Electronic pull tabs are green!

Smart? That's another question.

Glencoe's Glenn Gruenhagen

I never get tired of that alliteration

About.com civil liberties

The same freshman rep., Glenn Gruenhagen who was so consumed by the "uncontrolled male sex drive" last session (I can't find a link; perhaps some reader can supply one) has revealed another obsession: the death penalty. Gruenhagen wants to bring it back.

Poster of Lege bio photo

Perhaps he thinks it's a jobs bill! Everything, after all, that the Republicans propose is a jobs bill. I mean, you see right here that four five (!) jobs are created executing just one man. Four jobs for white people, by the looks of it. But they're public jobs, so Keith Downey might not like it, just on that basis.

Or maybe Glenn just likes the name Ol' Sparky.

At all events, he probably needs a session with Sigmund Spot. Sigmund would undoubtedly be curious to know about Glenn's mother.

It is a tribute to Bradlee's true obscurity

Avidor

Apparently, it's Bradlee who? in Iowa

It is a tribute to Bradlee Dean (real name: Bradley Dean Smith) and the Junkyard Prophet Band's true obscurity that there are still school administrators -- even next door in Iowa -- who are unaware of the poisonous, pseudo-religious claptrap foisted by these charlatans on innocent and impressionable youth. Here's a description of what happened in Dunkerton, Iowa this week:

An Eastern Iowa superintendent is doing major damage control after an unexpected message in a school assembly. The band Junkyard Prophet and a group known as You Can Run But You Cannot Hide was invited to speak at Dunkerton High School Thursday morning. Administrators thought the group was speaking about provocative lyrics in music and making good choices. But then, the subject matter turned to potentially offensive opinions on homosexuality and abortion.

The Dunkerton superintendent obviously needs some help in "making good choices," too!

My only quarrel with the description is the inclusion of the word "potentially" in front of "offensive opinions." Even Walmart is turning Bradlee's card table evangelists away. When you lose Walmart, you know the game is lost.

And I'll bet that the "invitation" was issued only after the liberal (so to speak) application of soft soap by Jakey's wife, Heather. You have to admire her salesmanship in finding a school administrator who hadn't already been warned away.

In other, and much more important, news about the Bradlee crew this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which just helped take a bite out of the Anoka-Hennepin School District over its own poisonous anti-gay policies, named You Can Run But You Cannot Hide as a hate group. This is a blinding statement of the obvious to most people around here, but maybe it will save the Dunkertons of the world some grief in the future.

Ah, the power of Google.

Big Cal's big problem

There's no mistaking those big chicken feet!

Avidor

If Michael Brodkorb's lawyers are faithful to their promise, they'll be filing suit for his wrongful termination by the Minnesota Senate -- acting in the person of Cal Ludeman, Secretary of the Senate -- any time now.

There has been a lot of ink spilled over the strength and weaknesses of Brodkorb's case, and his lawyers' posturing about it, but darn little said about the "inside baseball" part of the suit: who gets to manage it and make the decision to settle -- and for how much -- or hazard a trial. There isn't any question about where the money to settle or pay a judgment comes from, however; the Senate itself is on the hook. (Update: That's true notwithstanding the fact that the situation is entirely of the Republican Caucus' making: it hired Brodkorb; it promoted him to "executive assistant" to Amy Koch; it fired him after painting the Scarlet Letter on Koch.)

Source of original
photo unknown

But you will never guess who, after having a starring role in getting the Senate into trouble in this in the first place, gets to decide. Why, it's Big Cal himself! That's according to Thomas Bottern, Esq., counsel to the Senate Rules Committee and Cal's consigliere.

When asked who had the authority, Bottern replied: Cal; it's in the Rules. "Numerous provisions" in fact, according to Bottern.

When pressed multiple times over a span of days: does than mean Cal could decide for himself to settle the case for half a million dollars or pay an unlimited amount in attorneys' fees to defend the case? there has been no reply from Bottern.

Update 3/14:

Cal sez: you got no stinkin' claim Michael. Millions for defense; not a penny for tribute.

