As we rejoin the Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most watched telenovela, we learn that the Belle of Waseca County, Mike Parry, has a BFF willing to help him win the Republican Primary in Minnesota's First Congressional District.
Carol Molnau.
Never mind that Carol Molnau was gone from the Minnesota House and the Department of Transportation before retiring in order to work on Racino wasn't even a gleam in Dick Day's eye. Although Parry served on transportation committees, Molnau wasn't commissioner anymore.
Or that a search of the Nexis "All News" database reveals a single hit for the keyword search "Carol Molnau AND Mike Parry": Mark Fischenich, "Early filing deadline puts pressure on potential candidates: Bidwell flip-flops on decision," The Free Press (Mankato, Minnesota), February 26, 2010 Friday (accessed 7/25/2012, 12:49 p.m Central time). And forget that the two were mentioned in different items in the digest-style article.
Or that he was only in the Senate during her final few months as Lt. Governor. Or that her husband received $392,802 in the very same farm subsidy payment programs for which the Parry campaign has scolded Quist for partaking.
Or that she represented Carver County and environs when she served in the Minnesota House, with only a wee bit of LeSueur County actually in the First, having been folded in by redistricting earlier this spring.
Or that her tenure was crticized as Minnesota Public Radio reports:
Her time as lt. governor was not without controversy. The Minnesota Senate rejected her confirmation as Transportation Commissioner (she served two roles in the Pawlenty Administration) because of the way she handled the I-35W bridge collapse, and because Democrats believed she wasn't doing a good enough job improving the state's roads and bridges. She was also criticized for being absent during key moments of the planning for new the I-35W bridge.
Ah yes. And then there was the affair of emergency coordinator Ms. Pitt:
The Minnesota Department of Transportation emergency response executive who failed to return to the state for 10 days after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed was fired Friday for taking unauthorized trips, making excessive personal calls on her MnDOT cell phone and bringing embarrassment to the state.
Sonia Kay Morphew Pitt, who has been MnDOT's director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management since 2003, has been on paid leave since early September.
Pitt has the right to appeal her firing. To do so, she would have to respond to a voluminous investigative report by MnDOT that details a state-paid vacation flight to Las Vegas, unauthorized flights to Washington, D.C., and a finding that she made frequent, lengthy personal calls to a male friend at the Federal Highway Administration on her MnDOT cell phone during work hours.
The investigation found that there was no work-related reason for her to be in Washington, D.C., for 13 days before and after I-35W bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, killing 13 people. In the days after the collapse, the investigation also found that she spent more time on the phone with Daniel Ferezan, her friend at the highway administration, than on work-related communications.
Yes, Carol Molnau and Mike Parry are now BFFs. This is indeed the boost that Parry needs to take and the friend to replace the fickle Michael Brodkorb. Nice clam bake.
Speaking of missing in action, the DFL tracker finally got a break from videotaping Quist's Town Halls (footage which the Parry campaign is putting to use in its emails attacking Quist, giving the concept of earned media a whole new connotation) to ask about the Bachmann fundraiser for Quist in light of her controversial statements questioning the loyalty of Muslim Americans. This is the person Parry famously claimed only tracked him.
Mike Parry is interested in getting some brats and beer:
Tune in for the next exciting episode!
Photoshopped image: Mike Parry, the Emo Senator, by Tild.
Related posts: CD1 thrilla in vanilla rounds continue as Parry and Quist carry on with GOP rope-a-dope
UPDATED w/ more Golnik! Walz's vets jobs bill becomes law; Parry-Quist bickerfest continues
Emo Senator: Accounting migraines or, Parry campaign vehicle parked outside state hearing
Mike Parry refuses to engage in Debate MN forum with CD1 GOP primary opponent Allen Quist
The tracker claim: Emo Senator: former MNGOP tracker Abby Michaud tangles with former Bachmann District Director Julie Quist
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