South Dakota Politics

Daschle's New Job

AVT reports that "Sources at Alston and Bird are fuming over the leak that former Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD/MD) had signed a seven figure bonus. Additionally, Alston and Bird had not planned on releasing the lobbying agreement and are non-plussed about Daschle team early announcement to AVT.  Finally many at the The Firm are scratching their heads over Daschle's insistence that he will only 'advise' and not do what every other person at The Firm does and that is 'lobby.'  Many emails from former Daschle staffers/volunteers upset that they had to read about his plans from the AVT Friday exlcusive. Sources at the SDDP say many Daschle supporters are in disbeleif and feeling betrayed at his choice of becoming a lobbyist."  I have no idea, but this topic has generated a large-number of head-scratching emails. 

MSM

Editor and Publisher:

When Dan Rather departed on March 9, at least he beat his competitors at ABC and NBC for the first time in five years. What seems to have been overlooked by media managers and journalists in their exhaustive discussion of Rathergate and Easongate is what news organizations are supposed to do for a living--- report and publish the news “without fear or favor,” as The New York Times' owner, Adolph Ochs, once put it.

Whatever CBS and CNN may have done wrong originally, both organizations compounded it by going into a coverup mode worthy of the Nixon White House or Bernie Ebbers’ Worldcom board room. The “suits” simply ran a classic corporate crisis-management operation to prevent the important news about what had really happened in their organizations from ever seeing the light of day.

The Minnesota Front

The Blog Formerly Known As Kennedy v. Dayton (TBFKAKVD) now has adopted its new name: Kennedy v. The Machine:

Why 'The Machine'? We found it descriptive of the amalgamation of the DFL, Star Tribune editorial page, most local broadcast media, educational establishment (which values tenure, retirement benefits and political correctness more than education), AFSCME, SEIU and various and sundry other tentacles of the status quo. It also alludes to the worst in big-city Democratic "Boss" politics (see fmr. Mayor Daley, Tammeny Hall, etc.) which has recently reared its ugly head in Washington State, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Kennedy will be up against all these forces and more for the next 19+ months.

The Full Measure of the Dakota Blog Alliance

I'll have more tomorrow on how nobody has ever provided a single example of an inaccuracy relating to what the Dakota Blog Alliance reported/commented on during the Daschle/Thune race (if they do, we're glad to print a correction).  Meanwhile, take note of the word Alliance and read this from Ryne:

But what I do get a little testy about are the incessant allegations surrounding Jon and Jason. There has so far been zero evidence of any wrongdoing, and now we're forced to dine on a bunch of sour grapes, served up fresh by those sitting in the peanut gallery of South Dakota politics (the actual political arena, not the blog).

One more thing. Sibby is dead on when he says that he and I don't fit into the idiotic conspiracy theories that they've cooked up. Many bloggers contributed to the DBA, and only two of them have received any attention in this particular matter. Guys like Sibby, Quentin Riggins, Wally Waltner (and yes, even me) have probably never been contacted by writers working on hammering out a couple hundred words on this story. Why not? What do they have against Steve and Quentin and Wally and I? Why doesn't anyone want to hear what we have to say? It's undeniable that Jon and Jason did the most work, and (along with Sibby) probably deserve to receive the lion's share of the credit. But why hasn't anyone asked us what we think? We busted our blogging asses off to inject fact and opinion into the race, yet we've been shut out when it comes to setting the record straight. (I'm speaking for myself here of course, and none of those other guys. Just letting you know.)

Because we ruin the fairytale, that's why. Nobody wants to hear about Quentin working hard to make sure that DBA conference last August ran smoothly. Nobody wants to think about a couple of ex patriate South Dakotans who blogged the election during their spare time. And they damn sure don't want a piece of Sibby. And they don't want to know about how we did it for free, and would do it a hundred times over.

What a shame, in a way, that all of us are far more transparent than the media, and more honest than any of Jon and Jason's critics. I'm not sure it's supposed to be that way, but it is.

