Almanac: At the Capitol

A few minutes ago, I was hard at work reading the cases cited by Justice Souter in his dissent in Rosenberger v. UVA (my summer job) when my fiancee, who was watching the Real World with his sister downstairs, started yelling for me.  Ashwin Madia was the subject of a quick segment on MTV.  Its a pretty neat clip actually, check it out.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

(H/T Truscott for the online version)

While I’m writing, I also just want to note how great this idea is.  Also, this idea.  If these events actually happen, what a clear contrast they will set up between Obama and McCain.  It is so refreshing to finally have a Democratic presidential campaign that is not completely inept.

There might be an occasional post over the weekend, but you can expect MN Publius to return on Monday.

Sean adds: Indeed! Happy Fourth of July, and in honor of our nations birthday for your listening pleasure is a live version of "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) " by Bruce Springsteen taken from a live show in 1975. There is nothing more American than Bruce Springsteen. Nothing.

Between yesterdays whiney post instigating a pissing contest between paid political operative Michael Brodkorb and Joe at MNCampaignReport over the editing of Al Franken’s Wikipedia entry , and todays SHOCKING! OMG! WOW! SHOCKING!!!@#$!@##ROFLCOPTERS ‘video’ of Steve Sarvi I think it’s safe to say that Mike has reached a new crater of absurdity. Which brings us to our latest edition of "How To Read MDE".

Last night Michael put out a teaser — this is one of those techniques he employs when he wants to drag out a story as long as possible. His teaser (titled "COMING TOMORROW: EMBARRASSING VIDEO CLIP FROM SARVI PRESS EVENT) read in part:

The Minnesota DFL and 2nd CD DFL candidate Steve Sarvi had a press conference on Monday to complain about high gas prices. I’m a very fortunate blogger, because a dedicated reader of Minnesota Democrats Exposed sent me a video of the event.

Which doesn’t really make sense, because the Minnesota DFL and 2nd CD DFL candidate is kind of redundant, but quibbles man, quibbles because can’t you see the beaming pride! He’s a fortunate blogger, a dedicated reader of MDE sent him a video! He’s just so honored that Steve Sarvi’s Republican tracker (a job coincidentally that Michael knows well, being as he’s a former employee of the RPM’s communication and research team) a dedicated reader of MDE would take the time out of their busy day to send him a video of the press event.

So this morning he posts the video and Zack summed it up much more succinctly than I ever could "Lamest. Hit. Ever. " You can go check it out at MDE because I’m not going to give that festering crap video the light of day over here (in short, some woman is lecturing Steve Sarvi about how we should drill in ANWR when Jim Carlson gives him the just let it die signal — or conversely he could just be working on the ravenous flesh eating mosquitoes we’re having this summer).

Michael even replays the ‘cut it off’ signal — in sloooooooooow motion. But all the same, it’s just dumb.

Mike ends the post with his usual histrionics: Does Sarvi need elected officials to travel with him to instruct him when to stop talking? Is Senator Carlson running for Congress or is Sarvi running? If Sarvi is elected to Congress, will he need someone standing by him on the floor of the House of Representative telling him what to say and when to be quite? Will our fateful hero survive? Will Bobby and Tonya’s love be accepted by her parents? Who poisoned the town’s drinking water? All of this and more on the next edition of "Giant wastes of your time!"

As a handy commenter on the post points out, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain (who Michael just gushed over) has never had to be corrected about substantive foreign policy issues that he has forgotten, or confused, or just never knew in the first place .

So, I’ve got a few, non-histrionic questions for Michael:

Michael, you’re a RPM party officer, right? If not, you were recently and you’re even a delegate to the RNC (congrats by the way) so I’ve got to ask, on Monday John Kline will be doing an ‘energy tour’ in the 2nd, is this tour open to the public? Will people receive the opportunity to question John Kline on his record or his positions the same way this woman was able to question Steve Sarvi? Will DFL trackers get the same access to videotape this "energy tour" that your Republican party tracker dedicated reader of MDE got?

Wait — that’s absurd, of course the answer to those questions are "No." "No." and "No."

So here’s a question for you Michael, will your sitting representative, John Kline, who is beholden to you not just as a party activist and more than occasional employee but more importantly as a constituent; will John Kline ever have public forums where he will answer questions from the public, not from a preselected group of supporters, and will any organization such as the UpTake (because I think it’ll be a cold day in hell before we get access) be allowed to tape that event? Ever?

