Jason Lewis: The Establishment Strikes Back

Jason Lewis is a former long time radio talk show host in the Twin Cities currently running in Minnesota's Second Congressional District to replace the retiring Rep. John Kline (R). Lewis comes from the libertarian wing of the republican party although his ideas are broader than that or any other single political label. He knows his own mind & is good on his feet. He speaks easily and knowledgeably on politics, economics, culture, law and history. This both sets him apart from most republican candidates as well as makes him the frontrunner by any measure.

He has three other competitors in the race for the endorsement but the main one, business woman Darlene Miller, has said she will not abide by it but will compete in the primary. This is what a candidate manufactured by a desperate establishment does.

Miller's campaign is staffed largely with Kline people and her first forays into the public arena have been painful and clumsy. She had to be dragged into the race by the establishment and it shows at every turn.

Clearly she's a candidate of necessity for the donor class. She has money but zero political ability. Think Chamber of Commerce. Think Jeb Bush. Please clap.

Miller will easily lose in the general election to far left DFL candidate Angie Craig but the right people will make money as she does so. This explains most of Minnesota republican politics.

A week out from the March 1st republican caucus, the Star Tribune hilariously ran several hit pieces that it thought would damage Lewis by taking comments made on air and in his 2011 book, which is a sustained argument about how the federal government must enforce civil rights, grossly out of context.

The hit mob seriously expects voters in CD 2 to believe that Lewis countenances slavery or that twenty something women shouldn't vote. These sorts of hyper-manufactured attacks simply don't work anymore. A rump Twitter group echoes them, claiming that "one word destroys campaigns." They don't possess the self-awareness to be embarrassed for themselves.

Several serious issues, however, have been generated by this bought and paid for establishment hit.

The Star Tribune Investigates

The Star Tribune has a mixed reputation at best in Minnesota. I know most of its political reporters in some way, often being sought out for background. Most reporters are decent people trying to do their job although the more honest ones freely admit the demonstrable leftwing-bias that infuses the newspaper at every level. 

Still, the paper tries to adhere to the minimum of so called journalistic ethics and standards, if for no other reason than marginal self-respect. Consequently, the breathless hit piece that said Lewis replied "it's kinda of hard to say" when asked whether the civil war was worth fighting for, is shown to be rank dishonesty. 

Here's the full exchange:

"TheDC: Well so do you think that the Civil War was a war worth fighting?

JL: Well there are those who advocated, at the time, for emancipated compensation. And that was the idea — and this had happened in other countries across that globe — where, “alright, we want to eradicate slavery, it’s a horrific institution, nobody disputes that, but, do we really wanna shed six hundred thousand lives in America?” So the idea was, let’s pay the Southern slave owners money to give up the slaves, and they would end the institution, and that would be it. Now, people say, “that’s a little bit odious, you’re paying people to do the right thing.” Well is it really more odious than six hundred thousand lives? Lincoln actually presented it to his cabinet late in the war, but they rejected it, and Lincoln had the opportunity to go, move forward on it earlier in the war, but he never did, so it’s kinda hard to say. As I said, it was a bit of a Hobson’s choice for Lincoln, he didn’t want to be the president to preside over the breaking up of the union."

To the question above, the Star Tribune only quoted as Lewis' answer: "so it's kind of hard to say."

If you argue this wasn't intentionally malicious, you have a heavy burden of proof.

This deliberate misrepresentation by the Star Tribune was brought to its attention by John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D., President, Crime Prevention Research Center who wrote the introduction to Lewis' book.

No less than Dennis J. McGrath, Star Tribune Deputy Digital Editor, thanked Mr. Lott for pointing this out on February 22nd, saying "Thanks, John.  This is helpful.  I’ll look into it and get back to you."

As Special Correspondent to Minnesota Conservatives, I will keep readers posted as to the course of the investigation into this disturbing unethical matter. We can only hope the Star Tribune issues a correction and an apology so that it salvages what's left of its journalistic integrity.

MNGOP Deputy Chair Chris Fields & NRCC Collusion

Rank and file republicans were shocked when they read comments by Chris Fields that gratuitously piled on the false and sleazy Jason Lewis hit job currently under investigation by Star Tribune management. His comments violated clear rules and bylaws that forbid state officers from speaking for or against any candidate pre-endorsement. 

