Lady Logician has a great piece on the MNGOP’s financial problems. It is a very powerful piece. Here’s the closing graph.

The ball is in Carey’s court. If he were smart, he would release the audit PUBLICALLY and immediately and he would drop the tax issue and move on to talking about why voters need to vote for Norm Coleman (as opposed to against Al Franken). Senator Coleman has a record that Republicans can be proud of…a record that has frustrated Conservatives for sure, but for the large part has been a good representation of ALL MINNESOTANS. Rather than leaving that important story just to bloggers (like Gary Gross and myself) he needs to be talking about that and leaving the attack pieces to the blogosphere - where it can be done without damaging the candidate or the party. Right now, Chairman Carey, your actions are damaging the entire Republican ticket! For the Senator’s sake, until you get the MNGOP’s financial house in order, please stop trying to help us.

The State Executive Committee must remedy this immediately. If they fail to end this before the State Convention (mind you we were promised this was dealt last June during the Chairman’s race), maybe the State Central Committee will have to take matters into our own hands on Saturday May 31st in Rochester.

The time for accountability is at hand.

This one has been chattering around the lefty blogs for a while, I didn’t want to point it out, but now it hits the Strib for all to see. 

State GOP has its own bookkeeping woes

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Al Franken will not get Norm Coleman reelected. Focus on why people should vote FOR Republicans and there is no need to worry about this sort of touché  ’journalism’. 

I sure hope we (Republican activists) finally get some answers to this crap at the State Central Meeting set to take place immediately following the State Convention in Rochester. Unanswered questions do nothing but leave questions unanswered. If there is nothing left to ‘correct’, why not make the corrections that were done in a timely manner available for all to see? 

Put this baby to bed now rather than leave this crap for an October surprise that would potentially harm our MN House candidates and let Franken off the hook/hurt Sen. Coleman. 

Sen. Norm Coleman ‘Independent‘ Republican of Minnesota is once again joining Democrats in the war against Bush and the end to subsidies for millionaire farmers. He’s threatening/promising to help Democrats override the likely veto of the Farm Bill.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told reporters Thursday that he backs the Farm Bill emerging from talks between the House and Senate and will work to see the Senate override a threatened Bush veto.

“The president has indicated today he will veto the Farm Bill. That would be a terrible mistake,” Coleman said in his weekly press call. “The president’s wrong if he vetoes the Farm Bill. I will work hard to override that veto. Perhaps it won’t get to that point.”

One of Bush’s major concerns in the bill is that people who make $1.9 million a year will still be able to receive subsidies under the current farm bill.

The president is also reportedly balking at higher income limits than he proposed, with farmers making up to $1.9 million a year in combined farm and non-farm income still able to receive subsidies, well above the $200,000 annual limit Bush sought and near the $2.5 million current limit.

I’m sorry, but for all the hand wringing by farmers and ethanol loving politicians over oil profits, I am astonished that they’d have the temerity to demand millionaire farmers (or people who happen to own a or part of a farm) still be able to feed at the federal taxpayer trough.

Sen. Coleman, your opponent is self-destructing. Do you really need to go down this road? How about not acting and siding with the Democrats in their goal to protect the welfare for millionaire farmers and act like that 80% conservative your campaign manager told me so much about last year.

… tax laws are way too complicated.

Here’s a clip where Al Franken makes an arse of himself….. (You have to remember he wrote a book about Lies and the lying liars who tell them (or something and such) 

I demand both candidates for the November election to demand for a simplification of all tax codes. 

Here’s the bitter irony, if Al Franken’s policies were in place, he’d owe more than he actually does. He is rich afterall, and they don’t pay their fair share. 

Speed Gibson has a great post about how the Ethanol scam is finally being exposed. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS WRONG

It is a must read, especially for elected Republicans (Norm, Tim) who think Ethanol votes are more important than cheap food, 3rd world hunger, and the environment. It is doubly worthy reading if you were at all a fan of the 80’s sci-fi show “V”. I loved that show!

h/t Leo

The National Taxpayer’s Union is out with their latest non-partisan ratings for members of Congress. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R MN6) is at the head of the Minnesota class. 

Michele Bachmann (R MN6) - 86, A

The rest of Minnesota’s US House Delegation is as follows. 

John Kline (R MN2) - 82, B+

Jim Ramstad (R MN3) - 47, C-

Colin Peterson (D MN7) - 7, F

Keith Ellison (D MN5) - 6, F)

Jim Oberstar (D MN8) - 5, F

Betty McCollum (D MN4) - 3, F

Tim Walz (D MN1) - 3, F

And the Senate isn’t much better:

Norm Coleman (R) - 38, C-

Amy Klobuchar (D) - 5, F

WCCO has done the latest of their anti-Republican hit jobs also dubbed, Reality Checks. (I don’t doubt the facts in it, just the fact that they don’t seem to do these sorts of things to attack Democrats very often.)

Regardless, this one hits close to home on how conservatives are less than inspired by the US Senate race this year, thanks in part to incumbent Republican Norm Coleman’s new found affinity for saying he’s not a party guy, which is code for I’m not one of those fringe right wing conservatives, I’m a moderate!

