Mon Nov 17, 2008 at 13:24:07 PM CST

Here's a hypothetical question for you: If you were improperly accused of a crime, would you:

A) Show your accusers evidence of your innocence; or
B) Offer vague assurances that you are innocent, but repeatedly and pointedly refuse to offer evidence.

Personally, I would lean towards offering evidence of my innocence. Not being able to provide innocence suggests guilt, does it not? Eric Black, writing at MinnPost, makes a similar suggestion to Norm Coleman:

There's More... :: (1 Comments, 299 words in story)

Can the DFL get to 90 in the House?

by: Joe Bodell

Mon Nov 17, 2008 at 07:30:00 AM CST

Alternate titles for this post:

Why didn't the DFL do even better?

How did the DFL miss two big congressional races in Obama's year?

What the hell happened?

There were some successes at the local level this year -- the DFL did expand its majority in the State House, albeit by a slim margin -- but there were some painful losses as well. Looking toward 2010, when the State Senate is back on the ballot and a census and redistricting loom large, how can the DFL keep up the pressure on the Republican Party and continue to expand its advantage in the legislature? Can we win back the Governor's office?

Over the weekend I sat down with Matt Filner, who heads Progressive Majority Minnesota. The organization's goal is to recruit, train, and provide logistical support to progressive candidates up and down the ballot. Four of the DFL victories in the State House -- Paul Rosenthal, Gail Kulick Jackson, Mike Obermueller, and Jerry Newton -- were supported by Progressive Majority. While they also supported several unsuccessful candidates, their track record is pretty darned good.

Filner's take, shortened and boiled down: the DFL may have hit a ceiling in the Metro area, but still has growth possibilities in southern Minnesota.

Witness the DFL's wins and losses in the Metro: Shelley Madore lost in Apple Valley, while Phil Sterner (a moderate Dem who's not pro-choice) won in 37B (Apple Valley, Rosemount). Paul Rosenthal won in Edina and West Bloomington in his second try, and Obermueller won in Eagan in his second try, but DFL candidates got wallopped in districts 33A and 33B, areas that supposedly have been bluing for some time.

It's a mixed bag.

More after the break

There's More... :: (1 Comments, 496 words in story)

Conservative commentator: 'Center-right' nation exits stage left

by: Joe Bodell

Sun Nov 16, 2008 at 09:09:55 AM CST

An editorial from former Washington Post editor and informal McCain campaign advisor Tod Lindberg this morning calls out the recent spate of "America is still a center-right nation" talk from Republican strategists and officials for what it is: nonsense.

On election night, former Bush guru Karl Rove opined on Fox News, "Barack Obama understands this is a center-right country, and he smartly and wisely ran a campaign that emphasized it." And it's not just conservative pundits and operatives singing this song. Take Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, who wrote an Oct. 27 cover essay entitled "America the Conservative," which argued that Obama will have to "govern a center-right nation" that "is more instinctively conservative than it is liberal."

The only problem: It isn't true. Or at least, not anymore. If you'd asked me a year ago whether the United States is really a center-right nation, I would have said yes -- after pausing for a second to contemplate the GOP's big congressional losses in 2006. At the time, Republicans cheered each other up by assuring ourselves that the worst was over: If you were running for Congress and survived 2006, you could hold your seat forever.

Tell that to Christopher Shays. After 2006, he was the sole surviving GOP House member from all of New England, but he went down this year, 51 to 48 percent. We are now two elections into something big. This month's drubbing is just the latest sign that the country's political center of gravity is shifting from center-right to center-left. Republicans who fail to grasp this could be lost in the wilderness for years.

Lindberg is no liberal, or even a moderate -- quite the contrary, he's a pretty conservative guy on trade and fiscal policy. But he still paints a pretty grim picture for a Republican Party that has repeatedly shot itself in the foot on immigration and other issues important to growing minorities in electorally important areas of the country.

Some analysts like to explain this shift by pointing to Democratic gains and Republican losses among particular regions and demographic groups, arguing that the GOP has growing problems winning over such areas as the Southwest and such groups as Latinos, educated professionals, Catholics and single women. There's something to this, but the Republican problem is actually larger and more categorical. In 2004, Republicans and Democrats each constituted 37 percent of the electorate. In the 2006 congressional election, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 38 percent to 36 and won big. This year, the Democrats made up a stunning 39 percent of the electorate, compared with just 32 percent for the Republicans. Add the painful fact that Obama outpolled McCain among independents, 52 percent to 48, and you have a picture of a Republican Party that has lost its connection to the center of the electorate.

