Part of the problem we have with education is Congress in theory shouldn’t be involved. I want to improve the public schools a person should run the local school board not heavan forbid Congress and try to mandate it down.(part of our previous arguments that congress should spend what they are suppose to do). What is needed in a rural school district isn’t what is needed in a city district. Part of the blame Republicans should be that the federal government can’t do it period. We didn’t have that dramatic improvement the previous eight years when Clinton ran the education department.
One college to avoid the possibility of the Federal government telling it what to do tells students they won’t be admitted if they use federal aide. Part of federal money for everything has 535 people telling states how to do it. Unless I mistook my history books I thought the states were suppose to be independent on most issues. And keep in mind the one school district that the federal government controls is bad and parents want the option of vouchers but Democrats don’t want to give what a city that votes more than 80% Democrat wants.

One of the problems we have the I-35W Bridge being rebuilt is that automatic federal environment waivers (wasn’t the bridge built before) would go away if was dramatically different from the previous one not to mention funding was based on the old design.

That might not be answering the debate the way you want it. In the private sector businesses in an effort to compete have learned to limit their payroll. So if you think 25% on administration is okay should we go for 30%? Mind you the business community despite the higher pay for the people will be shooting for 20% or less. One reason why the private sector pays more is that if someone is perceived to be good they get paid more.

the reasons why I don’t take up your idea for running are many. All I know is that under total Democrat controlled and higher spending than your district (in part to have class size smaller than 30 – the example I gave was to maintain 16) hasn’t produced results. That’s why we have to look for approaches to get better results.

the one major problem with Milwaukee or any system you cite is that the entire school population isn’t given that real choice.

part of your problem is that you think large classes can’t be taught. The teacher I cited in the TNT movie had a large class. Keep in mind this was the group that wasn’t consider the better students and before the school year was done he got them performing better than the group that was suppose to be the best in that school.

so just crying we need more money is no excuse. That is the zombie mentality of the Democrat party. More money. Can’t we try to spend better first?

The Bush tax cuts have improved my life because:

* They have spurred the economy and allowed it to absorb several things that would’ve killed an economy in the past 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, war on terror, mortage crisis.

* The federal government is now capable of spending almost three trillion dollars instead of the two trillion dollars when Bush took office. relief like for Hurricane Katirina victims.

* The stock market has gone up so my investments have grown. If I had managed my budget in the past better I’ll have a lot more saved than I do, but that is my fault! It will be nice if I could voluntarily use my Social Security money like Bush wants me to, but Democrats don’t want me and others to have that choice.

I’m happy. Of course I’m an indenpent thinking person.

Walter Hanson

* A poor person can’t go out and hire somebody. They need a business that can make money. Giving tax cuts help people get jobs.

It isn’t a moot point! You raised it. You’re the person who threw it out there! Furthermore you took the position that if New York should do it than it implies that Minnesota should do it.

Okay than.

The family of $83,000 should the government pay for a nice car for them?

Should the government pay for their utilities?

Should the government pay for their food?

should the government given them tuition for their kids in grades one – twelve since the Democrats want to give college and pre Kid.

Okay you gave some percentages for schools. But take a careful look at the percentages. The pay for the teacher is broken into two areas. In my example the teacher generated just 37.5% of the money. The Principal with the math I used was 8.75%, the secretary with the math I used was 5.00%, the janitor was 3.75%, other stuff for kids I’ll take your numbers and use 20% all of that adds up to 75%. You’re missing 25%. That is used in adminstration and waste. Lets just say that you committ just 20% to administration and use the extra 5% on the kids. Without increasing taxes one cent you have just dumped using your number $425 per student into the class room.

A major part of the problem and why parents have lost confidence in the system is that happens in school’s not to advance their knowledge. It used to be that school’s held students back. Than the it will hurt their feelings movement took place and that stopped. A student was no longer critictized for saying 2 + 2 = 5. No offense, but that was the mentality of Democrats not Republicans. Of course if a Republican suggested that a black child be left behind because they’re not learning we will be called racist!

I was educated in the public schools and I keep making the point about private schools for these reasons:

One, parents don’t feel now that their child is getting proper attention. Privates schools will probably give their attention better than the public school.

Two, right now the schools get the money and spend the money the way they see fit. A lot of it gets spent on adminstration. If the Minneapolis School Board will ever wake up and fear they are losing more than half their students in one day they might do real reforms.