I’ve had pretty good back and forth’s with top folks with in his campaign and his supporters, and just a few months ago, their big push to me and conservatives was that he was an 80% conservative. Think the old Reagan adage about how it is better to have someone you agree with 80% of the time, then 20% of the time…..  (emphasis mine)

Coleman’s has moved away from President Bush as Bush has become less popular. In 2003, he voted to support the President 98 percent of the time, but five years later his support of the president ranks at only 68 percent.

According to Congressional Quarterly, that percentage puts Coleman in the bottom 10 Republicans in loyalty to the president.

“I am willing to work with anybody who helps get the job done,” Coleman said. “There are problems in this country that are too big for one party to solve.”

Well, frankly Coleman himself should be the one his campaign staffers and surrogates are telling that old 80/20 Rule to. Unfortunately the issues where Coleman is on the wrong side of the conservative vs. liberal debate are pretty big issues for me and others. They are the kind of issue where one side wants to have the government overreact and take over sectors of the economy and regulate like stalinistas and the other wants a limited approach with free markets prevailing.

Getting the job done on enviro-lunacy, green energy, mandates, regulations, and the endless string of pork spending and nanny state legislation is the kind of job we know any run-of-the-mill DFL Senator would be perfect for. Case in point: Amy Klobuchar, the freshman Senator from MN is the text book case of what a conservative doesn’t want representing them. Funny how Norm’s name ends up in the paper more with Klobuchar than it does with Kline and Bachmann of late, isn’t it? ….. not to a real conservative like me.

Al Franken has nothing to do with why conservatives, and Minnesotans for that fact, should vote FOR you Norm.  A few months back you were supposed to be conservative enough for us conservatives to be happy with. We were supposed to be happy with your record, but now that you’re become the presumptive nominee, you are pulling a McCain and marginalizing the conservative base of the party in your ads and statements (not to mention the last few years of votes)?

You can’t have it both ways Norm. We conservatives want a lot less Amy and a whole lot more Michele, and not Obama.

Mark Huering has a post at True North pointing out how center right bloggers in Minnesota missed an event the other day and haven’t even mentioned it.

But as yesterday spread into today, I started to notice something. Many of the other prominent center-right voices in the Minnesota blogosphere hadn’t written anything about the event, either.

What event did we miss or ignore? Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign kickoff. Was it intentional? I don’t think so. I’ve choosen to avoid Coleman’s events due to issues with people who would be there.  And like the other bloggers out there I’ve been busy on other things on and off the blogs.

Most of us, like Mark mentioned, have other things to do and need to bring home that pay check. We make decisions on what we go out of our way to do. Taking a morning off work to watch an incumbent announce his reelection campaign, which has been active for 6 months already, doesn’t seem quite as important as, say, covering a County Board meeting where they raise taxes for boondoggles or watching obsessed stalkerazzi dingbats slam our troops.

As I have been pointing out since Caucuses, Coleman is slipping off the radar screen for conservatives. His latest ad is all about how he is an independent. Well fine. I’m independent too, especially when it comes to choosing on where and when i devote my time and energy to covering events. That shoe fits both feet.

The news of a ‘rogue’ Republican District and the Party power broking has finally hit the public news waves.

Support Sen. Coleman or not?

More later……

There is a rumor around the internet about a possible challenge to Sen. Norm Coleman from the “right”. That “right” being from the conservative wing of the Republican party. I don’t think I will be letting any secrets out by saying that Sen. Coleman is a little less than heart warming for a conservative Republican like me of late.

I think it is safe to say that he has been a bit of a Mvaerick, just like Sen. McCain has when it comes to certain, not all, issues as a US Senator. And of late, Coleman is crossing the isle and voting with Democrats more than he used to.

Well, given that John McCain is the presumptive nominee, and the conservatives in the Republican party are tired of being taken for granted…. as in, “where else will they go and cast votes?”….. some are looking for some candidate they can get behind. I got a call from the DFL’s E-zine political gossip hound Sean Troll late yesterday morning about the rumor.

The Rumor 

Former US Senator Rod Grams is a person many people are reaching out to. He’s had a growing number of people calling him about Sen. Coleman in the last week or so. I spoke with Grams very briefly this afternoon, and can report that he is not currently running against Norm Coleman.

Draft Grams?

There is a lot of discontent from conservative Republican activists statewide, but is there enough to man a Primary or endorsement challenge? Time will have to tell on that. If Grams getsenough calls of support, whoknows what he would do. He happens to be qualified for the job and has even happened to win the exact same race in Minnesota before, unlike the DFLers.  Some would say he may be the most qualified and electable.

SitRep

We have 2 people most conservatives would be happy to work for in Kline and Bachmann, but their Districts cover only 1/4 of the population. We do need a tried and true conservative on the statewide ballot to help unify the party.

I am sorry, that is not John McCain. And should Huckabee pull of the miracle some of his supporters are praying for, it wouldn’t be him either.

Is Grams going to challenge Coleman? A more important question is, will Norm Coleman and his campaign continue to take conservatives for granted and leave room on his right flank for a challenger, like Grams, to run against him?