Category: Mark Dayton

by Dave Mindeman

Luke Hellier over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed got himself into a lather over the divorce records of Mark Dayton. He went into post after post about releasing these "unsealed" documents -- Republican translation: He has something embarrassing in there and we want it. He even got to ask Dayton a question about it at a press conference -- God knows how he got a pass for that -- and a local journalist even asked a follow up question. It was yet another embarrassment for the local press.

And, as usual, Hellier tries to whip up his echo chamber to draw attention to his loosely researched story. He even got PowerLine to gleefully comment on this "mystery".

But Powerline puts an addendum on this post. It goes like this:

CORRECTION: Luke Hellier has corrected his MDE post to reflect that the affidavits were removed from the court file by the attorney for Dayton's wife, not by the attorney for Dayton. That seems to me to make it more likely that the affidavits raised issues personally sensitive to Dayton's wife rather than to Dayton. I regret the error.

I regret the error?

Unfortunately, the blogger/press that masquerades as media around here should be issuing a lot more "regrets" than that.

Item #1. Hellier on Minnesota Democrats Exposed continues to post about this issue...with no "regrets" listed.

Item #2. The usually reliable Doug Grow felt compelled to add this bizarre exchange to his story about Dayton getting the Police endorsement. At present, this story has no "regrets" listed.

Item #3. Pat Kessler was the reporter who asked the follow up on this out of the blue fishing expedition, which had no reliable information whatsoever. But, again, no "regrets" forthcoming.

I'm not sure I understand what journalism is today. Have the budgets become so arbitrarily small that reporters find it difficult to budget actual research of their own? Are they compelled to follow every slashing, Hail Mary charge that political parties throw out there?

Powerline is a blog that gets a lot of attention. But the general idea of the Dayton post is left intact.

Still, it does have those four words which are supposed to exonerate any wrongdoing.....

"I regret the error."

Category: Mark Dayton

by Dave Mindeman

The word for today is ERRATIC.

Definition 1: liable to sudden unpredictable change

Use in a sentence: Governor Pawlenty used Federal aid money in his method of balancing the 2010 budget. Yet, when the actual Federal bill was passed recently, allowing Minnesota to keep some public service jobs, he said Congress was reckless.

Governor Pawlenty seems to have an "erratic" opinion about the Federal money.

Definitin 2: having no fixed course.

Use in a sentence: Since 2006, Tim Pawlenty has been touting clean energy initiatives as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, he used his time as chair of the National Governor's Association to suggest ways to improve, develop and advance clean energy. In June 2009, Pawlenty wrote a letter to Minnesota's Congressional delegation criticizing proposed cap and trade legislation in the U.S. House. He also came out against the Midwest Governor's Climate Change initiative -- an effort he helped launch.

Tim Pawlenty has an erratic position on the environment.

Definition 3: likely to perform unpredictably.

Use in a sentence: Judging by Tom Emmer's responses... (a)I-35 Bridge Survivor bill -Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, called it expensive "feel-good" legislation. Tom Emmer on Sex Offenders: "Chemical castration has shown to be the single most effective tool in rehabilitating certain sex offenders by lowering recidivism to near zero,” Rep. Emmer said.

Tom Emmer responds "erratically" to legislative issues.

Category: Mark Dayton

by Dave Mindeman

Although nobody is conceding or declaring victory, Mark Dayton has a lead of about 4,000 votes in the early morning hours.

I don't know if a recount is in the works, but it has been close. I think the organizational pull of MAK's campaign made it this close; but it looks as though Dayton will still pull this out.

Such a close race will make it even harder for second place to be accepted and make any unity effort a pretty bitter pill.

But unity it must be.

I think the Iron Range counts its votes slower for dramatic effect. They seem to like the attention as the numbers trickle in and the margins can turn on their head. It is becoming something of a tradition to make those late night counts happen.

We can talk about how to analyze all of this at a later time. For now, we need to look past all of this primary business and get on with a final election process.

It seems a lifetime ago that all of this started...yet here we are with a new and important beginning.

This time, lets find a way to elect a Democrat. OK?