What I have learned, however, is that Fields has been attempting to coordinate with the National Republican Congressional Campaign, the entity that attempts to increase republican membership in the U.S. House of Representatives. The NRCC is a tool of the establishment which advances the interests of its donors while steadfastly ignoring concerns of its citizen base. It supports Kline's handpicked candidate Darlene Miller while strongly opposing the change agent Jason Lewis.

My understanding is that the NRCC would support Chris Fields in his hopeless attempt to become the next Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, going so far as to arranging funds that would eliminate most or all of the party's debt. Fields would be a wholly owned tool of the NRCC in exchange. His comments to the invented Star Tribune story was part of this arrangement. 

The backlash to his comments has been swift and severe. Fields would likely never have succeeded to Chair given how poorly he's viewed by the base, from what I'm told. Now, however, that path seems likely foreclosed for good. 

Darlene Miller's Crony Capitalism

Miller is "CEO and president of Permac Industries, a Burnsville precision parts manufacturing company that received federal stimulus funds under President Obama and took advantage of tax incentives under President George W. Bush," reports Maya Rao of the Star Tribune. 

Establishment candidates are precisely like this: sucking on the government teet while telling their want to be base that they are on their side. Miller isn't just inauthentic, she's a certifiable fraud. 

There's no evidence that Miller was interested in politics before being recruited by GOPe. In Rao's story, she hid from the reporter's questions, sending out her campaign manager instead (full disclosure: a friend of mine, a good guy). 

A strong, confident candidate would be at ease with questions, not hiding from them. Now, eat the dog food. 

Endgame

The establishment has done its best to try to damage Lewis but, like all things inauthentic in this age of Trump, it has failed miserably. CD 2 voters, like all voters, simply are not stupid no matter how much Lewis' opponents and detractors might want them to be. The idea that he is retrograde, bigoted, or backward is simply, to use an expression from my friends in the South, a dog that won't hunt.

He responded forcefully in a piece published yesterday and pretty much put an end to this silliness. His response can be read by clicking here. This story is over but surely, look for more. Dog, hunt.

The world is on fire, America is in decline as a matter of choice, the middle class is being decimated, wars abroad have been proven demonstrable follies and Minnesota CD2 establishment republicans and their dishonest media allies continue to care only about feathering their own nests.

No wonder Lewis threatens them.

The Rubio Campaign Comes To Minnesota

Marco Rubio is now the Republican establishment candidate this cycle now that Jeb Bush had dropped out. As befits a political season in which no one knows anything, polling taken after Jeb's exit showed Donald Trump gaining strength as some of the former's supporters went to the latter, against all intuition.

Rubio was permanently damaged in the New Hampshire primary debate when he was shown by Gov. Chris Christie to be a shallow, brittle, robotic candidate who is highly scripted and trotted out only in carefully controlled environments. He has one stale stump speech which he delivers as his handlers and bundlers move him about the country like a Stepford candidate before Stepford audiences.

It was to see firsthand this unimpressive performance that brought more than a thousand people to downtown Minneapolis late yesterday afternoon. Crowd estimates were as high as 1600 though there was some dispute as to the real numbers. By any estimation, however, it was a very good sized crowd for a candidate who came in third in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and barely second in South Carolina. He was in Minnesota the day of the Nevada caucus and moved on from here to Michigan, actually saying "Goodbye Michigan" at the end of his performance instead of Minnesota.

I followed along on Twitter which increasingly is better than real life, except for the penchant of its owners and management to persecute conservatives and conservative ideas on that troubled platform.

The entire event seemed like some sort of elaborate ritual which no longer had any power or meaning but which went on regardless because the production company no longer had any idea what to put on stage and the audience had an inability to desire anything different from that which had come before.

In short, more cowbell in an election cycle in which cowbells were thrown out the window, beginning June 16, 2015.

No matter, this is Minnesota republicans, who haven't managed to win a statewide race in more than decade. Like the incompetence of the consultant class nationally, state republicans, activists and vendors care demonstrably more for making money than for any given candidate to actually win.

To get a sense of just how marooned the Minnesota republican establishment has become, look at this interview between Neil Cavuto and Saudi Arabian lobbyist and former Senator Norm Coleman. The reason proffered to vote for Rubio is that he isn't Trump. Neither is Ted Cruz so what's the case for Marco? Coleman trots out the usual reasons but none are persuasive, either individually or cumulatively. You can watch that video by clicking here.