Yeah, the many members of the Alliance and blogs from around the country deserve a lot of credit.  The press should also call the other members involved in the Alliance.  One also can't help but notice that many of the former Daschle staffers/supporters now blogging in SD are doing so anonymously.  They're welcome to do so, of course, but it would seem their arguments might be more persuasive if they were a bit more open about their identities (especially since they've been demanding "disclosure!" for months).  On background, remember that one of the early hit pieces on the Dakota Alliance from CBS News was written by Doty Lynch.  Ryne also notes this new item:

Speaking of political operatives, did you know that Dotty Lynch is a self-described liberal who worked as a pollster for Democratic candidates and liberal causes from 1972 until 1985? Did you know that in 1984, by her own admission, she was an "ardent feminist?" Did you know that in 1984, by her own admission, she was "very involved" in the successful effort to get a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, on the Democratic ticket? We could run our own story about Lynch headlined, "CBS News-Democratic Party Connection," and we wouldn't have to use a question mark.

Again, the key point: yes, blogs have opinions and are politically-inclined.  So are members of the mainstream media.  The former admit it; the latter maintain a fiction. 

Daschle Senate Run?

Ryne:

The rumor mill is churning that Tom Daschle may run for Paul Sarbanes' seat in Maryland. Wouldn't that be a hoot? I absolutely cannot believe Daschle wanting an eastern seat -- or Maryland wanting Tom Daschle, for that matter -- but it's rather fun to think about.

Like:

A.) Wouldn't it be funny to see another Daschle v. [Insert name here] blog?

B.) There are enough former Daschle staffers (still unemployed, mind you) whizzing around the Internet right now to fill his first Maryland campaign office.

C.) Finally, Tom Daschle could kick off his shoes and relax with his fellow Blue State sophisticates.

The possibilities are endless! Too bad it'll never happen.

So, the Washington Times reported that Daschle was being urged to run for the Senate from Maryland but it hasn't been reported in South Dakota, eh?  Just making a note for the record...and still catching up on the stories I missed while on R&R.  This one tops the list of the most amazing/strange.  Also, there was speculation on Mt. Blogmore about Daschle running for Governor.

Tonight We're Going to Party Like It's 1989

Seeing the picture Prof. Blanchard posts below, and this other one from Beruit that I cribbed from Powerline, it makes me feel like it's 1989 and totalitarianism is collapsing in a whole new part of the world.

 

More on Herseth

House:

Rather than take responsibility for missing the negotiations on the bill, Herseth took the sleazy route and used the tragically vacated House seat as an alternative to her own representation. According to this Yankton Press story Herseth said "As last year's bill contained nothing for our state, this $35 million is a dramatic improvement."  Wow, Steffi's better than nothing. But, I'm not so sure that's such a dramatic improvement.

I assume this blog is run by Charley House of Mt. Blogmore fame, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, House is saying SDP needs to liven up a bit.  We will.  Just needed a break, Charley.  Should have something quite interesting very soon, however.  Finally, for the road, Charley is also rather brutal (but funny) on our representative here.  Excerpt:

Letters from Steffi I

Dear Grampy,

I'm not HAPPY right now! People are mean to me Grampy! And they don't do what they're s'posed to!  ...

You can read the whole thing by following the link.

Colman Votes No on ANWR

Star Tribune:

Facing this week's Senate showdown on oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., says he will stay in the anti-drilling camp.

Coleman opposed opening ANWR to oil exploration during his 2002 Senate campaign. But in 2003, he floated the idea of voting to allow drilling in exchange for energy provisions that would help Minnesota's economy.

North Dakota Blog

That new North Dakota blog entitled "Taking Back North Dakota" which will be following Senator Kent Conrad's race in 2006 is located HERE.  Apparently, the link was bad before.

Battle of Crowds in Lebanon

Tip of the hat to Powerline. 

In a stunning show of force, an estimated 800,000 anti-Syria, pro-freedom demonstrators turned out in Beirut today, implicitly responding to, and far exceeding, Hizbollah's impressive effort of a few days ago:

800,000 seems like a lot.  But there seems to be general agreement that the crowd is much bigger than the one turned out by Hizbollah.  See the New York Times.