Further update 3/14:

And the horse you rode in on, Michael.

But what about sartorial responsibility?

Bills will make fiscal responsibility
a focus of his campaign.

City Pages reports that Kurt Bills, the high school teacher and legislator who wants to bring back the gold standard and have Minnesota print its own money, has decided to look for an easier opponent in the fall than Jeff Wilfahrt. So he's decided to join Dan "We are not a democracy" Severson and Peter "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb; Bomb, Bomb Iran" Hegseth in the contest to defeat Amy Klobuchar [chortle].

You truly cannot make this stuff up.

The photo is from the City Pages article at the link.

As the sun pulls away from the shore

And our boat sinks slowly in the west

(c) Craig Stellmacher 2012

The civic embarrassment formerly known as Steve Sviggum appears ready to resign as a Regent of the University of Minnesota. He's been asked.

Here's a bit from the MPR article at the first link:

Sviggum is both a university regent and works as chief spokesman for the Senate Republican Caucus. The board of regents is meeting today 11 am to discuss whether the two jobs are in conflict. 

A three member regents panel said last week that Sviggum does have a conflict of interest. Sviggum has rejected that idea, but Dayton says he told him that there is a problem. 

"I think he's got to make a decision between one and the other," Dayton said. "I told him I have great respect for his years of service and we always gotten along very well and my advice as a friend is that this was an embarrassment to him and to the university and he needed to resolve it."

And according the Minnesota Daily (second link), Sviggum left the meeting this morning like he'd been jilted by his girlfriend:

Minn. Daily

In an emotional speech in front of the entire board Thursday, Sviggum challenged the board’s reasoning and the fairness of the process that reviewed whether he could simultaneously hold his board position and a new job with the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus. 

“My reputation means a lot to me ... I love this University unconditionally. This hurts bad," Sviggum said. 

“For the good of the University, for the good of Minnesota, I will again, again leave something that I love." 

He handed out a resignation letter and promptly left the board room.

The photo of Sviggum leaving the Regents meeting is from the Minnesota Daily. And thanks to Bill Gleason for the tweet to the Daily story.

Sled dogs deliver sulfide mining petition from Ely to St. Paul

This morning, former state Rep. Frank Moe and his team will deliver 10,000 signatures asking Minnesota to demand proof that proposed sulfide mines in northeastern Minnesota can be operated safely. Traveling 360 miles from Ely to St. Paul in one week by dog sled, Moe has traversed the state to galvanize opposition to sulfide mines that threaten to pollute the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Lake Superior watershed.

Image: sleddogstostpaul.org

The Sled Dogs to St. Paul event has been extremely successful at focusing attention on an issue that has been ignored for too long. It's most important legacy will be to show that opposition to mines like those proposed by PolyMet and Twin Metals is statewide and diverse, not simply comprised of effete urban enviro-nazis. Rallies along the trail in Ely, Grand Marais, Finland, Duluth, and now St. Paul have been well-attended. The symbolism and visual power of this journey has drawn television coverage across the state as well, including this WCCO story yesterday.

The petitions ask for an approach, dubbed "prove it first," that is modeled after Wisconsin's sulfide mining law. The law demands that a permittee show evidence that a similar mine has operated and closed elsewhere without creating ongoing pollution. No such mine exists. Permitting a mine like PolyMet based on assurances like "we have new technology" would turn Minnesota's lakes and waters into a guinea pig. Many people depend on the quality of the environment, not just for recreation, but for their livelihood as well.

“This is how we make a living up there. And to compromise 30,000 jobs for a few hundred for 20 years and leave a legacy of pollution behind, that sounds like a bad trade to me,” said Moe.

Join Moe and his team on the State Capitol steps from 10:30 - 11:30 AM today.

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz

Lynnell Mickelsen's big problem

She doesn't get to make firing decisions for the Minneapolis schools

e.Digg.com

Mickelsen got another one of her anecdotal anti-teacher screeds in the Strib. I was curious about her organization, so I sent her a message about Put Kids First Minneapolis, and its supporters. This was her reply:

We're just a small group of passionate, pissed-off parents and citizens.

