Funny Bone at the PiPress

We have new intelligence regarding Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s overture to Democrats on health care, in which he seems to be embracing a more liberal approach. We are told that he suffered no injuries while flip-flopping on conservative principles. Practice enabled the governor, who does his own stunts, to execute the maneuver without difficulty.

We are waiting to see if liberal Democrats can match him as they seek to portray themselves as centrists. The concern is that they might tear their anterior compassionate muscles if they contort themselves into an anti-tax, pro-gun position.

Our Next Senator, soon-to-be former Hennepin County Attorney sure did a great job deterring criminal thugs from committing senseless acts of violence, didn’t she?

[...] the guy without the gun says why didn’t you shoot?”

And now she will be defending our national security. My guess, offer al Queda a plea bargain or maybe community service.

Seems everyone is back from vacation again. I’m getting lots of requests on what is happening behind the scenes.

Well we do have a State Central Committee Meeting on December 9th, and the State party was kind enough to have it close to my home. Funny, my BPOU had their convention there last year, and now the state party loves it. This is their second straight meeting there.

Well, Chairman Carey has set up 4 task forces, see that letter I posted a while ago. (I took a lot of flack for that. Some people don’t think I should have posted internal memos. BS! We have to be open and honest with the reformation of our party. The secrecy and ludicrous security measures are an extreme nuisance. I have no regrets for pointing out that Carey has just figured out that huge mistakes were made.)

Carey is also scurrying around to the Congressional Districts trying to get a do over, and is now talking about reforming the party. So if I fail to get him replaced, my firing a shot across his bow got his attention. In my mind it is too late for him though. He promised to do all that reforming when he ran for chair last year. Why should he get a second chance? There are a lot of formerly elected officials who won’t get a second chance, no thanks to him. Our party is on the down and outs. We’re teetering on irrelevancy, just 1 vote from veto overrides in the MN Senate, and 3 in the MN House. Even a Governor Dr. No couldn’t stop the Democrats if they want to over ride a veto. We will get NO meaningful conservative legislation done, and what was done recently is going to get undone.

And our few elected officials are rapidly distancing themselves from some major conservative values, and if they are allowed to be *THE* leaders of our party and define to voters what we stand for, we’ll be nearly identical to the DFL. We’ll be useless. If you think turnout was bad this year, just spend another 2 years doing the same stuff you’ve been doing, and see how low conservative turnout can go.

So I am calling for the State Central Committee to remove Ron Carey. He was the chair who presided over the decimation of our party this last election. He mitigated our defeat instead of fighting for victory. He didn’t help out candidates statewide and in Congressional Districts. The help given to the lucky chosen ones, did more harm than good as far as I am concerned.

Just what the heck did the Republican Party stand for last election?

Turn out was dismal in Minnesota, and it is becoming clear that many loyal demographics and moderates either stayed home or voted FOR DFLers. Sure the national sentiment was bad because of what Republicans were doing in DC, but the same was true for Republicans in St. Paul.

Since the state party, lead by Carey, had allowed the elected officials to stray from our values (principles if you like) the voters no longer saw what Republicans as a whole were really for. The DFL played the GOP like a fiddle. All the state party had left to muster as a message was: We’re not as bad as them. That won’t win elections. Especially so many statewide races and with the entire state legislature up for election. We needed the state party leader to lead, instead he followed, just like his predecessor.

Therefore I am recommending the State Central Committee to use this portion of our Constitution and By Laws.

Article IX; Section 3; Part B;

3. Any state party officer may be removed by a two-thirds vote of those present at any meeting of the State Central Committee.

4. In the event of a vacancy in the office of state chair, the deputy chair shall carry out the duties of the chair until a new state chair is elected and the State Central Committee shall meet within thirty (30) days thereafter to elect a new state chair. In the event of a vacancy in the office of deputy chair or secretary-treasurer, the state chair may appoint an acting deputy chair or secretary-treasurer subject to ratification by the State Executive Committee within thirty days after the appointment, to carry out the duties of the vacant office until a new officer is elected. The State Central Committee shall elect a new deputy chair or secretary-treasurer at its next regularly scheduled meeting or, if such meeting is scheduled within thirty days after the vacancy occurs, at the second regularly scheduled meeting after the vacancy occurs.

Now I have heard that there will be an attempt by leadership to block new business from the floor. They can’t do that, unless they drafted some pretty sneaky rules. Chances are they won’t let them be seen by anyone who is not loyal until moments before they are adopted. If you are a Delegate or Alternate, be prepared to fight for your party. Don’t let them swindle you into thinking they did all tehy could, and they’ll do better next time.

It is time for real leadership in our party. I feel we need someone else to lead this party if we are to change the course from mitigating defeats to majority status. Yes our state party chair shouldn’t believe that this state is a 60-40 DFL - GOP state. If our own leaders don’t believe, how the heck can they lead us back to victory? As I have said before, I have no one in mind, I just know that what we have now is not going to work. There is too much personal ambition from some, and too much followship from others. This party should be lead by someone who isn’t trying to use it for their own goals.

Oh well, that was during the campaign, now she that she won, A-Klo is going to be herself again.

Then there’s the more daunting to-do list facing Klobuchar after she is sworn in as Minnesota’s 42nd U.S. senator on Jan. 4 — the things she campaigned for: Start bringing the troops home from Iraq.

So much for defending America, and fighting our enemies, then again, we did send an anti-war, tax and spend liberal to Washington. We’ll get what we deserve I guess.

And from the you should be more careful in what you say file.

She’s no stranger to Washington: Twenty-six years ago, she was a summer intern for then-Vice President Walter Mondale. Her job involved doing a furniture inventory, crawling under desks and recording serial numbers.