* * * *

I saw some tweets during the Rubio rally with the hashtag "grow the party." Well one candidate is doing this in ways unimaginable until just recently and that candidate isn't the donors' choice Rubio. When I saw pictures of the event there didn't seem to be many minorities so what exactly was being grown remained unknown to me. One progressive asked on Twitter if Rubio made any mention of the Iron Range to which I replied that those uploads hadn't been installed yet.

The Rubio campaign is a last ditch effort to return things to the status quo before Trump announced and changed the political landscape of America forever. It's not possible to do that, of course, but those who made good livings off of not being very good, but instead connected, aren't willing to see the corrupt system that supported them die off without a fight. 

One of the animating issues in this presidential race is illegal immigration and its disastrous effects on our nation. Without Trump in the race the subject would never have gotten the attention and traction that it has. Republican donors want cheap labor at any cost and democrats want uneducated, unskilled voters dependent on government largesse. It's an unholy alliance that's ruining our country without the consent of the governed, the chief republican proponent of which was Marco Rubio. 

Because I was not following his speech in real time online, I asked a reporter from the Star Tribune if Rubio had addressed immigration whatsoever in his remarks. The reply I received: no. There you have it. Or rather, don't.

It's emblematic of Minnesota republicans to crowd behind a candidate who has no clear path to the nomination, who cannot name a single state he will win in next Tuesday's Super Tuesday primary and where he leads the polling in exactly none of the states that will vote. This, this is the political acumen of Minnesota republicans who in the last presidential caucus went with that winner Rick Santorum. 

The Minnesota Marco rally was surreal because it took place as though the old order wasn't under assault and failing badly, as though Trump hadn't thoroughly upended politics in ways never seen before and as though the Rubio campaign didn't need to adjust in any meaningful way. Another word for this is denial. The dog food is served. Eat the damn dog food. 

The scene was so out of touch with reality that at one point I tweeted it reminded me of the Russian Provisional Government following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, only not when it first was formed but instead in September, 1917.

The Trump Campaign Comes To Minnesota

Last Saturday evening the first official event by the Trump campaign was held in St. Louis Park. It was an informal affair, an opportunity for those politically active to meet with several Trump campaign officials and surrogates. I wasn't able to attend but what I learned from various sources suggest this powerhouse of a campaign has no use for mediocre activists who go from one failed campaign to another, or to a caucus staff position or to the staff of a member of Congress. The stale direct mail monopolist routinely employed by Minnesota republican candidates (he's been known to threaten retribution via his legislator wife if his services aren't used) will make no money from the Trump effort this cycle. The other usual vendors will be out of luck as well.

In that regard, they are of a piece with the national political consulting class who can be daily seen on Twitter whining and complaining, often with the foulest language, about Trump and his supporters. For supposed experts in their line of work, and for the sheer awfulness that they say is Trump, it's remarkable--and an indictment--that none of their candidates can damage or slow him down, let alone catch and overtake him.

From those present at the gathering, it seemed the Trump people had an ability to readily sort the wheat from the chaff when it came to political help, something many of us have desired for ages. Polite, courteous, they seemed unimpressed with party titles or former positions on former campaigns. When you stop and think about it, this is all of a piece of an incredible phenomenon. You actually have to go out of your way to remind yourself that Trump has never before run for office.

The crowd this event attracted is perhaps the most interesting feature of the night: young and old, a black hair dresser with friends from St. Paul, Hispanics and Asians, high school educated, college educated. The broad demographic appeal of Trump is played down by the mainstream media and the consultant class. Yet even in Minnesota the people that took time out on a Saturday evening to learn more shows just how varied it is. It shows what a Trump general election victory would look like.

Minnesota is a joke in presidential years because of the mindless liberal voters here. Yet Trump clearly believes it's worth some of his people's time to make an appearance and to rally his supporters. And some of those liberals were among the crowd last weekend. I'm under no illusion that Trump will win the Minnesota caucus on March 1st. In fact, second place would be remarkable although I think it more likely Sen. Ted Cruz will win that spot.

A Trump gathering that same weekend in Duluth attracted over one hundred people. A few photos from that event were posted on Facebook and can be seen by clicking here. That there could be many traditional Iron Range democrat supporters of Trump is something my DFL sources tell me is an ongoing worry. Hillary Clinton is simply not liked in rural Minnesota and no amount of Twin Cities metro cheerleading will be able to change that.

