Polinaut: February 23, 2006 Archive

The power of the 'burbs

Posted at 8:01 AM on February 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

You'd never guess it by the coverage provided by most mainstream media, but the suburbs are where it's at politically in Minnesota and -- increasingly -- economically. But Congressional Quarterly apparently gets it with an article today Suburbs Playing Host to Several of Year's Key Races. Of course, it's just a series of bullet points and it only includes the 6th District but, think about how things have changed in just the last 10 years.

The 2nd District appears to be relatively red, and it probably won't make a list of key races nationally, but regardless of how it presently leans, there's no denying the dynamics of the district have changed since the suburbs became a bigger player in the district. At one time, perhaps a Farmfest appearance provided enough votes, but probably not anymore.

Certainly in the 6th, it was redistricting and the growth of the East metro (the most ignored part of the metro, even to candidates for the 6th District) that has led the district to a more conservative tilt.

And maybe the equal opportunity nature of the suburbs has changed some districts in other ways. Too early to tell. But with some of the Lake Minnetonka area races going blue at the state level recently, maybe the 3rd -- which already had a penchant for moderation -- is getting a deeper shade of blue in its purple.

Pssst. Washington, Minnesotans can read too

Posted at 10:00 AM on February 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

The Washington Times has an editorial today on the controversy sparked by the Midwest Heroes TV ad.

I think it's fine for folks to have editorials. Conflicting opinions are good. Debate is healthy.

...as "un-American, untruthful and a lie." He furthermore demands that Minnesota television stations pull the ads "and send a message that we will not tolerate this kind of 'swiftboating' anymore." At least one station so far has complied with the request, which is reason enough for outrage.

The writer wants outrage for something that didn't occur and then says the lack of it proves a point. Well, no. At least not the point the writer intended.

The DFL news conference, written about last week on these pages, came after KSTP had already rejected the ad. The editorial suggests KSTP acted as a result of a DFL request. Further, the documents that some of the bloggers have provided from KSTP seem to suggest the ad was not rejected on ideological grounds.

But there's been precious little of that. Aside from a handful of bloggers covering the issue and an appearance of one of the veterans on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," the media has ignored the issue completely, essentially proving one of the ad campaign's main points.

It's true that the bloggers had an issue here and they ran with it ( I think they did a better job of airing the two sides -- albeit separately -- than MSM did), but there is not a lot further from the truth than "the media has ignored the issue completely." Just check the links in those blogs.

And, just for the record, MPR didn't do a story about the DFL news conference opposing the ad, because - as pointed out earlier -- MWH had already replaced it and KSTP's reason for not running the ad wasn't because of its left-leaning ways (hello? We're talking about Stan Hubbard here.), it was because -- and we can debate the merits of this argument -- they didn't want their programming undercut by an ad that basically started off with "by the way, your news stinks." It all comes down to... truthiness.

Additionally, the ads have been running to a relatively collective shrug of the shoulders from just about everyone out here in flyover country, Washington. Write that down.

All that said, I think the question of why there's a war going on is worth debating. That issue, in case you haven't noticed, has not gone away. If, on the other hand, the issue the writer wants covered is the media treatment of the war, then why start the presentation of the issue by two points that aren't true?

The current media meme, at least as it concerns the homefront, is that most returning veterans have turned against the war and those still in field are demoralized and jaded.

I'm not familiar with a single story on MPR that includes one returning demoralized and jaded, let alone "most."

The rest of the editorial is the debate of the merits of the war, and everyone is entitled to a position on that, imho.

The politics of gender renewed

Posted at 12:16 PM on February 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

There's a little bit of an in-party food fight going on as a result of Sarah Janacek's piece in the Star Tribune today that looked at last-weekend's dust-up over the AFSCME endorsement of Amy Klobuchar, apparently over the objections of some AFSCME members in her office. Specifically she focused on the complaint from the rebellion that Klobuchar is ambitious.

Said Sarah, a Republican, and one of the publishers of Politics in Minnesota:

So much for 40 years of feminism. Women not only have to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, we also have to look as if we just walked off the set of "Desperate Housewives" while standing over the stove.

And for women running for U.S. Senate, there's a new rule: Don't be too ambitious.

She also referred to the state auditor and secretary of state as "girlie offices," although it seemed clear that she was referring to an earlier point that she made criticizing treatment of Joan Growe by Rudy Boschwitz.

Over to you State Auditor Pat Anderson (courtesy of the blog, Kennedy v. the Machine)

“‘Girlie office’? Sarah didn’t seem to hold that opinion when she was an announced candidate for Secretary of State in ‘98 before withdrawing for personal reasons.”

“Historically, the State Auditor position has been held by men. I am just the second woman to hold the office which is responsible for oversite of over $20B. Regardless of gender, the State Auditor position requires a unique toughness as you are required to make sure public monies are being spent properly.”

Putting my feet up and turning up the sound.