Capitol View: June 23, 2006 Archive

Daily Briefing - June 23, 2006

Posted at 8:12 AM on June 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

Slight seismic activity reported on Planet Politics today.

CBS News has a piece on its Web site this morning about the enthusiasm in the GOP toward retaining power in the Senate. It lists, of course, the Kennedy vs. Klobuchar race in Minnesota as one reason since victors can win here with 50 percent or less of the vote.

In the 5th District race, Keith Ellison has a release out today promoting a speech he's giving to National Association of Minority Contractors tonight. He's going to take on the "GOP's refusal to renew the Voting Rights Act," it says.

And the one Minnesotan politico-journalissimo never to cancel a lunch date with me -- Barry Casselman -- has his periodic column in the Washington Times today assessing the mid-terms at mid-campaigns.

Casselman looks at the MSM folks, looking for signs of a vanishing Republican, he says. And the bloggers, which he seems to equate only with the Kos crowd, and its distaste for Joe Lieberman.

The safari hunters in their pith helmets and stylish kahki jackets are still out there, sweating profusely in the early summer sun and combing the nation for their favorite endangered species. They could yet find one. Anything might happen in this strange political season, but so far they are encountering mostly contrary clues in the states of Washington, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Maryland and New Jersey where incumbent or favored Democrats are unaccountably in trouble.

The netroots bloggers, back in their
air-conditioned home computer rooms, are
excited because they think they have found
another rare species — the aforementioned
centrist Democrat on his way to extinction in
Connecticut. Their line of political theory goes
this way: If the centrist Democrat becomes
extinct, the U.S. will be out of Iraq in a flash,
and the country will, as a consequence, elect a
left-wing Democrat as president in 2008.

I highlighted the phrase above only because if there's one vanishing species in Minnesota, it is the incumbent Democrat. So it's hard to find one that's "in trouble." As for one that's favored, well, it's hard to find them too, let alone one that's in trouble.

And how can you be favored and in trouble at the same time? These questions can only be answered at the St. Paul Hotel lunch buffet, I'm afraid.

In Washington, a weak line-item veto has been sent to President Bush. It gives the power to the president to kill pork barrel spending. I suppose it's important to point out that the Senate and Congress has the power to kill pork barrel spending too, but they just can't seem to stop themselves. This reminds me of days when the Minnesota House and Senate were on slightly better terms. The House would occasionally pass some garbage legislation, knowing full well that the Senate would bail them out and clean it up. (I refer to these as "grenades.") With this bill, I wonder if there's more incentive now to actually put more pork into bills, knowing that there's someone that will clean up the mess?

Since Iraq is now the method of choice for the "campaigning" part of legislating in Washington, it's becoming clear that the 2008 presidential election will most definitely be a referendum on Iraq, just as 2004 was. The AP has a story out today with the views of potential candidates.

Republican reunion

Posted at 12:43 PM on June 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

I mentioned Bob Carney's attempt to find a moderate Republican to run for governor a few days ago. He's got a release out today for a Republican Reunion picnic.

Saturday, July 8th, at 12:00 Noon, a "Republican Reunion" event will be held in Southwest Minneapolis, at the picnic table area near the Lake Harriet Bandshell. The event is free and open to the public. Former Republicans, discouraged Republicans, and republican Republicans are especially welcome.

As that great politician, Jimmy Ruffin, once asked, "What becomes of the brokenhearted."

Minnesota's worst kept secret

Posted at 1:01 PM on June 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

Judi Dutcher as Hatch's running mate.

A press release from her current employer.

Minnesota Community Foundation today announced that Judi Dutcher is stepping down as president of the Foundation. Dutcher is staying on in an advisory capacity until an acting president can be identified.

Who's speaking?

Posted at 1:54 PM on June 23, 2006 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)

The other day a news script crossed my desk; I don't even remember what it was about other than it was some political food-fight, only the one doing the talking in the news script wasn't a candidate, it was a candidate's surrogate.

Years ago, we had a sort-of "occasional" policy that if it involved a candidate, we wanted the candidate on the record (Update 3:15 p.m.: The more I think about it, the more I think this was not a policy at MPR, but was a policy where I worked in Boston), not a surrogate. It was a nice try but ultimately a losing battle since, among other reasons, 99.9% of all political stories would disappear if the candidates had to be the one to lob the grenades.

It's getting worse in the era of blogs and other new tools. The "I'm Candidate XYZ and I approve of this message" law that attached a candidate to what was being said was also a nice -- if ineffective -- try because one of the new tenets of politics is don't let the candidate get dirty; let someone else do that, thus absolving the candidate from any charge being hurled. Deniability, in other words.

As I said a week or so ago, I'm interested in how the relationship between blogs and campaigns works as it's clear that partisan blogs have a role to play in getting stuff "out there" and, if they're having the best day of their lives, picked up by the mainstream media.

That relationship issue took a new turn a few days ago when Minnesota Democrats Exposed head writer Michael Brodkorb, a former GOP spokesman in Minnesota, took a paying gig with the Mark Kennedy campaign. However, we haven't been told yet what that gig involves. Michael has only said that what he posts on his blog are his opinions.

Maybe. But in the Klobuchar-Kennedy battle, who's doing the talking? If, for example, I read on MDE today -- as I obviously have -- "MN GOP: KLOBUCHAR RAISES BIG MONEY WITH “WASHINGTON CELEBRITY” AT LAVISH WEEKEND FUNDRAISER," who exactly is talking (and for reference, see my post yesterday about the "my fat cat is fatter than your fat cat.")?

Ostensibly it's the Minnesota GOP, written on a blog whose writer states his own opinions, and is employed by the Kennedy campaign. Presumably they all agree. But what does the candidate have to say about it?

This isn't a confusing situation only where Republicans are concerned. During the early part of the year we learned that blog postings critical of a DFL gubernatorial candidate were coming from a volunteer/staffer on the competing DFL candidate's campaign. Another "volunteer" posted a picture of John Kline as Col. Klink. In both cases the campaign's response was, basically, "hey, it wasn't me."

Or was it? We really don't know. Should we?

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Abortion foes focus on fall elections

Posted at 3:35 PM on June 23, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Associated Press has a story out this afternoon looking at how anti-abortion forces are working to be sure President Bush's sagging popularity doesn't hurt the cause in November.