Rep. Gregg Davids (R-Preston) is an example of the Republican who will likely be in trouble because of his GAMC flip flop. Last Friday, he joined 37 other Republicans and voted for the GAMC bill that overwhelmingly passed the House. Yesterday, he cravenly flip-flopped and voted to uphold Gov. Tim Pawlenty's GAMC veto.
What changed over the weekend?
The threat of a primary challenger. Davids is in a swing district and desperately needs his party's help to win in 2010. In Winona and in a mostly rural district like this one, a few disgruntled Teabaggers with a little help from some zealous party hacks in the Twin Cities could easily dislodge Davids from his precarious perch.
In 2006 Davids lost his seat to DFLer Ken Tschumper by 52 votes. He got it back in 2008 by a mere 407 votes.
When voters see the effects of throwing 30,000 Minnesotans off GAMC, they are not going to be happy with Rep. Davids. When voters see the real effects on poor children, veterans, the elderly and the mentally ill, they may consider voting DFL in November. When voters see the effects of Davids actions on people they know, they'll throw him out.
Especially after some organization or another spends a couple hundred thousand dollars telling everyone in his district that he cares more about Tim Pawlenty's presidential ambitions than the poor, elderly and mentally ill.
Rep. Jeremy Kalin (DFL-North Branch) announced today that he will not be seeking a third term today. His dedication and tenacity will be missed and I'm personally bummed as he's also a great guy. He released the following statement:
"Serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives is an incredible honor. I've been lucky enough to earn the trust of my neighbors all across Chisago County for two terms. I'm confident that I would have won their trust for another term, but my name won't be on the ballot in November.
"My wife and I were married during my first year in office. For 2 and a half years, we've managed the very hectic life of a State Representative from Chisago County and an ob-gyn phsyician delivering babies 45 miles away in Minneapolis. We've decided to take a break from campaigns and elected office and enjoy our lives together, while we can still call ourselves 'newlyweds.'
"Public service is in my blood. I am sure that the call to serve our great state will be present throughout my life. For now, I am focused on the task at hand in the legislative session - Minnesota's short- and long-term economic recovery. I cannot say 'Thank You' often enough to the voters of Chisago County for the chance to be their voice in the Minnesota House. It is truly a privilege in every sense of the word."
Tarryl Clark was endorsed by Take Action Minnesota today. Take Action screened Maureen Reed and Clark prior to their annual meeting in Brooklyn Center, MN. Members chose Clark with 89% on the first ballot.
This is significant as Take Action will actively support Clark's campaign. They'll encourage their membership base of activists to volunteer and provide strategic advice and tactical support in Clark's district conventions.
But most importantly, this solidifies Clark's credibility as the progressive candidate in this race.
Conservative tweeps (Twitter users) were abuzz with excitement yesterday. Their hero, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was going to stage some sort of protest in relation to President Obama's state of the union speech. It got me wondering.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is gearing up for another demonstration at the Capitol building tomorrow, protesting in advance of President Obama's State of the Union address -- and to mark this occasion, she's been rolling out a "Declaration of Health Care Independence."
(Talking Points Memo)
Will she use this as an opportunity to urge her fellow knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers to revolution again? Possibly. We'll be watching for any new conspiracy theories, but she tends to stick to already debunked lies when she has a major spotlight. She usually unveils her latest insane theory when she thinks no "libruls" are listening/watching.
Not only does the national evangelical movement financially support Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), she's also a rising star in the Republican party. In the modern Republican party, saying insane things and blatantly lying garner positive attention. Michele's conspiracy-theory-a-month is paying off: National fundraisers. It's $500 a head for VIP access or $50 to get in the door later.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is a rising GOP star, most recently gaining national attention for her strong opposition to Obamacare. Branded a "right-wing exremist" by the Left and mainstream outlets such as CNN, she is a national security hawk, speaking out against the Administration's policy to try terrorists in American courts. Bachmann narrowly won re-election in 2008, and now Nancy Pelosi's #1 target in November.
Hello? Typo!?! "... and now isNancy Pelosi's #1 target ..." Oi.
So when the Republican accuse a DFLer of raising money outside of Minnesota, just remember that Bachmann's money doesn't come from Minnesota.
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) was the Minority Leader of the MN House at the legislature. The only way to rise to that level of authority in the MN Republican party is to be a far right conservative. However, in his run for the MN-03 seat in '08 he painted himself as a moderate. The Twin Cities' media aided and abetted his subterfuge.
Now that he's in Congress, he's reverting to his far right ways and quite shamelessly. In other words, he's lying. And in this one letter, quite a lot.
A constituent sent him a letter urging him to support real healthcare reform. He responded with lies about the public option's cost, it's effect on the deficit, that it would cut Medicare, increase taxes on everyone and negatively affect small businesses.
The Congressional Budget Office has released it's initial analysis of the Republican's version of Health Care Reform. http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/d...
Ezra Klein today in his Washington Post blog writes some comments about the CBO's analysis.
