Almanac: At the Capitol

Source: Wikipedia

Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar are among several cosponsors of legislation aimed at cleaning up the Great Lakes. Introduced in the Senate last week, the Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act of 2010 would commit $500 million over the next 7 years on cleanup and restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Along with Minnesota’s Senate delegation, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin, Sherrod Brown, Dick Durban, Debbie Stabenow and George Voinovich have signed on to support the legislation. In the House, none of Minnesota’s delegation are listed as supporters of the companion bill.

“This monumental legislation adds momentum to Great Lakes restoration and sets in place a framework for the future,” said Lynn McClure, co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association in a statement last week. “We applaud the President for proposing his Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and we applaud Congress for introducing bi-partisan legislation that recognizes the national importance of the Great Lakes to our economy and way of life.”

“This legislation means we all have a say in making sure Great Lakes restoration is done right,” said Jill Ryan, co-chair of Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and executive director of Freshwater Future. “Passage of this bill will pay huge dividends for the people, businesses and communities which rely on the lakes 365 days a year. We urge the U.S. Congress to pass this bill, before the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly.”

Image: Kevinzhengli

Rasmussen Reports released some of the first polling numbers on Minnesota’s gubernatorial race on Thursday, finding that for the most part Minnesotans are undecided about who they like for governor. And with a diluted field for the DFL, no candidate did well against both of the top Republican candidates, Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert.

Mark Dayton and R.T. Rybak fared the best against Emmer, both beating him 38 percent to 35 percent. None of the DFL candidates bested Marty Seifert, though, but Rybak tied him at 38 percent.

Among Republicans candidates, Emmer had the best net favorable rating — 38 percent favorable and 26 percent unfavorable — but 36 percent said they weren’t sure how they felt about him. Seifert garnered the support of 41 percent polled, but 33 percent found him unfavorable. Twenty-seven percent were undecided.

Among DFLers, only Rybak (49 to 37 percent) and Tom Bakk (27 to 22 percent) had a net positive rating. Mark Dayton had the highest favorable rating with 44 percent, but an even higher unfavorable rating at 45 percent. Of those polled, 39 percent liked Margaret Anderson Kelliher, but 41 percent didn’t. Matt Entenza had similar numbers with 27 percent and 31 percent. Tom Rukavina had an even split with 27 percent approving and the same disapproving.

Photo: hagedornforcongress.com

The rhetoric in Minnesota’s First Congressional District is reaching a fevered pitch as five candidates, Randy Demmer, Jim Engstrand, Jim Hagedorn, Frank McKinzie and Allen Quist, vie for the Republican endorsement to run against DFL Rep. Tim Walz. While Quist made news early in the race when he said that Democrats were more dangerous than terrorists, Hagedorn came out with his own speech to Republican activists warning of liberal “carpet bombing” and calling Walz’s politics a “plague” on America.

Here are a few snippets of Hagedorn’s speech:

“The national liberals are all but carpet bombing the greatness of America – taking dead aim on the United States Constitution, our dynamic Free Enterprise system, and the enduring concepts of personal responsibility, individual opportunity, personal freedom, and traditional cultural values.”

“Tim Walz’s extreme liberalism represents a plague to our American way of life. Instead of listening to you – the moderate-to-conservative voters of southern Minnesota – Tim Walz follows the commands of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the fringe left.”

“Tim Walz is the most liberal Congressman in the history of southern Minnesota, and to reclaim America we must defeat Tim Walz and those like him!”

“Now, if there is a big-spending, big-government, high-tax idea to kill jobs or undermine economic recovery, President Obama-Speaker Pelosi and devoted liberal worshiper Tim Walz will sniff it out.”

“Tim Walz is such a left-winger that he believes we must limit carbon emissions to save the earth from global warming.”

Sen. Don Betzold, DFL-Fridley, told City Pages’ Matt Snyders on Thursday that Gov. Tim Pawlenty has diverted funds from the “Support Our Troops” license plate program to his Governor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, an office that works to connect religious organizations with state funds.

Betzold says that $30,000 from the license plate program was supposed to go to the Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs, but instead paid for a position at the faith-based office which is part of the Pawlenty’s office. The funds, writes Snyders, “by law, were supposed to go to the Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

“The money helped pay for someone’s salary in the governor’s office who coordinates faith-based initiatives,” Betzold told Snyders on Thursday. “When I bought my license plate, I was thinking I was helping veterans and servicemen. I certainly didn’t think it was going to that.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty will join another likely Republican presidential contender, Sarah Palin, at a campaign event for Rep. Michele Bachmann on April 7. The appearance by Palin and Pawlenty, along with former Sen. Norm Coleman, and Reps. John Kline and Erik Paulsen, will not actually take place in Bachmann’s district, but instead in downtown Minneapolis.