See also "Human Tsunami covers Beirut." at Blogging the Democratic Revolution
which has the pleasing name publiuspundit as its address.

Argus

AVT:

Argus Leader Censures USA Today Columnist

Gonzo Editor in Chief Randall Beck chose to delete the following sentences from USA Today columnist Chuck Raasch. Gonzo Editor Beck ran a scrubbed version after much discussion within the Argus Editorial board as to even run the column written by All-Star Analyst and SD Native Chuck Raasch.

Following are the words Gonzo Editor Beck censured.

"In 2004, bloggers first challenged the veracity of the now discredited CBS story about President Bush's National Guard service that tainted Dan Rather's final months at the network. Bloggers were on the payroll of Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., during his successful challenge of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle last year. They attacked South Dakota's largest newspaper, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (owned by Gannett), in a thinly veiled attempt to tilt the paper's coverage toward Thune — a tactic the paper's editors say did not work.
Thune pooh-poohed his paid bloggers' impact in a recent interview with Gannett News Service's Larry Bivins, but he also has suggested that Republicans employ bloggers in future campaigns."

Read the uncensored version here.

Again the reason for our name ArgusVThune - you read it here first.

Go West, Young Man

A near relation of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, sends this uncharacteristically intelligent email in response to a post about the fate of the Democrats out West:

One thing to remember when considering which way future elections will go in the mountain west is the influx of folks from California and such.  Granted, not 100% of Californians are democrats, but many of these folks are of the somewhat wealthy demographic who have moved to the mountains to "get in touch with nature" or something along those lines.

 

As one sign along I-70 near Rifle, Colorado used to say, "Don't Californicate Colorado". In other words, the conservative, gun-toting natives don't like these new folks who are moving in.

When You Wish Upon A Star

It looks like I might get my wish for a funny named Senator from Maryland. Kweisi Mfume is running. 

Frank Rich on Deadwood

I don't expect to be quoting Frank Rich much, let alone approvingly.  But he's got a good paragraph on my current favorite show, HBO's Deadwood.  You take take or leave the rest of the piece as you please, but this gets close to the heart of what makes Deadwood great TV.

Its linguistic gait befits its chapter of American history, the story of a gold-rush mining camp in the Dakota Territory of the late 1870's. "Deadwood" is the back story of a joke like "The Aristocrats" and of everything else that is joyously vulgar in American culture and that our new Puritans want to stamp out. It's the ur-text of Vegas and hip-hop and pulp fiction. It captures with Boschian relish what freedom, by turns cruel and comic and exhilarating, looked and sounded like at full throttle in frontier America before anyone got around to building churches or a government.

It is, in short, Machiavellian in its approach to the human things.  Check it out. 

Tommy We Hardly Knew Ye

As news that Tom Daschle does not live in South Dakota anymore settles in on folk who were not tipped off early by reading this blog, it occurs to me that an outside observer might wonder what all the fuss is about.  Daschle has gone from Senator to proto-lobbyist, a cocoon from which he will emerge in a years time as a full formed lobbyist with a salary that will likely be larger than the total income of a lot of South Dakota counties.  This is the life cycle of the modern American legislator, and it would be altogether mean spirited of us to despise Daschle for it but not Bob Dole. 

It's chief interest lies in the connection between this story and what looks in retrospect to be the fatal flaw in Daschle's last campaign for Senate. The flaw was his expensive house in D.C.  The residency issue (was he really a resident of South Dakota, or of Washington as his tax arrangements indicated?) amounted to nothing legally or morally, but it had significance politically.  It suggested that he had moved away.  He wasn't from here anymore.  He served our interests, probably very well, and in return expected us to keep him in the Senate.  But his real life was in the power elite game at which he had become so good.  In a lot of places, say New York, that power elite thing will help you.  But not in South Dakota.  Maybe this is a character flaw in us, and maybe not, but we prefer that South Dakotas Senators and Representatives keep their roots in the state.  Maybe it was unfair to Daschle, but it sorta looked like he had immigrated.  Thune would do well to take note.

