Tag: A-Klo
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Crocodile Conversation
To: Jim Klobuchar From: Mitch Berg – guy with long memory Re: You Are Full Of It Mr. Klobuchar: I got a kick from this bit from a flak piece you wrote for your daughter, Senator Klobuchar (quoted in Andy Aplikowki’s Residual Forces): I still remember a time when campaigns were conversations – genuine debates between…
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Records Stand ‘Til They Fall
Immediately after Pawlenty withdrew from the presidential race, his name was getting bandied about on the GOP side (and in some cases, bandied right back). Eric Ostermeier notes that out of twelve former Minnesota governors who’ve tried to run for Senate, only one has won the race: Even presuming, for the moment, that Pawlenty does not…
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Let’s Call It Au Revoir.
Perhaps you heard (it was in all the papers) that Tim Pawlenty pulled out of the GOP Presidential Race yesterday. “TPaw” is an engaging guy, a natural politician – which is both a positive and a negative – and very, very underrated as a stump speaker. And I thought he had a great shot at…
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When Did You Stop Beating Your Law License?
Question: If you were storing a car in your garage for the winter, would you carry insurance on it? If you’d discovered you didn’t read the Strib anymore, would you continue to pay for the subscription? If you got an hour’s exercise a day by biking or running or swimming, would you pay for a…
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Frequently Asked Questions – III
Why don’t you ever put liberals on your show? We do. Ed and I have interviewed Erik Black, Dane Smith, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and my old friend, Erik “The Transit Geek” Hare. All of them but Rybak at least once (and we may extend another invite to Hizzoner). Beyond that? I have standing invtations…
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Huge News Flash!
As the MN GOP gets ready for the push to topple Amy Klobuchar, the question is “who will go for the Senate endorsement?” Sitting here at the CD4 convention at Jimmy’s in Vadnais Heights, we are getting our answer. That’s right, Minnesota. Harold Shudlick is running again!
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Third Rail
Senator Amy Klobuchar, up for election in a very short year, is sandbagging her constituents on the Senate Dems’ proposed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. From the Minnesota Birkeydependent: Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of only two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who have not signed on to a bill to repeal the…
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You Get One Guess
Minnesota Public Radio’s Mark Zdechlik notes that Minnesota could very well see a lot more nail-biter races, because… …well, we all know how this works, don’t we? Minnesota is more polarized, and the parties are more extreme. Right? Analysts say elections have become so close because Republicans and Democrats share almost the same number of…
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Where Their Loyalties Are
Franken and Klobuchar vote for pork: Today’s cloture vote on an amendment from Sen. Coburn to ban earmarks from legislation in the U.S. Senate failed while both of Minnesota’s Senators voiced their lack of concern over pork-barrel spending by voting “no”. A similar measure was passed recently by the House of Representatives and the Coburn…
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The Great Poll Scam, Part V: Close Shaves
It’s almost become a cliche, among conservative observers of Minnesota elections. You’re supporting a Republican. You know the race is close. You can feel the race is close. And the final Humprhey and Minnesota polls come out, and the DFLer leads by an utterly absurd margin – like this year’s Humphrey Institute Poll, which showed…
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Hey, Wait!
Hasn’t the Twin Cities media – especially the “alternative”, liberal version – been barbering for years about how Rep. Michele Bachmann just doesn’t do “mainstream” media? Why, yes – they have! But – did I hear Michele Bachmann doing an extended interview with Cathy Wurzer on MPR’s Morning Edition this morning? Why, yes I did!…
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The Great Poll Scam, Part IV: Hubert, You Magnificent Bastard, I Read Your Numbers!