From Bachmann’s campaign:

The event will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis, MN, with a private reception and photo opportunity starting at 4:30 p.m., a general reception at 5:00 p.m., and dinner at 6:00 p.m.

Honorary Hosts for the evening include Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senator Norm Coleman, Congressman John Kline, and Congressman Erik Paulsen.

If you’re interested in attending, please email Zandra Wolcott at zww@michelebachmann.com for further details.

In addition to the fundraiser, plans are also in the works for a rally. Be sure to check back over the next several days to get the latest on Governor Palin’s visit on April 7.

Rep. Michele Bachmann told Tea Party activists on Wednesday to “take the town halls to Washington, DC” to defeat the health care bill. Bachmann suggested that passing the health reform bill would be a slam against freedom — and the troops in Afghanistan.

In a video spotted by the Washington Independent, Bachmann joined members of the Tea Party in calling for town halls in Washington, DC, by saying the bill should be killed for the sake of the troops.

“The men and women today who are bleeding for us in Afghanistan,” she said. “We need to think about them, what they gave to us, and recognize if this goes down in the United States, where does anyone go for freedom? Where do we go for freedom?”

“We the people are going to roll them out,” said Bachmann, “and when we roll them out we’re going to roll this bill back… Now is the time to see the whites of their eyes.”

In the pre-Google era, Al Franken had a stint for the Duluth Convention and Visitors Bureau as the “Duluth Answer Man,” a font of knowledge about Minnesota’s fourth-largest city. In a new video, via Perfect Duluth Day, Sen. Franken enlists the character to help build the case that Google Fiber should come to the Twin Ports.

In one clip from Duluth Answer Man, Franken fields a question from a man wondering about the safety of the city’s running of the bulls. “I believe you’re thinking of Pamplona, Spain, However the smelt run every spring in Duluth,” says a nasally Franken.

The Franken of today says that internet technology means his services in that regard are no longer required.

“Fortunately Google emerged, freeing me from my responsibilities and allowing me to serve in the United States Senate,” he said.

The video concludes with Franken sharing the URL for the Twin Ports Fiber Initiative, which aims to “”win the Google Fiber project by showing Google the community’s passion for fiber – high speed Internet, video and voice – the highly skilled workforce in our communities, the strong, supportive entrepreneurial environment, and the community’s visionary leadership.”

MnIndy file photo

Sen. Al Franken will be headlining Netroots Nation, the annual progressive bloggers conference. This year’s event runs July 22–25 in Las Vegas, CNN is reporting.

In its Thursday announcement, Netroots Nation compared Franken to the man who once held the seat he now occupies, the late Paul Wellstone:

On the campaign trail, Al Franken fought for the middle class, focusing on issues like making college and health care more affordable. During the recount, he fought for a fair Democratic process. And as a U.S. Senator, he fights every day for real progressive values just as the former Sen. Paul Wellstone did.

Shortly after receiving the nod to be the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential candidate in St. Paul, Sarah Palin traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to campaign. In her book “Going Rogue,” she described the town as a “slice of Americana” — with patriotic bunting and a “quaint town square with mom-and-pop stores” — which doesn’t match up with reality: Cedar Rapids was still digging out after devastating floods months earlier. A new development in the story: Apparently Palin confused Cedar Rapids, a city with a metro population of 250,000, with Cedarburg, a 10,000-resident town in Wisconsin that she also visited at that time.

Sarah Palin and John McCain in Cedarburg Wisconsin in 2008. Photo: News Graphic

As Lynda Waddington reports at the Iowa Independent, Cedarburg was Palin’s first stop after the 2008 Republican National Convention. And while Cedar Rapids doesn’t have a square quite like the one in Palin’s book, Cedarburg does: mom-and-pop shops, bunting and all. “Yes, that definitely sounds like Cedarburg,” said Lisa Curtis, a reporter for the local News Graphic. And a photo from the paper’s account seems to back that up.