A local Democratic blog (I won't mention their name as they are very, very sensitive to criticism), recently proclaimed that "Daschle is still our leader."  Well, no he isn't.  When asked why he stayed in Washington D.C., he replied:

Daschle said he is staying in Washington because he cares ''a great deal about the issues that I worked on in public life, and I want to be able to continue working on them in private life.''

That's perfectly fair.  He obviously loves politics, is good at it, and no doubt passionately cares about the many issues that he championed as a Senator.  But he didn't mention South Dakota, or how he could serve her interests in this new job.  The butterfly has flown. 

The Crystal Ball

I had no idea how prescient my comments were during the campaign linking Daschle to Dole until I read this morning’s Aberdeen American News. 

The former Senate Democratic leader will serve as a ''special policy adviser'' in the firm's Legislative and Public Policy Group. Senate ethics rules bar him from directly lobbying Congress for one year.

He will join Bob Dole, the former Republican senator from Kansas, who is now ''special counsel'' at the firm. Both men have served as Senate leaders.

''We won't be lobbying, but we'll provide strategic policy advice'' to clients dealing with government, Daschle said.

By working with Dole, ''we can get different perspectives,'' he said. ''People are going to have the benefit of both a Republican and Democratic perspective - that's one of the strengths we can offer."

Daschle said he is staying in Washington because he cares ''a great deal about the issues that I worked on in public life, and I want to be able to continue working on them in private life.''

In a prepared statement, Dole described Daschle as ''the consummate public servant'' and said he looked forward to working with him.

Image boost: The pairing of two former Senate leaders will likely boost Alston & Bird's image in Washington.

 

   

Come Home, Senator Daschle

I hate to be the one to say I told you so:

The widely held view is that a defeated Daschle would bank on the clout, reputation and knowledge he has gained during 26 years in Congress and a decade as a Senate leader.

"Daschle would become a lobbyist like his wife (Linda) and stay in D.C. It doesn't take a seer to know that," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said. "If Daschle loses, of course he could run again. He's never lost before. But why would he? He's had a long tenure, and that's that."

Also, Daschle could easily tap into the lucrative speaking circuit, write books or play any number of roles on the national stage, Sabato said.

"Speaking, absolutely. There's amazing money in that profession. Clinton made more in a single speech than he was paid annually as president," he said.

Jon Schaff, assistant professor of political science at Northern State University in Aberdeen, agrees with Sabato about Daschle's fate in the event of defeat.

"If he loses, I'm sure he's going to come back to Aberdeen," Schaff said jokingly. "Not a chance he's coming back to South Dakota. His wife makes a nice living as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., I suspect he'd go the way of (former Kansas Sen.) Bob Dole. As Kansas became a faint memory for Bob Dole, South Dakota will be a nice, quaint memory for Tom Daschle."

Tom Daschle, Lobbyist

From this morning's Argus story about Daschle becoming a lobbyist:

After the 2004 election, Daschle told the Argus Leader that he had no plans to become a lobbyist. ... Neither Daschle nor his new employer would discuss how much he will be paid.

Since Daschle will apparently be working with former Senator Dole, note what Mrs. Dole said in November in the Washington Post:

But no sooner had the two leaders issued these promises than Dole accused outgoing Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who was defeated in a bid for reelection earlier this month, of obstructionism.

"Led by Minority Leader Daschle, these recent years a number of important issues for America have been stymied -- certainly a comprehensive energy policy, asbestos litigation reform, medical liability reform, class-action reform, welfare reform, the nominations, confirmations of many important judicial positions," Dole said.

Asked whether her remarks were in keeping with the spirit of civility, she said: "I'm just stating the facts of where we've been in terms of a number of important issues that have been stalled."

Also, note one of Daschle's commercials from last fall:

ANNOUNCER [v/o]: You can tell a lot about a man by the choices he makes. After John Thune lost two years ago, he chose to become a lobbyist at a firm pushing for high drug prices and foreign beef.

(On screen: Senate Office of Public Records; Argus Leader 10/11/04)

Lobbyist John Thune sold out South Dakota and was paid over $500,000 to do it.