Now I don’t expect you to answer (how can you count on those paychecks if you disparage your paymaster?) but just think about it for me, will ya’?

And finally folks, why is Steve Sarvi getting Michael’s attention these days? It could be because the race in CD2 has gotten more competitive — it was just upgraded by the Cook Political Report, and that’s thanks to people just like you  .

MN Publius and MDE are hosting a happy hour next week Wednesday, July 9.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. This isn’t just a blogger event, although free Wi-Fi is available if you wish to blog. This event is an opportunity for people of differing political parties to get together and have fun for a few hours.  Hope to see you there!

Override Sixer Jim Abeler was denied the endorsement of the Republican Party at two separate nominating conventions.  At the second convention, Abeler was opposed by a man named Don Huizenga.  Abeler and Huizenga will square off in a primary battle this fall.

I don’t know a whole lot about Don Huizenga, but a commenter on a previous post pointed me in the direction of this message board.  Its a Topix Forum created so people could discuss the Anoka-Hennepin School District Levy.  A person posting under the name Don Huizenga left some mighty interesting comments that give us some insight into what might be his legislative priorities.  I called Don Huizenga to verify that these were in fact his comments.  He confirmed that he made the comments and stood by their content.

Your statement that generations get smarter as over time is ludicrous. There is no factual evidence of that. There is evidence of differing intelligence among different races, but not generations.

I sure hope you arent going to teach our kids…

And I sure hope you aren’t elected to the House.  More Huizenga…

Take us back to the 50’s, please…

It may have been a bit prudish, but whats wrong with that, compared to what we have today?

I can think of many things that were wrong with the American educational system in the 1950’s.  Segregation, for one.  Don also seems to be a Katherine Kersten fan…

BTW…the majority of the social items (pc ness, etc…) you named are all products of the liberal mentality that has run rampant through our schools. We have Muslim foot baths in our colleges in MN, but we cant say Christmas. Thank you Democratic liberals…

Anybody else notice a trend?  Also, Don likes Katherine Kersten, but doesn’t have much respect for public school teachers:

I just wish people in the public sector would learn to work harder, be more efficient with their time,(teachers…NOT take vacation during the school year…THAT still amazes me!), etc, etc, etc. I think a third grade teacher should be just that, I third grade teacher…no para, no assistants, no nothing. The job isnt that tough. MANY teachers have done that job for YEARS alone, why cant they do it now?

I beg to differ.  Being a public school teacher is a tough job, particularly when Republicans in state government are undercutting you at every opportunity.

Ambinder reports that as a result of the staff shake-up today, the McCain campaign will likely “abandon” the regional campaign manager structure that has been in place for several months.  This is a massive organizational change just four months out from the general election.  Ben Golnik is the regional campaign manager for the area that includes Minnesota.  Betcha he’s pretty frustrated today.

Norm Coleman claims that the $600/month rent he pays for his apartment on Capitol Hill is fair market value:

Tom Steward, a Coleman spokesman, said the senator had gotten no such approval because he didn’t need it.

“As the senator indicated to the National Journal and further articulated last Friday, he is paying fair market value for his cramped bedroom in a basement of a home in D.C. As our research shows, this rent is comparable to other rent in the D.C. area,” Steward said.

The DFL (and anyone who has EVER tried to rent in D.C.) begs to differ:

“For example, on Capitol Hill, we have found an extremely similar space to Coleman’s that rents for $1,700 a month. Other nearby English basements rent for $1,100 to $1,800. Another English basement seven blocks farther away from the Capitol than Coleman’s place rents for $1,475 a month — with an overall crime rate five times higher and a violent crime rate 12 times higher.

“The only $600 rooms available were in shared houses located anywhere from 20 blocks to nearly five miles from the Capitol.”

Anyone who has ever been to Washington knows that five miles away from the Capitol puts you in, well, a less than desirable area.  Also, the real estate listing describing the Larson home contradicts Norm’s description of the space as “cramped”:

Downstairs, a huge English basement with a media center, office space, gorgeous custom marble and oak bar?plus an airy guest bedroom and bath.

Norm’s push back on this just doesn’t square with the facts.

