click here to read the back-story and the post-post commentary.

Drew and Mitch are both my friends and I should have picked up the phone to contact them with my frustrations. I should have sent a private e-mail and both of them would have politely responded and we could have had a respectful and production conversation. But I instead chose to publish a smart-ass post, and in the process wasn’t respectful to either Drew and Mitch. It was a jerky thing to do to my friends. As hard-working, principled conservatives, they both deserved better than to labeled as “do-nothings” and I want to publicly apologize to both Drew and Mitch for this post of January 4, 2008.

Well, I do appreciate it – but it was never necessary.  While I disagreed with Michael’s original point – everyone’s got a right to an opinion, although the opinions of those who do and deliver count for more – I took it as a challenge; less talk, more rock.  And I figure among people who are on the same team, those sorts of things have to – and, honestly, had better – be treated that way.
Anyway – today’s Michael’s last day at MDE.  The intellectual imbalance facing Twin Cities’ leftybloggers will fade from “absurd” to merely “hopeless”.

And best of luck, Michael!