Although his election was the very definition of "squeaker," Sen. Franken has managed to thread another needle since taking office: he's demonstrated a commitment to working hard on behalf of all Minnesotans while also being a strong advocate for the progressive policies in which he believes.
And now he'll be the closing keynote speaker at this year's Netroots Nation convention in Las Vegas.
The event will, as it has for several years now, bring together basically the entire progressive netroots for several days of panel discussions, trainings, and networking over four days in July.
From the release published by the Netroots Nation team this morning:
Sen. Franken and interested observers saw firsthand what democracy and fair elections are all about last year when his Senate race was the subject of a state-wide comprehensive recount. Since his swearing in, Sen. Franken has been a strong advocate for progressive policies, speaking out in favor of a public option, cutting oil subsidies and slashing interest rates for student loans.
"Even during the recount, we knew Sen. Franken would be a fighter," said Raven Brooks, executive director of Netroots Nation. "Whether he's fighting for health care or education, he's shown that he represents American families and isn't afraid to stand up for strong progressive values."
Organizers say that's why they chose Sen. Franken to close out the fifth annual convention.
Some of you may remember last year's Netroots Minnesota conference, which we put together in conjunction with the Netroots Nation organization. The national conference is due back in the Midwest in 2011, and it would be downright grand if our junior Senator were on hand to help announce that the Big Kahuna is coming to Minnesota next year. But that may be getting ahead of ourselves -- who's up for a Vegas trip this July?
In case you missed last night's "Minnesota Matters - Wednesday Edition" on AM-950 KTNF, you can listen to it, here! IMNSHO, it was a fascinating conversation, and I'd like to thank Toni and Colonel Joe for sharing their thoughts and answering questions!
One of the highights were both Tomi Backdahl, State Coordinator of the Minnesota Tea Party, and LTC (Ret.) Joe Repya clearly repudiating and distancing themselves from the following quotes:
_ Tom Emmer quote: "I don't think you can call yourself a freedom-loving American and be a Democrat." Marshall Independent, Sept 2009
_ Tim Pawlenty quote: "Children who are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem for our government." -- Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, April 2001 - as quoted in the Aitkin Independent Newspaper
During the first segment, we played "False Or False Witness!" where one lucky caller ("Bill" from Mpls) correctly identified that the quote I read actually was uttered by Michele Bachmann ("Bill" answered: "False Witness!"). The fabulous prize Bill won, courtesy of show sponsor Common Good Books, was one copy of Bill Prendergast's exceptional comic book: "False Witness! The Michele Bachmann Story (Volume 3)"!!!
The Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive quote I read, is below the fold!
And one question we asked Toni, State Coordinator for the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots was submitted via comment here, on MPP - here's that question!
I'd ask....
If the Tea Party guy actually realized the real Tea Partiers were protesting a tax CUT. The tea partiers were actually protesting the take over by a multi-national corporation, the British East India company. The tax cut made tea super cheap, allowing the British East India (Walmart) the ability to undercut all the American merchants.
So, I would ask the Tea Party guy if he is just as afraid of the corporate take over of America as he is of the government take over.
Thanks,
Alec
Well, thank YOU for submitting that question, Alec!!!
Also, LTC (Ret.) Joe Repya discussed his candidacy for Governor, and clarified that there is a big difference between "suspend" and "end" - and for the record, Colonel Repya has "suspended" his campaign.
So again, if you missed it, you can still listen to it, by linking here!
- Maricopa County, Arizona (which includes Phoenix) Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been one of the sorriest, most obnoxious and self-serving demagogues in elective office of any kind for a while now. His comeuppance may be nigh, from Daily Kos.
I've been thinking about the DFL endorsement battles, and the battle to get elected in general. It's what I do. I think about elections, and how to win them, and how to organize to win them(among other things, I think about music, good books, and long walks on the beach). We all know that it really is a battle sometimes, elections can be rough.
We, as members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party have the same general outlook on the issues. We are a big tent, so there is a wide array of viewpoints, a wide array of ideas, and a wide array of how to implement those ideas that flow through the veins of the DFL. It's good to offer a strong defense of one's candidate. It's good to be excited about someone who you think can do all the things you want them to be able to do. But what else do our candidates really need from us and us from them?
I believe, as supporters, our candidates need us to ask them the hard questions, and to tell them the truth rather than painting a rosy picture if the horizon is darkening. Our candidates need us to ask them what they want from us, and we need them to ask for our help. We need to trust our candidates and their staffers' framework for the volunteer work that they ask of us. We need to know that they need us, and remember that they need us so that they can know about that particular thing (issue), or that particular person ("Tiffany, the DFLer from down the road?" "Yeah, she'd be a great volunteer! But don't call her on Tuesday until after 3pm.").
We're the candidates' local connection. Our candidates need us to be a mouthpiece (or keyboard, as it were), but our candidates need us to represent them in an honorable and non-politically damaging ways. I say this in particular to remind everyone that the internet can be unforgiving (there are snipers everywhere). Our candidates need us to listen, and our candidates need to let us in on their strategic thinking at least a little bit, (if we can be trusted (how do we measure that? I'm not sure.)) so that we can understand. We need to level with one another to understand what we want from each other. They need to set our expectations, and we need them to surpass ours. Our candidates need us to be able to think about the "big picture." Our candidates need us, uncommitted and committed alike, to tell our neighbors now why a DFLer is a better choice in a generic general election match-up in the fall.