But that’s not all. There is also the question of the electric bill. The DFL has discovered that the basement of the home in which Coleman rents has a separate electric bill from the rest of the house. Norm claims he shares the basement with an office for FLS, a sister company of disgraced lobbying consortium DCI Group. So who’s paying the electric bill? Is it Larson? FLS? Norm?

Of course, Norm could answer a lot of these questions by simply turning over his lease agreement (if it exists). The fact that he has so far refused to do so is mighty suspicious. What is Norm trying to hide?

El Tinklenberg, the DFL and IP endorsed candidate for Congress in the 6th CD, has challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann to a series of candidate forums in advance of the November elections.  In his letter, Tinklenberg also indicates that both he and Bachmann have already accepted an invitation to debate in front of the Monticello Chamber, meaning the candidates will square off at least once.  El will certainly have a lot of ammunition to use against Bachmann in any debate, so these forums will be must-see events if Bachmann accepts Tinklenberg’s challenge.

El’s letter is after the jump.

Dear Representative Bachmann:

Cordially, I would like to invite you to join me for a series of Sixth District public candidate forums this summer and fall.

It is my understanding that you have already added the September forum at the Monticello Chamber of Commerce to your campaign calendar, and I look forward to participating in that event as well.

Several other Chambers of Commerce across the district have also expressed interest in hosting candidate forums, and I hope you will consider their forthcoming invitations. To my knowledge specific dates have not been established, and if certain dates are preferable we will gladly work to accommodate your schedule.

As I’m sure you’ll agree, it is important that we afford voters the opportunity to learn more about our distinct views on the issues they find most important. That is why I propose that these forums have an open format in which voters may ask us questions directly.

Please contact my campaign office at your convenience to discuss arrangements. I look forward to your response and to beginning a thoughtful, productive campaign season.

Best,
El Tinklenberg

Yesterday CREW filed an ethics complaint against Norm Coleman, asking the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Norm’s sweetheart rent deal.  Norm’s campaign and the MN GOP pushed back by claiming that CREW is a “front group” for Al Franken.  This leads to a couple of important questions:

1. What’s Al Franken’s beef with Jack Murtha?  CREW called the Pennsylvania Democrat one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress.  Is running for the House in Pennsylvania Al’s backup plan in case this whole Senate race doesn’t work out?
2. Why is Al Franken targeting Mary Landrieu?  CREW filed an ethics complaint against the Democratic Senator from Louisiana earlier this year.  I think I’ve figured this one out, actually.  Franken hopes to knock off Landrieu so that he can snag her much coveted seat on the Senate Small Business Committee.

In all seriousness, CREW is a non-partisan group founded five years ago.  They have targeted both Democrats and Republicans.  They are nobody’s front group.

Michael says the MN GOP scored a “direct hit” by calling CREW a front group for Al Franken.  The only thing the MN GOP hit was their own credibility.

Minnesota’s filing period opened today.  No big surprises so far, but a couple of noteworthy items:

• Jim Abeler filed as a Republican in 48A.  Abeler, one of the override six, was denied his party’s endorsement on two separate occasions.  Abeler is opposed for the Republican nomination by Don Huizenga.
• Despite rumors to the contrary, Gene Pelowski filed for reelection in 24B.
• Former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer filed as the endorsed Republican candidate in 16B.  The incumbent in that district, “Independent” Republican Mark Olsen has not yet filed, but is expected to.

I’ll update this post as the day goes on.

Norm Coleman’s week continues to get worse.

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics asking for an investigation into whether Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) violated the Senate gifts rule by accepting lodging from Republican operative Jeff Larson.

According to National Journal, in July 2007, Sen. Coleman began paying Mr. Larson $600 per month to rent a portion of a basement apartment in a Capitol Hill townhouse owned by Mr. Larson. After the magazine began making inquiries about the senator‚s living arrangement, Sen. Coleman discovered that he had failed to pay rent in November 2007 and January 2008, and his wife gave Mr. Larson a personal check for the $1,200. Last year, Sen. Coleman sold Mr. Larson some furniture — a couch, table and chairs and a desk — to cover one month‚s rent, and Mr. Larson held onto Sen. Coleman‚s March rent check for three months, until June 17, before cashing it only days after National Journal began asking questions.

The Coleman/Larson connection also was written up in this morning’s Star Tribune and was subject to a KARE 11 story last night.