There’s another part of the story that hasn’t been solved, though. Waddington writes:

After Palin sets the scene in her book, she relates an account of meeting two teens with Down syndrome along the rope line following the event. Although The Iowa Independent attempted to track down the two teens — a girl named Sarah and an unnamed boy — to corroborate Palin’s account of the Cedar Rapids visit, none of the locals contacted remembered seeing the exchange and no local journalists or photojournalists seem to have documented it.

Curtis in Wisconsin is also checking into the report, but, at least so far, has not been able to locate the teens or anyone who witnessed the exchange.

Rep. Collin Peterson says he won’t vote for reconciliation when the Senate health care bill hits the House in the next week, but Rep. James Oberstar says he’s uncommitted, but will vote for health reform so long as abortion is banned from any public funding. The rest of Minnesota’s congressional delegation is expected to vote along party lines.

The Hill asked Peterson’s office where he stands on the reform bill and his office told them he was a firm “no.”

Oberstar is part of the “Stupak 12,” a group of Democrats who oppose the health care reform bill if it doesn’t ban funding of abortions.

Politico reports that Oberstar still maintains that position, quoting the Weekly Standard saying “I will not vote for a health care bill that doesn’t have the House abortion language in it.” (That quote is originally from Congressional Quarterly, a subscription-only publication quoted by the Weekly Standard.)

Despite his unwavering stance on abortion, Oberstar is for the bill and says he supports going even farther — advocating single-payer health care.

Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison and Bettu McCollum have said they will vote for reconciliation. Rep. Tim Walz says he likely will as well, but he has some conditions, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

Photo: TarrylClark.com

The campaign of Tarryl Clark released a web ad Monday that criticizes Rep. Michele Bachmann for her past stance on Social Security privatization and her February comments about wanting to “wean” future generations off the program.

Bachmann’s campaign has disputed the characterization that she supports privatization of Social Security. In an interview with Politifact, for example, Bachmann spokesman David Dziok said, “She’s never once used the word ‘privatize.’”

But Clark’s team backed up its claims with references to Bachmann advocating Social Security privatization in 2005.

Here’s Dziok’s full statement from Politifact:

Via e-mail, Bachmann’s spokesman Dave Dziok told us that he has “no clue where they got the voucher comment from and she’s never once used the word privatize — not in her initial comments in St. Louis, and not in subsequent interviews or statements. Furthermore, she never stated that she wants to eliminate these programs all together, but that younger generations should have other options in the way these programs are administered. While her critics are certainly doing their best to put words in her mouth, I don’t see how they can factually back it up.”

And here’s Clark’s supporting evidence on Bachmann’s 2005 Social Security stance:

Bachmann Advocated Privatizing Social Security. In February 2005, the Pioneer Press wrote, “During her announcement Monday, Bachmann also mentioned national security and a Social Security overhaul, which she later said should include privatization, as key priorities should she win a seat in Congress.” [Pioneer Press, 02/15/05]

On Monday, the Minnesota Family Council and several GOP lawmakers held a press conference announcing their intent to push for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in Minnesota. MFC warned that same-sex marriage could be legal in Minnesota as soon as next year, citing legislation and comments by Sen. John Marty, a candidate for governor. Marty shot back Monday night saying, “I stand by my commitment to equality. We can pass marriage equality legislation and sign it into law next year.”

At the press conference, MFC president Tom Prichard warned of “real dangers to our culture” and said that a bill by Sen. John Marty that would make same-sex marriage legal could become law next year, and to prevent that from happening, Minnesota needs a constitutional amendment.

“What it will do is have a dramatic impact the institution of marriage, right of conscience and freedoms and every aspect of society will be impacted,” said Prichard of same-sex marriage.

Rep. Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids, said, “This goes to the structure of power of the people of Minnesota. Allowing them to vote on this important issue is fundamental to our society.”

Marty replied in a press release Monday night saying he has every intention of pushing the bill to legalize same-sex marriage into law next year.

“I stand by my commitment to equality,” he said. “I am confident that we can give Minnesota LGBT families the same rights that other families have — the right to have each other and their children qualify for the health care benefits they get at work; the right to visit each other in the hospital; the right to inherit each other’s property, and hundreds of other rights that other families take for granted.”

Marty said that in 2003 conservatives began the push to ban same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution, often playing to Minnesotans’ prejudices. “Same-sex marriage was a concept most Minnesotans were not familiar with,” he said. “Even so, their efforts failed. Now, after years of public discussion and as more people are getting to know wonderful gay and lesbian families, minds have changed.”