Did she mean Clinton? Just kidding, it was there. You can never pass up Clinton jokes folks.

Is it just me or is Minneapolis really really dangerous? Murders, stabbings, and robberies are commonplace now. Huh, I thought someone was given credit for doing a good job fighting crime. Oh well, we’ll just use the same attacks against Rybak when he runs for Senate in 08. The trouble will be the media won’t do squat to bring the story the light of day AGAIN!
But seriously, someone had better do something in Minneapolis. We’re on the radar list for gangs and criminals to flock to. They know they can get away with murder, and are. We’ve got gang wars going on here, but no one is willing to admit it. Somebody do something!

It has to do with public financing for sports stadiums. (read Vikings Stadium)

The team doesn’t need a stadium, 58 percent of the people polled say. Thirty-five percent think the dome should be doomed.

Some may be willing to use his tax dollars on a stadium, but they sit in a small crowd. Our survey shows 7 out of 10 people are against public funding.

Get that? No means no. Stop wasting our money when those people have it.

But chances are the politicos will mis read this poll too. They’ll just up the anty to push for no referendum, no matter where the stadium ends up. The Twins and Gophers stadiums were almost criminal in my mind. Talk about a breach of trust.

Please get fiscally responsible and take a stand against these billionaires looking for handouts. That’s our money.

Here’s an idea for you to ponder. Give Wilf the Metrodome after the Twins’ stadium is done. Tell him he can do what he wants with it. Maybe he’ll just revamp it. Maybe he’ll sell it and teh land and relocate somewhere downtown. Drop the Metropolitan sports Commission tax in Minneapolis, and leave it at that. If the SOB leaves town, he leaves town, our money will be used for the greater public good.

I can go dig up the MNGOP platform plank about opposing public financing for pro sports teams if anyone wants. (hint hint)

Your base is not taking maybe as an answer for getting out of Iraq now.

Powerline has an email from Mark kennedy’s campaign manager that goes through just why this year was so bad for the GOP. You can read the rest here, but here’s my favorite snippet.

Why? (1) People were mad about the War. (2) People were mad about the scandals in Washington. (3) Our base was demoralized by 1 and 2, but also by Republican failure to address key issues, ie spending. I think it’s impossible to argue that conservative Republicans won and moderates and liberals lost. All Republicans of all stripes got beat, some totally out of the blue.

Republicans said all along that we needed to make it a choice between competing worldviews and competing candidates rather than a referendum. Clearly, our side failed in that. For too many voters, it was a referendum.

Our side wins when elections were about big issues and big differences. For too many voters, that was lost. We need to reinvigorate our movement and get back to focusing on activism and ideas.

That is exactly what I want us to do. And what better place to start than with our state party? We lost because our party failed to uphold what the Republicans stand for. They turned a blind eye to many departures by our folks, and instead focused on trying to demonize the Democrats. It failed miserably, and with the same leadership in place, will no doubt be the game plan for 2008.

The National Republicans are making the same mistake Minnesota Republicans made in 2004. They took the defeat and took that to mean that they have to act more like Democrats. They have reelected disgraced Sen. Trent Lott to leadership. You may remember he was knocked out because of an idiotic statement at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond.

Well, I didn’t really see a big deal in that, stupid words don’t mean a stupid man, but since the Bush administration threw him under the bus and didn’t defend him, Lott has been on a rampage against Bush. He’s been that thorn in the side, and let’s face it, he wasn’t all that impressive before he was demoted to mere Senator.

Well, he’s now the #2 Senator, and he is going to make one thing for certain, Bush is not getting out of the White House with a conservative legacy. (Not that he has been all that conservative)

“The people, I think, sent us a message. I think we’ve got it,” Lott said. “We’re going to be working hard together.”

You moron, it wasn’t the GOP that wasn’t working with the other side. It was teh Democrats who time after time blocked legislation and peeled spineless Republicans off to counter the GOP majorities. For crying out loud. If the Republican party continues to allow weak people like this lead us, there is no doubt in my mind that 2008 will make 2006 look good for Republicans.

The message sent to you fools in Congress was that you weren’t being good people and you weren’t being the conservatives voters thought you were. Because of your inept handling of spending issues and domestic policies for border security, you were out flanked to the right by the most liberal people in this nation. You allowed the war on terror to be run by public opinion rather than by the people on the ground.

If this next Congress is as bad as I fear, we may see a second coming of the Viet Nam era. We will cut and run from Iraq and turn the entire region over to the terrorists. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, North Korea, and Russia will be the next incarnation of the axis of evil, hell they already are.

Wake up Republicans leaders. You didn’t lose because you were Republicans, you lost because you were acting like Democrats. You waffled on important issues, failed to do the right thing on others, and couldn’t be trusted. Earn the trust of the American people by standing for what we want, not the uberliberal special interests who want only one thing from you, to become their puppets.

Do you really think that by working with Democrats on tehir agenda for America, you will actually win next time? There would be no point. The Democrats seek to take this country radically left towards a peacenik socialist nation.

Learn how you lost, teh Democrats threw a wrench in every spoke of the Republican agenda, not go get a fist full of sticks, and get to it. I don’t think your base is going to take anymore of this spineless party leadership much longer. Unless we get back to the optimism of Reagan, and darn quick, our version of America may be lost forever.

Cardinals receive the opening kick off at the 2.

11 Vikings look like idiots trying to tackle the return man.

14:44 left in the first. Vikes down 7 to nothing.

I go to grab a beer.

this live blog is over

Update:

How to tell the vikes just aren’t that exciting to watch. I just watched a curling measurement that had more drama.