Minnesotans aren't known for either their honesty or their bravery, Minnesota republicans even less so. Consequently I believe there are many in what's come to be called "the Trump closet." This is in greatest evidence in caucus states where one's vote is not private.

Standard issue conservatives here seem to have fallen into line behind Sen. Ted Cruz. The republican establishment in Minnesota is mostly behind the unaccomplished, robotic Marco Rubio who was destroyed in the New Hampshire debate by Gov. Chris Christie. He's currently battling Cruz for second place in South Carolina.

Rubio won't be our nominee but it's fitting that the establishment has dully fallen in behind him. After all, Minnesota republicans haven't won a statewide race in a decade and these people think things are just fine, it always works out for them. In 2016, however, they're in for a rude awakening.


Forget winter, spring is coming.

Death & Debate: Justice Antonin Scalia & the South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate

When I first agreed to my friend Denyse O'Leary's request to guest blog from time to time on the well respected Canadian blog site Blazing Cat Fur, I could never have imagined covering, however briefly, the untimely death of America's greatest living jurist. The initial reports came in on Twitter, with only a San Antonio newspaper as a source. I texted several friends that "Scalia may be dead" only to follow it up with "confirmed."

His death was universally recognized as a great loss for American jurisprudence, with praise coming from Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as Cass Sunstein. President Obama couldn't be bothered to wear a necktie because at moments like this the smallness of him becomes evident in the passing of a great man and he knows it. His words were as trite and banal as the community organizer formerly known as Barry Soetoro would lead one to expect.

I address the death of Justice Scalia passingly in my piece for my growing Canadian audience and then move on to my best analysis of the debate among GOP presidential candidates last Saturday in South Carolina. Early indications would seem to bear out my thoughts: a PPP poll taken entirely after that exceptional debate showed Trump in the lead by almost 20 points.

My article about the loss of Scalia and what the South Carolina debate means can be read by clicking here.





Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The New Hampshire Debate & Primary Explained to Our Bewildered Canadian Friends

I'm continuing to cross post here my guest blogging for Canadian conservatives and others at Blazing Cat Fur, a premiere blog of the right in Canada. I try to timely respond to the various developments of our presidential race and post within twenty-four hours or so. I'm linking to them here in case my readers would like to see my take or think that I'm not blogging about the republican presidential race with all its wonderful twists and turns. I also examine the sad democratic race and assess whether Lady Macbeth can fend off an increasingly serious challenge from the walking ghost of Eugene V. Debs.

I wrote about the surprisingly consequential New Hampshire debate, which can be read by clicking here.

I also wrote about the impressive win by Donald Trump in the New Hampshire primary and resulting fallout in the race, with an eye toward South Carolina. That post can be read by clicking here.

Thanks as always to Denyse O'Leary for this opportunity. Readers can follow her on Twitter: @itsdesign

KIPP Academy: The Cowardice Of Hope

My friend Cam Winton is chairman of the board for KIPP Northstar Academy located in north Minneapolis, a traditionally poor and minority area of the Twin Cities. He'd mentioned KIPP to me over the last several years when we met for coffee or lunch. I knew it was a charter school for which he had great enthusiasm but beyond that did not know much.

During National Charter Schools Week he invited me to visit the academy to learn more about it. I took him up on the opportunity and was delighted that I did so.

KIPP stands for "knowledge is power program" and what I saw at every turn during my visit there reinforced that mantra again and again. I joined others who were visiting that day and we were given an overview of the school, its origins, its pedagogical premises, its administrators, teachers, staff and, most importantly, its students.

KIPP stresses rigorous academic preparation directed toward maximizing each student's chance at attending the college of their choice. Every student is seen as possessing this ability despite what is freely acknowledged as widely varying backgrounds, both educationally and socially. The school addresses each student where they are, involving the family by way of an actual home visit to explain what is expected should the child and the family choose to enroll at KIPP.

In everyday school life, students wear uniforms, walk in groups from class to class in formation and are expected to complete daily homework in a timely manner, as well as participate in classroom discussions. Most remarkably to me, everyone's progress is charted out in the open for all to see. Rather than mimicking the conventional wisdom which posits this would discourage those behind their peers, KIPP's social and emotional environment ensures that the precise opposite occurs to the greatest extent possible. To see this firsthand was to experience a genuine revelation.