(On screen: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Is Responsible For The Content Of This Advertising. Paid For By The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. www.dscc.org; Not Authorized By Any Candidate Or Candidate's Committee)

CLARENCE FIEGEN: Thune was a lobbyist for a firm that worked for the big drug companies. We know what that means.

TOM DASCHLE: I'm Tom Daschle, and I approve of this message.

(On screen: www.tomdaschle.com; Approved By Tom Daschle And Paid For By A Lot Of People Supporting Tom Daschle Committee)

Of course, neither statement--that Thune lobbied for drug companies or against COOL--was true.  But hey, such details didn't get in the way of the Daschle re-election effort. 

Is there something else wrong with Kansas?

From The New York Times:

ABOUT 18 months ago, government, economic and marketing officials from around the state of Kansas gathered in a series of meetings to address what a top tourism official called the "volatile, emotionally charged subject" of the state's national image.

Their findings were exceptionally bland.

"The image of Kansas wasn't negative, it was blank," said Scott Allegrucci, the state's director of travel and tourism development, who had conducted some very polite focus groups. "The biggest response to Kansas was no response. A lot of Kansans expect people to say Oz, or cowboys, or just being flat, but what it really boiled down to is that as far as image, we don't have one."

Well, that was then. For better or worse, Kansas has been claiming a much greater place in the national consciousness lately: through its association with conservative politics, documented in Thomas Frank's best-selling 2004 book "What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," and through a bushel of headline-hogging news stories that came flying, twisterlike, out of the state over the last month.

Beef Exports

Senator Thune has been pressing the Japanese to get their border open to American beef:

After meeting Friday with the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Sen. John Thune said he intends to seek tougher measures to force Japan to reopen its markets to U.S. beef.

Thune, R-S.D., said cattle ranchers and many lawmakers are exasperated by the Japanese government's lack of action on resuming beef imports. Japan stopped importing U.S. beef in December 2003 after a Canadian cow infected with mad cow disease was found in the United States near the Canadian border.

Although Japan agreed in October to begin importing beef from animals 20 months old and younger, it has yet to lift the ban.

Thune was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met privately for about an hour Friday with Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato to discuss the matter. The senator said Kato blamed the delay on studies that still must be completed on risk management and assessment.

Thune told reporters he appreciated the meeting but was unimpressed with Kato's explanation.

"To me, it sounds like a bunch of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo," he said.

Thune said he will introduce a resolution next week similar to one submitted last week in the House that urges the U.S. trade representative to impose economic sanctions against Japan unless it lifts the ban or sets a specific time frame for removing it.

"Without any certainty of what the timelines are, we just keep getting strung along, and it makes no sense," Thune said. "There is tremendous frustration in cattle country that there is no scientific justification" for the ban.

The Japanese ambassador declined to speak to reporters after the meeting.

The North Dakota Front

A new blog has been launched entitled "Taking Back North Dakota."  This fellow from Minto, ND is taking a tough look at ND Senator Kent Conrad.

Herseth's Highway Bill Headache

AVT is noting that SD has fallen to 46th in Highway funding increases this year on freshman Democrat Stephanie Herseth's watch.  AVT notes that Thune's freshman 1997 Highway Bill had SD ranked 8th in Highway funding increases.  AVT mentions this report by Bob Mercer, which begins:

The state's lone member in the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday for a new federal transportation funding program without knowing how South Dakota would fare.

AVT also notes:

Sources at the SD Association of General Contractors are furious with the circus show Herseth is turning in on the Highway Bill.

With Herseth leaving for Europe during the height of the debate - SD AGC reps were left to deal with her staff. My source says they fail to see why she cannot get the baseline of $50 Million and on top of it rumors are swirling that Herseth needs a new definition of what a Highway is.

AVT has been all over this.  Just catching up on all that has been written.

One Last Flip-Flop for the Road

AVT:

Last Friday in an AVT exclusive the Daschle/Alston and Bird alliance was announced. Sources close to former Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle say an Alston and Bird seven figure signing bonus is what tipped the scales in the frenzied bidding war among DC elite lobbying houses.