Three, part of the problem right now is that bad teachers aren’t being held accountable. If half the students from one teacher start getting pulled during the school year it might tip off the school board and principal that teacher might not be a good teacher.

And four, Democrats talk about choice all the time. Shouldn’t the parent have the real power to chose what school their child goes to?

One further point. You keep pointing out that we have to have more money for education. Minneapolis spends far more than your school district does. Our students aren’t learning. The difference in Minneapolis the school board is all Democrat! We’re spending more than $10,000 per student. What does that say about how Democrats manage the system if they get their way? You seem to think just give Democrats more control. I’ve seen it. It doesn’t work!

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

Does that mean a family should be able to get a nice care from the government since people need transportation to work?

You’re in favor of college aide so shouldn’t the government give a family that makes less than $83,000 money to pay to let their kids go to a private school since the public schools seem to be a failure.

Okay if a family with an income of $83,000 gets insurance from the government than the government should pay all the utility bills. After all everybody should have heat, power, and water with no problems.

What bills should a family with an income that has $83,000 have to pay? Apparently you seem to think that the government should write a check for everything.

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

Boy you are a perfect demonstration of what is wrong. I live in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is controlled by the DFL totally. The school board is all DFL! The Minneapolis School Board has gotten every single tax increase that they have asked for. We should have the smartest Rhode Scholars coming out of the Minneapolis School System every year because Democrats run education perfectly! But we don’t. It’s gotten so bad I saw an article in the Star Tribune where blacks were fleeing the school system because they lost faith in it.

You automatically assumed that my goal was to cut the salary of the CEO running the Minneapolis school board. In the example I quoted in #57 $100,000 of the tax dollars met for the class room was being applied to other things. Some of it will be to heat the build but if my heating bill is $2,400 for the year lets apply that to one classroom. That still leaves $97,600. Lets say you pay the principle of the school $84,000 and it has just six classes. That is $14,000 and leaves $82,600. A secretary lets say see gets $48,000. That is $8,000. You still have $74,600. Okay the janitor lets say he earns $36,000. That still leaves $68,600. And the math I used was when we were spending just $10,000 per student. If we’re spending $13,000 we have an unaccounted for $116,600 most of which is the buercracy. In the school buecracy are there some positions that can be cut (corporations have gone through that). No it’s automatic. We must get more money! A whole bunch of private schools are able to function on tuition far less than what we’re spending per student in Minneapolis. Your criticism of Norm Coleman in your last post was get more education money. Tell me how you and the Democrats will spend the money better first! You attacked me, but you have never shown how to spend the money better just get more money better. And part of the problems we have today is that parents are trying to get special tags put on their child because the government will give their children better education. A system that isn’t broken now wouldn’t have parents begging to do that.

On health care we don’t have a real free market. When it comes to Lasix surgery the free market kicked in. The reform is to get it to the free market to begin. The solutions of the people you support are the government controls it just like Canada and England. Heard of waiting lists more than a year for operation. It’s gotten so bad in Canada their supreme court ruled recently that people can buy private health insurance.

On ANWAR lets see if we had it implemented in 2001 it will be kicking in at 2011 the latest. Even if we wave a magic wand to make it happen now that will be 2018. Thanks for the lost seven years. There’s also the Gulf of Mexico. There’s the coast of California. ANWAR is the tip of the ice berg. And of course that is just part of the debate. Electrical power (nuclear and coal are resources the United States has. People say we should be like France. Doesn’t France have more than 70% of it’s power that is nuclear).

New Orleans for example was the example of a Democrat controlled city. The people when hurricane Katrina came expected the government to save their necks. Mississippi where people don’t count on the government recovered faster (maybe that was why the media ignored them),

Everybody got a tax cut. The lowest person cut a rate reduction of .05 which was the equivalent of 33%. Check the stats the wealthiest pay most of the taxes to begin with.

You claim that you have to suck out your brain to join our group. The problem is you have to get an indepent thinking brian instead of being a brain dead zombie:

A Zombie that says the rich are evil!

A zombie that says the corportantion are evil!

A zombie that says only government run health care is the best form of health care (so what if it’s a disaster in Canada and England)

A zombie that says increasing taxes will grow the economy and tax cuts will shrink the economy.

Wow I don’t want to have my brain sucked out to say stupid things like that. That’s why a lot of us on this post have been carrying what the Republicans do for future elections.

