The Big E's blog

Suppose you're a endangered Republican Senator from Minnesota. Suppose you wanted to attack your opponent who has drawn even with you despite you and your buddies relentless attacks. Suppose you didn't want to pay for it because you want to save as much as possible of your corporate donations for attacks during the final weeks of the campaign. Suppose you didn't want the attack to come from you.

Suppose you're the businessman who would receive substantial financial gain if a certain endangered Minnesota Republican Senator were to be reelected. In other words, suppose you are the businessman who has received over $1.5 million worth of business from this endangered Republican Senator from Minnesota. Let's also suppose that your wife works for this Senator. Let's further suppose that this Senator rents a place from you in DC. Let's suppose even further that your company office-shares with the endangered Senator's campaign. Let's finally suppose your company does a lot of business with the Chamber of Commerce.

Suppose you're the Chamber of Commerce. Wouldn't you want to attack your endangered Republican friend's opponent? Wouldn't you want to help a businessman who stands to lose a large chunk of business if this endangered friend loses?

It appears that Sen. Norm Coleman has been working with Jeff Larson's company (FLS Connect) to create a Chamber of Commerce sponsored attack ad against Al Franken. FLS Connect does a lot of work for both Sen. Coleman and the Chamber of Commerce.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune endorsed the Republicans lies surrounding the Employee Free Choice Act today on their op-ed page. The Strib will do what they can to frame the issues so that they benefit Republicans Norm Coleman, Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Erik Paulsen. This means that they won't talk about Republican giving tax breaks to the richest Americans. They won't talk about healthcare. They won't talk about Iraq. The editors at the Strib know that if the 2008 election is about these issues, Coleman, Bachmann, Kline and Paulsen will lose.

Taxes. Health care. The war. Certainly, those are some of the more obvious contenders to be marquee issues in Minnesota's hard-fought Senate race. But what has surprisingly emerged to dominate the airwaves and the debate is a bill that was passed by the U.S. House but bogged down in the Senate more than a year ago: the Employee Free Choice Act.
(Strib)

Since they clearly understand what is bad for Republicans, they proceed to repeat the Republican lies about union balloting. They downplay the most important aspect of the EFCA, severe punishments for employers who intimidate and harass employees who are in the process of unionizing. They and the union-busters across America don't like strengthening labor's ability to organize.

Its innocuous name belies the furor raging over it in Minnesota and across the nation.
[emphasis mine]
(Strib)

The furor over this bill come from the union-busters who are able to spend millions upon millions in their union-busting efforts. The raging comes from the Republicans who cannot run on 8 years of the disastrous Bush Administration and have made their party platform secret ballots, "Drill Here, Drill Now" and personal attacks. The Strib is complicit by fanning these flames.

So they focus on the the Republican lies about the card check votes. Under EFCA, employees would get to choose how they want to run their election. They can choose secret ballot, card check or whatever they want. Only a small minority, 30%, need to demand a secret ballot for the union election to be by secret ballot. Regardless, pushing the Republican talking points is much more important:

But the EFCA has the potential to do more harm than good. Its provision allowing unions to bypass a secret ballot with something called a card check is a serious problem. Under the proposed law, unions could bypass a secret ballot if 50 percent of eligible employees signed an authorization form to form a union. It doesn't make sense: Would you pass a school levy or elect a mayor this way? The proposed card-check system also would invite peer-pressure from union sympathizers and, by making a supporter's name public, it has the potential to heighten the risk of employer retaliation.
(Strib)

On the principle that enough people repeating the lie must make it true, you all know that Coleman, Bachmann, Kline and Paulsen can now say that the Strib agrees with their lies. The Strib give their lies credibility and legitimacy. They can now use this op-ed in their attacks on Democrats.

Next up for the Strib, "Drill Here, Drill Now"?

[Updated: see below]

Did everyone see Republican Fox News commentator Mike Murphy on MSNBC's discussion of Bill Clinton's speech? What an @$$ clown.

"I think that Sen. Clinton and John McCain have more in common on foreign policy issues than with Barack Obama and I think that the Clintons will be voting for John McCain in November."

He was booed resoundingly by the people standing around the stage. This is the kind of alternate-reality analysis we've all come to expect from Republican Fox News. I'll post a video once I find it. What a joke.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is up to his eyeballs in filthy lucre. From campaign contributions from corporations to gifts from guys he does business with to donations from lobbyists who represent the murderous Myanmar government to corrupt politicians and their crooked cronies. He simply doesn't understand why anyone would think this is a big deal. All his Republican pals in Congress do it, why should anyone care? Don't you Minnesotans know how the government works?

