It looks like Jim Hagedorn, who came in fourth in a field of four in the CD1 Republican endorsement battle last month, is trying to position himself for some future in Minnesota politics.
He's rebranding his life, starting with his blogging career.
The longtime Washington DC insider told the Faribault County Register in Hagedorn’s political career over before it begins:
I am not leaving politics,” he quickly adds. “I plan to do what I can to help Republican candidates, and to continue to promote conservative ideas and values.” Previous to declaring himself a candidate, Hagedorn had written a column called “Mr. Conservative.” He still plans to write a column, but now it is simply a blog at jimhagedorn.org. He says he has always enjoyed writing.
Show me--and anyone else-- where "Mr. Conservative" was published as a column. It wasn't.
"Mr. Conservative" was a blog Hagedorn kept--then scrubbed after blogs like Bluestem and I Don't Hate America, and online media like the Minnesota Independent examined his controversial statements about American Indians, GLBT people, mourners at the Wellstone memorial, former Senator Rod Grams, and others.
Bluestem first looked at the blog in Rightwing values and performance art in MN-01: Mr. Quist and "Mr. Conservative."
There's not much left at the "Mr. Conservative" blog since the scrub, but the following links provde a pretty good taste of what Hagedorn posted there:
Jim Hagedorn: one hateful congressional candidate
Walz challenger scrubs jokes about Wellstone mourners, Grams’ infidelities from site
CD1 challenger Hagedorn deletes anti-gay blog post
The pixel cleansing was picked up by the Post Bulletin's political reporter Heather Carlson, who posted Hagedorn scrubs blog posts.
Nowhere is "Mr. Conservative" a column.
Hagedorn is adapting other parts of his past was well. His time in Washington has grown considerably shorter, if the Register is to be believed:
That could be because Hagedorn has spent the last 20 years working in Washington as a congressional assistant or as a lobbyist, and has not spent much time in Minnesota.
His own biography notes:
In 1974, Jim’s father was elected to Congress to represent southern Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Shortly thereafter the family began splitting time between Washington, D.C. and Minnesota – spending the school year in the Virginia suburbs of DC and returning each summer to the Truman farm.
While attending Langley, a public high school, Jim was a member of the varsity tennis team and excelled in political debate. . . .
. . .Beginning at age 18, Jim worked full-time jobs as a busboy and telephone salesman to self-finance his education. Jim was accepted to George Mason University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics.
In 1984, Jim was hired as the legislative assistant to former Minnesota Republican Congressman Arlan Stangeland. . . .
Twenty years? Discounting high school in Virgina and college in DC, that's 26 years. Throw in college, and this guy didn't spend time in Minnesota for 30 years.
Perhaps the most revealing bit in the paper, however, is reserved for Lt. Col. Jim Engstrand. The paper reports:
“My plan was to be in third place after the first ballot, then gain votes from the fourth place candidate, move into second place and make it a two-man race,” Hagedorn explains.
Unfortunately, he was in fourth place with 16 percent of the votes after the first ballot, just behind Engstrand.
“Some of the votes pledged to me decided to go with Jim (Engstrand) on the first ballot, as an emotional response to his recent service in Iraq,” Hagedorn says.
What to say to that? Respecting military service is "an emotional response"?
That's the sort of keen observation that made the "Mr. Conservative" famous after its time.
Comments