The walking dead: Emmer campaign lurches process toward greater cynicism

Down in Winona, Daily News editor Darrell Ehrlick concludes in No one should be OK with this recount:

Could there really be 8,000 votes miscalculated?

If there’s even that possibility, we should be appalled. No candidate in recent history should or could claim legitimacy.

If an 8,000-plus vote swing is an impossibility, then you have to wonder why legislators don’t adjust the law accordingly. Why waste the time and money on such a thing? More importantly, why give voters a reason to fret and politicians a chance to lawyer up?

After all, there is no provision in election law for aliens landing on Election Day. Laws don’t usually deal with miracles.

But all is mum in the Capitol when it comes to answering the question: Is an 8,000-ballot error possible?

Cue the crickets chirping.

If the outcome does eventually change from a Dayton to an Emmer win, I am not sure which candidate should be more upset.

Either way, what’s going on currently in the Minnesota governor’s race is a disservice because it reconfirms what people fear most about government: That votes don’t matter; that bureaucrats can’t get anything right; and, in the end, it’s one big fantastic, absurd political game that is determined by partisans not citizens.

I concur with the editor: it's not aliens doing this to the process. However, I do think that we're seeing the emergence of the zombie, or walking dead, phase of Emmer's campaign, especially given the Republican Party's ravenous data feeding in Minnesota's counties.

And the public has every right to see the lawsuits as "one big fantastic, absurd political game."

 One new Republican legislator told the West Central Tribune:

And Vogel does believe Dayton will eventually be seated as governor over Republican Tom Emmer.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “It’s a pretty big hill for Emmer to climb right now.”

Let them eat brains

A curious side note in the later story: while the MNGOP and Republican caucus leadership is flying around the state today to tout its newly streamlined committee structure as a better way to get work done, the new state representative in the Willmar area is letting out that the Republicans are looking to get less work done. At a time when the state's budget crisis cries out to be resolved and families for jobs, education and whatnot, the Republican are looking out for their own families first:

Getting used to the new routine of work and travel is being softened a bit this year for legislators.

Vogel said the Republican caucus has decided to implement a “family friendly” schedule that will end weekly legislative sessions by Thursday night or Friday noon, and then restart at noon Monday. In the past, sessions began at 8 a.m. Monday.

Vogel, an empty-nester with four grandchildren, said the new schedule will make it easier for legislators with small children to be home on weekends and stay involved with their families and communities.

Will the newly-minted majority be proposing "family-friendly" policies for average working people, or are they just special now that they have control?

Throughout the campaign season, we heard Republicans talking about how government needs to be as well-managed as a family. Most people I know who are going through a financial crisis try to get overtime--or take a second job. Not this bunch--in crisis mode, cut your work hours and spend time with the kiddies.

Images: Zombie Tom Emmer, courtesy of Tild (above); Annette Meeks isn't looking too good these days either (below, publicity still from The Walking Dead).

 

Comments

[Phoenix Woman]

So these mokes want to take Friday off, cut their workload by dumping a bunch of committees, and still take the same salary?

I guess it's OK to cut committees that aren't dedicated to protecting the megarich megadonors that got them elected. And apparently since all the new legislature wants to do is to continue Pawlenty's and Sutton's policies of screwing the little people while catering to our megawealthy overlords like the Hubbards and the Coopers, then they really won't have much work to do now, will they?

[tom smith]

dayton wins fare and square so whats upup with round 2 of mn sennangins

[Phoenix Woman]

Remember when Minnesota used to produce honorable Republicans like Tom Heffelfinger? Now the two-bit grasping grifter strain, the Snopeses as opposed to the Sartorises, has the upper hand.