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

I don’t have a problem with increased funding for Edu. But there is never enough money for you libs. That’s why you’d have Paul Welfare out there pushing for a multiple billion dollar edu increases. Or was it a trillion… It’s for the kids!! Vote for me! I think our party makes more of an effort in the accountability area. Afterall, your masters at Edu MN probably aren’t keen on accountability. We don’t have that problem.

More students than ever with special needs… Wonder how much of that has to do with the Democrat nanny state atmosphere that’s been unleashed over the years. Have to make those voters need you right?

But I suppose that’s enough of the edu debate for now. We could go on and on and until some brilliant person figures out the liberal brain as I mentioned above, I’m really just wasting my time. Until we meet again.

Michele Bachmann got barely over 50% of the vote in that district – even though it was a district with a strong republican index.

*Education, I agree the system is not effective for all students.You assume that all students are the same and they are not, some are right brain, some are left brain, some are auditory learners, some are visual learners, some are kinetic learners, some have cognitive disorders, some have behavioral problems and some have emotional problems, that is just seven of the different learning styles and problems teachers face in their classroom everyday. I know if you can’t handle the heat. In European and Asian countries they separate the students into those that can and those that can’t, won’t or don’t have what it takes to succeed, so their test scores reflect only the best and brightest. In America we guarantee that every child has the opportunity to attend public school regardless of their abilities.
I enjoyed your school board member story, some of them are such tools, I guess that is why most of those on my school board are Republicans.
Did you forget that schools have other costs outside of teachers, that include heat, transportation, insurance, food services, textbooks, technology, paras, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers, lights and many more services that assist students.*

Hasn’t that always been the case for public schools? Sounds like how it was when I was in school. Sounds like how it was when my dad was in school. Hell, sounds like how it was when my grandma was in school. With all the increases over the past decade or so in funding, are kids really smarter or better off today? The DFL answer to education always seems to be that it sucks and it needs more money. Infact, it never could get enough money. My question is, is the money producing positive results? Or at the very least, is the investment worth the return? I was going to school at an inner city public high school in the 90s. If I could somehow go back to my teen age years and head back to school today. I really don’t believe all the funding increases would make any difference.

So either the schools aren’t as big of a problem as you think or alot of money is being wasted. I’m guessing it’s some of both. I’m not saying schools couldn’t use improvement. Everything can use improvement. But I’m saying your side hypes up the “problem” of education, then say you need to throw money at it to “fix it”. But it never gets “fixed”. Because next campaign season it’s always a “problem” again. And that is nice for Dems because then you use the “problem” to buy some votes.

Keep up the noble work.

What is Al’s weather forcast today? Judging by your anger, there must be a 80% chance of severe sky falling today.

“”Bush The Lesser is the greatest thread to tyranny ever faced by this country, because he and his neo-con pals believe you have NO RIGHT TO HABEAS CORPUS.”"

Wow. Make sure you have your helmet on when you step outside.

I listened to part of the diatribe yesterday where MB went after his pals. Sorry, but it was disgusting.

Because she reflected our values and we went out and defended her with money and donations! There are a couple of candidates who might have conservative views wondering if they should run. Hopefully the support Bachmann got will inspire them.

To HCDFL. I went on post number 57 three issues which you seem to care about. Instead you ducked. You didn’t bother to argue how the Democrat ideas are better. Part of the frustration us conservatives have is the winning ideas we express and want are ignored by our people. They run on what they think the people want to hear instead of the ideas and convincing the people that they are better.

To four putt Tommy. We went to war in particular in Iraq because we had to! And in part because the Democrats despite all their tough talk and fluster didn’t lift a finger to stop terrorism or Saddam. Democrats don’t go to war period even if they think it’s need. They try to hold a group hug and say “Can’t we get along” Part of the problem for this foreign policy stuff you hate Bush for is that he’s trying to clean up the messes that Clinton just ignored because he wanted to be popular.

Not to mention I believe all Presidents have always done those signing acts. What is their interpretation of the law.

Just remember folks come February 5th we need to be out in force and reclaim the party!

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

What do you think of the idea that a US President gets to use “signing statements” to say which laws he will and/or will not follow?

And if the US President doesn’t have to follow legislation passed by the legislative, doesn’t that mean the US President doesn’t have to follow rulings passed by the other branch, the Judiciary?