Competition is good. The real world is made of it. Don't make excuses, make another, stronger, better effort to achieve, to raise the test score or the overall grade. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

A network of support for KIPP students exists within and without the school. In the school, obviously, from start to finish each day. And yet teachers and staff are available to students and to their families outside of the normal school day as well. In addition, as students leave KIPP (it currently only teaches fifth through eighth grades) advisors and counselors stay in touch as they move through high school, always with the eye on the prize: college admission.

It's been said by people from across the political spectrum that quality education is the civil rights issue of our time. There I was among the adults who not only realized that, but were dedicating their lives to acting upon that premise for the demonstrable benefit of these young children. I hadn't been this impressed since I couldn't recall.

You can learn much more about KIPP by visiting its website. Click here. If you are so inclined, you can make a donation or volunteer as you see fit. By all means contact the school directly as indicated on the website to learn more or to answer any questions you may have.

The epigram for this blog is a quote from Oswald Spengler (1880-1936): "Optimism is cowardice."

What Spengler meant by that, of course, is that the current situation is so dire, on any and all fronts, that to affect an optimistic attitude about it was simply to engage in the easy way out. Cowardice. It's a fitting quote for the style and the substance of my blog, generally speaking.

Yet coming face to face with the inspiring work done quietly in a residential neighborhood in north Minneapolis was to disabuse me of that comfortable mindset and demonstrate that real good can be done in the here and now for those most in need of it.

KIPP made me an optimist and if by my own metrics that makes me a "coward," I'll happily plead guilty.

Oh Canada: Pre & Post Iowa Blogging Up North

I've continued my collaboration with Denyse O'Leary of Blazing Cat Fur in Canada. She's generously asked me to discuss the American presidential cycle with her readers and I must say the exercise is an enjoyable one.

I'm used to writing what I think for a Minnesota and American audience, but here the task is to help Canadians understand what appears to most of the democratic world a ridiculously long and at times Byzantine process for electing our President, in addition to providing my own reflections. I find it highly rewarding and will continue to cross post my Northern Exposures here.

I wrote about the state of play before Iowa voted. Note that I say clearly it wasn't essential for Trump to win Iowa. I wasn't just hedging my bets, I actually believe it.

That post can be read by clicking here.

I stayed up last night to write my thoughts about the results of the Iowa caucuses, trying to blend my own reactions with what narratives I saw taking shape on Twitter and in the larger media in the early hours after the results were in. This includes a brief analysis of the Democratic race.

That post can be read by clicking here.

As I've said previously, I think there's value in reading the comments whether favorable to me or not.

David Horowitz & The Impotence Of The Minnesota Republican Establishment

Last Thursday I joined approximately one hundred Minnesota republicans gathered at the Minnetrista home of Jeannine M. Rivet and Warren G. Herreid, II to hear David Horowitz. He had earlier spoken at the University of Minnesota to college republicans, a guest of The Minnesota Republic. The video of that presentation can be viewed by clicking here.

The usual suspects were in attendance: Annette Meeks sans Jack, Congressman Tom "we all want the same things" Emmer, Keith Downey,  ersatz Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, Andy Brehm, and a variety of other useless hangers on.

It was a draw between them and myself as to who was more disheartened to be in each others' company. So it goes. Yet they had the edge on me because they get a paycheck, of some sort, from someone, for their efforts whereas I do not. Still, I wouldn't want to trade places with them. For most present, making a living off of so-called republican politics in Minnesota is the key. Winning and changing things are purely secondary. They remind me of people on Twitter who virtue signal to others that they would rather lose to Hillary than vote for Trump.

We have met the enemy and it is us.

The event itself was quite something. A large well appointed room, entered from where your car had been valet parked, filled with roaming servers bearing plates of wonderfully prepared hor d'oeuvres. A few were even vegetarian. One server remarked that I was a vegan, an error I brutally disabused her of. She volunteered that she had started a vegan diet & I do believe I talked her out of that unhealthy, sometimes outright dangerous, dietary path. One does what one can where they can.

A small open bar in the corner dispensed drinks. Tables all around filled the large open space. Horowitz and Bill Whittle were to the front of that, where I ended up sitting purely by circumstance.

This vantage point did allow me to Periscope Horowitz's speech, however, for which I was grateful and which I understand was permanently archived by his people. It deserved to be for the sheer brutal honesty of his remarks.