BTW, here's the fish video the questioner refered to. BTW2, check out Norm's body language ... dishonest, slimy ... or what?

Norm is playing dumb on this because he doesn't want you to comprehend the significance. This trip in and of itself wasn't a big deal. However, it is one instance of a pattern. A pattern of rubbing elbows with the people who benefit when Norm votes the Republican Party line. A pattern of putting corporate and Republican partisan interests before his constituents.

So the guy who organized the trip was convicted on corruption charges. Norm won't return the guys donations and doesn't think this is a big deal. Combine it with cheerleading the Iraq War, supporting Bush's disastrous economic policies, ignoring all the Republican corruption, incompetence and lawlessness, voting to underfund our transportation infrastructure, ignoring the healthcare crisis and going along with the Bush Administration's denial of global climate change and it all adds up to a big deal.

Is this man worthy of representing the great state of Minnesota?

Ashwin Madia's first ad of the campaign will be hitting the airwaves soon. Very understated. Powerful imagery. I think its a great introductory ad.

[Update: he's a wishy-washy flip-flopper. See below]

Republicans in tough races across the country are avoiding the Republican National Convention. They all know the Republican brand is toxic and they don't want to be tied to the most disliked President since polling started. Erik Paulsen is no different, he's frightened. He realizes he's having a tougher time than he should be having.

Paulsen, a Republican who's running in the state's top race for Congress, spent the weekend weighing whether to accept the invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. On Friday, he had said his priority was campaigning in a collection of Minneapolis suburbs that has been trending Democratic.

"My whole attitude is that I'm really focused on the race and during the convention I just want to be campaigning in the district," Paulsen said.
(Duluth News Tribune)

But he's putting a brave face on it. He'd better be.

Ashwin Madia is raising more money than him. He's got an excited and motivated volunteer base. The DCCC has his back whereas, the Republicans are strapped and won't be able to help Paulsen out as much. The district is also trending Democratic which should really scare the far right Paulsen.

-- [Update: the dead tree version had a much more Republican-friendly version, see below] --

The Star Tribune will run an article tomorrow ran an online article about Sen. Norm Coleman's press conference today about energy. The Star Tribune is actually covering an issue in this race. I'm flabbergasted. Did they miss the Republican talking points to make sure this race stays on everything but the issues?

As I've mentioned before, Norm will be performing very difficult political gymnastics in an effort to keep his Senate seat. Norm needs to distract everyone from the last 5 1/2 years of doing nothing on this issue and emphasize his aspirations.

Sen. Norm Coleman said Monday that more oil drilling on the Outer Contintental Shelf off the country's Atlantic and Pacific coasts would generate billions of dollars for the government which could be invested in expanding consumer access to alternative energy.
(Star Tribune)

Norm can promise with both hands in plain view to make sure that he's not crossing his fingers and I would have trouble believing him. It's Norm-speak^TM. Norm will say absolutely anything to get elected. While Strib is completely incapable of analyzing anything Norm says, at least they allowed the Franken Campaign to point out a wee bit of the truth:

But a spokeswoman for likely Democratic candidate Al Franken said Coleman has had six years to push for alternative energy and is only talking about it now because of the upcoming election.

"Al's been calling for a real investment in renewable energy for two years, and Norm's been ignoring the need for six years," Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said.

Howie Klein is at it again. Howie grew up with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in Brooklyn. Suffice it to say that Howie isn't a fan. He's also uncovered a little more dirt on Norm.

Since posting about reactionary billionaire, swift boat funder, and hate-monger Harold Simmons yesterday, we've had more than a dozen e-mails from people in Texas claiming inside knowledge of not just activities that will keep Simmons out of Heaven, but activities that, if they were provable in court, would have him spending the rest of his wretched life in a prison cell. I'll pass on repeating the ones that I can't verify and the personal stuff and just stick to the political dirt.
(HuffingtonPost)

What does Swift Boat Simmons forging donations in his daughters names and abusing their trust funds have to do with Norm Coleman? Norm has received donations from this scumbag.

A reader tipped me off to this one. Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) campaign was paying for push polls as far back as July. This particular mnblue reader had the wherewithall to take careful notes. He'd mailed the Franken Campaign immediately and he let me know after reading Dale Moe's posted about the push polling. Here's the letter:

On the upper left hand corner of mnblue, you'll see three ads. Two for tshirts and one for the Peace Island picnic during the Republican National Convention. So I have a suggestion that will accomplish two distinct things. Buy yourself a tshirt to wear to the picnic.