Here’s the point bootlickers miss, Ed – I don’t complain about what Boy Blunder does simply because he’s “Boy Blunder”; I complain because it’s WRONG no matter WHAT president does it; no matter WHICH party the president is from.

And I don’t “hate” Bush The Lesser; I just can’t believe that I’d ever see a day I’d miss Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon.

You can’t spell “worst” without dubya.

BULL (CHENEY)IN’ SHIT.

Here’s the difference, you ChickenHawk bootlicker:

republiCons believe you go to war because you WANT to; Democrats believe you go to war because you HAVE to.

And it’s mighty (cheney)in’ funny how all you bootlickers in the party that allegedly believes in “personal responsibility” have failed to hold anyone responsible for the FUBAR the occupation of Iraq has become.

In the misAdministration of Bush The Lesser, those that (cheney) up are promoted; those that really (cheney) up are given medals.

***You can’t win debates on the issues.***

Your party can’t talk about issues in an honest, factual manner. It’s “Guns, Gays, And God” in a divisive and dishonest manner, and voters are tired of it.

And BTW – theres plenty of dems that got plenty of guns – I’m one of ‘em. Bootlickers have been so brainwashed by the 2nd Amendment BS elected republiCons, Faux Gnus, and Drug Limpstick have tossed around, they didn’t notice the misAdministration of Bush The Lesser believes not only can they take your guns, they can take you, your wife, your kids, your guns, your private property, AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CHALLENGE THE GOVT’S ACTIONS IN COURT.

Bush The Lesser is the greatest thread to tyranny ever faced by this country, because he and his neo-con pals believe you have NO RIGHT TO HABEAS CORPUS.

***I know you clowns don’t seem to think we need a military or intelligence agency unless they are doing peace corp stuff.

BULL (CHENEY)IN’ SHIT.

Here’s the difference, you ChickenHawk bootlicker:

***How much money do we have to spend for everything to be allright in your world of “Factman and sidekick Truth”?

Those two don’t live in your world, Where Boy Blunder is an honest leader, Dick (cheney)in’ Cheney isn’t the worst VPOTUS ever (knockin’ Spiro T. out to get that spot), Valerie Plame was a glorified coffee gofer, and Iran is building “newklear” weapons.

republiCons believe you go to war (with other people’s kids) because you WANT to;

Democrats believe you go to war because you HAVE to.

I do have a half of a hoagie from Davannis I was just about to eat. I think I will call Rush and see if he thinks it’s OK for me to eat it. I don’t think it was in the talking points today.

Funny part is that I don’t even listen to talk radio. Funnier thing is when loons like you throw that argument out there that we RIGHT thinkers are brainwashed or something. I personally feel it’s your own insecurity. You can’t win debates on the issues. So you just resort to character attacks and try to marginalize. That, or you actually don’t believe the lunacy you spout out so you have to try to make yourself believe we are brainwashed to feel better about yourself.

You mentioned education previously. How much money do you think it will take for our public schools not to suck? Infact, is there anything that doesn’t suck and need more tax payer dollars and government oversight? Besides National Defense of course… I know you clowns don’t seem to think we need a military or intelligence agency unless they are doing peace corp stuff. How much money do we have to spend for everything to be allright in your world of “Factman and sidekick Truth”?

I’ve often wondered if you libs have your own personal weatherman to give you forecasts on how much the sky is going to fall each day… Maybe it’s Al Gore… He is the climate expert after all.

There is a wide gap between the talkers and the doers in this party and we all know what camp we each fall into. Let’s learn from this in November and lodge our complaints and dissent, AFTER we have knocked on some doors, made some phone calls, and raised some money for ALL Republicans.

Once we have all done that, then we may not have to complain about why we lost. Insted, we can all celebrate why we won. There is no substitute for hard work and the individuals who work tirelessly on the ground have my neverending respect and admiration.

Obviously there may have not been enough time to accomplish this in this SD 25 race, but why weren’t the delegates phone numebers provided to the other person interested in running?? perhaps there was time if people behind the scenes knew the appointment was coming. I don’t know.

Let me say this- from being involved in another SD- we are not making the endorsement process as open as it could be- we are not holding candidate forums prior to endorsement- we are alienating fellow GOP’s whether they be strong conservatives, or moderates, or even right-leaning Independents, or whatever- we are losing to the seemingly more open process of the DFL COMBINED with the national left-wing groups (Emily’s list, Sierra Club, etc) that have been through my neighborhood 6 times in 3 years and are compiling list after list of where their supporters live (and then they get them out).

