MANKATO FREE PRESS LTES: MORAL COURAGE AND MINNESOTA NICE TOO
One of our fellow bloggers has pointed out that the Walz-Gutknecht contest has all the qualities of an old Capra movie--though nobody ever accused Tim Walz of having Jimmy Stewart's looks.
Today's letters in the Mankato Free Press echo that perception. First up, Peggy Wild of North Mankato relates a story from one of the summer's parades:
I just wanted to take a minute to share with you a little slice of the everyday, behind-the-scenes side of Tim Walz.
I am one of his “Over-the-Hill” supporters. One hot evening this summer I decided to walk in the Albert Lea parade. I was hot, red-faced and tired by the end of the parade and we all had to walk nearly a mile back to our cars. When the car came to pick up Walz, he looked over at me and offered me his special seat in the car. I refused, but he insisted. He walked the long way back and I was grateful to be able to hitch the ride back to my car.
Just so you all know ...Walz is Minnesota Nice.
A colleague from Mankato West high school, Don Krusemark writes:
I had the pleasure of teaching across the hall from Tim Walz for several years at Mankato West high school. I was able to witness firsthand the positive impact Walz had on the lives of countless young people.
Walz taught with conviction and passion. He encouraged his students to set high goals for themselves.
Walz is creative in his teachings and consistently encouraged his students to be problem solvers. Walz has the ability to connect with people of all ages — both young and old.
We need to ask ourselves if the political status quo is good enough. If not, then a change is needed this November. A change for the better. A change in the name of Walz.
Janesville's Doris Berger is equally impressed by other qualities Walz demonstrates:
I plan to vote for First District Congressional candidate Tim Walz.
Walz can’t change all that’s wrong with the present administration, but he has the moral courage to vote for what’s right. Our wounded veterans are coming home to woefully understaffed hospitals. Gil Gutknecht’s H.R. 328 would allow us to import drugs from Canada (I think about how we can’t afford our own drugs so we have to buy out of country). Gutknecht supports Health Savings Accounts (how does that help families who can barely pay the rent?).
Walz has served his country well as a soldier and a teacher. Now, with your vote, help him serve in Congress.
Gutknecht supporters echo RNCC and Gutknecht attack ads condemning Walz as a liberal. Malcolm Brandt of Madelia explores what that means in "Many liberal ideas of past today's moderate values":
We hear the term “liberal” used in such a derogatory manner so often. I believe the term liberal needs some explaining.
A liberal believes that our lives can and should be better in the future. A conservative believes that things are as good as they can be, except for a few more tax cuts at the top.
Today’s moderate values come from the liberal ideas of the past.
Women can now vote and own property (they are no longer considered to be property). Slavery was once considered proper by a large portion of the country and many of our spiritual leaders said it was moral.
At one time in that past, a person who participated in a cooperative business could be jailed.
In the past, workers who were injured or killed on the job were cast aside like broken machines. Children were purchased from orphanages to work in the low tunnels of coal mines. Do these things bring to mind OSHA and Worker’s Comp and child labor laws?
Social Security and Medicaid have replaced the poor farm where the poor, old and ailing were once warehoused.
At one time education was only for the wealthy, but liberals thought that everyone should have opportunities.
At one time, banks were not safe places to keep your money. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has changed that.
At one time, many insurance companies and commercial interests could steal from us with no remedy available. The state Attorney General’s Office has given us much needed protection.
Liberals believe that changes, like those above, were based on good moral values. They fought hard for these changes. I’m proud to be a liberal.
On the right? Scare tactics like those expressed in this Nutter letter.
ROCHESTER POST BULLETIN: CANDIDATES PLAN BIG FINISH
Matthew Stolle's article highlights the pull-out-the-stops close in the campaigns in the Rochester area:
Think of the election season as a Thanksgiving dinner. Just when you thought you couldn't handle another serving of turkey or helping of mash potatoes, here comes the pie.
So it is with the last week of the campaign season before the Nov. 7 election.
A bevy of big name political figures, including two possible presidential candidates, a former governor and two constitutional officers, will be crisscrossing Rochester, handing out big slices of campaign pie as the races for state and federal office enter the final week of the campaign season.
The goal: To energize their voters.
[snip]
On Monday, GOP Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and Auditor Pat Anderson will be the featured speakers at a political rally at the area Republican Party's Victory Office, 1530 Greenview Drive S.W.
• Also that day, Sen. Barack Obama will headline a get-out-the-vote rally for DFL Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar and DFL congressional candidate Tim Walz at Mayo Civic Center, 30 Civic Center Drive Southeast. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the program begins at 5 p.m.
The junior senator from Illinois has been the subject of an unusual draft-Obama-for-president campaign. Klobuchar is running against Mark Kennedy and Walz is challenging Rep. Gil Gutknecht.
Barack Obama or Mary Kiffmeyer as the greater draw? Decisions, decisions.
• On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. John McCain will be making campaign stops with Gutknecht and Gov. Tim Pawlenty in Rochester and Mankato. McCain, a Republican from Arizona who piloted the "Straight Talk Express" during his run for president in 2000, is also thought to be considering a run for president. Details of the time and place of the Rochester event will be announced later, aides say.
John Kerry will be in Mankato on Wednesday as well, in a rally at Minnesota State's Bresnan Arena at noon.