First, you'll look great and get plenty of laughs. Second, you'll help support mnblue.

Thank you for your support.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN06) has sworn off earmarks. It's one of the issues that Republicans hope to use to pummel Democrats. However, The St. Cloud Times didn't follow the Republican talking points today. They published an article in which Bachmann's opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg talks to a fire chief about earmarks.

Let me repeat that for people shocked that a newspaper in Minnesota would actually let a Democrat talk about an issue in the race: The St. Cloud Times published an article about an issue in the MN-06 race.

On a tour of the St. Cloud Fire Department’s Station One on Friday, Fire Chief Bill Mund asked Elwyn Tinklenberg if he’d go after federal earmarks for area fire and police needs, if elected to Congress this fall.

The DFL- and Independence Party-endorsed candidate smiled broadly.

“You bet. I don’t have a problem with earmarks,” he told Mund. “I want them to be visible, I want them to be vetted, but if it’s worthy, I want it to be in there.”
(St. Cloud Times)

What would it be like if the Star Tribune would start publishing articles about the issues?

Howie Klein updates us on an interesting development on a topic I've written about in the past: Republica fundraising woes. NRSC Chair John Ensign can't raise the bucks to compete, he can't get his fellow Republican Senators to pitch in and implications for the Minnesota Senate race are profound. Where the DSCC will be spending a lot of money in MN, the Republicans won't. They simply cannot compete and Norm will be on his own.

Speaking of not being able to compete. I cannot keep up with the rate at which the Franken campaign is pumping out YouTube vids. Howie Klein had this one:

This one I found at MN Publius:

The League of Conservation Voters endorsement of Al Franken got me thinking. How different are Al and Norm Coleman on this issue. Obviously, I support Al, but environmentally-speaking there are a TON of reasons. From global climate change to corporate campaign contributions to drilling to fuel efficiency to a green economy to pollution, the disparity is stark.

Al Franken has had a good week. The State Fair started which is the traditional place where Minnesota voters meet candidates face to face. Al kicked his State Fair off with an endorsement from the League of Conservation Voters and a poll showing him leading his opponent Republican Norm Coleman 41% to 40% (3.6% MoE). Considering 3 of 4 polls in June showed Al trailing by double digits, this is a huge swing.

"Coming into this poll, I was frankly assuming that Al Franken was in trouble," said University of Minnesota political scientist Lawrence Jacobs, who directed the poll.

Jacobs said he was surprised by the results, given the fact that the Franken campaign has been playing defense to numerous GOP attacks and concerns among some DFL leaders.

"He's had such a lousy string of damaging news reports," Jacobs said. "You couldn't image a candidate going through a worse time. Frankly, if I was an oncologist and a patient presented this way, I would say you're in trouble, this could be fatal, and indeed it looked really bad for Franken. And yet when we got the results of this poll it shows that Franken and Coleman are deadlocked."

About three out of four poll respondents said the country is on the wrong track, and more than half of those voters said they were supporting Franken.

Nearly two-thirds expressed disapproval with President Bush, and among them Franken enjoys a nearly three-to-one lead.
(MPR)

This MPR poll indicates that 11% are undecided. I don't consider that all that large of a number, but how these voters break when they do decide is critical. Another aspect that comes to the surface in MPR's article is the dissatisfaction with the coverage of the race.

At today's MN-03 debate between DFL-endorsed Ashwin Madia and Republican Erik Paulsen, Paulsen called for civility in the campaign. The ironic part of this request is that Paulsen has hired Spawn of Turdblossom (Michael Brodkorb, proprietor of Minnesota Democrats Exposed and mouthpiece of the MN Republican Party) as a "part-time consultant." If there was one single move that could have driven his campaign straight into the gutter, this was it. For a candidate who is trying as hard as Paulsen is to claim that he is a moderate, hiring the most hyper-partisan political hack in the state is not a move toward civility and moderation.

He has posted some of the most vile attacks on Democrats. In terms of level of civility it's like sending Dick Cheney in to to negotiate a bi-partisan agreement on the Senate floor. It's like sending Joe "kill 'em all n let God sort em out" Lieberman to Georgia to negotiate a ceasefire. It's like using a taser to end a squabble between two toddlers.

Soon after he announced his hiring on to the campaign, reports began trickling in that a telemarketing firm was conducting push-polling in the MN-03 district. Coincidence? Stamp of the Spawn of Turdblossom? Hmmmmm...

