The Oertwig comeback

Over his five earlier runs for the school board, Al Oertwig has to have become one the highest cumulative vote receivers in our city’s history.  I don’t have the numbers, but the only names I can think of who might have accumulated more would be George Latimer, Vic Tedesco, and Milton Rosen.

 

Now it seems that he wants to add to that total.  He has let it out that he would like the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to endorse him for another school board run.

 

I wish him luck and suspect that he may need more than  whatever luck my wishes are able to deliver.  There was an earlier nastiness which led him to leave office before and it would seem likely that some of it will come up again.

 

Maybe there will not be much raised publicly, certainly not in fora where honest conversation can happen in daylight, but there may well be a lot of alleged dirt coming up in whispers and emails where it cannot be easily confronted.  It may be difficult for his comeback to succeed.

 

However, I remember that Al was one of the directors who would research late into the night doing his own research and not just swallowing what the administration wanted to feed him, a director who worked hard and traveled all over the city checking things out and I would commend his candidacy to those who plan to participate in the caucuses of his party and to the public if the candidacy progresses so far.

Entenza for Governor -- Three questions

Didn’t Matt Entenza have to quit the Attorney General race in 2006 because of late-arising personal problems?

 

Now he wants to be governor?

 

What has changed?

Governor Dayton?

Mark Dayton, who ran for the Minnesota Class I US Senate seat in 2000 because he had just been divorced and needed something to do, and after financing his own successful campaign decided that being a Senator was not all that big a deal, now wants to run for governor.

 

A lot can change, but right now one has to wonder why anybody would wish to run for governor next time.  And if Dayton gets elected what does he do if he finds that that bores him?

Doug Grow in MinnPost

Saints to play in cold; Diablos will stay in hot place

It is a mystery to me why we celebrate winter in our city.  There are many diverse and sundry undesired things to be endured in life and winter is just one.  If we have a Winter Carnival there must be those who wonder shy we don’t have a Hemorrhoid Festival or an Ingrown toenail Carnival or Mother-in-Law Days.

 

Well, it will be too late to be caught up in the Winter Carnival but the Saints seem to be getting into the adoration of winter sentiment too.  Set aside Saturday, February 28 for an outdoor ball game at Midway Stadium.  [At least it will be a day game.]

 

Devils and demons are traditionally, culturally thought of as being associated with heat and Saints as being the opposite, so I guess that perhaps this game is not as strange as it sounds like at first.

 

The opponent will NOT be the El Paso Diablos.  They will stay in the warm places.

 

More information.

Changes at KSTP

Sometimes people think that talk radio is a medium marketed to angry, white males.  That is probably a simplification, but I admit it sometimes seems true.  [Of course, I am a white male and I do get angry some times.]  And I do admit it.  I listen to KSTP.  The days of Dick Pomerantz, Mike Edwards, Jesse Ventura, and Barbara Carlson are long gone and the station has become much more ideologically oriented in its talk programming, but I still listen quite a bit, although not to everybody there.  I cannot abide that ThompsonO’BrienDavis guy and think they have some terribly paranoid syndicated men [being male may be a prerequisite at the station] on weekends sometimes.  I believe that good talk radio has to be about more than politics and agenda pushing, yet recipes, dream interpretation, and entertainment and celebrity gossip [e.g., WCCO in the morning] can only go so far before you find yourself reaching for the dial and saying, “All right, KBEM, let’s have some jazz”.  [Unfortunately WCAL has not been an option for four years now.]  And perhaps now KSTP is moving toward more a less ideological format, although the recent canning of Tommy Mischke is confusing.

 

Matt Thomas and the rest of the sports coverage is good [although like all sports coverage in this area there is way too much ice hockey], Joe Soucheray [who clearly has replaced Jason Lewis as the one they consider the franchise player of the station] can be interesting when he isn’t letting his obsessions with a few themes such as global warming and Franken-Coleman carry him away, and I have usually switched my dial to the Pat Reusse sports[?] updates when I am listening to the radio and it is time for one.  Jim Souhan seems to be filling in well in the former Mischke early afternoon slot [although it apparently is not a permanent arrangement] and A. L. Brown who is limited to one bad time slot and some occasional guest hosting [lovely oxymoron] may be the best they have.

