Cloquet Republican leader's LTE picks up where Tony Sutton's rhetoric left off

I have to hand it to Justin Krych, the deputy chairman of the Eigth Congressional District Republican Party of Minnesota. The gentleman from Cloquet has boldly gone where state party chair Tony Sutton led. Sutton's "quisling" remark back in October was followed by a vote on outlaw status for 18 Republican leaders, including two former governors and a former U.S. senator.

Krych extends the metaphor. In GOP turncoats deserved their fate, a letter to the editors of the Duluth News Tribune, Krych drops these sugar plums:

The Independent Republican Party of Minnesota, as the party officially is known, exists as a private organization whose foremost goal entails electing endorsed Republican candidates who will adhere to the party platform. We reserve the right, as any private organization does, to remove or influence the removal of any member who chooses to engage in activities that do not reflect the conduct of a member in good standing.

The Roman orator Cicero opined, “A nation can survive its fools … but it cannot survive treason from within.” These words embody the decision of Govs. Al Quie and Arne Carlson and Sen. David Durenberger to endorse a third-party candidate for governor in the 2010 election.

Ah, yes. Somewhere in the white space between paragraphs, the Republican Party transformed from a private organization into the nation itself, and the act of endorsing Tom Horner became worthy of charges of treason.

Okay then. Moving on:

My relatives fought bravely for the Polish Resistance in World War II against their German oppressors. I wonder if the vast majority of their countrymen considered support of Germany as a matter of personal conscience deserving respect by the souls dying to free their nation. I think not.

Republicans will live to fight another day for the office of Minnesota governor. We endorse the candidates of our choosing, and the loyal members of our party abide by those endorsements or face consequences. Perhaps Quie, Carlson and Durenberger will take the next two years to contemplate their betrayal and emerge as whole members again. If not, I will see to it that the next suspension becomes permanent.

So the Republican Party is to Tom Horner as the Polish Resistance was to Adolph Hitler. Somehow, it's difficult to cast Tom Emmer, dodger of pennies, as Stefan Rowecki, and the RPM as either the Peasant Battalions or the Union for Armed Struggle, especially given the fact that a Republican occupied the Governor's Mansion during the election. Analogies are cruel that way.

The letter writer deals in hypotheticals, believing that the DFL would act no differently:

I wonder what the actions of the DFL state party would entail if Sen. Amy Klobuchar endorsed Sarah Palin or if Rep. Tom Rukavina endorsed Newt Gingrich. Would those actions merit a suspension from official DFL activities? Indeed, and the party would be right in doing so.

It's not likely that Klobuchar will embrace Palin, close to the political center as Minnesota's senior senator may be. Should Representative Rukavina take up with Gingrich, the DFL would probably check the label on Tommy's underwear and reserve a room at Hazeldon, but the Bartertown on Plato is unlikely cast him into the red wildernesses of Wright and McLeod Counties.

 

Comments

[Mike W.]

....but the Bartertown on Plato is unlikely cast him into the red wildernesses of Wright and McLeod Counties.

He can certainly join us if he wants. :-)

[Phoenix Woman]

Geez Louise. I leave these people alone for a couple of days and they start breaking the furniture again.

My favorite thing is that they're consigning Al Quie -- Al QUIE -- to the friggin' outer darkness. Al Quie was the only statewide-electable guy the Frothing Taliban Fundie wing of the RPM has ever produced, and even then he lucked out because of the electorate's being ticked off at Rudy Perpich for the way he got into office; once the public got a good whiff of Quie, they ran straight back to Perpich.

In spite of the growing conservative control over our national and local legacy media, and the insane amount of dough spent by conservative groups allied with billionaires like the Tea-Party-loving Koch brothers, they still couldn't get Tim Walz ousted, nor could they get Emmer into the governor's mansion. Even their takeover of the House was narrow: a thousand votes in the other direction and the DFL would still have it.