That speech was a recapitulation of his address to students at the University of Minnesota. This audience, however, was completely offput, uncomfortable at the direct language of Horowitz and what he felt were the issues of the times. Minnesota nice was never so suffocating.

Obama was a traitor, Horowitz offered unsubtly, in addition to being a Communist. The country was at great risk, so much so it was almost impossible to overstate the case. Horowitz was a red diaper baby, born to the Left with parents who were movement Communists. He knew of what he spoke. It's just that his audience of consultant stiffs didn't particularly want to hear it. They'd prefer Emmer's pablum about "reaching" across the aisles because having no real set of fixed principles and selling out is something they know about. Indeed, for some, it's a career.

The audience was impassive throughout. They may as well have been democrats and in some fundamental ways I wondered if in fact they were not. I was holding my iPhone Periscoping the remarks and so could not start applause at any given line. I finally set my phone against a glass and was free to follow unencumbered.

Horowitz continued: Minneapolis had suffered real and catastrophic setbacks under brain dead liberal leadership. He cited a variety of statistics to prove his grim point.

He called out Black Lives Matter for being anti-white, anti-police and implicitly a scam suborned by the guilty liberal white media. I could hear the rectums of the audience pucker: they had no idea whatsoever how to respond. A stupid, self-shaming silence was all they could muster, in keeping with their talents. Far from any encouraging response, the audience's reticence was ice cold. I was embarrassed to be in their midst.

Horowitz then asked aloud how was it that Trump could be doing so well? Clearly the indictments he had just laid out before this paralyzed audience supplied the answer and they were among the indicted, though whether they realized such or not is an open question.

This time I was able to clap and did so, waking most of the audience from their somnambulance which then proceeded to join in, somewhat. Yet one got the feeling they didn't really know what they were applauding. Is there a better metaphor for our Minnesota republican establishment?

I've never been at an event where the disconnect between the main speaker and the audience was this great. I turned around several times during Horowitz's speech, to make certain I could see the very people who have brought the Republican Party of Minnesota to the point where it's been unable to win a statewide race in a decade.

They're flush though, doing quite well though, thanks. Freshen your drink? Another canapé?

Afterwards, I saw Horowitz wandering alone between tables. How many times has he been in places where he knew virtually no one?

I approached and we shook hands. I said I thought he would never have an audience less inclined to act upon the insights he had made in his speech than this one.

He stopped, glanced up to meet my eyes and said "Of course."

And then wandered on.

* * * * 

The next day an organizer of the event told me Horowitz had confided in him that my remark was his favorite line of the evening.





UPDATE: My Periscope of Horowitz's remarks has been preserved & can be viewed by clicking here.

The Coming of Governor Tina Flint Smith

Minnesota politics is usually presented as something that needs to be interpreted to the general populace by a sacerdotal local press. Hence programs of almost zero information value like the television shows "Almanac" or "At Issue" which will have guests of both parties, as well as the media party, who routinely impart nothing new or insightful about the political milieu. They're like Minnesota food: bland but familiar and always under salted.

Whether Gov. Mark Dayton has been able to put in a full 40 hour work week since he was first elected remains an open question. Certainly local media were not about to embed themselves in his job in order to find out and report. Their lack of curiosity is a source of ongoing astonishment to me, even accounting for their overt liberal political affiliations.

From his first term, Chief of Staff Tina Flint Smith was widely seen, albeit sotto voce, to be the power in the governor's office. This is not to say that Dayton was merely window dressing to her machinations. He had real moments of both lucidity and poor judgment, consistent with his need to be kept on a more or less tight leash, whether pharmaceutical or political.

No one thinks he's his own man. He recently flip flopped on whether, while the state runs a billion dollar plus surplus, there should be an increase in the gas tax. The press have handled this whip lash with their usual liberal kid gloves, which is to say, not to draw attention to it at all.

The recent death of his billionaire father, Bruce, only brought out further the psychopathologies of his relationship with him. The Dayton family never wanted Mark to go into politics, they knowing his fragile psyche far better than the public, although the local press would never print the truth about it.

As far as I know, I'm the only one in Minnesota who blogged about whether he was, on a sustained basis, mentally competent to govern. That post can be read by clicking here. 

