Capitol View: February 13, 2006 Archive

Briefing - Monday February 13, 2006

Posted at 8:23 AM on February 13, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

I hoped to avoid two things during the Winter Olympics: those profile pieces in which every athlete seems to have to overcome some personal tragedy in order to make the team ("and then, at age 6, her cat, Muffy, was hit by a neighbor, who didn't know Muffy was there." Sniff), and the morning newspaper pieces in which some columnist kvetches about the state of the nation if it fails to medal in luge. I was one for two. And that doesn't even include columnists who waste space to note that the women's curling team is hot. I must seek sweet relief in the arms of politics.

(Update 9:14 a.m.) Good MSM vs. blogger piece from Jim Brady in the Post. Yeah, this should sure calm the waters.

The Minnesota Daily has an opinion piece urging liberals to rethink their opinion of Christianity. What's interesting about it is the muscle-pull of attempting to end a sentence with a preposition in the deck headline: Progressives need to stop thinking of Christianity as something against to battle against. Ouch.

Rasmussen is out with a couple of polls this morning. Burns in trouble? (Montana) and Talent (GOP) leads in Missouri (Senate).

The Democrat-leaning blogs today are spreading the word on Sen. Norm Coleman's run-up against former FEMA director Mike Brown (video). If memory serves, by the way, (and it frequently doesn't, for the record) Coleman was at the Minnesota State Fair when the 9th Ward was going toes up. Few senators -- on either side of the aisle -- were beating a hasty path to Washington to help the government get in gear.

You know it's a tough weekend when even Ann Coulter doesn't trot out new material at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

If you've wondered how Cheri Pierson Yecke is doing in Florida, Kennedy vs. the Machine has an interesting interview with her today.

mninvolved has "coverage" on the weekend rally in Willmar about same-sex marriage. Getting around the site via the links provided, though, is very difficult so you'll have to work at it if interested.

By the way -- and this has nothing to do with mninvolved -- this message to bloggers: the copyright laws still apply. Even to bloggers. If you're going to take material off the Campaign 2006 (or any other part of our Web site or anybody else's), putting it on your own server doesn't make it yours. Ask. Then credit. Finis.

Somebody named Roland Low sent out an e-mail last week announcing his candidacy against Jim Ramstad. As far as I know, he scheduled no event and didn't send it to the media. Not a good start to knocking off a guy like Ramstad.

News burps:

* Political heat over disasters rising (Christian Science Monitor).

* Gingrich cheers frustrated conservatives. (AP)

To those who've called me and I haven't called back: nothing personal. We've been implementing a new content management system on the Web site and it's involved hours of meetings and twice as much work since for a couple of weeks we're doing two of everything Web-wise. It's not you. It's me. Can we still be friends?

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Post on Scott Howell

Posted at 2:17 PM on February 13, 2006 by Bob Collins

The Washington Post FIXIT blog has an interesting profile -- and even more interesting comments -- on Scott Howell, who will have a little something to do do with the Mark Kennedy campaign in Minnesota.

Lunch and a chat

Posted at 2:57 PM on February 13, 2006 by Bob Collins

I had a very pleasant lunch today with Barry Casselman, chief writer and janitor for the Preludium News Service, whose name I've encountered with increasing frequency as I patrol the political universe. He's given me several copies of some of articles which he's written for the Utne Reader, Campaigns & Elections, and copies of his former newspaper (that he started) "Many Corners."

We chatted about a few political races but mostly about some of his work and how he ended up in Minnesota and the amount of travelling he must do covering national elections.

I asked him, "what politician did you like to cover most?" And he told me a fascinating story of meeting then-Gov. Bill Clinton in the St. Paul Hotel in the early '90s. Clinton was in town to speak to the Democratic Leadership Council and was to fly in, and get right out. Casselman got Tom Foley to introduce him and since Clinton was leaving right away, Casselman jumped in the van for the ride to the airport.

He said he can always tell how deep the knowledge that a candidate has goes (my description, not his), so he asked Clinton about the banking crisis in Mexico. He expected some shallow response in return but he got not only great depth, but solutions, indicative that Clinton has researched it and looked at it from several directions. He said no other politician has been so impressive.

On the way to the airport, he decided he wanted to visit with outgoing Gov. Rudy Perpich. So they bagged the flight and turned around and headed for the Governor's Residence, where they -- Clinton, Perpich, and -- I think -- Foley sat on the porch and talked for a couple of hours.

Casselman says he's going to get a blog "some day." He should. More later.