Well, indeed. Note that she didn't say informed.

Lynnell is Exhibit A in why the civil service exists in the first place. Never underestimate the ability of a small group of bug-eyed control freak citizens to make life a living hell for just about anybody.

This is exactly what Lynnell wants the ability to do. You see, every teacher knows a Lynnell or two, and it is one of the reasons teachers are so leery about giving up tenure and seniority. If the Lynnells of the world take the notion that the teacher is the reason that Johnny is such an ignorant fool -- and never mind the role of the Lynnells in raising the aforesaid ignorant fool -- then nothing will do but to get rid of the teacher.

And if the choleric Lynnells shows up at the principal's office, machete in hand often enough, well, the principal might just be tempted to cut the teacher loose. Especially if the principal (no pun intended) tool of evaluation is some high stakes test that makes the teacher look like a champ one year and a chump the next.

It used to happen with regularity a generation ago. And if Lynnell has her way, it will again.

Everybody thinks that he or she is the boss of public employees. But giving the Lynnells their way will not improve education; it will actually harm it, and it surely will make teaching less attractive as a profession. The Lynnells won't attract the best and the brightest; they will drive them away.

Her little homily -- and her self-description to me -- illustrate that quite well.

But we need to ask the Lynnells some questions: how much time have you actually spent in a classroom; have you every offered to volunteer, say weekly, in your child's classroom; do you know how many of your child's classmates come to school hungry or from homeless shelters; have you ever asked the principal or teachers at your kids' school how you can help; have you done any reflection on your role in your kids' failures; have your ever gone to a school board meeting, or ran for school board? If you did, why didn't you win?

But here's my favorite: how come you're so smart and the entire education establishment is so stupid?

Oh, and here's one more. Parents United for Public Schools is registered as a lobbying organization. Why isn't Put Kids First Minneapolis? If you've been around a while, you have undoubtedly crossed the expense threshold.

Not Almanac 3-7-12

Sorry for the delay, loyal listeners; the next episode of Not Almanac is up! This week, we discuss the prospects of the Vikings stadium deal in the legislature and the Minneapolis city council and a legislator who likes to share "funny little clippeds" with her constituents.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

You can also download the episode and subscribe via iTunes at this link.

Update: Here's a video of RT's appearance at Drinking Liberally to talk about the plan mentioned in the podcast:



Follow us on Twitter @TonyAngelo, @stevetimmer, and @aaronklemz

Keith the Liar

At a forum just before the beginning of the 2012 legislative session, students from the Edina High School Gay - Straight Alliance confronted the legislators from Edina, and Rep. Keith Downey in particular, about their position on the bullying of GLBT students.

Rep. Downey claimed that a bill offered last session, and advocated for by the student group, would replace a general prohibition against bullying with protection for specific classes, which Downey opposed. Everyone ought to be protected, says Downey.

But as the spokesman for the group, Gabe Aderhold, said, the Safe Schools for All Act (SF494) would NOT repeal the general prohibition against bullying, but rather supplement it by referring to several specific groups IN ADDITION to the general prohibition, groups like the GLBT kids, the disabled, religious minorities, etc.

Here's the pertinent language of SF494:

By January 1, 2012, a school board must adopt a written policy that prohibits harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence based on, but not limited to, actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital  status, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,  age, physical characteristics, or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. The policy shall address harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence in all forms including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms requiring Internet use. [emphasis added]

Keith Downey was fibbing, and that puts it charitably.

Downey's position is aimed at permitting and protecting districts like the Anoka-Hennepin school district -- which fought tooth and nail to protect its "neutrality policy, also know as "No Say Gay" or "No Promo Homo" -- from having to adopt policies to protect GLBT students specifically.

Downey's animus towards gays and lesbians is well known.

On March 5, 2012, however, Anoka-Hennepin agreed to a settlement of a federal lawsuit and civil rights investigation in a consent decree over its "neutrality policy" (a policy that was anything but neutral in operation) that could probably have been avoided with a better state-wide policy against GLBT bullying.

