CALEDONIA ARGUS: "POOR LEADERSHIP FROM OUR CONGRESSMAN"
Up in the Twin Cities, the Strib attributes buzz about the MN-01 congressional race to DFL circles; meanwhile, yet another smalltown newspaper editor expresses his disappointment in Gil Gutknecht. This time, it's the Caledonia Argus.
Editor David Heiller writes in his weekly column:
Sometimes I wonder about our elected officials. How can they be so dumb, or think we are so dumb?
That came to mind last week when I heard a newscast about the Minnesota First Congressional District race.
It gave a revealing picture of our present congressman, Gil Gutknecht. First he was quoted in June, talking about how the war in Iraq would improve in our favor after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
After that event happened on June 7, he said the public should not “go wobbly” on the war. That’s an ugly phrase to me, like “cut and run.” It implies weakness and cowardice, which I guess is how you address someone who disagrees with you, at least if you are politician. [there's more]
Heiller's column joins editorial pieces questioning Gutknecht in the Winona Daily News, the Dodge Center Star Record, the Spring Grove Herald and the Fillmore County Journal.
WORTHINGTON DAILY GLOBE: "Finding help for farmers and ranchers"
Taking some time away from the glories of this weekend's King Turkey Day celebration, the editors of the Worthington Daily Globe look at congressional support for a drought-relief bill. Prominently missing from a Tuesday rally were any congressional Republicans. The editors make note of this fact and more [emphasis ours]:
Farmers and ranchers were well-represented at a rally outside the Capitol Tuesday, and with ample reason.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats from eight states gathered to push for the adoption of a $6.5 billion drought-relief bill, according to an Associated Press report. Eleven senators, four members of the House of Representatives and North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven were at the rally — among those there was Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee (Peterson would chair that committee should Democrats wrest control of the House from Republicans in November).
Members of Congress from the Dakotas, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Arkansas and Minnesota spoke in favor of the legislation, the AP report stated. However, no House Republicans attended the rally, an omission noted by Peterson during his remarks.
Why don’t House Republicans support the bill? They, along with the White House, have reportedly opposed several versions of the relief legislation, citing the bill as too expensive and unfairly distributed among its beneficiaries. But these claims don’t seem to fly on at least two counts.
On one front, North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat, made a sound point Tuesday when he said, “We are not asking for the moon. This is one and a half weeks of spending in Iraq.” On another, if there is concern about fair distribution of money, shouldn’t the effort be made to make it equitable, rather than simply thwarting efforts for relief?
Here’s the primary point: Getting farmers and ranchers the help they need during some particularly devastating conditions shouldn’t be squashed by any type of political gamesmanship.
FEC PRE-PRIMARY REPORT TIDBIT: BRYAN ANDERSON
In a Winona Daily New Daily guest column, Bryan Anderson, a Gutknecht Congressional staffer, admitted editing the congressman's Wikipedia entry.
A Bryan Anderson turns up on the payroll of Gutknecht's congressional campaign, according to page 51 of the committee's pre-primary report. He was paid $607.15. According to Open Secrets, Anderson has already been paid $9,039 for his work on Gutknecht's campaign this cycle.
Obviously, editing out embarassing facts about a Congressman during an election year is a congressional staff responsibility to be conducted using congressional internet access, rather than a campaign staff duty. We are pleased to note Anderson's professionalism in this matter.
Perhaps there are two Bryan Andersons helping Representative Gutknecht out in his two offices.
NETROOTS
After spending last week dismantling Gutknecht's health care proposals, Minnesota Central writes his congressman a letter:
Thank you for your eline concerning health care. In it you state : “My concern is that my friends on the left are offering a false choice. They are saying we can either continue the status quo which is costing too much and leaving too many uninsured, or move to a government-run, single payer system. There are other alternatives that should be explored.”
Now, your staff may have been busy checking out driving records in Dawes County Nebraska, so they may have missed some recent news.
- Trust for America's Health issued their annual report on Tuesday, August 29th that 31 states had a greater percentage of their residents classified as obese in this year's report than last year's. Obesity can lead to diabetes, heart disease and stroke, ultimately costing the country $117 billion a year in medical costs and lost worker productivity.
- Twenty million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated seven million of those are undiagnosed. Another 41 million have pre-diabetes, two million of which are teenagers. The vast majority of this latter group has no idea they are in the formative stages of the disease, which is why diabetes has been called the silent epidemic. Worldwide, the International Disease Federation estimates 195 million people have diabetes, a figure expected to reach 330 million by 2025 -- only 20 years away.
- Harvard University released a report on September 11th, that in Nicollet County, the average life expectancy in 1999, the most recent data available, was 81.1 years -- a year longer than the average Minnesotan and more than four years longer than the national average. Among the top 100 counties in the United States, 21 are in Minnesota.
The jest [sic] is that America is facing a crisis and cannot live with the status quo.
Former Republican Senator David Durenberger and the Minnesota Citizens Forum on Health Care Costs identified a number of steps to reduce the costs of care. A main point was access – not just for the uninsured, but to achieve universal participation.
[snip]
Clearly these are Republicans that understand the status quo is not serving us and that significant changes are needed. Your alternatives do not address the problems cited by your fellow Republicans. In fact, they do not offer “false choices” or the “status quo”, but identify real problems and solutions.
My concern is that your voting record indicates that your solution to the “status quo” is to shift federal obligations onto the state. For example, you supported the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 which actually will reduce Medicare spending by $6.4 billion and Medicaid spending by $4.7 billion from 2006 to 2010. [read more]
Over at the Post-Bulletin, Government Center wonders what the Devil is saying in the famous "Gopher Train" broadside cartoon. He also adjusts the "Five Million Loan" of 1857 into 2006 dollars and compares it to today's DM & E loan request. If you can decipher Old Nick, go help out.
Democracy for Minnesota gives a nod to the YouTube videos of the Rochester debate, as does the Wege. Link early and often.
We missed this over-the-top bit about Gutknecht over at the Insomnia Report last week. Warning: humor impaired probably don't want to go there. My Left Wing dreams of a Walz ad.
Why just dream? Now that the race in the Fifth is settled for practical purposes, how about you city folks giving country boy Tim Walz some money over at ActBlue?
We have also been meaning to link to Barry Welsh's Fifty State Strategy Minnesota page for some time. Welsh is running in a red district in Indiana, but he gets it about thinknig nationally and acting locally in every congressional district.
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