Here’s the full press release by Marty’s campaign for governor:

John Marty Response to Minnesota Family Council’s Call for Constitutional Amendment on Same-Sex Marriage

Yesterday morning, the Minnesota Family Council and several Republican lawmakers attacked Senator John Marty’s comment that a marriage equality law could be signed in Minnesota as early as next year. They urged passage of a constitutional amendment to block such action. Here is Senator Marty’s response to their challenge:

“Seven years ago, Minnesota had a very vocal debate about same-sex marriage. Proponents of a constitutional ban fought hard for its passage. In 2003, the opposition to same-sex marriage was strong, but much of that opposition was based on fear and misunderstanding. Same-sex marriage was a concept most Minnesotans were not familiar with. Even so, their efforts failed.

Now, after years of public discussion and as more people are getting to know wonderful gay and lesbian families, minds have changed. People who opposed marriage equality have been rethinking the issue and the change is happening faster than some politicians realize. Acceptance is growing month by month, not decade by decade.

The proposal for the constitutional amendment is dead. Over numerous conversations in communities throughout the state, Minnesota values have come to the forefront, and Minnesotans are rejecting discrimination against same-sex families.

I stand by my commitment to equality. I am confident that we can give Minnesota LGBT families the same rights that other families have — the right to have each other and their children qualify for the health care benefits they get at work; the right to visit each other in the hospital; the right to inherit each other’s property, and hundreds of other rights that other families take for granted.

The promise of marriage equality for all Minnesota families is within reach. We can pass marriage equality legislation and sign it into law next year.”

Senator John Marty is author of SF 120, the Marriage Equality legislation. He is a DFL candidate for Governor and has committed to signing this legislation in 2011.

It’s a case of art imitating life imitating art: Last month, our sister site in Washington broke the story that employees at the military contractor Blackwater had diverted hundreds of guns from U.S. weapons bunkers in Afghanistan for “personal use,” and someone from Blackwater used the name of “South Park” character Eric Cartman to check out some of the guns. It’s not a laughing matter — hundreds of the missing weapons, which included 500 AK-47s, have not yet been returned — but that’s not stopping “South Park” from referencing the fiasco. The Washington Independent reports that the show’s Mar. 17 season premiere will feature Cartman signing for the guns. Watch it:

A new report from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development highlights one big reason that just addressing wage gaps — be they gender- or race-based — won’t necessarily change the disproportionate number of African-Americans who find themselves mired in generational poverty: the wealth gap. Measured as assets less debts, families of color have 16 cents of wealth for every dollar white families have. And single women of color have it worst of all.

• Single black and Hispanic women have a median wealth of $100 and $120 respectively; the median for single white women is $41,500.
• Nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, the latter of which occurs when debts exceed assets.
• About one-third of single Hispanic women and one-fourth of single black women have no checking or savings account.
• On reservations where unemployment rates can be as high as 70 percent, Native American women are hard pressed to fulfill “job search” requirements to qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
• While 57 percent of single white women own homes, only 33 percent of single black women and 28 percent of single Hispanic women are homeowners.
• Only 1 percent of single Hispanic women and 4 percent of single black women own business assets compared to 8 percent of single white women.
• While 66 percent of white men and 60.4 percent of white women receive retirement income from assets, the same is true for only 40 percent of Asian women, 25.4 percent of black women and 23 percent of Hispanic women.

Add that to the fact that single women with children saw their unemployment rise 68 percent since the start of the recession, that African-Americans as a group continue to to face disproportionately high unemployment rates and that the stimulus isn’t helping many African-Americans, and what you have is a group of women who face disproportionate barriers to employment access and have disproportionately little in the way of a personal financial safety net. If you can’t take time off of work (if you can find work) to go to school, or you don’t have the money for training while unemployed, then it is difficult to better your situation — and difficult to better the situation of your children as they grow up and enter the labor market themselves.

During Monday’s Hot Tea Radio Show U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann told listeners that she’s “fighting for my political life,” called for a repeal of the separation of church and state, and said that tea partiers need to “literally start banging garbage lids together” to defeat health care reform.