Once she bred with him to keep the money in a tight circle, his former spouse in an arranged marriage Alida ("she's so good looking but she looks like a man") Rockefeller moved on to someone undamaged. She goes by Messinger now, a downmarket name that conjures up car dealerships, like something out of John Updike, who a friend of mine accurately characterized as "a poor man's John Cheever."

The nurse Ratched of Summit Avenue, Smith, former executive vice president of the abattoir known as Planned Parenthood, is best thought of as the Visiting Angels of political handlers to a bored billionaire political dilettante who rotely executes an agenda he is unable to articulate, or, indeed, formulate.

Think Mrs. Wilson, only with Alida Rockefeller's millions flowing into far left political projects in Minnesota. The kind my friend Jeremy Schroeder of Common Cause Minnesota would never deign to condemn as they advance an agenda unsupported by most voters. I've also written in support of Alida's right to spend her money in this way: there is no contradiction. That post can be read here.

When explicit videos came to light of the dismemberment and harvesting for sale of fetal body parts by Planned Parenthood, sickening anyone with a conscience, local media had to be positively shamed on Twitter to ask Smith whether the outfit for which she was an executive vice president engaged in such sales.

* * * * 

Dayton dismissed in a demeaning and disgraceful manner his first lieutenant governor, Yvonne Pretnor Salon, and replaced her on his 2014 ticket with Smith.

Subtext became text.

Had a male republican governor treated a woman subordinate in the same way, the usual hypocrites would have had a field day. But this is Minnesota and media exist to promote the DFL agenda.

The positioning of Smith as the next governor began in earnest with Baird Hegelson's piece in the Star Tribune in February of that election year, 2014. The headline: "Dayton's chief of staff Tina Smith: Bridge builder with a hammer." The sub-headline called her "every republican's favorite democrat." It doesn't get any more unctuous than that but the entire piece is an exercise in Tina promotion.

Any discerning reader will laugh at the embarrassingly fulsome language passed off as insight and political analysis. Increasingly, Star Tribune "reporting" is hagiography of their left wing subjects and not journalism in the old sense, journalism itself having died out some time ago. Hegelson's piece can be read by clicking here. 

Yes, I realize reporters don't write the headlines. But they do get published by a shamelessly in the tank for the democrats newspaper, under the tutelage of white hispanic executive editor Rene Sanchez and failed Seattle Times former employee and now Strib managing editor Suki Dardarian. I've written about Dardarian as well, a rare two-part post which I recommend. Click here. 

Hegelson is now the political editor for the Star Tribune, having replaced the toe curling Patricia Lopez. When liquid water was recently found to exist on Mars, Lopez was at a loss to understand how water could be anything other than liquid, apparently never having heard of snow, fog or steam. She is now a member of the Star Tribune editorial board. It's collective IQ must be approaching 95.

Yet, for a long time, she was the one who managed the newspapers' political reporters. No wonder one of its more well known reporters, albeit still a liberal, was forced out by her and left for the Pioneer Press. Previously on Twitter I had mistaken her ouster as caused by Dardarian.

In October of last year, Star Tribune reporter Patrick Condon filed a story "Lt. Gov. Tina Smith's high-profile role fuels speculation about her political future." The subhead read: "She has become nearly as much the face of the administration as Gov. Dayton himself. And he plans to hand her even more responsibility." Why would this be?

Amongst whom has this so called speculation been fueled?  The answer is given within the article by Speaker Kurt Daudt and others, which can be read by clicking here.

Smith herself weighed in on the left's secular religion "climate change" in an op-ed in the Star Tribune. The piece is rote, rigidly ideological & programmatic, rather like its author. It can be endured by clicking here.

* * * *

Tina Smith, as she goes by now, having dropped her maiden name, as has the rape enabler Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the odds on favorite to be the DFL nominee for governor in 2018.

Some tell me that St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman might present a formidable challenge to her and split at least some of the donor base. That's an interesting thought but it seems unlikely to me, at the end of the day. There is simply too much institutional DFL support for her and the media suck up reflects that.

Coleman doesn't have a vagina but, like almost all democratic, and far too many republican, politicians in Minnesota he's effectively been feminized by the rancid culture of our times.

Ages ago former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch was seen, rightly, as a strong candidate to become the first woman governor of Minnesota who just happened to be a republican. That was then and this is now.

* * * * 

Who do Minnesota republicans have currently?

