Polinaut: June 14, 2006 Archive

Ye olde DFLer

Posted at 7:39 AM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins

MPR's Stephanie Hemphill talks with Judge Gerald Heaney in a story out today.

Here's Heaney recalling his first brush with politics in the '20s, spending a day with dad.

"And on Saturdays he'd take me in his car and we'd go out and nail up Al Smith signs on the telephone poles on the rural roads in Goodhue County," Heaney says. "And the next Saturday we'd have to go back and do the same thing, because they'd all be torn down!"

Other tidbits of the day:

Joe Klein is on Midmorning today. His latest book, Politics lost, looks at what has created the bland, poll-driven candidates we have today and why it's a bad thing.

You can't fire me, I quit. You can't quit, you're fired

Posted at 10:20 AM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins

Release from the Libertarian Party today:

Libertarian Party of Minnesota Nullifies Previous Sue Jeffers Endorsement

Following Sue Jeffers' recent announcement to pursue the Republican Party of Minnesota nomination in the 2006 Gubernatorial primaries, on Monday, June 12th, the Libertarian Party of Minnesota Executive Committee formalized the nullification of its previous endorsement for Sue Jeffers.

"It was a very difficult decision, and there was much discussion," said Lee Brennise, State Chair, "but as a result of Sue's decision to forgo our endorsement, in conjunction with her intent to run as a Republican in the Gubernatorial primaries, we will be unable to petition for ballot access for Sue Jeffers to be in the general election as a Libertarian. As exceptional as a candidate as Sue is, the Libertarian Party of Minnesota will not endorse a candidate in the Republican primaries, or a Republican for the general election."

The Libertarian Party unanimously decided not to withdraw the endorsement, but confirmed that the endorsement was null as a result of party bylaws, and does not have plans to endorse another gubernatorial candidate for 2006.

and so on..and so on...and so on.

When the media boots it

Posted at 1:35 PM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

Every day some annointed member of the MPR news department holds forth at the afternoon assignment meeting to discuss how well -- or poorly, as the case may be -- we did in the last 24 hours.

I'll spare you 99 percent of the details but this week I'm that person -- which usually is good for sparse attendance. Today was no different, but the one story that I think people actually would care about it -- if the media told them about it -- is the congressional pay raise issue.

This is a subject that use to get people all cranked up. But they don't get cranked up anymore. Some may say it's because they don't care. I think it's because they don't know. MPR didn't tell 'em about it. The Pioneer Press didn't tell 'em about it, and the Strib buried it with a single paragraph on page 3.

In no case, locally, -- at least as far as I know -- was a member of the Minnesota congressional delegation asked to defend or criticize the notion of taking 7 straight pay raises at a time when everyone else is expected to pony up for the cause, not to mention the procedure that Congress put in place to avoid going on the record in the first place.

All of this comes after I listened to Joe Klein on Midmorning today, who I thought was outstanding. One word he kept using was inspire. He talked about how some politicians provide inspiration. And how he couldn't wait to be inspired by somebody in the 2008 race.

It's been a long time, I think, since I've been inspired by a politician because I don't think inspiration is in their arsenal anymore. I think they placate voters more than inspire them. But maybe that's just me.

In any event, I think the media has a job to do and sometimes it makes politicians and their supporters mad. On this story, I think my profession denied the average person the opportunity to judge for him or herself, the merits of this issue because the media decided it wasn't an issue. I think they're wrong. I think it's a heck of jumping off point for a discussion about leadership and inspiration and lack of it.

But we can't do that if we don't provide it ourselves.

Not my profession's best day in an election year when we're supposed to do more than just tell you what people said.

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Fitzgerald in the Senate race

Posted at 3:05 PM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

This is about the time of the campaign season where folks begin to chastise the media -- deservedly so -- for ignoring the candidates who don't have R or D after their name. For the record, I think Robert Fitzgerald was the first candidate I set up in the Campaign 2006 section more than a year ago. He might've even been the first candidate in the race.

Today he made his campaign "official" (that's media code for "today we have a reason to cover the candidate") by announcing his candidacy for the IP endorsement next week (btw, we will be providing a live podium stream of the IP convention, even though it could be disastrous for us if it rains at Midway Stadium. More on that later.).

Full audio in a few minutes. Here you go.

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MSP may actually pull this off

Posted at 3:41 PM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The National Journal's Hotline reads the tea leaves on Minneapolis-St. Paul's bid for the Republican National Convention in '08 and likes what it sees about flyover country. Plus we're cute. And nice. And none of you delegates will be driving while here so our complete inability to merge onto highways shouldn't even come up in the conversation.

The Republican National Committee's '08 convention selection committee said today it would visit four finalist cities -- Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City and Tampa-St. Pete -- in August.

Based on an early reading of the tea-leaves, as well as discussions with a few knowledgeable Republicans, here's what we know about the early bids.

New York City doesn't seem to be doing much to promote their bid beyond a general "We Did In '04; We Can Do It Again" angle. That may change as the city's host committee wraps up. The convention wisdom, which we don't know enough to refute or endorse, holds that NY poo-bahs really want the '08 Dem convention, or both conventions. We'll see.

Tampa St-Pete will put together an attractive bid. The major -- and we mean major -- problem is that convention date lies smack in the middle of hurricane season. It's not enough to show that the area is generally spared the wrath of Gulf storms... it's very hard for us to envision the site selection committee choosing a city that could be -- and is frequently -- targeted by hurricanes.

Keep your eye on Cleveland and Minneapolis-St. Paul... especially the latter. The GOP likes the pitch and location of the state and the mechanics of the Twin Cities bid has already impressed some senior GOPers.

BTW: the Site Selection Committee is represented by RNC members Jo-Ann Davidson, Barbara Alby (CA), Sara Gear Boyd, (VT), Sharon Day (FL), Richard Graber (WI), Jeff Kent, (WA), Connie Nicholas (ND), David Norcross (NJ), and Edgar Welden (AL) [MARC AMBINDER]

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Requests III

Posted at 6:30 PM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins

One final -- I hope -- request to take care of before we knock off for the day. This one is for Ron Carey's (the GOP Party chair) speech kicking off the GOP convention. Here you go. He tried to get a little call-and-response thing going near the end which would've been pretty good if it had worked. But the folks were a little slow on the draw and didn't pick up their part until the end.