The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute is a combination public-policy study program and think tank at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Named for the patriarch of the Democratic Farmer-Labor party – a forties-era amalgamation of traditional Democrats and neo-wobbly Farmer-Labor Union members whose Stalinist elements Humphrey famously purged in the mid-forties – the institution serves…
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The Great Poll Scam, Part III: Daves, Goliath
Rob Daves took over the Minnesota Poll in 1987. I have never met Rob Daves. Either, to the best of my knowledge, has anyone else. I don’t know that his alt-media bete noir, Scott Johnson, has even met him, despite not a few requests for interviews. I have no idea what Rob Daves thinks, believes,…
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Buyer’s Remorse
The DFL – and their national benefactors – went all-in on Tarryl Clark against their bete noir, Michele Bachmann. Clark is getting clobbered. Hammered. Beaten like a cheap steak. She’s going to lose by 10 points, and I actually starting to think I’m being conservative. And the regional left is starting to have second thoughts…
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Chanting Points Memo: Bachmann And The Friendly Media
They never learn. It’s been a little over two years since Andy Birkey of the Minnesota “Independent” first sniffed that Rep. Michele Bachmann “only does sympathetic media”. Of course, it makes perfect sense for Bachmann; she represents a conservative district; talking with hostile media (and when it comes to the Twin Cities media, “hostile” is…
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Tubed
Nick Coleman, longtime bete noir/kicktoy of regional conservative bloggers, is back on the beach: The message was eloquently written, but crystal clear. For one year now, Coleman had been a senior fellow at the school’s Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement. He’d tacked his title onto his opinion columns in the…
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You Dig Sixteen Tons Of Legislation, And What Do You Get?
I read a Tweet from State Senator Taryll Clark, the endorsed DFL candiate running against Michele Bachmann in the Sixth District this fall. The Bachmann Agenda: More media less legislation And I thought I should thank Senator Clark for illuminating the difference between liberals and conservatives as thoroughly as anyone possibly could. Do we judge…
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Bring On November, Baybee
So they’ve done it. The Obama Administration, speaking for about a third of the American people, jammed a nationalization of the Health Insurance industry down the American throat. On the one hand, American people, you were warned. If you voted for Barack Obama and are among the millions getting buyers remorse today as you confront…
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Doggone It, People Just Don’t Like Him
Al Franken is at -6 on the “passion index”, according to Rasmussen via the Strib: A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Minnesota finds that 50 percent of voters in the state approve of the job Senator Al Franken is doing, including 25 percent who strongly approve. That’s unchanged from surveys in…
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Around The MOB: Cake Eater Chronicles
Although it’s more or less dead and gone (unlike, thankfully, its author), I’m going to give a shout-out to Cake Eater Chronicles. The longtime MOB stalwart Cathy the Cakeeater was one of the most sparklingly original writers on the Twin Cities blog circuit. And then, a few years back, she came down with ovarian cancer,…
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Every Election Has Consequences
I had a lot of discussions last year with conservatives who refused to vote for – indeed, fumed with anger against – Norm Coleman; because of one transgression or another (keeping a campaign promise and voting against ANWR drilling being one example), they called him a “RINO”. It was palpable balderdash, of course; Coleman was…
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The America Last Coalition
Minnesota’s Democrats in Washington are M doing their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of opportunity: Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who took office in part thanks to the same wave of support that swept Obama in, said last week that he wants to hear more about the rationale behind the plan before deciding whether…
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Maybe Amy Klobuchar Should Armor Them
Remember when the Democrats held up “unarmored Humvees” as the greatest crime ever committed against US troops? It all seems so long ago, now: Afghanistan is a country the size of Texas, with only a handful of major roads. So when the U.S. military wants to haul gear, supply isolated outposts, reposition forces, or evacuate…
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I’m Not Sure What’s More Remarkable
Is it more remarkable that the Twin Cities mainstream media is finally acknowledging that Chris Coleman has an opponent in the Saint Paul mayor race – Eva Ng? The Cities’ media has been famously reticent to criticize the incumbent mayor – perhaps because he’s the little brother of one of their own, former Strib and…
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And My Name is Not Maggie
CNN has resorted to cruel, baseless name-calling. Ms. Klobuchar may not possess the ideal height-weight ratio, but she is not a cow. (please direct complaints on Johnny Roosh and/or this tasteless, racist, cruel-to-animals post to feedbackinthedark at yahoo.com)