Briefing - Friday February 3, 2006

Posted at 7:49 AM on February 3, 2006 by Bob Collins

OK, so Patty Wetterling is going to announce for Congress today. Is there anything else to talk about? Other than the flap over the governor's radio show, that is.

Just wondering, House and Senate candidates. When does Iran become an issue you'd like to talk about? Specifically, that is.

I'm late providing this link, but the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has now posted all the candidate year-end reports (at least I think they're all there).

Attention Al Franken! There's something you ought to see in the Pioneer Press. Politicos handicap Rybak for Senate run. File it under "T" for trial balloon. And that rhymes with..... no, wait, it doesn't, actually.

Bloomberg gives a little bit of love -- not much, but a little bit -- to 6th District candidate Phil Krinkie.

I don't know why I find this so fascinating, but there are actually people who go to work every day, studying Dwight Eisenhower"s presidency.
What do you talk about when you get home and open a beer with your spouse at the end of the day? "How was your day?" Are they all different?

This isn't breaking news but Mark Ritchie is challenging Mary Kiffmeyer for secretary of state.

Did you know that Norm Coleman and Ted Kennedy are legislative buds in the Senate? The two have sponsored a resolution naming this GoDirect month. Sorry, I didn't get you a card. Or a present. And, it's not in the mail either.

The blog First Ring does a number on Bill Weld for characterizing the SOTU as "smarmy." Back when I was a wee lad of a radio guy, I worked in a small radio station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts when Weld was just getting started in politics. He was running against Attorney General Frank Bellotti, an AG so popular and intriguing (having overcome a whisper campaign in the '60s about the Maf... well, you know) that Weld was wasting his time. He showed up for an interview (small stations were the only ones interested in talking to him) in the company of two young ladies best described as (although they were not...) hoo...well,you know. I thought, "nice gig, wonder what your real job will end up being." Next thing I know (OK, it wasn't the next thing), he's running for and winning the governor's office in the Democratic state (I'm now working in Boston) and impressing me with what remains the most impressive characteristic of Bill Weld: he knows all the words to all the songs ever sung by the Rolling Stones, including the very obscure, Smarmy Sugar. Not excusin', just 'splainin.

I know it's the AP and all, but it's a small world when Sharon Marko running in the 2nd District is news in Columbus, Georgia. How big a news hole do you have to have in your local paper in Georgia when you have to fill it with the latest from Cottage Grove, Minnesota?

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