Over at True North, best-selling self-help author Sheila Kihne is upset with all Republicans who have had something to do with the Aspen institute, which she locates within the dreaded Axis of Soros:
Look, I've been saying this for a while now: There are two types of Republicans: Those who understand what the country is facing and what we're up against in terms of battling the left....and there are those who don't. You shouldn't need to go to organizations directly connected to George Soros to figure these things out and I don't care how nice or free the trip.
Being one to make lists, Kihne constructs a list of Republican who have traveled on the Aspen Institute's dime, including two Minnesota Republicans--her own congressman, Erik Paulsen and former state representative Laura Brod--and some who have not, including Michele Bachmann.
A well-respected researcher within the conservative blogger community, Kihne employs a very direct methodology for her sleuthing. She uses the Aspen Institute's own search engine to find who among the local elephants has been naughty and who's been nice.
However, for identifying Congressional trips paid by private entities, there's no better tool than Legistorm, a database of past and present elected member and staff info.
Using Legistorm, I was able to determine that there are additional Minnesota conservatives who are the second kind of Republicans Kihne identifies: the ones who, in her view, have gone to the wrong place to "figure things out."
Making a list from the database (Erik Paulsen's fellowship was granted in 2005 while he was Minnesota House Majority Leader and thus is not part of the Legistorm database, while Laura Brod was a fellow in 2006 while an Assistant Majority Leader), they are:
Currently serving Republicans:
John Kline (a trip to Turkey)
Former Congressional Republicans from Minnesota
Norm Coleman (trips to Spain and Mexico)
Gil Gutknecht ( Queenstown MD)
Mark Kennedy (White Sulfur Springs WV)
And for fairness sake, a list of DFLers now serving or recently serving who traveled on the Aspen Institute's purse:
Former Congressional DFLers from Minnesota
Jim Oberstar (lots of them-click on his name)
David Minge ( Queenstown MD)
Bill Luther ( Prague, White Sulfur Springs WV, St. Petersburg FL)
That's twice as many Minnesota Republicans spinning on Aspen's Axis of Soros than DFLers--if we accept Kihne's definition.
It's not surprising that Representative Tim Walz, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Senator Al Franken don't show up on the list; records at Legistorm show no privately-funded member or staff travel at all for them (a spokester for Walz's congressional office said the three-term DFLer maintains a no-privately-funded-travel ban for himself and his staff).
Other current and former members of the state's congressional delegation travel or have traveled in varying degrees on others' dimes. My congressman and his staff seem to spend a lot of time with groups related to farms, food, and pheasants (big rural district), while Michele Bachmann not surprisingly does a lot of travel on ideologically conservative dimes. Check out the rest at Legistorm.
Frankly, I'd like to see Congress and the state legislature put severe restrictions on all privately funded travel, if not ban it outright--and have everyone follow the self-imposed restraint that Walz and others practice. Just don't take it--from anyone.
For while I don't see Soros as the Bugaboo that Kihne does, the larger concern about private interest money corrupting public officials is a valid worry. However, in the era of the Citizens United decision and other revelations of the role big money plays in the lives of elected officials, I'm not particularly optimistic that much will change on the institutional level.
For now, we'll have to look for individual acts of integrity in elected officials who are willing to turn all offers of privately-funded travel down. Chip Cravaack has had to report travel yet; let's hope he joins Walz, Klobuchar and Franken in just saying no.
Disclosure: The Minnesota Independent, where one of my freelance pieces was posted today (a first for me), once recieved support for its national nonprofit from Soros' Open Society Institute, although the American Independent News Network no longer receives such funding, according to my editor.
The Axis of Weasels!
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Mar 10, 2011 at 07:21 PM