Remember, Larson is no ordinary Republican insider.  He’s a named partner at FLS, a sister company of the disgraced lobbying consortium DCI Group, which gained notoriety earlier this year when John McCain fired two senior staffers because of their ties to DCI.  Norm Coleman, however, refused to return contributions for DCI’s PAC, perhaps for fear of offending his landlord.

Last Wednesday, liberal bloggers in Minnesota set out to raise $1,000 for our great DFL congressional challengers by the time the 2nd Quarter ended on June 30.  You smashed our goal in less than 36 hours. We increased our goal to $2,000 and yesterday afternoon, you met that goal too.

On behalf of all of us here at MN Publius, thank you for making our end of the quarter fundraising drive a success.

A couple of weeks ago, Tim Pawlenty was the consensus front-runner to be John McCain’s running mate this fall.  In the last fourteen days, however, the chattering class has soured on his chances.  Check out this article from the New York Observer…

So what value would Pawlenty add to the ticket? His first opportunity for publicity – when McCain announces the pick – would be a wasted venture because no one (outside of Minnesota) knows Pawlenty and there’s nothing dramatic in his background (he’s spent his life in Minnesota politics). He’ll come across as another late-middle-aged politician with talking points.

Ouch.

Norm Coleman was on WCCO on Sunday morning with Esme Murphy and he got to discuss his two favorite topics — his sweetheart deal with a very powerful Republican operative to live in his basement and his poorly shot political ad featuring his wife .

Norm was fidgeting like a 3rd grader off their Ritalin .

Why exactly would Norm be nervous about renting a room clearly below market value?

Because the Capitol Briefing suggested that Norm find as good a lawyer as he can afford with his cut rate rental.

Coleman appears to have a good friend in Larson and a great place to live in D.C. Now he probably needs a good lawyer.

Check out the Capitol Briefing from the WaPo and mumbling, squirmy Norm Coleman on WCCO, and be sure to check back with MNPublius as this story continues to grow.

Politico talks to a “McCain confidant” about his VP pick…

Surprising many Republican insiders, Mitt Romney is at the top of the vice-presidential prospect list for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). But lack of personal chemistry could derail the pick…

So two other names are in the top tier:

—Rob Portman, a former congressman from Ohio, member of House leadership, U.S. Trade Ambassador and White House budget director.

—Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who would delight conservatives and is at the top of the list of the party’s prospects for the presidential race in 2012 or 2016. He was described to Politico by a McCain confidant as a possible “compromise” if the senator can’t stomach picking Romney.

Then there’s a second tier of candidates who are less likely, but possible: former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who dropped out of the top tier because of recent revelations about his lobbying; Florida Gov. Charlie Crist; Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who is one of McCain’s most energetic and successful fundraisers.

I think Romney and Portman would be horrible picks for McCain, Thune would be slightly better. Romney would be the Edwards of 2008: as soon as the polls turn south, he’ll start planning for 2012. Portman, on the other hand, was a member of the Bush Administration. Pretty easy to tie McCain to Bush’s economic policies when his Budget Director is on the ticket! Thune would be fine. Nothing special, but a better pick in my book than either Romney or Portman.

What is surprising about this list is that Tim Pawlenty is listed as a second tier candidate. Other published reports have the Pawlenty buzz increasing and he did well on This Week. But hey, if McCain wants to go with Romney or Portman, I’m all for it.

The 2nd Quarter ends at midnight tonight.  Fundraising totals from this quarter will be used to make critical targeting decisions in the fall.  The folks in DC will be watching closely to see if Sarvi, Madia, Tinklenberg and Franken have been able to put together the financial resources they need to be competitive.  If you want the DCCC to target the 2nd, 3rd or 6th Congressional Districts, if you want the DSCC to target Norm Coleman, we need to help them turn their 2nd Quarter FEC Reports into a statement of strength.

Since last Wednesday, liberal blogs in Minnesota have been working together to raise money for Steve Sarvi, Ashwin Madia, El Tinklenberg and Al Franken.  We smashed our first goal, $1,000, in less than 36 hours.  We’re now just $92 away from reaching our new goal of $2,000.  With your help, we can reach that goal and send a message to the DCCC and the DSCC that Minnesota is ready for change.  Your small donation today could lead to huge contributions by the national party organizations in October.

So…Donate!