• Minnesota humorist and author Garrison Keillor will join Walz for a Get Out the Vote rally Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Rochester Art Center, 40 Civic Center Drive S.E. Music begins at 5 p.m. A slate of DFL candidates will be present, including Mike Hatch (governor), Lori Swanson (attorney general), Mark Ritchie (secretary of state) and Rebecca Otto (auditor). National recording artist and Austin resident Martin Zellar, formerly of the Gear Daddies, will be the special musical guest.
Tom Scheck at Polinaut notes the Democratic heavyweights coming to campaign in the First.
ROCHESTER POST BULLETIN LTES: WALZ, WALZ, WALZ
A recent Strib profile painted Gutknecht as a maverick independent from President Bush's agenda. But the non-partisan CQ Politics notes that Gutknecht voted 94% of the time with the President's agenda in 2006. MN-01 voters notice.
David Barker of Wabasha thinks "Gutknecht's record troublesome":
I read the article about Republican Gil Gutknecht and his Democratic challenger, Tim Walz, running neck to neck according to a recent poll. Having served six terms representing this part of Minnesota, I'm sure he has served well. However, I have seen his voting record since the present person to sit in the Oval Office arrived in 2000. I am very disappointed in Gil Gutknecht's record of overwhelming support of this president's actions, programs, and plans, or lack thereof.
I read the following in the St. Paul paper and I believe it fits the situation, at least as I see it. It is attributed to Albert Einstein. Whether true or not I do not know. "He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."
As a veteran and former Republican all I can say is that: "If the Republicans remain in control of Congress after this coming election, God help us all."
Andrew Larson of northwest Rochester think that Walz will listen to all sides:
Tim Walz is a person who will represent everyone in southern Minnesota, not just the ultra rich of southern Minnesota.
We need someone in Congress who is willing to listen to everyone's point of view and find the best solution for everyone involved. We can no longer have a person in Congress who will not work toward finding the best solution for everyone in southern Minnesota.
Gil Gutknecht has a history of ignoring the needs of the vast majority of people in southern Minnesota and of not working with Democrats to find a compromise that will benefit everyone.
Walz has been a teacher and a command sergeant major in the Minnesota Army National Guard, where he has had the opportunity to work with people from all backgrounds and interests to find a common goal that everyone can work toward.
Walz is willing to talk to both Democrats and Republicans to find the best solution for everyone in the country.
Mary Foley explains specfically why she thinks Gutknecht wasn't listening in Gutknecht forgets who he serves:
"We were a lot more optimistic than we deserved to be" is a quote credited to Gil Gutknecht from the debates held last week. He was referring to the war in Iraq, and he went on to say "that doesn't mean what we did was the wrong thing."
Can we expect this same reasoning to be applied to the DM&E after it is done rolling through Rochester? Will we be soothed by "we were a lot more optimistic than we deserved to be" when the economy softens or when the environment is damaged or when a train derails? Will we be expected to accept that it wasn't "the wrong thing?"
Hindsight is not going to protect Rochester. We need to recognize the potential hazards now, and work to avoid them.
Gutknecht claims the failure of the DM&E would be worse for Rochester than the coal train project. Why? Economic damage to our vibrant downtown, or the Mayo Clinic, or the University of Minnesota expansion project would surely be more harmful.
Gutknecht has forgotten he is supposed to serve southeast Minnesota, not Washington. Gutknecht should have chosen to honor his self-imposed term limit, and allowed a candidate who is rooted in southeast Minnesota to take his place. We deserve more local concern than what we've been given.
The single letter writer supporting Gutknecht today? Worried that the Republican base will stay home on election day.
ROCHESTER POST-BULLETIN: DM & E LOAN IS "ABSOLUTELY STUNNING," MONDALE SAYS
The Post-Bulletin reports on a DM & E forum in Mankato that featured both Mondale and David Strom of the Taxpayers League in Mondale: DM&E loan is 'absolutely stunning'
MANKATO -- Only a dysfunctional Congress would allow a U.S. senator to quietly alter legislation to allow a former employer an opportunity to collect a $2.3 billion federal loan, former Vice President Walter Mondale argued Friday at a public forum.
Mondale, also a former senator, said it was "absolutely stunning" that a loan of this size could find its way into a transportation bill without weeks of congressional debate. But he adds that even public dialogue wouldn't have been enough for the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad.
"I can't imagine it would have passed," Mondale said.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a former DM&E lobbyist, inserted an amendment into the transportation bill that, among other changes, increased the amount of loans from $3.5 billion to $35 billion and emphasized regional railroads like DM&E.
Mondale joined a Mayo Clinic administrator, local community activist and -- notably -- Taxpayers League of Minnesota President David Strom, a conservative who has been critical of Mondale in the past, at the Minnesota State University event.
"I think it's fair to say that over the years we've had fairly substantial policy differences," Strom said after the forum, which was attended by about 115 people. It was organized by the Rochester Coalition's Track the Truth campaign.
Strom said there could be "no debate" that the loan was the product of a "broken political process." . . .
some links that pissed this vet off you should read
http://janets-conner.blogspot.com/2006/08/veterans-issues-mission-impossible.html
http://veterans.house.gov/democratic/officialcorr/pdf/vetcenters.pdf
http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats
Posted by: Monkeyman | October 28, 2006 at 11:11 AM