Shortly after the GOP convention, McCain looked as if he could still come back. But it was the "maverick" McCain, running against party type, who was winning over independents at that point, not a conservative campaigning as a conservative (compassionate or otherwise).

Perhaps, as Rove says, Obama was running to the center. But can anybody make a serious case that people were mistaking him for a center-right politician? Or even a "New Democrat" such as former president Bill Clinton? The McCain campaign was not shy about letting voters know about the elements of Obama's record that marked him as a man of the left. Perhaps voters simply didn't believe a word of it, but a better explanation is that a majority of them heard McCain's warnings and just didn't mind. Center-left nation, anyone?

Latino voters in particular make up a large and growing segment of the voting populace in states like Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and -- dare I say it? -- Texas. That group shifted heavily in the Democratic direction in the 2008 election. It's increasingly difficult to see any scenario, let alone a likely one, in which a Republican candidate gets to 270 electoral votes without most of those states.

And yet that's the gauntlet that Republican candidates must run today: play to the base, which on a nationwide basis seems to hate brown people and teh gayz and atheists and Muslims too, and thus lose the moderate swing voters...or be a true "maverick" and let the base scream and moan and stay home on Election Day because the candidate just isn't "conservative" enough.

It's going to be a deep, gut-wrenching, and in all probability a violent fight in the Republican Party in the next several election cycles to figure out if they stick to the base and remain in the political wilderness, or move in a more moderate direction, abandoning their base and remaining in the political wilderness.

Pass the popcorn.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

First 2010 bumper sticker

by: Joe Bodell

Sat Nov 15, 2008 at 19:17:36 PM CST

The prize for the first bumper sticker of the 2010 election cycle goes to gubernatorial candidate and State Sen. Tom Bakk:

[image]

The quality isn't great, but neither is my phone. I spied this sticker in St. Louis Park today.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Walz considering gubernatorial run

by: Joe Bodell

Sat Nov 15, 2008 at 08:00:16 AM CST

In the past I've been a skeptic about rumors that Congressman Tim Walz would consider running for Governor in 2010. Having won his seat in Congress in 2006 and winning reelection by a wide margin in 2008, it seemed that Walz would probably want to stay put.

And while that may eventually be the case, Walz is definitely considering a run for the corner office in St. Paul. A source close to Walz indicated Friday that "A number of individuals who the Congressman trusts and respects have recently urged him to consider running for Governor in 2010. Congressman Walz values their input and is taking it into consideration."

Granted, Walz's answer to a similar question recently was closer to a non-denial-denial, in which he said he was focused on getting reelected...an odd answer, since he already had been reelected a week prior. We'll be waiting with bated breath for Ollie's interview with Walz coming this weekend.

Walz's entry into the race would likely keep some marginal candidates from throwing their hats in the ring. Although his financial support in 2006 came largely from supporters in the Twin Cities, who may have conflicts with other candidates in the race, Walz's support network has expanded far beyond the locals in his first term in Congress, and could potentially draw on a much wider fundraising list in a gubernatorial bid.

On the pro side, Walz would bring together both the rural and urban wings of the DFL (a much more important consideration than liberal/conservative in Minnesota, IMHO) and would likely not have to worry about the annual quandary of whether to focus on one region or the other in the campaign.

On the con side, although the DFL's bench in southern Minnesota has expanded dramatically in recent elections, Walz's First district seat would be up for grabs, and he would still face a crowded field in the DFL endorsement and primary races.

Either way, it's no longer idle speculation on whether Walz will at least consider the race.

Discuss :: (3 Comments)

Do As Timmy Says

by: Jeff Fecke

Sat Nov 15, 2008 at 00:52:08 AM CST

My governor, Tim Pawlenty, has been a regular media gadfly during his ~~first press availability of the 2012 campaign~~ media statements at the Republican Governors' Association meetings. He's had the combover line and the less ideology, more doing line, and he let loose with a nice ~~cheap shot against his 2012 rival~~ rebuke to Sarah Palin, saying that "Drill, baby, drill" was just a slogan. If you didn't know anything about Minnesota's governor, you might think he was a decent, pragmatic guy who was willing to stand up to his party's orthodoxy.

Those of us who live in Minnesota, of course, know better. Gov. Timmy has not been willing to buck his party, not at all. He's still refused to sign a tax increase during his six years in office, going so far as to veto a transportation funding bill that passed in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse because it had a gas tax attached to it. Jeff Rosenberg has a nice roundup for those who've forgotten some of Timmy's greatest hits, like the time he line-itemed funding for the central corridor transit proposal that he'd supported, just to stick it to the DFL.