Remember, every single Republican in our congressional delegation is up for reelection and every single one of them is vulnerable.  We could send a 100% DFL delegation to Washington in January if we work hard enough.

So…Donate!

T-Paw squared off against Rahm Emanuel on This Week earlier this morning.  I have to admit, he did pretty well.  The biggest part of the VP nominee’s job is to be a good attack dog, and Pawlenty did well in that regard.  I thought his defense, especially on the economic issues, was a little weak (he didn’t do enough to distinguish Bush from McCain), but overall it was a very solid performance.  Like I have said many times before, Tim Pawlenty would be a good VP pick for McCain, he just wouldn’t be a game changing selection.

Rahm also did well.  (I think if Rahm wasn’t from Illinois, we’d be looking at him as a strong VP prospect for Obama).

You can watch it here.

I am impressed.  On Wednesday, we joined with several other liberal blogs based in Minnesota to ask you to donate to one of our four great DFL challengers before the end of the quarter on Monday.  We set a goal of raising $1,000 for these four candidates by that day.  Well, we passed that goal late yesterday afternoon, just 36 hours after we started this project.

In response, we’ve done the only rational thing we could have done. We’ve raised the goal. Now we’re shooting for $2,000 by the end of the quarter, or $500 per candidate.

We’ve got an amazing opportunity this year. Every single Republican in Minnesota’s congressional delegation is up for reelection and every single one of them is vulnerable. If we work hard enough, we can send a 100% DFL delegation to Washington in January. Imagine how much good Steve Sarvi, Ashwin Madia, El Tinkelenberg and Al Franken can do in partner ship with Sen. Klobuchar and Reps. Walz, McCollum, Ellison, Peterson and Oberstar.

Getting there won’t be easy. Donate. Donate.  Donate.

This article from Wonkette is just too funny:

Norm Coleman, the hobo senator from Minnesota, rents a basement room from a Republican campaign consultant so he doesn’t have to sleep in the back of a freight car when he’s in Washington. Senator Coleman is supposed to pay $600 a month in rent, but he missed a couple of payments over the past year because he is a degenerate as well as a hobo.

Senator Coleman’s landlord is a gentleman named Jeff Larson, whose employer has helped the senator with fundraising ‘n stuff. Also Larson is the chief executive of the Minneapolis Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee, which is hosting the Republican National Convention.

But enough about their completely above-the-board connections! Apparently this apartment is a frightful dungeon that would terrify all but the most desperate vagrants, and Jeff Larson is a monster:

“I rent a cramped bedroom from him, with no kitchen. … It’s a place to lay my head,” the senator told a reporter.

Somebody needs to notify the proper authorities that a Republican pervert is keeping an impoverished, starving senator in his basement Incest Dungeon, the end.

As hilarious as the above is, it really hits the nail on the head at the same time: where the heck does someone find a $600/month apartment in D.C., much less on Capitol Hill?  I’ll tell you where: no where.  It’s just not possible in that area.  I had an apartment on the hill and it cost me $1200 a month and that was after it was subsidized by an intern housing organization and the place was a 1-bedroom studio dump (which I was more than happy with because of the location, but it was a dump) that I was splitting with a roommate.  Now, I might give Coleman the shadow of the doubt if he said he was paying $1000 for a room in a $1 million townhouse on the hill (that would still be stretching it), but $600?  Give me a break.  Does he really think we’re dense enough to see this as anything but a political favor?

I woke up this morning to find that the story about Norm Coleman’s extremely close relationship to GOP consultant Jeff Larson.  It hit the AP wire, shows up on Scott Goldberg’s KARE 11 blog with the amusing title “What the…?”, and is written up in the Pioneer Press.  Here’s an excerpt from the PiPress article:

According to the Journal’s calculations, that work has meant a payoff to [Jeff Larson’s] company of about $1.6 million since 2001.

The Journal piece suggests the relationship “could prove politically damaging” in his re-election campaign this year but does not conclude there is anything nefarious or improper about the coziness of the relationship.

Last year, the senator moved from his D.C. apartment to a bedroom in a town home Larson owns. In doing so, he cut his rent from $1,780 a month to $600 a month, according to the piece and confirmed by Coleman and Larson.

Coleman has occasionally been late on his rent and didn’t pay for two months, although he later made up the back rent for the kitchenless abode.