The meat of the Klein post:
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder.
What's bothersome about the opposition at this point is that not only does it not offer an alternative that covers more people and saves the government money, they are at this point creating an environment by yelling, "Look over there!", that feeds the paranoia of the fringe, and doesn't add to the nature of the debate.
Today they are "storming the halls" of the US Capitol today with a Representative that wanted to "drive liberals crazy" by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but then forgot how it goes.
We all make mistakes, sure, but if you're going to try and make a point, you might want to practice beforehand. Oh, and Rep. Akin, you did succeed at driving me crazy, by omitting the word "indivisible" from the pledge and then sort of bumbling to the end.
One of the leaders of the GOP "house call" today in Washington, D.C. is, of course, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who tends to have a problem with the truth. http://www.politifact.com/trut...
What really bothers me is the fringe's continual equating of the Democratic health care reform plan as one that is similar to Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish race, perhaps using "death panels."
Joe and Bill have been talking about "things getting ugly." Things have been rhetorically and intellectually ugly for quite a while. Dishonesty has been rampant throughout the health care debate.
This is just another example of the kind of hateful sideshow that pops up along with the activists that might actually try to have some legitimate points:
We need more people from within to speak loudly and publicly against this hateful rhetoric, to stop the madness, and stop fueling the fire of paranoia. I would hope that someone would've asked the sign bearers to put it away. It adds nothing to policy debate, and it creates a theatrical environment where reality and decency no longer apply.
Plus, if you're going to propose opposing policy, make sure it isn't less viable than the policy you're opposing.
President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 into law in late May of this year. The law prevents credit card companies from arbitrarily jacking up people's rates ... consumer gouging just isn't cool.
The law was to go into effect in February 2009. The credit card companies said they needed the time to update their software. This turned out to be an excuse to engage in a little consumer gouging before the law went into effect.
So Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and a bunch of other Dems got together to do something about it.
"Unfortunately, some credit card companies have abused the time that was given them to convert their computer software to meet the requirements of the law, to make last-minute rate hikes to bilk consumers of as much as they can before the law we passed kicks into gear," Ellison stated.
"This is, plain and simple, consumer gouging on the part of credit card companies at its worst," Ellison stated. "We gave the card companies a good faith grace period before the enacted reforms came into play - and they took the consumers and small businesses to the cleaners."
"The passage of H.R. 3639, the Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009 puts an end to these practices that take hard-earned money from Minnesota families," the 5th District Congressman said.
(Ellison email press release)
What happens on election night parties after your candidate wins? What else! We all talk about the next election.
A friend called me and told me several people approached him about drafting Martin Sabo to run for Margaret Anderson-Kelliher's seat if she stays in the Governor's race.
This would would interesting. If ... and this is a big if ... Sabo wins he would immediately have enough seniority to be Speaker. For anyone who complains that Minneapolis always gets stiffed at the State Capitol, Sabo would be a heavyweight that would probably do a lot toward bringing DFLers and Republicans together.
Here's the complicating factor, there would probably be plenty of push-back from the activists in 60B as I'm sure a large number of folks are eyeing Margaret's seat if she decides to go all in for Guv.
I took a look at Tarryl Clark's FEC filing and found some interesting things. The 18 PACs who gave only make up $48K of the $308K she raised. That's only 15.5%. It also shows who believes enough in her to donate. Pretty decent list.
Keith Ellison
Jim Oberstar
Collin Peterson
Progressive Patriot's Fund
What's that you say? You don't recognize Progressive Patriot's Fund? That's Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of our progressive heroes in the Senate. It's his leadership PAC. Here's what he said about his PAC.
"When we founded the Progressive Patriots Fund, we promised to support candidates and go around the country, playing a key role in the larger effort to build the Democratic Party throughout America," Feingold said. "The strides we made this cycle have been astounding and with the Democratic victories yesterday, we're one step closer to getting our country back on track."
...
"Throughout the country, we saw firsthand that people everywhere want a party that fights for health care for all Americans, works to protect and create jobs, takes the steps necessary to ensure fiscal responsibility, and does everything in their power to fight terrorism while also protecting our freedoms," Feingold said. "We believe in a 50-state strategy and although we came up short in a few races yesterday, we laid the groundwork for Democrats to win in the years to come. While many groups just targeted sure winners, we made sure to help candidates across the board. Some were a long shot but it wasn't that long ago that I was a long shot Senate candidate here in Wisconsin."
I've been out of commission, blogging-wise (you know ... paying job, big project, blown deadlines), for a little more than a week and during that period did things cool off in the MN-06 DFL endorsement race to accommodate? Hardly. Both DFL candidates Tarryl Clark and and Maureen Reed have been busy.
Reed hired a staff, announced she wouldn't abide by the DFL endorsement and reported her fundraising numbers. Clark collected another endorsement and released some awesome fundraising numbers for her first few weeks in the race.
Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) latest crazed rant was snuggled into the back pages of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her outright fabrication that healthcare reform would institute "sex clinics" that would provide abortions on-demand for students without parental consent was hidden next to the obituaries.