Mike McFadden is said to be sure to run. "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" McFadden was a poor senatorial candidate when he ran against Al Franken. He lost by ten points and to my knowledge still hasn't congratulated Franken on his win. He has money but not much else. How to break it to him? Honesty is hard to come by in Minnesota republican politics: how else to explain its failure to win a statewide office in many years? McFadden is a non-starter, no matter how much Mitch Perlstein of the Center for the American Experiment wants to promote him.

Some say Keith Downey, currently failing as the Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, wants to run as well. Who are these people? Downey is the Rubio of Minnesota politics: supported by untalented staffers, dismissed by thoughtful people.

Speaker Kurt Daudt seems sure to run and with Ben Golnik his likely campaign manager. Together they might be able to exploit the increasingly sharp divide between rural and metro Minnesota. He'll have to promote a different kind of Daudt though (new and improved) given that place holding and "third smallest increase in government spending" is hardly an agenda that beats Tina.

Scott Honour is also said to be interested in running, despite his tone deaf support of Gov. Chris Christie. Still, he hasn't lost like McFadden has and might not want his son to run his campaign and his daughter to be its spokesman. This McFadden wanted which, among other things, caused the talented, Florida based, Brad Herold to move back to the sunshine state.

Honour is going to have to have more personality and charm than he displayed last time out. I can appreciate how grating this might sound, given that Mark Dayton is frequently a medicated automaton given a pass by the media.

Sen. Michelle Benson is mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate and certainly she's a strong, conservative leader. Sen. Dave Thompson, who was at the top of her ticket when the two of them ran for governor & lieutenant governor last time out, is leaving the state. Possibly Benson could become heir to his wing of the party except for the fact that women officials are not treated well in the Minnesota republican party.

* * * *

There's only one republican, in my estimation, who could beat Our Lady of the Curette Tina Smith and her cold hands. Whether that person wants to run or not depends on several factors, none of which I am privy to. But there's enough of a public record, and concomitant rationale, for me to suggest their chances. Even so, that possible candidate's recent positioning as something of a republican Social Justice Warrior gives me pause, all of which I address in a future post.

Soon.



Photo credit: Glenn Stubbe

Guest Blogging In Canada: On Trump & Hillary

My friend Denyse O'Leary is a well known Canadian author and writer who contributes to "Blazing Cat Fur," one of Canada's leading conservative websites. She recently asked, in an almost offhand manner, what I thought about the presidential race. From her vantage point, she thought Ted Cruz would be the nominee, thinking that Donald Trump had blazed a trail that Cruz could capitalize and win upon. 

I responded that I thought Trump would be the republican nominee and why. Denyse was kind enough to take those thoughts and put them on Blazing Cat Fur so her fellow Canadians could see them. 

That post can be read by clicking here.

The comments are interesting and my American readers--whatever your policy about reading the comments--should take a look at them. 

O'Leary then asked for follow up thoughts about Hillary. I waited until after last Sunday's democratic debate before responding. 

That post can be read by clicking here.

I plan on blogging more in depth soon about Trump and the presidential race in general. I thought, however, given that I haven't posted since October, it made sense to link to these two short pieces.

At the end of my second article, O'Leary asks why other republican candidates didn't take up the call for immigration control. The short answer is that they are all beholden to their donors who manifestly don't care about the issue, want the cheap labor & aren't concerned in the slightest about turning America into, as Ann Coulter puts it, a Third World hellhole. 

Trump is the only candidate who has met publicly and privately with families whose loved ones have been killed by illegal aliens. That not a single other candidate has done so speaks to the moral depravity of the rest of the field. 

* * * * 

I have thought for some time that an intellectual exchange mechanism should exist between Canadian conservatives & Minnesota conservatives. How best to do that? Maybe a non-profit? I find myself at the stage in life where I have more ideas than time left in which to realize them and I'm not by current standards particularly old.

Still, Americans are famously ignorant about Canada and Minnesotans must top that list, despite sharing a border with the country. I'd like to get something going this year but I already have one non profit that will launch and I'm writing another book, most likely to be published next year. I'd be delighted if others were interested in helping me make this a reality and invite them to contact me. 

Big thanks, as always, to Denyse O'Leary. 

Her book "The Spiritual Brain," co-authored with Mario Beauregard, can be purchased here. 

Follow her on Twitter: @itsdesign