Category: US Politics

by Dave Mindeman

As we have stated before on this blog, the Michael Scanlon and Jack Abramoff probe is getting Congressional Republicans nervous. This is an excerpt from the politics1.com blog:

DC CORRUPTION PROBE EXPANDS: According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Justice Department investigation into possible influence-peddling and bribery by indicted Republican lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon has now been expanded to include their dealings with four federal legislators, 17 past or present congressional staffers, and two former mid-level Bush Administration officials. Scanlon pled guilty earlier this week in a plea bargain and is now cooperating with the prosecutors. Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) has already been named as a central focus of the expanded probe for allegedly accepting "a stream of things of value" in direct exchange for using his office to help the lobbyists' clients. According to WSJ, those elected officials now joining Ney under federal investigation for possible bribery and corruption purportedly include US Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Congressman John Doolittle (R-CA). Of the seventeen Hill staffers targeted, five are reported to have worked in DeLay's office. The newspaper reported federal prosecutors are particularly interested in learning more about why Burns "helped one of Mr. Abramoff's clients -- the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan -- win a $3 million grant from Congress [while] Mr. Burns was the chairman of a key Senate subcommittee that allocated the funds to the tribe." The allegations include reports Burns received illegal favors and over $130,000 in campaign contributions for assisting Abramoff. The newspaper said it was not yet clear why Doolittle is part of the investigation, although WSJ reported that "the Justice Department subpoenaed documents more than a year ago from Mr. Doolittle's wife, a Republican fund-raiser [and] Mr. Abramoff also hired Kevin Ring, a top Doolittle aide." Other recent news articles also alleged prominent Religious Right political consultant Ralph Reed -- a 2006 GOP candidate for Georgia Lieutenant Governor -- was also involved with Abramoff's activities. Reed -- a close Abramoff friend since the early 1980s -- reportedly financed large portions of anti-lottery and anti-gambling campaigns he was hired to run with millions of dollars Abramoff funnelled from his Indian gaming clients through the bank accounts of the Christian Coalition and other groups. In 2002, Abramoff purportedly worked secretly with Reed to force the closure of a casino owned by the Tigua Indian tribe -- which then created an opening for Abramoff to get the same tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino.

That pesky Delay is up to his neck again.... wonder how many judges he'll go through this time.... and then there's Ralph Reed... it can't be bad because I'm sure God told him to do it.

Oh, Hypocrisy... thy name is Republican!

Category: Minnesota Politics

by Dave Mindeman

Well I am so glad I listened to MPR this morning. I now know the "facts" on Iraq. Mark Kennedy and John Kline set us all straight on the reality of our newest democracy. Here is what I know now:

1) The soldiers morale has never been higher but they worry that the true message about Iraq's progress does not get out in the media.

2) The progress towards an independent Iraqi army is astonishing in the face of the constant changes the civilian government has taken.

3) 50% more students have enrolled in college in Iraq than did so last year.

Congressmen Kennedy and Kline spent a couple of days in Iraq. Now, even though they stated that the infamous airport road is now under control and is safe to travel -- they, themselves, took an alternate route under heavy guard. But, this time (this is their 3rd trip to Iraq), they stayed in the Green Zone instead of shuttling securely from Kuwait. Huge progress! Almost like native Iraqis!

Congressmen Kline did admit that news coverage always tends to focus on the negative because it is simply more newsworthy; but he expressed his wish (and of course, the troops wish) that the word on new school openings and the constant upgrade in Iraqi troop readiness would get reported on as well.

They mentioned that they were given a demonstration from the new Iraqi special forces and how impressed they were by their combat readiness. This seems to be the same group that the Pentagon reported to Congress about and is probably the same group that every Congressional visitor sees. After 2 1/2 years of constant training, it would be nice to see a little more.

And although the official reports state that only 1 brigade is combat ready in Iraq, the "War Twins" say there are so many more who are very close and need only limited supervision from American forces.

As for the college enrollees... 50% of what? We don't know how many colleges have even been able to operate compared to last year -- so a 50% improvement is probably on the low end of what we should be expecting. It would be nice to make some accurate comparisons.

Congressional assessments are useless. They are pre-ordained based on party line. Pentagon assessments are skewed toward whatever gets the funding they want. Media looks for the sensational story. How do we really know?

A recent poll shows that 45% or almost half of the Iraqi people think that attacks on American and British forces are justified. Maybe that says the most.

by Dave Mindeman

A very encouraging sign happened on November 22nd. Terri Bonoff, a Democrat, won a special election in District 43 for the vacated Senate seat of Senator Gaither. Now, there is a couple of things to keep in mind... (1) Democrats rarely win special elections. The reason being, Democrats can't get out the vote without a full election in progress.... and (2) in 2002, the Republican won this election 54-34 over the Democrat (an independent had 11%).

It was a very short campaign with not much time to point to a lot of issues. Intelligent design came up but it is difficult to analyze how that affected the vote. But it stresses the point that, of those who voted, they were ready to make a change. So we increased the DFL Senate majority by one.

The other special race was won by the Republican as expected, but even that had a twist. This is retiring Republican Mark Ourada's district and he won in 2002 by a 62-38 margin. In the special election, a 3 way race developed with an independent. The Republican winner, Amy Koch, got a bare majority of the vote at 51.8%. Now the Democrat only got 31%, while an independent got 16% (The independent Del Haag was very active and a strong candidate), but this still shows that 48.2% of the voters, in this Republican stronghold, wanted a new direction.

We have a couple more special elections coming in St. Cloud... and again, the Democrats have a real opportunity here to pick up a seat. Governor Pawlenty is doing all he can to reduce the vote count -- the election date for District 15, is December 27, two days after Christmas! But the Republican Senator, Dave Kleis won this seat by only 500 votes in 2002. His opponent was Taryl Clark, a former associate chair of the DFL and she has already filed for the seat. The 15B House seat is also up for election. Democrat Joe Opatz is taking a position at Central Lakes College and has been popular in his District. He won in 2002 by a 56-38 margin and in 2004 by 64-36. So the Democrats just need to get out their own vote to keep this seat and have a real chance to turn over another Senate seat.

We can build real momentum going into the 2006 election year. But we need to get out there. We need to step out from behind all the talk and take some action. If we are to bring Minnesota back to its progressive tradition, this is our year. The public is restless and we are determined. That determination must get translated into financial support, volunteer work, and organization.

Step back a moment and think about this. A lot of us are angry about national issues. We feel frustrated and powerless at times. But look at what we can do. Medicaid is a federal program but most of the money is controlled by the State Legislature. No Child Left Behind is a federal mandate but the implementation is done by the State Legislature. Bonding contracts, minimum wage, income and sales taxes, light rail, education standards, and education funding.....these are all things that affect our lives on a daily basis and they all are implemented by our State Legislature.

Tip O'Neill was famous for saying, "all politics is local". In Minnesota, we need to take care of business at the local level first. Then we can again take our place on the national stage and lead the way to the quality of life that all of us expect and deserve. So lets all help out in District 15... Let's win 2 more special elections and then lets get busy in our own districts. Give those $50 contributions that are reimbursed by the state, knock on those doors, talk to your neighbors, and by all means, lets flood those caucuses next March. Our time is now, the opportunity is real.