{"id":48088,"date":"2014-10-15T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48088"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:51:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:51:22","slug":"doug-grow-narrative-policeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48088","title":{"rendered":"Doug Grow, Narrative Policeman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surgeons do surgery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Baseball players? \u00a0They play baseball.<\/p>\n

And Doug Grow?<\/p>\n

For four decades and change, generations of Minnesota voters know that Doug Grow is synonymous for flogging and fluffing the DFL narrative.<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s MinnPost\u00a0<\/em>piece on the Severson press conference<\/a> (which I wrote about<\/a> yesterday) is one for the record books.<\/p>\n

The DFL and media (ptr) narrative this year, by the way, is “DFL Victory is Inevitable”; keep that in mind as you read Grow’s description of the presser:<\/p>\n

Finding the current election cycle a little boring?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The DFL sure hopes to keep it that way!<\/p>\n

Unexpected: \u00a0<\/strong>Doug Grow leads off with one of those “too good to fact-check” claims:<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the back-to-back pressers were actually back to back to back. First Severson. Then Martin. Then Severson again.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to each other, Republican secretary of state candidate Dan Severson had scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference, while DFL party chair Ken Martin had scheduled his own 11 a.m. newser to talk about the secretary of state race. In the same room.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it turned out, the back-to-back pressers were actually back to back to back. First Severson. Then Martin. Then Severson again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s about as “unbeknownst” and unpredictable as, say, the\u00a0MinnPost<\/em>\u00a0hiring a staff full of DFL shills.<\/p>\n

Sources in the Severson campaign tell me that Severson had the conference room – where both pressers were held – booked from 10AM ’til noon. \u00a0When the DFL got wind of the presser, they swooped in and got the 11AM booking.<\/p>\n

Initially, Severson had planned to devote his news event to the subject of voter participation among members of the military. Among other things, Severson contends that President Barack Obama\u2019s administration, current secretary of state Mark Ritchie and DFL secretary of state candidate Rep. Steve Simon have all participated in efforts to suppress voting by members of the military.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this, as I described yesterday<\/a>, he did. \u00a0Mark Richie’s office sent county election officials a “how to” on finding ways to reject military absentee ballots; it’s there, in black and white.\u00a0\u00a0The media\u00a0was given a copy at the press conference – as they were given a copy of the absentee ballot reform bill co-authored by Simon that specifically exempted the military (who vote overwhelmingly conservative) from the reforms.<\/p>\n

Amazingly enough, outside of the ofay mockery in the piece’s title (“Fraud! Suppression! Aspersions! Dueling press conferences wake up a sleepy secretary of state race”), the actual facts Severson brought up, the\u00a0paper trail<\/em>\u00a0he presented supporting both Severson’s key allegations, never got mentioned.<\/p>\n

“My Opponent Has Been Caught Masticating!”<\/strong>: \u00a0After Severson’s presser – whose\u00a0actual\u00a0<\/em>subject you’d never know from reading Grow’s piece – Ken Martin took the stage.<\/p>\n

I’ll say it again; “Ken Martin took the stage”. \u00a0We’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

But at 11 a.m., Severson moved to the back of the room in the state office building in St. Paul as the DFL\u2019s Martin moved to the front…<\/span>Martin said that at a Tea Party event in June, Severson claimed that Sen. Al Franken had won his 2008 election as a result of voter fraud. At that same meeting, Martin said, Severson claimed the DFL had re-captured control of the Legislature also because of fraudulent votes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we need is a conspiracy theorist as secretary of state,\u2019\u2019 Martin said. \u201cI call on [GOP gubernatorial candidate] Jeff Johnson and [Republican Party Chair] Keith Downey to refute Severson\u2019s unfounded and irresponsible allegations. I question Severson\u2019s ability to be secretary of state when he makes dangerous allegations of crimes that don\u2019t exist.\u2019\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was cheap theatrics. \u00a0 And Severson answered them with the kind of burst of full metal rhetorical jacket that I wish a lot more Republicans were throwing back at the Media-Progressive Complex this year:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not casting aspersions,\u2019\u2019 Severson said. \u201cI\u2019m saying let\u2019s solve the problem.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now that’s a novel approach.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Cast This<\/strong>:\u00a0 Of course, mentioning the problem\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0the problem, to the DFL and the media that works for it:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But suggesting that DFLers win races because they cheat sounds a bit like an aspersion…<\/span>But Severson said it\u2019s not just his observations at campaign rallies that cause him to have doubts about the integrity of the system. He cited the \u201cstudy\u201d of an organization called Minnesota Majority that claimed there were more than 6,000 fraudulent voters in the 2008 Senate race in which, after a recount, Al Franken defeated incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman by just over 300 votes…<\/span>Martin pointed out that in the recounts of the Coleman-Franken race and the Tom Emmer-Mark Dayton race of 2010, both parties \u201cspent millions of dollars\u201d as ballots across the state were recounted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot a single instance of voter fraud was found,\u2019\u2019 Martin said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Martin is lying, and Grow is just fine with that.<\/p>\n

Doug Explains It All:<\/strong>\u00a0 Anyway – charge met countercharge. \u00a0But here’s the interesting part; Grow elects to speculate:<\/p>\n

Did Severson schedule his as a desperate bid to tie himself to the military and to inflame those in his GOP base convinced DFLers only win because they cheat? <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The base is pretty inflamed already.<\/p>\n

No – here’s the interesting part. \u00a0Here’s the part that undercuts Grow’s entire, snarky, dismissive premise:<\/p>\n

Did Martin schedule his because the DFL is concerned that Simon needs to raise the profile of a down-ticket race?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>schedule it?<\/p>\n

Steve Simon?<\/p>\n

No. \u00a0Ken Martin, chair of the DFL.<\/p>\n

Not Steve Simon, SOS candidate.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0Steve Simon wasn’t present for the press conference. \u00a0About his own race.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Martinized:\u00a0<\/strong>Ken Martin did the whole thing. \u00a0Steve Simon was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Ken Martin, State DFL Chair, apparently feels the need to intervene\u00a0directly\u00a0in what is, in a normal election cycle, a boring, humdrum race that tracks, or sometimes lags, the top of the ticket.<\/p>\n

Why would he do that?<\/p>\n

I can think of a couple of reasons, by no means mutually exclusive:<\/p>\n