Category: Al Franken

by Dave Mindeman

At NetRoots Nation, Al Franken stated this:

....But I do think that this whole approach of slowing everything down, in many ways I think it’s so that, they don’t want a jobs bill because they don’t want people to get jobs before the election. It’s a harsh thing to say, and I don’t want to impugn the motives of my colleagues, but I don’t get what they’re doing otherwise.

Of course, he is referring to the tactics of the Senate Republicans to utilize the filibuster far beyond its original intent. And of course, the Minnesota GOP had to respond:

In a statement, the Minnesota GOP Chairman Tony Sutton said that Franken “crossed a line.” “Al Franken’s outrageous remarks are beneath a United States senator and we would encourage him to apologize for his baseless suggestion,” Sutton said.

OK. So the first thing to note is that this "line" that Franken has somehow crossed must be a barrier with "Democrats Not Allowed" written across it, because Sutton and his GOP cohorts have no such arbitrary line stopping them.

But more importantly, what Franken contends about the Republican intent has some empirical evidence. Think Progress looked at over 100 bills that have passed the House (with large bipartisan majorities), that the Senate filibuster has left in limbo.

All told, there are 290 such bills in various forms that are sitting on the Senate agenda. You can view the entire list here....

But lets look at a few specifics:

1) Small Business Financing and Investment Act (HR 3854): This legislation would provide assistance to small businesses so they get the credit the need to obtain loans to make payroll and expand. It passed the House 389-32 on Oct. 29, 2009.

2) Republicans blocked a motion by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) to provide immediate fixes to two areas of the law that would have clarified and protected coverage for millions of TRICARE and Veterans Administration beneficiaries.

3) Homes for Heroes Act (HR403): This legislation would expand and improve housing for homeless veterans. It passed the House 417-2 on June 16, 2009.

4) H.R. 3738, Small Business Early-Stage Investment Act

5) H.R. 3737, Small Business Microlending Expansion Act

6) H.R. 466, Wounded Veteran Job Security Act

7) H.R. 2352, Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act

Of course, these are all in addition to the unconscionable delay in extending unemployment benefits. The blocking of the Finance Reform Bill. The delay on Federal Health Care. And the killing of the Cap and Trade legislation which contrary to their characterization would end up creating jobs not killing them.

The Republicans are determined to stop any progress in bringing down barriers to job solutions, job creation, and ironically, help for Veterans. If Franken is crossing some line to point out this hypocrisy, then please Senator Franken, by all means, cross the line.

Category: John Kline

by Dave Mindeman

I haven't talked about the 2nd District DFL Congressional race much during this cycle. Some of the reasons I hesitate in that regard are that I usually get myself into trouble because I often don't say what everybody wants to hear.

Well, judging by the recent Tribune article about the two DFL Congressional candidates, we need to start talking about this a little more.

Essentially we seem to have two unemployed candidates that will be facing off in the August 10th primary. And that probably comes as a surprise to a lot of Democrats in the 2nd. Shelley Madore's situation seems to be quite recent, while Powers has had an ongoing situation for some time. None of which was disclosed.

Now, should that make a difference? Well....yes and no. I guess the better question is this: Should being out of work be a disqualifer to run for office? and the answer to that question is a resounding NO.

Now does it make it more difficult? The answer to that is absolutely. Running for a legislative seat while being unemployed would be classified as a difficult problem. Running for a Federal office, like a Congressional seat, makes it darn near impossible.

A Federal candidacy is basically an unpaid full time job. The best you can strive for is to get some of your personal expenses paid and hope you don't have to dip into loaning the campaign your savings too deeply. All the money you raise has to go into your campaign -- and there, again, you have to hope you can barely cover your growing list of expenses.

Another question that this situation brings up is, "are we entitled to know the personal finances of a candidate?" As if to answer some of that, Margaret Anderson Kelliher is calling for more such scrutiny of a candidate's personal finances in the Governor's race.

And, within reasonable boundaries, I agree.

I guess other questions piggyback on top of the ones just discussed. For instance, maybe Dan Power's employment situation shouldn't make any difference, but if it doesn't, why didn't anyone outside of a few party insiders know? I was a delegate to the Congressional convention and I was certainly not aware of this. All we were told is that Dan was a "small business owner". Of course, any one of us could have asked for more details on that and I would assume that Powers would have been forthcoming on those details. But we all made some assumptions that obviously lacked some credibility.

I guess the other question to ask is this. Since Shelley Madore is running in the primary and we now have information that may call into question Dan Power's endorsement, should Democrats consider Madore to be a better option now?

Well, if you are asking me, my answer is "I don't know."

Madore did not win the endorsement on merit (at least in the minds of the delegates -- although for disclosure sake, she did convince me). Dan's personal situation could have made some difference, but Madore didn't make any compelling issue arguments at the time that made her the obvious choice either. And, of course, you have to take into account that she did promise to abide by the endorsement.

So on August 10th, how do you vote?

I guess that simply brings us full circle. You vote for the candidate that you think has the best chance to defeat John Kline. That is what it always comes down to in primary elections. You have to weigh all the factors I just discussed and decide what is most important for you.

Then you pull the lever.

Whatever happens, John Kline is still not too worried, I'm afraid.