There's More... :: (0 Comments, 320 words in story)

Recount denies Norm Coleman the chance to take super-partisan job

by: Jeff Rosenberg

Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 13:45:45 PM CST

Sad news for Norm Coleman. He's dropping out of an intra-party race for one of the most partisan positions in the Senate: head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That's the committee that flooded our state with disgusting ads throughout the Senate race.

Why is Coleman dropping out? Is it because he's pitched himself to Minnesotans as someone who will work across the aisle? Well, he did do that, but that isn't why he's dropping out:

Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.) called Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) Thursday afternoon and told him he was dropping out of the race for National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman to focus on the recount in his 206-vote win over Democratic challenger Al Franken.

You know, this is actually sweet justice. It was backlash against the NRSC's disgusting ads that put Coleman in the position he's in; now it's holding him back from running the program that will run those ads in other contests.

Originally posted to the Twin Cities Daily Liberal

Discuss :: (1 Comments)

Pawlenty, other GOP Govs unhappy with Palin?

by: Joe Bodell

Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 07:25:57 AM CST

I wouldn't blame them if they were:

Some Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors' unity - but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her.

The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.

One called it awkward: "I'm sure you could see it on some of our faces."

Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was "odd" and "weird," and said it "unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party."

One might wonder if Tim Pawlenty was one of those who spoke anonymously -- perhaps the one eyeing a run in 2012?

The media is the media -- they're going to latch on to whoever they think or know will give an interesting answer to the most questions. And who better than the Republicans' recently unsuccessful Vice Presidential nominee? Remember that in 2001, Joe Lieberman was considered a front-runner for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. I'm not complaining that Palin is hogging the spotlight -- but I also have little doubt that she's going to have difficulty maintaing her spot in it for a long time.

Discuss :: (2 Comments)

Ellison up for Progressive Caucus chair in next Congress

by: Joe Bodell

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 16:30:00 PM CST

Fifth district Representative Keith Ellison is being considered for the chair of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in the next Congress.

Ellison cruised to an easy reelection earlier this month, and will be entering his second term in Washington in January. But with expanded numbers in the caucus and the Democratic conference as a whole, as well as a heavier Democratic majority in the Senate and the Obama administration working from the White House, the left-leaning caucus may see an opportunity to pass a strong slate of progressive legislation starting in 2009 -- and it appears that Ellison is positioned to play a leading role in that effort.

Rumors of Ellison's name coming up in discussions of Progressive Caucus leadership surfaced early this week. I spoke with an Ellison staffer who confirmed that the Congressman is up for the job, but contingent upon the decision of the caucus to go with a single chairperson rather than the co-chair setup it currently has. Word from the staffer is that Congressman Ellison is "fine either way -- more interested in moving the progressive agenda forward than who does it."

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Senate recount NewsLadder is up

by: Joe Bodell

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 07:18:29 AM CST

Thanks to the folks at NewsLadder, we now have a NewsLadder for the Minnesota Senate recount -- remember, it's just like Digg, but for a single topic. In this case, that can be blog posts or traditional-media stories on the recount, and the wisdom of crowds props up good stories.

Plus, it's just a cool platform.

Head on over, create an account, and submit some stories!

Discuss :: (2 Comments)

The Magic Number: 206

by: DemGirl

Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 11:14:08 AM CST

A call to Mark Ritchie's office has just confirmed that the 206 vote difference separating Al Franken and Norm Coleman is "official"...at least for now.

As previously stated, the Secretary of State will not declare the results official until the statewide canvas is completed on November 18th. That said, the smaller canvas process has taken place and the Secretary of State employee to whom I spoke did use the word "official." The number has been static since Monday night, and no more changes are expected until the recount, which cannot begin until after the completion of the statewide canvas on the 18th.

Team Franken has begun recruiting volunteers for the recount process. They need both lawyers and non-lawyers to oversee the process, so if you have time, I encourage you to lend them a hand.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Ideas for Obama's CTO

by: Joe Bodell

Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 07:00:00 AM CST

President-elect Barack Obama noted several times on the campaign trail that he would appoint a Chief Technology Officer for the country once in the White House. Now there's an open-source way to let the incoming Obama administration know what we think their priorities on the subject should be: ObamaCTO.org

If it reminds you of Digg, you're right -- it should. It's built on a platform called UserVoice, which lets a user community build its own memes and ideas, and let the good ones bubble up to the top. A similar concept can be seen at NewsLadder -- these ideas are intuitive, simple ways to assess the wisdom of crowds.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled coverage of Senate recounts and ridiculous Republican attacks against the democratic process.

Discuss :: (0 Comments)

Next >>