It’s not good– but it could be fixed. I’ll reserve final judgement of the MNGOP until after the ‘08 election.

Also, the claim that all the efforts by the left is all paid people – and that there aren’t motivated volunteers is bogus. There are always some paid people, but most of the work – on both sides – is done by volunteers.

Gene Kasper – you’ve made a fair point about the moderates – they also should have been out there doing some work for Cox.

Drew has been in there working the streets, the phone banks and motivating people to do their best. He is one of the hardest working activist in our county.

What is happening is that the very hard working conservatives are becoming tired with our party. The four line call by the GOP to help Ray Cox, a moderate Republican, came to me but then I am tired of supporting Republicans who are supporting more taxes and less liberty. But what is concerning is many others, who traditionally do the work,are also tired.

The truth is that conservatives do the work, moderates don’t. You are upset that we did not jump and to to Northfield for someone who refused to create a reason for us to work for him. Ray Cox even failed to get his people to volunteer. Then he refused to give conservatives a reason to take time so when he becomes elected we suspect he most likely will ignore our conservative views.

I know you were in Northfield working for Ray Cox and I bet most of the other volunteers working for him were also good conservatives but doesn’t that prove my point? Why not ask, where were the multitude of moderate Republicans, those who agreed with Ray Cox and excited about his candidacy, working in Northfield for their candidate? Why didn’t Ray Cox ask that question and why wasn’t he organized around them?

I have managed phone banks and if the candidate can produce excitement, we can obtain the volunteers.

The wealthy Left have changed the game. That is Drew’s main point. We must respond to that challenge as they are proving successful. It is not enough to depend on volunteers and we need to organize at a different level – that is evident except to the bureaucrats in our state party who are stuck in their old paradigm. We need leadership and it is lacking at the state level.

Gene Kasper

Case in point: He goes on an on attacking Berg and Emmer for what they wrote in their blogs. When Emmer first starts to explain his side of the story, MB interrupts him and moves the goal posts by now complaining about something that Berg and Emmer said at 1:30.

Sheesh! MB is a wack-job (on this subject).

One “Final Word” on MB’s complaint on the radio today that Emmer was not factually correct when he (Emmer) blogged that there was no great call to arms by the GOP for this race. Namely, MB has been the “King” (Banian or otherwise) of factual mistakes when it comes to his reporting this race. First, he says that the DFL has conceded the race. Next, he says that no one is running radio ads for the DFL candidate. Third, he says that he is getting nothing but good vibes in his door knocking.

Sheesh!

http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20080103/Cross_PLD.asp?M=LG&LD=25

http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20070807/Cross_PLD.asp?M=LG&LD=28B

Voter turn out was 32% in the Drazkowski special. That was a great victory two weeks after the bridge went down in an environment that is arguably quite worse than today.
Drazkowski had a big team on the ground and a dedicated support plan from the caucus and the CD2 folks.

Turn out in the Cox race was 24%. I bet you are going to think I am going to say “Cox lost because he was not as conservative as Drazkowski.” Nope.

It stuns me that the some activists here would like to blame Cox for not doing their work.

It is convenient to say that candidates lost because they were not conservative enough.
That’s what the know-it-alls said after the 06 elections. Tell that to Reps. Klinzing, Wilkin and Krinkie; three of the best and most conservative house members who lost in 06.

Bachmann good, Cox bad?
Rep. Bachmann does a great job representing the party in DC. As much as I would like to say that those great votes translate automatically into votes for her on election day, they don’t. She lost most of the area she previously represented in the MN Senate (Woodbury& Stillwater) in 2006. It is important to note that she did not overperform the index of that district to anywhere near the number that Cox overperformed the index of his district in 2006. So to simply claim that Rep. Bachmann won because she is very
conservative, and Cox lost because he is liberal is a head-in-the sand copout.

If we don’t get off our asses and vote and give a good reason to others to do the same, November of 2006 will be known as the good old days and we will experience the generation-long minority status that we could not deliver to the Democrats.

Drew Emmer does a great job of holding Republican’s feet to the fire, and if we all had a little fraction of his passion we would better for it. However, as much as we all may wish it to be so Wright County is not Minnesota. Cox would have been a great senator who could hold that seat and deliver for even the most stalwart conservative 95% of the time, especially as the override preventing vote. Now we have a lifer union hack who will put their interests ahead of the folks in Northfield.

