In the 2000 Presidential election, it’s entirely possible that George W. Bush was put into office by Ralph Nader, who stole just enough votes from the radical fringe of the left to make it close enough for the freakish electoral college result we got.<\/p>\n
And it’s very likely that we dodged the spectre of “Governor Hatch” because mushy liberal Dean Barkley squatted on enough moderate-left votes to keep Governor Pawlenty in office.\u00a0 Thank God.<\/p>\n
The Dems would very much like to repay the favor.\u00a0 The Indyparty candidate this year, Tom Horner, is a former Republican – in the same way that Arne Carlson and Dave Durenberger were Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while the media has been strongly hinting to undecided conservative voters that “Horner is the moderate Republican”, Derek “Chief” Brigham at Freedom Dogs <\/em>has been following the Horner candidacy with a two-part series (One <\/a>and Two<\/a>) running down Horner’s supporters.<\/p>\n Hint: with his years as a “PR consultant”, it’s mostly big-government special interests, including the MN Vikings (although as the Strib noted in an editorial last weekend, we dont’ knwo for sure – Horner’s firm “Himle and Horner” won’t release a client list), and big-government “Republicans” like Carlson.\u00a0 And the DFL, naturally.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which means Horner is not only no more “conservative” or “fiscally responsible” than the most crack-whore-with-a-stolen-Gold-cardish DFLer, it also means Horner is a raft of conflicts of interests.<\/p>\n “But wait a minute, Berg – Emmer’s a lawyer!\u00a0 He might have represented people who might give him a conflict of interest if he’s elected!”\u00a0\u00a0 Well, no – there are fairly strict rules for lawyers <\/a>when it comes to conflict of interest; the rules are a lot less clear-cut for PR flaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n And it doesn’t matter.\u00a0 Horner will get three percent of the vote, and the Independence Party will likely lose major-party status this year.\u00a0 The DFL and Media’s (ptr) only interest in the subject is to make sure that those three percent come more from Emmer than from one of the Three Stooges.<\/p>\n