Fortunately, he was also the talisman of the Mark Kennedy campaign. Just to be clear, Kennedy lost by 20% to Amy Klobuchar in 2006. I'm sure that he will bring the same mojo and killer political skillz to this campaign.

Replubicans have claimed that the sign of a politicians patriotism and love of his country is that he wear a flag lapel pin. A bumpersticker, thumping one's chest and telling everyone who much you support the troops are also signs, but at the histrionics that Replubicans go into when someone doesn't have a flag lapel pin, it seems that this is the most important thing an American can do.

Click on the picture to see a larger version. Click to see for yourself how much Erik Paulsen must hate America.

At today's debate, Republican Erik Paulsen failed to wear a flag lapel pin. What a travesty! Doesn't Paulsen and his handlers remember all the Replubicans talking points? This is unforgivable. Paulsen should apologize to America.

About 200 people attended the first debate between DFL-endorsed Ashwin Madia and the Republican candidate Erik Paulsen. David Dillon the Independence Party candidate was also invited. The debate was sponsored by the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce and held in an auditorium on the General Mills campus in Golden Valley, MN. While I could have figured out where to go from the signs, I just followed the Madia volunteers in their blue tshirts. They were all over the place. I saw no Paulsen volunteers, only his paid staffers.

Moderator Dannette Coleman asked questions about healthcare, free trade, energy, card checks, taxes, education and global competitiveness. Nothing about Iraq or anything Republicans don't like talking about. This should have been a pretty easy debate for Paulsen. Venturing into corporate America is really an away game for Ashwin. The Chamber rarely endorses Democrats and corporate America is notoriously Republican. The atmosphere was subdued, but I think that had more to do with an 8:00am start than anything else.

I know what your thinking. You think that this is a rare Obama post from me. I'm sorry to disappoint.

However, I have found a nearly quintessential example of how diseased and squalid the Republican Party has become. If there are any African-American Republicans in Congress, I'd be surprised. There are no African-Americans running serious campaigns challenging any Democrats that I am aware of. MN-05 happens to have a sucker who is going to get destroyed by Keith Ellison this November. Her name is Barb Davis White. She and the few people helping her campaign are not particularly happy that she is getting absolutely no help from either the state or national arms of the Republican party.

[Updated: Ashwin joined in on the blogging fun]

Ashwin Madia blog day has generated a lot of posts from those of us in the lefty blogosphere. The candidate himself even got into the act. He posted at The Hill. Yow!

There’s a word in Washington for a taxpayer-funded endeavor that grows without limits, busts every budget projection, and which Members of Congress are loathe to confront.

The word is Iraq.

Today, the Republican Party announced that the loudest defender of status quo policies on Iraq, Senator Joe Lieberman, will be a prominent speaker at the Republican National Convention in my home state of Minnesota. Senator Lieberman and I do have one thing in common. We’ve both changed political parties. I left the Republican Party in 2002 after it replaced “balance our budget” with “borrow and spend” and after we started a war without a plan for success; a war we did not need.
(The Hill)

Here's a list. I hope it's comprehensive, but I'm sure I missed someone. Remember, it's not malevolence, just incompetence.

-- [We're half way there, so please help us raise $2,000 for Ashwin] --

I met Ashwin Madia in early December of 2007. I had already interviewed the other two candidates for the MN-03 DFL endorsement, Sen. Terri Bonoff and Jim Hovland. Bonoff had a solid, experienced campaign staff already hired and loads of endorsents ... she seemed inevitable. Hovland was remarkably progressive for a mayor of Edina that just switched teams.

We met at the Perkins at 494 & Hemlock Ave N. as one of the first snowfalls of the year started. He told me about his background -- born here to recent immigrants who arrived with nothing. He went to High School in Osseo and attended the University of Minnesota. He's a Marine vet who served in Iraq and an attorney. He explained his positions on the issues and claimed he would shock a few people with his campaign. You can read that original interview here. I liked everything I heard, but as with any neo-phyte candidate the proof would come out. Talk is one thing ...

I received word on December 14, 2007 that there would be a forum with the three MN-03 DFL candidates at the Ridgedale Public Library. I showed up and I was impressed:

Ashwin Madia won the debate hands down. Bonoff and Hovland stumbled throughout though Hovland did get stronger as the debate went on. Madia articulated clear points that showed his comprehensive understanding of every issue he talked about. He gave precise answers on all the topics. It's not that Bonoff and Hovland gave poor answers except for a couple of occasions, but they sounded vague in comparison.

Ashwin had established a foothold in this race and ran with it.