Right off the bat, Bachmann offered a refrain often made in her media appearances, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is personally targeting her in the 2010 election (last month she went so far as to say Pelosi “hates” her). It’s a claim that was recently proven misleading by the Star Tribune, and even Bachmann’s handlers say it’s not quite true. She told listeners:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made me her number-one target for defeat politically this November at the ballot box, and trust me, she has all the money and all the volunteer power to make that happen. So, I am in the process of fighting for my political life so that I’m not defeated. She knows it’s vulnerable for me to speak out and take a very strong stand against this leap toward socialism but my opinion is I was sent to DC to do a job, and I’m going to do it.

Bachmann was asked what religious leaders can do to help get conservatives elected. She responded that Congress should repeal the ban that prevents 501(c)3 nonprofits and churches from endorsing candidates. (In Bachmann’s first run for Congress, Living Word Christian Center Pastor Mac Hammond got into hot water for endorsing Bachmann from the pulpit.)

The reason why clergy are afraid to be involved is because of an amendment that former President Lyndon Johnson passed when he was a senator from Texas… that stops 501(3)c [sic] organizations from saying anything political from the pulpit. Now, churches can be political from the pulpit. They can talk about issues all they want. What they can’t do is endorse a candidate from the pulpit. But the ACLU has been all over the backs of churches… Christian and Jews and people of faith are not second class citizens… but these radical leftist organizations have been intimidating Christians for so long and pastors don’t generally now that they do have the right to speak out from the pulpit. Congress should repeal that amendment from Lyndon Johnson… We need to repeal that and give Christians back their first amendment rights to free speech in the church.

Bachmann wrapped the appearance up by saying Tea Partiers need to make even more noise:

That’s why with everything within us we need to literally start banging garbage lids together to create enough noise so that our neighbors and our co-workers realize where the time clock is at this point because the second hand is literally banging up against 11:59 on the clock of freedom when it comes to health care… we cannot rest; we can’t take our marbles and go home.

Photo: The UpTake

Rep. Michele Bachmann is a contributing author to a new book being published by the Heritage Foundation. “Indivisible: Social and Economic Foundations of American Liberty” also contains chapters by religious right leaders Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage’s Jennifer Roback Morse and Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., as well as politicians such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and Ohio’s former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

The book is being distributed as a free PDF. Here’s an excerpt of Bachmann’s chapter, titled “Property: Property and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

The brain trust of the Founders who articulated our first principles fearlessly declared that our breaking of the bond with Great Britain was justified by natural law, which is the universal and God-given understanding of morality and human rights. The natural law applies to all people and all nations throughout the world for all time. Since they are grounded in this natural law, if we treat our God-given liberties as if they are gifts of a man-made government, we threaten those very liberties with extinction. When we forget the origin of our rights, when we forget the principles from which our rights sprang into being, then we’ve abdicated the liberties endowed by our Creator. The idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then, entails a right to own property.

Other topics and authors covered in the e-book:

* Civil Society: Moral Arguments for Limiting Government – Joseph G. Lehman
* Rule of Law: Economic Prosperity Requires the Rule of Law – J. Kenneth Blackwell
* Life: The Cause of Life Can’t be Severed from the Cause of Freedom – Representative Paul Ryan
* Free Exchange: Morality and Economic Freedom – Jim Daly with Glenn T. Stanton
* Marriage: The Limited-Government Case for Marriage – Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.
* Profit: Prophets and Profit – Marvin Olasky, Ph.D.
* Family: Washington’s War on the Family and Free Enterprise – Stephen Moore
* Wages: The Value of Wages – Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr.
* Religion: Why Faith Is a Good Investment – Arthur Brooks, Ph.D., and Robin Currie
* International Trade: Why Trade Works for Family, Community, and Sovereignty – Ramesh Ponnuru
* Culture: A Culture of Responsibility – Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
* Property: Property and the Pursuit of Happiness – Representative Michele Bachmann
* Environment: Conserving Creation – Tony Perkins
* Education: A Unified Vision for Education Choice – Randy Hicks

The antitrust conference for and about farmers scheduled to be held by the USDA and Department of Justice outside Des Moines later this week will now have what was originally absent: multiple voices from agricultural workers. As the Iowa Independent reported last week, the workshops had only one producer on its 23-person panel. After Sen. Tom Harkin weighed in on the issue, which irked farmers into planning their own shadow event, the event’s schedule was changed. But some farm advocates aren’t satisfied.