This continues a practice of the Strib of ignoring Bachmann's insanity and lying. When they don't ignore it they often downplay her conspiracy theories as "controversial" instead of insane. They describe her as "outspoken" instead of as a liar.
Days like today, where they accurately report her insane conspiracy theory, the editors bury it. Sadly, this kind of behavior is the norm for her. And the Strib's policy is to bury the examples of how unfit for public office she is.
Apparently, the umpteenth example of a member of Congress who isn't fit to hold her post doesn't rank with H1N1 deaths, sheriff deputies shooting a man who drew a gun at a government center, a driver who assaulted a bicyclist, Medicare drug changes and tractors. I agree that flu deaths and the shooting are newsworthy. But tractors are more important than a member of Congress proving she is unfit for her job? C'mon.
You can either click on the picture to view the larger version or you can read some excerpts of what Kevin Diaz wrote is after the fold.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) continues his good work in Washingon, DC. This time he's signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act. This bill would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). While the right wingers will be clutching their pearls and wringing their hands, six states have passed laws granting gay and lesbian couples the full benefits of marriage since DOMA passed. It's about time federal law recognizes and protects all marriages rather than discriminates.
Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minneapolis) recently became an original sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act. This legislation would effectively repeal a discriminatory law that was passed in 1996. Known as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allowed states to refuse to recognize valid civil marriages of same-sex couples, and denied same-sex couples, regardless of their marital status, the right to federal statutes, benefits and protections (including social security) applicable to all other married people.
"I am a proud cosponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act because I believe in equality. I believe in all people having equal rights," Ellison said. "America started out giving certain rights for a limited set of people - white men of property. Since then we have been expanding rights to people of all standing - as we should - and not taking them away as DOMA does."
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, recently introduced the bill along with ninety other Members of Congress - including Congressman Ellison. "The full repeal of DOMA is long overdue," Nadler stated. "When DOMA was passed in 1996, its full harm may not have been apparent to all Members of Congress because same-sex couples were not yet able to marry...Now, in 2009, we have thousands of married same-sex couples in this country, living openly, raising families and paying taxes in states that have granted them the right to marry. It has become abundantly clear that DOMA is causing these couples concrete and lasting harm."
(Ellison's press release email)
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is unapologeticly looney. She occasionally backtracks or blames others, but she never apologizes or admits her dishonesty. While you can get the complete list here, she's infamous for a number of crazy statements. Her assertions that there were secret plans to divide Iraq to conspiracy theories about a one world currency, the census and the expansion of AmeriCorps show the width and depth of her insanity. While she became a household name for charging on the Chris Matthews Show that members of Congress held anti-American views her craziness is not an occasional occurrence. We MN bloggers are guaranteed two reality-wilting statements per month.
Long before the tea parties or Wilson's outburst, Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had struggled to moderate the rhetorical excesses of House conservatives hammering away on Obama's birth certificate, decrying the creation of "death panels" and ferreting out signs of creeping socialism.
Sources say they have been especially wary of the possible damage inflicted on the party's reputation by bomb-throwing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who last fall called for an investigation into whether members of Congress are "pro-America or anti-America."
ThinkProgress had this pithy paragraph to add to the discussion:
Bachmann has previously said that she's been "labeled a kook" throughout her entire political career. Apparently, House Republicans are concerned that she'll make that label stick to them as well.
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) held a town hall last Friday and Jessica Mador was there for MPR. Unfortunately, Mador provided an analysis-free piece that said nothing much at all other than Paulsen is tepidly opposed healthcare reform, vaguely wants to protect the patient-doctor relationship and wants to pretend he's fiscally responsible.
Paulsen says the status quo is not working and he would like to see the country's health care system reformed. But the 3rd District Republican says he doesn't approve of many of the proposals currently being considered by Congress.
Paulsen says he favors a bipartisan plan that would bring down costs over the long term.
"The status quo needs to be changed, but I think first and foremost we have to keep the doctor-patient relationship," he said. "It has to be patient-centered. We have to focus on that more than anything else - I don't want any special interest group, member of Congress or politician or bureaucrat making decisions between a doctor and their patient."
Mador doesn't consider that Paulsen is a back-bencher who votes the party line 91% of the time. Of course, that would require research for her to figure this out. How does Paulsen propose to "keep costs down over the long term?" Mador doesn't ask. Paulsen claims that he want to change the status quo, but only offers talking point platitudes. Mador never questions this.
Rep. Gregg Davids (R-Preston) is an example of the Republican who will likely be in trouble because of his GAMC flip flop. Last Friday, he joined 37 other Republicans and voted for the GAMC bill that overwhelmingly passed the House. Yesterday, he cravenly flip-flopped and voted to uphold Gov. Tim Pawlenty's GAMC veto.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is unapologeticly looney. She occasionally backtracks or blames others, but she never apologizes or admits her dishonesty. While you can get the complete list 