After the endorsement/primary battle is over, our candidates need us all to work together again to make the phone calls, to walk and knock on those doors. Our candidates need us to come together and drink the wine of a united front rather than sipping on our sour grape juice alone in the corner. They need us, and the party needs us to go out and talk to our neighbors about why it is so important to vote in any election. They need us to help drop "off-year" from the presidential/occasional voter's vocabulary.
These are the things that we need from one another in order to ensure success.
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) wants to start the whole healthcare reform debate all over again. He whines in Roll Call that the Democrats have "no intention of bipartisanship." Kline apparently resides in an alternate universe. He has been given his talking points and is going to stick to them, damn reality.
Obama has reached out on several occasions and the Republican reply has been death panels, birthers, tenthers, rudely interrupting his State of the Union to call him a liar, Obama is a nazi, Obama is a socialist and portrayed Obama as Heath Ledger's The Joker from the latest Batman movie. They have all but spit in his face. Yet, Kline has the temerity to call for a "do over."
Elections have consequences and now that the Republicans are losing, they want to start all over. How is this different than any of the obstructionist crap they've pulled before?
You can read his whining and lies after the break...
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher picked up another superdelegate endorsement today, this time from State Sen. Ron Latz (D-St. Louis Park). Latz previously supported Steve Kelley, who preceded him in his SD44 seat prior to 2007 and ran unsuccessfully for the DFL gubernatorial endorsement this year.
Latz represents superdelegate #46 for MAK, whose base of support among her elected colleagues is a formidable advantage over the other candidates, none of whom has anywhere near that many automatic endorsement votes.
I told a commenter recently that I would put together a standalone page containing the complete delegate chase picture, combining the Superdelegate tracker and our frequent pledged delegate updates -- guess it's time to catch up on that promise.
Absentee Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was in Dallas appearing at a fundraiser to raise his profile as he campaigns for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. A stenographer for the Dallas Morning News caught up with him and asked a few questions:
Jeffers: You are mentioned as a potential 2012 Republican nominee for president. Are you running for president in 2012?
Pawlenty: If there's something to look at for 2012, it's going to be down the road, but it's not now. I'm not ruling it out. I'm just saying I don't know yet.
Pawlenty has been criss-crossing the nation attempting to build credibility within his party. The only reason he might rule it out is the anemic responses he's been getting to his speeches. He may be one of the few non-crazy, scandal-free, high profile Republicans available for 2012, but his flat speeches and lack of charisma might not get him very far.
Jeffers: What do you think about the direction of the Republican Party? What does the GOP have to do to rebound from the losses in 2008?
Pawlenty: Clearly the pendulum is swinging back from Democrats to independents and conservatives.
But we can't have as a strategic plan and a message for the future of this country that President [Barack] Obama continues to goof up. In addition to that, we have to have our own positive agenda for the future of the country.
America is in trouble. The country yearns for a return to basic American common sense. There's a sense that certain elites get bailed out, others in need get a handout, and everybody else gets their wallet out. They want to know, what's the future of this country?
"Swinging pendulums" is an interesting metaphor for him to use. America began its rightward swing with Reagan, briefly interrupted by Clinton, but quickly (in '94) returned to its rightward swing culminating in the ruinous administration of George W. Bush. So after roughly 30 years of swinging to the right, America will swing leftwards for a year (arguably 3 if you consider the landslide elections vicories of 2006) and then start swinging the other way?
It's very possible that Karl Rove's dream of 100 years of one-party rule will happen ... just not how Karl imagined it.
"Obama continues to goof up" is also an interesting turn of phrase. Beginning to fix an economy ruined by 30 years of Republican domination isn't going to happen in 1 year. Of course, Pawlenty may consider "goofing up" to mean stimulating an economy that was plunging into depression. Pawlenty's solution of stopping spending which he's been attempting to implement in MN is simply neo-Hooverism.
Finally, it's interesting that he's blaming Obama for the bail-outs that George W. Bush started, the Republicans in Congress supported and Obama continued. I actually agree with him if when he says "bailing out the elites" he means the too large to fail banks and not the auto industry.
Ladies and Gentlemen, yours truly - the ol' TwoPutter - is Guest Hosting tonight's Wednesday Edition of "Minnesota Matters" on AM-950 KTNF, The Voice of Minnesota! And we're going to have two very special guests in studio - Toni Backdahl, the State Coordinator for the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, and LTC(Ret.) Joe Repya, who recently suspended his bid for Governor under the Independence Party banner.
The Listener Call-In Number is 952-946-6205, or, if you have a question you'd like me to ask of either Ms. Backdahl or Colonel Repya, submit it below in the comments section!
So, again, tune in the radio today to AM-950, or listen live on your computer, here.