Now, a 45-minute panel on issues facing farmers has been added; its list of presenters:

• Ken Fawcett, independent crop farmer, eastern Iowa
• Jim Foster, hog producer, Montgomery City, Mo.
• Pam Johnson, farmer, Floyd, Iowa
• Eric Nelson, grain and cattle farmer, Moville, Iowa
• Todd Wiley, hog producer, Walker, Iowa
• Melvin Crum, corn, soybean and cotton farmer, South Carolina (tentative)

But some farm activists call the move “political theater,” and note that the day includes only an hour to hear from local, independent farmers.

“[W]e don’t think his recommendation goes far enough,” David Goodner, from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, told the Independent. “The way the workshop agenda is set up now is nothing more than political theater. Giving the public only one hour for comments, at the end of the day, after hours of posturing by politicians and corporate interests, is patronizing. The DOJ and USDA need to put people first by moving the public comment period to the beginning of the day and by extending the time-frame for comments from one hour to two.”

While the day’s content should be of interest to Minnesotans, there is one more direct link:  Brian Buhr, professor and head of the applied economics department at the University of Minnesota, will be discussing agricultural trends during a panel Friday afternoon.

The daylong event, entitled “Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy,” will be held this Friday, Mar. 12, in Ankeny, Iowa. The previous night, a coalition of farm groups will hold its shadow town hall at a nearby Best Western.

Despite having said it’s “dumb” to pay a premium price for organic produce, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, will be honored with the Organic Trade Association’s “2010 Public Servant Award.”

Peterson riled organic farmers and fans when in 2007 he told the Financial Times:

“For whatever reason, people are willing to pay two or three times as much for something that says ‘organic’ or ‘local’. Far be it from me to understand what that’s about, but that’s reality. And if people are dumb enough to pay that much then hallelujah.’”

That earned Peterson — who also said organic producers need little help from the government — “dumb quote of the week” honors from Minnesota’s Organic Consumers Association, which launched a campaign against Peterson over the remark (who later clarified his statement).

Today, the OTA, the 25-year-old organic business group, announced its plan to honor the Seventh District Democrat at an April 14 reception in Washington, D.C.

“We are truly excited at this opportunity to honor Congressman Peterson for his assistance in growing this sector of our nation’s food supply,” said OTA head Christine Bushway. “He has been a strong supporter of organic agriculture, and played a vital role in shaping the 2008 Farm Bill to give organic the largest gains, both in mandatory and discretionary spending, that it has ever gotten.”

As we reported this morning, Sen. Al Franken will be the subject of a new comic book that — unlike the one recently created about Rep. Michele Bachmann — is expected to be largely favorable. The maker of the new book, Bluewater Productions, sends artwork for the cover of the new comic, which is part of its Political Power line of biography comics. Take a look after the jump.

Among the other subjects of Bluewater comic books: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, First Dog Bo Obama and, in its Female Force book, a lineup that includes Hilary Clinton, Michele Obama, Condoleeza Rice and Sarah Palin.

Other recent instances of Franken rendered in comic form: A cartoonish Franken in the “BobbleRep” iPhone app, and a fake MAD Magazine ad featuring the senator in a bathtub alongside former Sen. Norm Coleman.

The $3.99 Franken book will be available at comic shops in May.

David Jarman at The New Republic offers an interesting take on last week’s National Journal rankings, which show Rep. Betty McCollum as one of the U.S. House’s most liberal members, Rep. Tim Walz as a “centrist” and Rep. Bachmann as not nearly as conservative as her media campaigns might suggest she is. He writes that a “consistent quirk” in the annual surveys means legislators who are “typically portrayed in the media as the most extreme and polarizing ideologues often fall somewhere in the middle of the list.” He notes that progressive Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich was ranked as 160th most liberal, while “bomb-thrower Michele Bachmann” is 28th most conservative.

The rankings, Jarman writes, don’t take into consideration the why of each vote:

There’s a logical explanation for this. The lists tend to highlight the workhorses and backbenchers who most reliably hew to the party line. So low-profile senators like Ben Cardin and Sheldon Whitehouse top the liberal list, while the most conservative House members include no-names like Trent Franks and Doug Lamborn.

This shouldn’t call the validity of National Journal’s rankings into doubt, but it does point to a glitch in its formula: It doesn’t ask why a congressman or -woman votes the way he or she does. It only records whether it’s a party-line vote.

So when Kucinich votes against healthcare reform for not being single-payer, it’s notched as a conservative vote rather than a lefty one. And when Paul votes against military adventurism, it’s recorded as a liberal vote rather than modern-day isolationism. In other words, because they break with their party on principle, National Journal ends up classifying ideologues as centrists.