Polinaut: February 9, 2006 Archive

Who is Barry Casselman?

Posted at 8:36 AM on February 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Greetings, Earthlings:

Another Barry Casselman sighting. Two days in a row after going a lifetime of never having heard of him. He's in the Washington Times today with a piece critical of Patty Wetterling called "Democrats in Minnesota." He has an engaging writing style but the headline action needs a little work. That's two Wetterling-critical mentions in the media in two days from Casselmanm, who -- it says at the bottom of the article -- writes about national politics for the Preludium News Service, whatever that is. Gotta find out who this guy is. There's no Preludium News Service Web site (hey, who doesn't have a Web site these days?) and I can't find anything in the dictionary that even says what a "preludium" is. We must explore.

Rasmussen is out with a survey today showing a drop in support for Hillary Clinton.

Al Franken, anyone? AlterNet has a profile of the man who is occasionally dropping the line that he may run against Norm Coleman in '08.

I'm still working that decision out. I think I'm going to let it evolve. I don't have to decide for a while, and I'm sort of doing the things that I'd have to do if I did run. So if I do make the decision to do it, I'll have done the things I needed to have done. I'm learning -- traveling within Minnesota, talking to people. I've been raising money for candidates in Minnesota and around the country. I've formed a national PAC called the Midwest Values PAC.

He's traveling within Minnesota. Gut-check: who's seen him outside Minneapolis St. Paul? And where? Fess up.

In Mankato, the Free Press has taken on Bob Gunther in an article about a fundraising letter that, it says, appeared to link cash with legislative action.

You know, a few years ago the Pioneer Press did a Sunday column that exposed the relationship between campaign contributions and legislative action. As I understand, the Press rolled a copying machine outside the campaign board's office on the day financial filings were due. As the legislators handed them in, the Press made copies of them, then whisked them downtown where a team of computer folks entered the data and then spent the entire night on a Friday making a database that compared the source funds to that legislator's actions in the next session. The reporters then spent Saturday writing the story and there it was on the front page on Sunday. It was a marvelous effort that I haven't seen repeated anywhere since, and it landed with a shrug of the shoulders at the time.

Not much on the "blog burp" today because my RSS reader is down (Bloglines) and I'm too lazy to enter all the URLs by hand. It's a long campaign season and Polinaut must pace himself.

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Speaking of the 6th

Posted at 10:50 AM on February 9, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball has the 6th District "leaning Republican." He figures Michele Bachmann is the early leader, but doesn't say why.

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Missed it by "that" much

Posted at 10:58 AM on February 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

Close but no political cigar. In January I saw former Rep. Bill Kuisle as a possible candidate for the District 30 Senate seat begin vacated by Sheila Kiscaden. But he announced today he's going for his old seat. (Listen to Sea Stachura's story in RealAudio)

For my next prediction: The Timberwolves will get more shots from Trenton Hassell than Kevin Garnett in the majority of fourth quarters the rest of the way. I cannot explain why. Some situations are beyond the understanding of humans.

I can't, therefore I won't

Posted at 11:25 AM on February 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

First, let me take the politics out of the Mike Ciresi decision not to run for the U.S. Senate and let's focus -- if only for a minute -- on a growing concept in America: that if we think we can't change anything, it's OK to admit we won't try.

OK, I guess I get that. I gave up any hope of being the guy who drives the Zamboni at the old Boston Garden quite awhile ago. But here at my place of employment, I'm constantly flailing away at suggesting new things, in the face of evidence sometimes that it's a wasted effort. But hasn't that been our national character: fighting lost causes?

In the same week a Minneapolis professor with absolutely no chance -- I think we can agree -- of beating Martin Sabo, decided to try anyway, Ciresi -- who has a lot more cash to burn on a lark -- decided not to. (Listen to Ciresi's comments).

It troubles me. It troubles me not as a Democrat, not as a Republican, not as a journalist, and not as a blogger. It troubles me as an American. It troubles me as the son of my father.

Forget, again, the debate on whether anything needs changing in Washington, but the suggestion that someone else should get things changed and then I'll think about helping out bothers me -- an admitted idealist when it comes to politics.

There are only 100 senators in Washington. The Party, in this case, needs only a seat or two here or there to take control of the Senate. So Ciresi's announcement that he can't change things not only speaks to his hopelessness for the government as a whole, it speaks to his hopelessness for -- in this case, the Democratic Party too. It speaks to his hopelessness for getting the budget under control. It speaks to his hopelessness for helping people who need health care. It speaks to his hopelessness for achieving peace. It speaks to his hopelessness for saving Social Security.

Excuse me, but isn't that a good way to write a great political obituary?

As I listened to Ciresi's comments yesterday, I heard Tim Penny's appearance on the McNeil-Lehrer report when he decided to step down from his 1st District seat years ago for many of the same reasons Ciresi indicated. The system's too screwed up for me to try to change it.

What I remember was how incredulous Jim Lehrer (I think it was Lehrer) was at the suggestion that a member of an exclusive club was giving up because of his inability and -- hence -- unwillingness to try to change things.

When Paul Wellstone decided to break his promise not to run for another term in the U.S. Senate (because the Democrats had taken control with Sen. Jeffords' defection), it certainly indicated that his reason for leaving was that he wouldn't be able to change anything with the Republicans in control.

From what I've heard today, nobody is incredulous at Ciresi's comments. They're too busy trying to figure out what it means for the politics of it all; you know, the race itself.

When things seem hopeless, that's when we need people to step forward to tell us it's not, and then rally us to that lost cause. But when those people say "it's hopeless," then the rest of us begin to believe it to.

And you wonder why so many people don't bother voting?