We let Ray Cox down and the folks of SD 25 are going to suffer for it.

Your post here shows the problem with the DFL thinking.

Lets talk about education first. The problem with education isn’t that we’re not committing the money, but how it’s being spent. This was my actual encounter with a Minneapolis School Board member a few years ago when a member of the school board was asking groups to support a tax levy to maintain 16 students per class room.

Question by me: is the average amount of money were spending on a student $10,000 per year

School board member puzzled looks at aide who came with them. The aide nods yes.

Question by me: at the moment the average salary of a teacher with benefits is what $50,000.

School board member with another puzzled looks at the aide. More like $60,000 the aide says.

Question by me: so we’re spending $60,000 on the teacher in the class why do we need to increase taxes to maintain 16 students per class room when you have $100,000 that are being used on administration and waste that can be used
to maintain the sixteen student class room.

The school board member who didn’t understand the concept I showed with just three questions proceeds to claim that there is no waste and that the money was badly needed.

I was arguing with you that to increase education performance lets spend the money better. We had in this $100,000 being spent on adminstration and just $60,000 on the teacher teaching the kids. Can’t we decrease that $100,000 from adminstration to maybe hire a teaching aide or maybe a couple of more teachers?
Wouldn’t that increase the performance of the kids which HCDFL I assume that is who you really care about!

You also say people should be awarded. Students are tested every year. If over a three year period we have two teachers one whose class every year that gets scores going up every year for their classes and the other doesn’t have scores going up or going down shouldn’t the pay reward the teacher who is getting their students to learn and maybe by not giving an automatic cost of living to the teacher whose scores aren’t going up or maybe going down. TNT had a movie based on a true story where a teacher wanting a challenge moved to New York and asked for the class that had the trouble makers and the perceived dumber students. He took that class and before the year was over his class had out performed the class that was suppose to have the smarter students in the same grade level. That teacher I want to be rewarded! The current system won’t do that.

Health Care you think is bad, but how did it get there? Because a long time ago before World War Two everybody was paying their own doctor,their own hospital bills etc. People expected to pay their bills. Part of the way businesses gave wage increases to their workers when the government had imposed wage price controls because of world war II was creating health care paid by the employer. This led to the third party system. Part of the problem we have today people don’t put control of costs because they aren’t writing the checks. A good example of this is when Lasix surgery was first created the costs have been high. Since then doctor have worked on the techniques and the costs have come down! President Bush has a great proposal where the person gets the tax credit for paying for the health insurance because if people forced to pay for the health insurance spend less than the tax credit they make money for saving health costs (and in theory the employer will increase the employers wages to pay for the health care they aren’t paying).

To complicate this problem the government increased the costs of the insurance by saying that HC DFL needs insurance which has hair transplant coverage, mental health coverage. It’s been shown that if you removed some of the mandates you create much lower policy costs.

Another problem with health care is how the fear of lawsuits plays a role. Doctors order extra tests. Doctors in some cases have protected themselves by either not doing practices which can get them sued or moving to states where the malpractice laws protect doctors better. One of the reason people in some areas have trouble getting a doctor is because of malpractice laws (heard of John Edwards?)

A third problem with health care is that people want to cap costs by attacking the drug companies (and for the record in the 1990’s I made about a thousand dollars by buying shares in a drug company battered by Hillary’s health care proposal before the price recoved when the health care proposal died). They point out the magic drug costs just $3 in Canada but $10 in the United States. The reason why the drug is available in Canada is because they can sell it for $10 in the US. Putting caps will discourage the making of new drugs.

I just quoted two reforms and a non reform which if implemented will do more to improve health care and lower the costs without taking over the system or spending new money.

HCDFL it seems like your policy is if a business is evil (drugs, oil, etc.) they are to be attacked as evil. Keep in mind part of the problem is the rules they have to live with. Oil is trading around $100 per barrell. Why? Years ago Bush tried to open ANWAR to drilling even though it needed only a few of the millions of acres to do the job and offshore like in the Gulf of Mexico where Mexico and Cuba drill with no problems. The cries we’re awarding the oil companies. We have to preserve the environment. Oil is at $100 per barrell because the millions of barrells that could be produced today are still not being taken. And the price of gasoline isn’t as bad as last summer. How could that be? Because in the summer gasoline has to have special formulas which add to the cost of gasoline. So even though the price of oil is higher today than last summer the price of gas is lower because right now we don’t have to pay for the special formulas.