(Somehow, I think Dusty might be bringing this up on the radio tonight, on AM950, at 6:00 pm.... - promoted by TwoPuttTommy)
I've got a bone to pick with Maureen Reed. Yesterday Maureen Reed's campaign sent out a really whiney email implying that people are trying to twist her campaign's record. I figured I should probably chime in, you know because I'm bored and whatnot.
In the email Reed sent out she says people are claiming that she'll run as an independent and corrects the record saying that she's running as a 'Proud DFLer'. Ok fine, she PREVIOUSLY ran as an independent and claims rather boldly that she can rally independents. The reality is that her 2006 run dramatically underperformed other independents who've run in CD6. I don't know who or what a Binkowski is, but it seems to know more about reaching independents in CD6 than Maureen Reed.
About that independent record of hers... It's probably the reason Tim Pawlenty is waltzing off into the 2012 Presidential campaign sunset right now. Sure T-Paw bested Mike Hatch by 21,108 votes, and much of the blame can be pinned on the Hatch campaign, BUT the 141,735 votes that Maureen Reed helped peel away certainly can't add much to her proud DFLer status. By my count that's 120,000 reasons for us to blame Maureen Reed for Pawlenty's re-election.
For quite a while it was conventional wisdom in these parts that Marty Seifert, a hero to MN's welfare-for-the-wealthy Republican power structure from all his years in the MN House, would march unimpeded to his coronation as the Republican gubernatorial nominee. He and Tim Pawlenty, after all, have a great deal in common; both are rigid neo-Reaganites who don't seem to care much about anyone that isn't, and that doesn't donate to their campaign coffers. But, like one of those civil defense siren tests blaring into a peaceful spring afternoon, along has come one Tom Emmer.
mnpACT!has the basics. Apparently, there's been a, I won't say 'blood feud,' but certainly some ruffled feathers, betwixt these two for a while. I think a number of us here, and in MN's sublime progressive blogosphere in general, will be following this dust-up, because it looks to be an absolute hoot.
(Both of the CD3 congressional campaigns have posted entries on MPP in the past 24 hours -- Jim Meffert's recent entry can be found here. Feel free to connect with the campaigns and ask them questions! - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Next Saturday, as Jim Meffert and I lay out our visions for America's future at DFL conventions in Senate Districts 33 and 45, a coalition of right-wing interest groups will be fighting for the status quo on health care with a "Kill the Bill" rally in front of the state Capitol.
It's not clear at this moment whether Erik Paulsen will be attending that event. He generally tries to keep his ties to Michele Bachmann (a featured speaker) hidden and it's been nearly two months since his office even sent out a press release on health care. But make no mistake about it, this is what we'll be up against in the fall campaign.
Health care reform is long overdue. Each day that passes without progress another family risks bankruptcy if someone gets sick; another business has to put off plans to expand; and another parent is forced to make the painful choice between taking their child to the pediatrician and making a trip to the grocery store.
That's why I'm in this race. As a doctor who's worked in many systems, including Hennepin County Medical Center, I've seen the problems with the current health care system and insurance industry from the inside. As the wife of a small business owner, I've watched my husband deal with insurance costs that sky-rocket year after year. And as a candidate in this race, I've heard from so many people who are simply terrified about what will happen if they lose their job or when their COBRA benefits expire.
We can do so much better in this country and we must. President Obama's plans aren't perfect, but they do move us a big step closer to the day when we can finally relegate the phrase "health care crisis" to the scrapheap of history and begin rebuilding our economy so we can usher in a new era of opportunity for all.
When we move into the general election campaign, I won't back down when the Tea Party and related groups start attacking us. And when Paulsen accuses me in a debate of supporting reform efforts, I'll turn to him and ask "why don't you?"
Thanks, as always, for everything you're doing to help our campaign and our party. We've won seven of nine Senate District conventions and two-thirds of the total named delegates so far, but this is only the beginning. The next step is defeating Paulsen in November and then the hard work of moving our country forward begins.
If you have any questions, please feel free to visit our campaign Web site, e-mail us at info@hackettforcongress.org or call us at (952) 938-0510. I look forward to hearing from you and working with you in the weeks and months to come!
(It's crunch time for the congressional campaigns -- both the Meffert and Hackett campaigns have posted entries here in the past 24 hours. Hackett's entry can be found here, and it will be promoted at 11:30 today. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I'm seeing a disheartening trend on the campaign trail. Amid all the political chatter, we may be losing focus on what's most important. Crunching numbers and assessing strategies can be useful, but when the horserace becomes the main focus we are missing the point completely.
The reality is that poverty is growing in the suburbs. Middle class families are struggling to make ends meet. Jobs are scarce. Demand on food shelves is increasing. Use of subsidized school lunches is increasing. The Star Tribune has drawn attention to just how hard the economic crisis is hitting suburban families. This is the reality that our friends and neighbors are facing.
Politics doesn't matter to the mom whose dream is to go to the grocery store rather than the food shelf. Politics doesn't matter to the patient putting off an operation she can't afford. Politics doesn't factor in for the guy who lost his job, then let his health insurance lapse in order to pay the rent. When our discussion drifts away from these realities, our words cease to matter.
Our neighbors are suffering, and Congressman Paulsen and the GOP are more concerned with blocking reform in Washington than offering solutions.