 

So, anyhow, Pat Reusse is now the new morning drive time guy.  By Hubbard standards, Reusse is considered some kind of “liberal.”  Although on his inaugural show this morning, his primary guest was Governor Pawlenty.  This could be an interesting development.  We’ll just have to wait and find out, I guess.

 

In the meantime, former KSTP morning guy David Brauer who now writes for MinnPost asks today, “Hey Pat Reusse, are you crazy?” and wonders why a man Reusse’s age would make such a move.  To quote a local television station, “Good question.”

 

It will be interesting.  And in a somewhat related note, Brauer is also suggesting that Jack Rice [who seems like a conservative guy not so hung up on things and who keeps topics moving] may be leaving WCCO.  [Of course, so are a lot of other people.]

Three comments on the recount

Today the State Canvassing Board certified that the numbers add up to Franken.  Norm’s attorneys threaten suit.  We’ll see what happens.  In the meantime, here are three interesting posts elsewhere about the Coleman v. Franken recount.

After suggesting that Norm should run for Governor in 2010, Zach Stephenson in MNPUBLIUS, comments:

If Norm concedes next week, he’ll look gracious and avoid the “sore-loser” label that will plague him if he fights in court. Polls have shown that Minnesotans approve of the recount. They think the election was fair. I don’t think the public will get behind a court challenge. Moreover, Norm’s own words are really going to haunt him. Remember, right after the election Norm called on Al to concede. He said it was time to heal. If Norm takes this to court, he’ll be a hypocrite.

On the other hand, a concession from Norm would prove that he practices what he preaches. It would reinforce Norm’s self-styled image as a moderate and a uniter. I would expect that his favorability ratings would shoot up significantly.

From Dave Mindeman in mnpACT’s Progressive Politics Blog:

A 225 vote lead is not very big...but its value increases when you become a campaign searching for new votes. The official recount tally is over and even with the court challenges that Coleman has been talking about, there just doesn't seem to be enough numbers to overturn what is officially in the books now. . . .

The only way Coleman could possibly win now is through a prolonged and protracted court action which will do neither side any good.

Eric Ostermeier of Smart Politics, in a post noting the ineffectiveness of the Franken campaign notes

The rationale of their discontent was simply this: in an election year in which the top of the DFL ticket carried the state by a double-digit margin, why is the DFL even in a position to need a recount to win its Senate race?  [emphasis his]

There is also an interesting chart showing how previous DFL Senate candidates did against the head of the ticket and asserting that Franken is the fourth worst ever.

Quote for the day as we begin this year:

In 2009, we should expect religion to do what is has always done -- inspire the very best and the very worst in human thought and practice, especially when it comes to politics and public policy. Faith is like a fire which can either safely cook our food and warm our homes, or burn them to the ground. It's not up to the fire, it's up to us. And it's no different with religion.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, On Faith

Former Senator Coleman?

Well, it looks like tomorrow at 11 am Central Time Norman B Coleman, jr. becomes a former United States Senator, at least for a while.

 

Something is wrong here.  I know that 58% of those who voted two months ago wanted this to happen, but when somebody becomes a former senator, somebody else is supposed to become a current one.

 

The recount and related legal things continue.  It looks to me like both the Canvassing Board and the Supreme Court are doing their jobs well and we need to thank them, but this whole thing is taking up too much time to have a successor qualified by the expiration of the term.

 

In the meantime, we will just have to hope that the rest of the Senate doesn’t abuse us and perhaps we can take comfort in the fact that the first part of a session often limits itself to preliminaries, leaving the actual passage of things until much later.

Today is January 1

This is January 1.  Happy New Year!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s triumphant entry into Havana to mark the completion of the Cuban Revolution.

It is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Barry Goldwater in Phoenix, Arizona Territory.

I am noting these because nobody else seems to be and in our five-finger, two-hand, decimal-oriented society those are usually thought of as big numbers.

Those of us who are old enough can remember Castro being considered somewhat of a hero in this country and Goldwater a nutcase. Attitudes toward both have changed and likely will change again.

Just something to consider.