So on education, health care, and energy the people you say you care about will benefit by rational policies offered by the Republican party not the Democrats. So join us since you claim to care for the poor and middle class.

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

I’m happy to see that you now get Brodkorb’s Modus Operandi.

This is not just you Drew. Its the same steps when he “exposes” Democrats. You know, the 1000 posts that he previously printed you were cheering him on and lending support and testimony too?
You are now in the great company of Entenza, Hatch, Ritchie, Pfielsticker, Dietrich and many other Democrats who have been ‘exposed’ on here.

Drew Emmer, your phony, part-time, Republicanism, has been Exposed.

One day you guys will see that we’re at a point where you have to get the numbers THEN work out the agenda. Cox or whomever would have been in the minority with the only job of preventing the DFL from a veto over-riding super majority. Now, Pawlenty will have to negotiate and capitulate even more. You shot yourselves in your own foot with your purity test.

Thank You.

Since I am BPOU chairwoman for one of the 4 counties in this district this friend asked if I knew anyone who would be a good candidate (I was not notified by the state party until they contacted me for my Sibley County delegate lists 6 days before the convention). This friend told me that Ray Cox had already formed a committee and had announced his plan to run. I found this odd since it had just been announced on the radio the night before that Tom Neuville had been appointed to a judicial seat. Cox obviously had already been notified well in advance that this was to happen. It appeared he was the “annointed” candidate, for what ever reason. Maybe it was his name recognition or location (since he lives in Northfield), but at any rate there was not any real delegate input nor was there much time for anyone else to challenge him.

With the urging of a few conservative friends and leaders in the party, my husband Glenn Gruenhagen, decided to consider challenging Ray. We spent a couple of days researching his voting record and the more we studied it the more concerned we became. Ray has a career record with the LEA of about 33%, Taxpayers League at 26%, Minnesota Family Council at 50%. He clearly does not support many important planks in the Republican platform and Glenn felt compelled to hold him accountable by challenging him.

The day before the endorsement we officially decided to go for it. We knew we were at a disadvantage because we live in the least populated North West portion of the district but also knew we could not allow Ray to go unchallenged. This did not give us much time to contact delegates and in addition, the delegate lists that I got from the state party did not include phone numbers for the delegates.

In the end Glenn got 15 of the 47 delegate votes and we felt it was worth it to raise our concerns and give the delegates a choice.

Keep in mind that this all took place over the busy holidays and we run our own business. It was difficult to find time or energy to help out with the Cox campaign. It is even more difficult to do so when you feel less-than-excited about the candidate. I have tried to express this to Chairman Carey and other party leaders in the past. We need good platform candidates to run in order to really energize volunteers to work. Nevertheless, Glenn and I made lots of phone calls and put up signs for Ray (for both the primary and the election). I also went door to door on the day of the election trying to get folks to the polls.

All in all, I agree with Drew; we were outflanked and outsmarted and we need to learn our lessons or we will continue to be in the minority. We also need to run real platform Republicans and hold our legislators accountable. This idea that a candidate needs to “fit the district” is hogwash. Real leaders stand on principle. They are persuasive and know how to bring others on board by educating them in the principloes that made our nation great.

When/if any tax increase get passed and overridden this year, people like that will be as much to blame as anyone.

My intent in posting “Outsmarted, outflanked and outworked in SD25″ on http://www.wrightrepublican.blogspot.com was not to criticize GOP foot soldiers. As a perenial GOP foot soldier I appreciate any effort that anyone puts out for the GOP cause. If any foot soldiers were offended by my comments I sincerely apologize. That includes Michael.

The real intent of my post was to express my opinion that the grassroots mechanism exercised by the left appears to be superior to the grassroots mechanism exercised on the right. It appears to me that the left has worked hard over a lengthy period (of more or less republican dominance) to develop extensive voter ID, issue ID, list management, volunteer recruitment and community building. I have deep concern that the left is doing what appears to be an excellent job of identifying, educating, motivating, cultivating, validating, recognizing, and equipping their troops to succeed. That’s the long and short of my post.

