Polinaut: October 25, 2007 Archive

Daily Digest 10-25-07

Posted at 9:34 AM on October 25, 2007 by Mike Mulcahy
Filed under: Daily Digest

State

Is the state doing enough to inspect bridges? A state bridge inspector says no, as reported in the Pioneer Press, but MnDOT says yes. Aren't these the same concerns raised by the Legislative Auditor 10 years ago?

As for the new 35W bridge, a group of about 80 people settled on some final design details.

And a legislative panel holds a hearing today featuring testimony from some of the survivors of the bridge collapse talking about the need for some kind of state fund to help them out.

Gov. Pawlenty's trade mission is getting some attention from the Indian press.
You can also follow the trip via MPR.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone. MPR and the Star Tribune take notice, as does the Politico.

2008

What was Al Franken doing in Texas Wednesday? Why, raising money, of course.

And it's that kind of money raising that has made Minnesota's Senate race the most expensive in the country so far.

And at least one Republican says Norm Coleman isn't conservative enough.

Finally

How long are these baby boomers going to keep battling this out?

Ellison sheds the light of day on Wellstone crash

Posted at 12:52 PM on October 25, 2007 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)

I've tried a number of times to figure out what Keith Ellison is talking about in his remarks yesterday honoring Sen. Paul Wellstone.

From the transcript, and looking at the video, it looked like he was winging it.

How else, then, to explain this?

It was a long night, Mr. Speaker, when we heard back the reports as the news reports said that a plane has gone down in Ely, Minnesota, and it was thought to be containing Paul Wellstone and his partner, Sheila Wellstone, and their daughter and several other campaigners. We hoped all night that what we thought might have happened didn't happen, but at the end of the evening, we learned that that tragedy, in fact, did occur. Our worst fears were confirmed when we learned that we lost him, but it was a long several hours before we realized that that tragedy had actually occurred, and we had hoped against hope. I will never forget that night.

Huh?

Were the House members looking at each other when he made this speech? Or was it one of those times where the chamber is empty and legislators take to the floor -- and C-Span -- to make it look like a big speech with people hanging on every word? Didn't anybody notice this his recollection of events are pretty far off?

Wellstone's plane took off at around 8 in the morning, it crashed about an hour later, and Jeff Blodgett announced his death a few hours after that. Here's a link to the page I put together at the time, which includes audio from dozens of politicians on the same day.... when -- I must point out -- the sun was up.

Here's the video of Ellison's comments on the floor of the House.

Night? A long night?

And the plane went down in Ely, Minnesota, which will come as a big surprise to the folks in Eveleth-Virginia.

I figure maybe he was in Australia at the time, but he says in the speech he was to visit Wellstone in the office the same day, so he must've been in the same time zone.

If you're going to make a heartfelt tribute, you've got to get the basic facts right.

(and speaking of which, in original "editions" of this post, I figured the problem was that some speechwriter wrote the thing and, comparing it to Radar and Col. Potter, it was no, shall we say vetted. However, at the time, I thought it was a press release statement and not a floor speech and, well, that wouldn't really make any sense, would it? I mean, the guy could stop in the middle of speaking if it were written by someone else, right? For example, i could stop and say, 'wait, it wasn't Col. Potter, it was Henry Blake." Armed with this knowledge, I am further at a loss to explain the whole 'long night' thing.)

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