{"id":18373,"date":"2011-02-24T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=18373"},"modified":"2011-09-01T07:59:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:59:19","slug":"royalty-doth-deighn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=18373","title":{"rendered":"Royalty Doth Deighn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via David Brauer<\/a>, I see former governor Arne Carlson has a blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, don’t get too excited; he’s done four posts so far.\u00a0 But the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say.<\/p>\n

Carlson dislikes being called a “backstabber” in “Politico” for his tireless work against Tim Pawlenty (and of course Tom Emmer) over the past nine years.\u00a0 Carlson doesn’t like being criticized, naturally; he tells us so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, the Minnesota GOP tossed Carlson, and a bunch of other former GOP officeholders who actively campaigned against Tom Emmer and, by extension, the party’s nascent conservatism, this past election.<\/p>\n

Now, Carlson has the right to his opinion.\u00a0 And he knows it, naturally: he makes no bones about his not liking the current crop of conservative Republicans, including Pawlenty:<\/p>\n

It is no secret that I have serious qualms about the candidacy of Governor Pawlenty and do not believe his claims of prudent financial management come anywhere close to the truth. Hence, the scrutiny will continue\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He even told Politico that he’d go on the road, pay any price and bear any burden <\/a>to try to keep Pawlenty out of the White House (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

\u201cI will go to Iowa and New Hampshire and have press conferences<\/em>, if it comes to that,\u201d he told POLITICO in an interview. \u201cWith Tim Pawlenty, I\u2019m outraged that his record is one of the worst in Minnesota history, and he refuses to answer any relevant question.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, Carlson is entitled to his opinion.\u00a0 Of course, his own record is one of a governor who ruled in generally good times; 1990-1998 was a pretty cha-cha time in Minnesota, barring a brief recession early on as the Defense industry retrenched and the Iron Range went through its usual, eternal spasms.\u00a0 The booming economy gave Carlson repeated budget surpluses – which he promptly turned into permanent entitlement spending, which promptly turned into deficit-fodder when times turned tough in 2000 and again in 2008. \u00a0 State government zoomed in size. \u00a0 His own record is that of someone who spent money like a crack whore with a stolen gold card.\u00a0 We, The People of Minnesota, financed his spending spree with a healthy cut off of our take from the good times in this state.\u00a0 Had he governed in tough times – as Pawlenty did, through two <\/em>recessions – he’d have presided over a California-like collapse, in all likelihood.<\/p>\n

That’s fine.\u00a0 Again, he can have his opinion.<\/p>\n

But the regional media would have you believe that we, the current <\/em>MNGOP, have to continue paying obeisance and honor to someone who not only spits on what we believe, but actively tries to use his old (ancient!) party credentials against us, and our candidates, and our most successful alumnus so far!<\/p>\n

What would the DFL do to someone like that?\u00a0 Ask Randy Kelly!<\/p>\n

Forget about calling Arne Carlson a “Quisling”, as Tony Sutton did – accurately, if a bit hyperbolically.<\/p>\n

We’re not supposed to criticize him in any way – as if having been <\/em>a spendthrift governor in cha-cha times gives him papal-esque infallibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via David Brauer, I see former governor Arne Carlson has a blog. Well, don’t get too excited; he’s done four posts so far.\u00a0 But the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say. Carlson dislikes being called a “backstabber” in “Politico” for his tireless work against Tim Pawlenty (and of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,68,144],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-18373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-governor","tag-pawlenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22524,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18373\/revisions\/22524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}