And to digress slightly, I’m not talking about the DFL when I refer to the left. I don’t think their cause is so much a result of DFL party proficiency as it is possibly the effectiveness of third party entities doing the work for them (i.e. MoveOn, Emily’s List, 2020, …etc.)

Ok back to Michael’s robust criticism of me:

I was intrigued that a site dedicated to exposing democrats became the platform for Michael to attack me personally. That’s not been my experience with Michael in the past. We have occasionally disagreed. But to this point he has always graciously opted for a phone call to set me straight. Why he chose to marginalize me personally on his blog while certainly his prerogative is nonetheless surprising.

I did not attack anyone personally in my post. No where did I say anything unkind or disrespectful about Ray Cox. My post was for the most part about the performance of the left. Frankly, I was flabbergasted when I read that Ray had lost. I had no idea. I do not recall any polling about that seat. I am as disappointed as anyone that we lost the seat. Had I known I would have done something to help, although with two full-time jobs I doubt it would have been anything beyond GOTV phoning.

With Michael’s usual panache he reiterates my point that I did not actively participate in the SD25 campaign. He then leaves the lingering stink of sloth in the air to defame my character as an active member of our party. Technically, Michael is as almost always “spot on” about the fact that I was not involved in SD25. In that narrow frame I am humbled to now be considered an award winning blogger, albeit with the cynical insult that MDE intended. I suspect Teddy might be somewhat plussed that his words were used to denigrate one of our own.

Folks who know me personally know both the principles I try to live by and my commitment to contributing to our cause. Michael was careful not to criticize me in that frame although he is welcome to do so publicly or privately if he thinks it could help us keep from getting our asses handed to us again in November.

I’ll be on NARN today with my fellow “award-winning” blogger Mitch Berg at 1:30 or thereabouts. At Michael’s request I will hang around to receive whatever it is that he is so motivated to bestow upon me.

I am hopeful that this experience causes all of us to raise our sights about the job ahead of us for 2008. My experience is that when we talk about how much progress we are going to make we typically find our selves disappointed (2004, 2006, last Thursday).

We are engaged in a grassroots battle with a new level of leftist campaign sophistication. While our ideas are a key ingredient to our prospects for success, there is no excuse for failing to evolve our process to try and meet the abilities of our foe.

With that being said, I think the debate is over what duty conservative Republicans have to a RINO candidate. As the lesser of two evils, they probably deserve a vote. But do they deserve your cash or your volunteer time? Should you just roll over and give your full support to a candidate that you are not happy with? That is the question.

BTW, A few years ago, I heard about Ray Cox for the first time. I did a quick google search to find out what Party he represented, and the first thing brought up was his blog. I clicked on the link, and the first thing I saw was a picture of DFL darling Melissa Hortman speaking at one of his recent events. That is pretty much all I needed to know. Tingelstad, Abeler, Earhart, Cox, Hortman. Not much difference at all.

Let me clarify that I’m not a BPOU chair in that district, but in the metro area instead.

His headline is “Outsmarted, Outflanked, Outfought.” Let’s take each one seratim. (That’s one at a time for those of you out in Rio Linda.)

“Outsmarted”: Emmer’s point, as I read it, is that the DFL’s current campaign tactics are “smarter” than the GOP’s. Prior to the 2006 election, DFLers had bemoaned that the GOP was superior in its get-out-the-vote efforts. Emmer’s point, as I read it, is that the DFL appeared to learn from that and is now using better, “smarter” campaign tactics. Can MDE dispute that? Moreover, even if Emmer had spent every waking minute in Northfield last week, he would have been using the less smart, for lack of a better term, GOP tactics. Kind of like Polish soldiers on horseback going against German tanks. Can MDE dispute that?

“Outflanked”: I’m not sure I get Emmer’s point on this one. Does he mean that the DFL candidate ran to the right of Cox and picked up votes that Cox should have got? As for his contention that the conservative base did not come up for Cox, I’ll leave that to the stat wonks out there to analyze that question.

“Outfought”: I’m a BPOU chair. I got a call to help from the state party to help out on that campaign. I didn’t help out, thinking (wrongly at that) Cox was a sure winner. In my case, that prove’s Emmer point.

My ending point is this: Emmer is right for the most part. Even if he had, as I said, worked night and day for Cox, the results would have been the same. The DFL, right now, has the better campaign (read “smarter”) tactics. The question, then, is whether the GOP is going to use our 2002 playbook or audible at the line to meet what the DFL is now coming up with.