One of AVT best sources reminds us of this story appearing in The Hill.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/010505/daschle.html

“I have nothing against those who lobby, and my wife is a very good one herself,” (Daschle) said. “One in the family is probably all we need.”

Daschle Inc. continues.

I'm with the Tiger

Another example of a self-correcting problem, from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

An investigation has found there's nothing wrong with the Great Plains Zoo fencing designed to keep in animals and protect visitors.  That's no surprise.

The investigation was undertaken after a Vermillion man jumped a fence that kept people from getting close to a Siberian tiger exhibit and then stuck his hand through another fence - only to be bitten by a tiger.  The man received stitches to a finger and underwent rabies shots.

There was an automatic check of the zoo to see whether there are problems.  "Our inspection of the cat exhibit found no defects with the fencing or any other portion of the exhibit that would create a hazard or exposure to the public," said Regan Smith, risk manager for the city.

This just puts an official stamp on what most people in Sioux Falls already thought. The problem was with the Vermillion man, not the zoo.  Common sense still has a role in daily life. It's just dumb to stick your hand in front of a wild animal.

Whatever differences we may have had with the Argus Leader, we're with 'em on this one.  I've seen the tiger down there and its quite putty tat.  If someone jumps a fence and tries to pet the kitty, well, that's neither the zoo's nor the tiger's fault.  Maybe its the cat that should have gotten the shots.

LHS!!

The big news of the weekend is that my high school, Lourdes High School Rochester, MN, has once again won the 2A Girls Basketball Championship in Minnesota.  This is championship number eight. And my Gophers copped an Eight seed  in the Men's NCAA Tournament. 

Bankruptcy

For some information on the bankruptcy bill, go here.  Hat tip, Instapundit. 

I noticed one last little tidbit from Sam Hurst in the Rapid City Journal .

Without shame, the Senate leadership invoked cloture, cut off debate, and refused to bring Dorgan's amendment to a vote. It's one thing to oppose debt relief for old people, or National Guardsmen whose businesses collapse while they are on the battlefield, but what upstanding Republican wants to vote against investigating fraud ... so they just decided not to vote at all. There will be no hearings.

Sorry, Mr. Hurst. Cloture requires 60 votes. That means those meanie Republicans could not have “silenced” Byron Dorgan without Democratic help. 

What is a Majority?

The King of Kinkiness, Prof. Blanchard, notes below the rather odd comments in the Rapid City Journal about the Republicans “abusing” their majority in Congress. The author uses the bankruptcy bill as an example of Republicans using their majority for nefarious deeds. Well, lucky for us there is this little website called www.senate.gov.  On that website you can look up actual votes in the US Senate (the same can be done for the other chamber at www.house.gov).  I see that the bankruptcy bill passed 74-25 (one non-voting). Now I am just a simple country boy and I don’t necessarily understand this sophisticated big government thing, but I don’t think there are 74 Republicans in the US Senate. In fact, I think there are fewer. Maybe those dastardly Republicans have altered the website just to make it look like some Democrats voted for the bill. And I look at the list of those who voted “Yea” and I see such noted Republican hacks as Sen. Tim Johnson from South Dakota, Sen. Kent Conrad from North Dakota, Sen. Ben Nelson from Nebraska, and the Republican leader in the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada. Those damn Republicans!  I know ranchers would NEVER use the legislative process to benefit their industry like the evil credit industry is doing. It's not like they'd try to get legislation passed to keep foreign meat out of the country so American ranchers would not have to compete. American agriculture never uses its power to benefit themselves at the expense of consumers.  That's why we don't subsidize mohair, or surgar, or cotton, or peanuts, or dairy, or ethanol made from corn...

 

The Trouble with Democracy is that its Democratic

The Rapid City Journal has this piece from frustrated Buffalo Rancher and Documentary Film maker, Sam Hurst.  What frustrates Mr. Hurst is that the Republicans are abusing thier power in  Congress.  How, precisely are they abusing it?  By using their superior numbers (see Majority) to win votes on the House and Senate floors. 

