Sunday evening digest: another inaugural post edition

Just like the New Ulm Journal before it, the Mankato Free Press tells the story of First District DFL chair Lori Sellner and her journey to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. Mark Fischenich writes in Early Obama fan eager for inauguration:

Lori Sellner had great seats at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, and she remembers what went through her mind during the keynote address. It was a thought she mostly kept to herself because it seemed pretty far-fetched to anyone who wasn’t there to experience the way people reacted to the young state senator from Illinois.

“It was pretty much when I felt I’d heard a future president speaking,” Sellner recalled last summer.

A Sleepy Eye resident and one of southern Minnesota’s most dedicated Democratic volunteers, Sellner said she knew that night in Boston she would be one of Barack Obama’s volunteers if he decided to run for president some day.

But Sellner was careful not to publicize her prediction back then.

“I didn’t share that with a lot of people,” she said. “But it’s something I’ve had in my heart in terms of the hope of it happening someday.” . . .

. . . When Obama announced he was running for president, Sellner — the chairwoman of the 1st District DFL Party — worked hard to get him elected.

“I did put a lot of time and passion into it.”

On Tuesday, she will be at the inauguration, listening to Obama speak again — as president of the United States. . . .

Tim and Gwen Walz will be there, but not their young children:

Walz reserved some [tickets] for his family, with the bulk being distributed by lottery.

Walz’s wife, Gwen, will attend, but their young children — Hope and Gus — are not because of the logistical issues, long waits and sub-freezing temperatures predicted for Tuesday morning, [District Director Meredith] Salsbery said.

For those same reasons, Salsbery said she decided not to claim one of the seats. . . .

The Congressman understands the interest in the tickets:

Walz wasn’t concerned about the cold and figured a lot of Minnesotans, after the bone-chilling weather of the last week, would consider sunny and 30 degrees to be an afternoon at the beach.

“That may have as much to do with (ticket demand) as President-elect Obama,” Walz joked.

But the second-term congressman, who was one of the first in the Minnesota delegation to endorse Obama, was glad to see the intense demand for tickets and the excitement about the beginning of a new era in American politics.

“This is a celebration of America,” he said. “This is a celebration of democracy.”

It’s also a monumental logistical challenge for Washington, D.C. That was in evidence as Walz looked out over the Capitol Mall last week.

“I have never seen so many porta-toilets in my life,” Walz said.

There's more in the article; go read the whole thing.

In the netroots, The Political Mews  thinks we're obsessed with felines in his Weekly Romp through the Blogosphere. We asked Mr. Boo and Oscar; they disagreed with him, but found this passage witty:

Also this week, it appears as though Walz wants to remain poor and even force every other member of Congress to live in poverty! I understand, Representative Walz, that YOU are used to living like a pauper given your background as a teacher but what about these other members will be unable to survive on less than $174,000?

Phoenix Woman notes that We Almost Had TARP Oversight.

n district news, the Owatonna People's Press reports Highway 14 group demands urgency at annual meeting:

Fix it now.

That is the slogan the Highway 14 Partnership hopes to hammer into the legislature’s collective conscience this year, to push through refurbishing what is known to many Minnesotans as the deadliest highway in the state.

“It is with the idea when the legislature hears ‘fix it now,’ they will know we are talking about Highway 14,” said J.D. Burton, an attorney with the law firm Flaherty & Hood P.A. which represents the Highway 14 Partnership.

The U.S. Highway 14 Partnership held its annual meeting in Owatonna on Friday. The partnership is made up of counties and cities throughout southern Minnesota, including Owatonna and Steele County. It was formed to monitor and lobby state legislatures in an effort to expand what used to be a two-lane highway across the southern portion of the state into a safer, four-lane roadway.

Read the whole article at the OPP. It's sister paper in Waseca, the County News, asks In the market for an ethanol plant? If so, now bankrupt Vera Sun is having an auction. 

The Owatonna People's Press also reports a moving--though not partisan or political--tale of a WWII soldier's effects coming home to Steele County in The lost soldier: Dog tags of a WWII vet find their way home and Preserving history: Welcoming a soldier’s effects home. William Sauter, a Marine, was lost when his plane went down off the Solomon Islands.

It's important to thank those who give all. Today, President-elect Obama placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Raw AP footage:

Photo: There's no secret weapon for DFL victories in Southern Minnesota, just a whole lot of grassroots organizing led by dedicated volunteers like First District chair Lori Sellner. Photo by Laura Askelin (who's usually pretty busy herself).