Polinaut: December 20, 2006 Archive

Bush press conference at 9

Posted at 8:48 AM on December 20, 2006 by Mike Mulcahy

President Bush will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. Wednesday. We'll air it live on the radio and pre-empt the scheduled first hour of Midmorning with Peter Bell. We'll try to get Mr. Bell on another time.

The Daily Digest: 12-20-06

Posted at 9:27 AM on December 20, 2006 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

The Holidays are upon us. Happy Hannakuh to our Jewish Readers. Merry Christmas to our Christian readers and Happy Holidays to those of you who fall into the other categories. We're also coming to the end of 2006. It's always a good time to lean back and look back at the years gone by.

Remember that one time when that secretive group ran ads ripping Mike Hatch? Well, it looks like the guy who financed the Swift Boat ads also financed "A Stronger America-Minnesota." MPR, AP and the Star Tribune have stories.

We'll get greater detail into the Minnesota chapter of the group at the end of January.

As you continue to walk down memory lane, you can also remember two Congressman. MPR has a story on longtime Congressman Martin Sabo, who is retiring after nearly five decades of service. The Star Tribune says Sabo is leaving the Minnesota delegation with the most clout. DFL Congressman Jim Oberstar and DFL Congressman Collin Peterson will rise in these rankings once they get their gavels.

So we move from the guy who brought Minnesota the choo-choo to a Congressman who may have lost because of the choo-choo (D,M and E). MPR and AgriNews both take a look at what GOP Congressman Gil Gutknecht will do next now that he lost his reelection bid to DFLer Tim Walz.

Walz steps up his pressure on the D,M and E issue. The Mankato Free Press and the Rochester Post Bulletin says he wants Congressional hearings on the D,M and E loan.

City Pages also looks at the D, M and E issue.

Walz also wanders into Chinese economic policy by saying the Chinese are manipulating their currency in this Bloomberg story.

The Star Tribune says the Congressional delegation spent, spent, spent to get their jobs.

One of those spenders was DFL Senator-elect Amy Klobuchar. She's on Midday today at 11 am.

GOP Senator Norm Coleman will be spending some money in 2008. He just visited Iraq and is currently in Bahrain. He's on a conference call with reporters as I speak write. He says he does not support any plans to add a significant number of troops in Baghdad.

The Crookston Times says Collin Peterson stops by the Crop College.

Now a member of Congress, Virgil Goode (R-VA), is wading into the Ellison controversy. Check it here and here.

Governor Pawlenty and the Legislature

WCCO-TV says school administrators want year round school. The Pi Press says they want a longer Minnesota school year and the Star Tribune says it may have a chance. The issue was also discussed on MPR's Midday.

Teachers in one school district kick Governor Pawlenty's Q-comp program to the curb.

KSTP-TV reports that DFL Rep. Tom Rukavina promises to shake up the U's budget.

A-G-elect Lori Swanson to press for cell phone law. The AP and the Pi Press have stories.

Stock up early for those New Year's parties.

The Willmar City Council discusses legislative proposals.

Other

Former Minneapolis City Council member Dean Zimmermann is sentenced. MPR and the Star Tribune have stories.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale gives some of his papers to the Minnesota Historical Society.

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What did Bush say?

Posted at 11:00 AM on December 20, 2006 by Mike Mulcahy

Well, as usual I didn't get a chance to listen. But here's the AP lead:

By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) - Summing up a year of setbacks, President Bush conceded Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq thwarted U.S. efforts at "establishing security and stability throughout the country."

Looking to change course, Bush said he has not decided whether to order a short-term surge in U.S. troops in Iraq in hopes of gaining control of the violent and chaotic situation there.

"There's got to be a specific mission that can be accomplished with the addition of more troops before, you know, I agree on that strategy," the president said.

The president spoke as Robert Gates made his first visit to Iraq since being sworn in earlier in the week as defense secretary. Bush said he has asked his new Pentagon boss to report to him as quickly as possible on plans to enlarge the size of the Army and Marine
Corps.

At his traditional year-end news conference, Bush pledged to work with the new Democratic Congress, as well.

By the way, Amy Klobuchar is on Midday at 11. I probably won't have time to listen to her either!

Coleman and Klobuchar say no to an increase in troops in Iraq

Posted at 12:34 PM on December 20, 2006 by Tom Scheck

GOP Senator Norm Coleman is on his way back to the United States after spending two days in Iraq. Coleman told reporters in a conference call that he does not support any plans to increase U.S. troops in the country. Here's a Coleman quote from the conference call:

"I would not support any kind of significant increase, massive increase in troops in Baghdad. I think it would create more targets and put more life at risk. And I haven't heard in my conversations with our folks in the military that there's a clear sense that having troops there is going to solve anything as a part of a long term vision for success in Iraq."

Here's an AP story on Coleman.

DFL Senator-elect Amy Klobuchar also said today that she opposes adding more U.S. troops to Iraq. She says putting more boots on the ground is not the answer to ending the sectarian violence in that country:

"The answer to me is a different way of looking at this which is to transition to Iraqi authority which is to admit that this Administration has not been doing a good job in terms of doing the kind of oversight we need of contracts and Congress has to step in to do that so we do a better job of giving the help that we need but sending a clear message that we're gonig to be transitioning to Iraqi governance and we're not going to be there forever."

You can listen to Klobuchar on MPR's Midday program here. Even though both oppose plans to add more troops to Iraq, Coleman and Klobuchar say they would support efforts to increase the size of the military.

Fantasy Legislature update

Posted at 9:01 PM on December 20, 2006 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

There doesn't appear to be a lot of opposition to our trying out the Fantasy Legislature concept that I first talked about upstream. I'm working on putting together a small Web site with rules (much of it I've already discussed) and a sign-up page. I hope to have it by the end of the week. I'm also building a spreadsheet to determine the point awards and standings. I hope to have that done by the end of the week.

What needs to happen now? You know, in a perfect world, I'd book the MPR Forum space for a "live" draft of legislators. You know, like the NBA. The "rookies" (that would ..at least this year... all 210 201 legislators) would be there, waiting to be chosen. And the commissioner would announce each selection, the lawmaker would bound onto the stage to hold up a jersey and get a cap from the team, while the undrafted legislators hope they don't slip much further. It would be Webcast to the world.

But, of course, that's my fantasy.

Instead, I think what we'll do is just have everyone submitted a draft list of legislators 1-201 (or, 1-whatever) and I'll get them on the living room floor, flip some coins to determine an initial draft order, and make the teams based on what you submit. We don't have a lot of time to get this thing going, we're doing it on the cheap this year, and so we need to have the teams all selected by next week.

So, what do you need to do:

-1- Decide if you want to play. We need at least 20 teams. If we get more than that -- significantly more than that -- we'll just break it up into various leagues . Theoretically, we could have leagues of individual offices where people all enter a team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

-2- Determine a team name. Make it good.

-3- Write down (prefereable in electronic form) a draft list of lawmakers. You can get the House roster here and the Senate roster here. Don't submit it yet, though, but keep monitoring mpr.org and Polinaut for the go ahead.

-4- Spread the word. I think we had about 14 people here who said they were interested. I posted on Gather too but I haven't checked the feedback there. You know, if I taught a civics class in high school....

-5- Review the rules when they're posted.

-6- Plan on being involved and engaged during the season so it can be a competitive league.

What else?

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