Take bankruptcy reform. The new bill is intended to "tighten" the rules so that "cheaters" can't slip through the cracks. Of course the bill will lead to huge additional profits for the credit card companies, but what the hell ... it's good to crack down on cheaters.

Then came the Democrats to the floor with their amendments. "What if an elderly couple is wiped out by huge medical bills?" Almost half of the bankruptcies today are the result of medical catastrophes. "All they have left is their home. Can't we give them some protection?"  "All in favor, say 'aye' All opposed 'nay'. The 'nays' have it." Republicans turn a cold shoulder.

News flash: credit card companies make money by charging interest on the money they lend, just like Buffalo ranches make money, I would presume, by selling Buffalo meat for a profit.  If the rancher delivered a lot of meat and the receiver did not pay, the rancher would be miffed.  Even if the receiver was an elderly couple in financial difficulties, the rancher might still want his money.  So we can't determine the sinfulness of the Republicans based just on the fact that the credit card companies like the bill.

Nor I think does it prove that the Republicans are black of heart or somehow scofflaws just because they keep winning floor votes. 

But we are not served as a nation by congressional leaders who have turned a 51/49 electoral split into a mandate for single-party monopoly. It's not about power, or the prerogatives of the majority party, it's about the good of the nation, and the radical notion the Founding Fathers understood so well, that stability and legitimacy come to a government when the voice of the minority is well heard.

This is nonsense.  With a few exceptions, 50% plus one is what is needed to win in Congress.  This is precisely the system that the founding fathers set up.  The voice of the minority was obviously heard in all the instances Mr. Hurst mentions, else he could not have reported on them for us.  What he wants is not that the minority be heard but that it be successful.  I understand the feeling.  But somewhere there has to be a cutoff line below which loosing means loosing.  The founders thought that, for most purposes, the majority/minority line was just fine.

Argus Editors

In today's paper, the editors of the Argus Leader argue that "there's a culture of government secrecy in South Dakota that's going to be difficult to break." 

Changing Time in Fargo

Check out how North Dakota legislators are considering altering time, i.e. declaring via statute that a person will turn 21 at 8:00 AM the day before his birthday.  From The New York Times:

ARGO, N.D. - The homemade video captures the first hour after the stroke of midnight when the birthday boy turned 21 and could legally drink.

His friends thrust shots at him in a booth at the Bison Turf bar and taunt him to drink, shouting obscenities and chanting his name as he tosses back one after the other with beer chasers. After 30 minutes and the 13th shot - a Prairie Fire, or tequila with Tabasco - he vomits into a metal bucket, provided by the bar, the birthday souvenir taken home by so many 21-year-olds before him. Then he resumes his drinking.

"It's the best time of his life," a friend slurs to the camera. "We've all done it. It's a tradition."

The tradition is "power hour," or "21 for 21," as it is known in some other places across the country: 21-year-olds go to a bar at midnight on their birthdays, flash newly legal identification and then try to down 21 shots in the hour or so before the bar closes, or as fast as possible.

It can be a deadly rite of passage. Officials in California, Michigan, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Texas have reported deaths from such drinking binges over the last five years.

Colleges and cities have tried various tactics to stop the ritual, and now, hoping to deprive power hour of its frenzy, Texas and North Dakota are considering legislation that would declare that 21-year-olds reach the legal drinking age not at the stroke of midnight on their birthdays but seven or eight hours later in the morning.

But the experience of Fargo, where power hours sent one 21-year-old into a coma and killed another, shows how difficult it can be to change a culture of drinking.

Here, the lights of bars beckon brightly against the relentlessly flat, snowy plains surrounding them, and people often preach personal responsibility. There were no rules against bars serving the intoxicated when Lance Jerstad went into a coma after a power hour at the Bison Turf in November 2002, and the city agreed to pass such an ordinance only after much resistance from officials and bar owners who said that responsible drinking fell to the drinker, not to bars.

