Just when we get an legislative update from Representative Tim Miller discussing his hopes for strong bipartisan support for his funding bill for the state's Safe Harbor program for sexually trafficked children (a good thing), we come across some serious partisan nincompoopery from Beltrami County.
In Beltrami Republicans urge activism at annual convention, the Bemidji Pioneer's Zach Kayser reports:
Hancock used a metaphor of the American Civil War to describe the political atmosphere in Minnesota. Right now, Republicans are passive, like the tourists that famously picnicked on bluffs and and watched the First Battle of Bull Run (also called Manassas) rage below them, he said.
"What you're witnessing now is... just the first battle of Bull Run," he said. "Before we get to Gettysburg and Antietam, join us. Get involved. Instead of having your picnic lunch up on the hill and watching the battlefield, grab your sword. Come on down with us, and help us with the battle."
Perhaps this explains last year's sword attack last year in Anoka. Aside from his Hotel Rwanda rhetoric, Hancock did find common ground, however, with some DFLers:
"I think the (Iron) Range Democrats would like to get the mines open, I think they'd like to get the oil pipes, I think they'd like to grow the economy," he said.
Hancock called for volunteers to run for state office: to unseat Democratic legislators Sen.Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, and Rep. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji, in 2016, and eventually to replace Hancock himself.
"I want to play some golf later on while I can still play golf," he quipped.
And here we thought the Civil War was about state's rights and slavery.
Photo: The Anoka sword guy, via KARE 11. So grab your machete and go attack your neighbor. Not.
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