It took Jason Reinhardt's death in March 2004 for bars in Fargo to put up signs saying "You can blow out 21 candles, but we won't allow you to down 21 drinks." And if few people here advocate 21 shots in an hour, many still resist what they see as government intrusion on the tradition of the first drink at midnight, one that has been shared with parents and family friends.

"We were having a power hour a night, and no problems," said Pete Sabo, the owner of the Bison Turf, a bar so close to the southern edge of North Dakota State University here that it has become like an extension of the campus. Most, he said, were just a drink or two. ...

Joel C. Heitkamp, the North Dakota state senator behind a similar proposal here that would make the legal drinking age 8 a.m. on the 21st birthday, agreed. "We want them to wake up in the morning and realize they have a whole day," he said, "and that they don't have to cram what most of us would consider an evening's activity into one hour."

There was a Mrs. Heitkamp who ran for governor and was AG I think, so there's probably some connection.

NY Times: "A Connoisseur of Oddities From the Heart of the Midwest"

From Saturday's New York Times:

maha is the home of Warren Buffett, the careful money manager, and Mutual of Omaha, the venerable insurance company. It sits at the edge of a state once known as part of "the Great American Desert," a state where Kool-Aid was invented and Spam is manufactured.

In his memoir of growing up in Omaha, Michael Rips recounts a description of the city's reputation among advertisers as the "most thoroughly white, docile and middle-class" place in the country, ideal for test-marketing products.

But as seen through the eyes of Mr. Rips, a transplanted Nebraskan who now lives in New York, it is - or was - anything but docile. In fact, in his memoir "The Face of a Naked Lady: An Omaha Family Mystery," just published by Houghton Mifflin, it more often verges on the surreal, a place where a dead man could drop through the ceiling of a coffee shop, a tornado could suck your grandmother into a garbage chute, or you could walk in on a man having sex with a chicken while singing "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top."

Those Pics

As promised, here's that picture of one of the monkeys that inhabit the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, which British engineers turned into a massive fortress loaded with big cannon.  Nothing was getting out of the Mediterranean unless they wanted it to.   

When leaving Gibraltar for Africa, which one can easily see from the Rock, you might want to stop here:

A Way Around Free Agency

Tom Ruprecht, in the New York Times, has a theory about why Congress has chosen to supoena so many baseball superstars. 

The more I thought about it, the more the hearings began to make sense. Disappointed with the anemic lineup of the Washington Nationals, Congress has found a way to attract baseball superstars to Washington: subpoena them.

Good theory, but maybe they need to supoena younger players, and more pitchers. 

Daschle Has a New Job?

According to an email that just came in, Daschle will be lobbying for a Washington law firm.

How The West Was Won

The Salt Lake City Tribune theorizes that the Mountain West may be a place for Democrats to look to obtain a national majority.  The author, John Yewell (who spells his first name wrong), points to Democratic gubernatorial or senatorial victories in places such as Montana, Colorado, and Arizona as evidence that Democrats can win in the mostly conservative West.  I think this is an intriguing notion, and I'd add that the one state he calls solidly Republican, Idaho, has a Democratic mayor in its largest city, Boise.  But I still think he claims too much.  As Yewell himself concedes in the Montana example, where Montanans recently elected a Democratic governor, this had at least as much to do with Republican malfeasance as it did with Brian Schweitzer's virtues.  This is what also happens from time to time in my former stomping grounds of Wyoming. Sometimes the Republicans get too arrogant in their almost unquestioned hold on power and get whacked by voters.  Yewell also must make a distinction between national parties and state parties.  Maybe Montana and Wyoming will elect a Democratic governor now and then, but the chance they will vote for a Democrat for president is almost nil.  Just look at how many Democratic Senators there are from the Mountain West (the Mountain West includes Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho). By my count it is four (Ken Salazar, Jeff Bingaman, Harry Reid and Max Baucus) against twelve Republicans.  Because of a handful of factors (namely the presence of Hispanics and/or a large urban center) states like New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada may be in play for the presidency, but the idea that the Mountain West can become part of a permanent Democratic coalition is just absurd.  People in the West like their guns too much and the federal government too little to be Democratic.