Update: Gabe Aderhold is the Edina High School student who confronted Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty at the Iowa State Fair over their anti-gay views when they were there campaigning to be president [chortle]. He's also the one who organized the protest and boycott that chased Bradlee Dean's card table evangelists out of the Edina Car Wash last fall.

Further update: Here is a letter sent to the Edina Sun Current by Edina resident and -- now former, I think -- member of the Edina Human Rights Commission, Arnie Bigbee. It was published on May, 18, 2011:

To the editor: 

On Thursday, April 14, many constituents of Edina visited Sen. Geoff Michel, Rep. Keith Downey and Rep. Pat Mazorol about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality issues. Michel, while pleasant, has shown by his subsequent votes that he does not favor all his constituents having fair and equal treatment in Minnesota. 

Downey was argumentative and brought up opinions and points of view that reflected ignorance of science and facts. He displayed his personal (religious?) beliefs in a way that conveyed insulting disrespect for our group including four Edina High School students. It was painful for me to witness the behavior of an elected leader causing all the youth in our group to leave in tears. 

Mazorol, while stating that he opposed GLBT equality, would not elaborate on his opinion. 

The Edina City Council has unanimously approved a domestic partnership ordinance. It is clear that Downey and Mazorol along with Michel are not listening to nor fairly representing all of their constituents. 

Arnie Bigbee

And yet another Update: There has been some intimation that Rep. Downey was set up, either by me or by Gabe, or both. Ha. You're thinking of James O'Keefe or Andrew Brietbart (RIP). I think there is a little projection going on here.

If it had been a setup, the video would have been a LOT better. I was actually there to see what the Deputy might have to say, it being his first public appearance since being stripped of his epaulets and brass buttons by the Senate Republican caucus. He was pretty quiet, but Rep. Downey made up for it.

I didn't even know Gabe before that evening. And I didn't know much about the Safe Schools for All Act at the time, or I would have chimed in, too. I did take a little video of the group afterwards; I asked them to stick around for that.

And before the meeting started, Downey came up to me and introduced himself in that friendly politician way. I told him who I was, and that I was one of his principal detractors -- those were the words I used. So there was no doubt as to who I was.

The Deputy didn't do that; he didn't have to do that to find out who I was. He already knew.

Mary Franson is lucky

Tom Petters' kind of lucky

And to the creator of this clever poster:
the Park Service is in the Dept. of the Interior

Mary "Small Potatoes" Franson created a flap with her ugly remarks equating poor people with wild animals. It is obvious beyond argument from her attempt at humor about making Minnesota more cruel that Franson is completely, politically tone deaf.

Franson has been complaining about her ill treatment on the blogs and on the editorial pages for her comments, saying she apologized (but not really). And apparently to Mary's surprise, she has fielded some pretty stern rebukes.

The tone of these rebukes has apparently convinced Mary that poor people, including seniors and children, really do deserve to starve. We have to teach those darn seniors and children not to be so dependent on the government!

Will somebody stop @maryfranson before she tweets again?

But as suggested in the title, Franson is lucky. Just as Bernie Madoff made Tom Petters look like a piker, Rush Limbaugh's remarks about the Slut from Georgetown blossomed just in time to take some of the heat off Franson.

Sometimes, it is better to be lucky than to be good.

Don't let the door hit you on the butt, Geoff

Geoff Michel announced this morning that he is not going to run for re-election in November. Michel's political career reached its zenith when he was chosen by Amy Koch to be her deputy for the 2011 session of the Legislature. It's nadir came a year later when he was stripped of his epaulets and brass buttons in a private ceremony.

To mark -- okay; who are we kidding; to celebrate -- the announcement, here again is the video Aloha Deputy!

Rybak's stadium message: it's about property taxes

Last week, a Vikings stadium deal was announced, but the real work of convincing two bodies to approve it remains. The legislature will be a challenge, for sure, but getting a majority of the Minneapolis city council to vote in favor of the stadium might be a steeper climb. In this quest to flip at least one of the seven council members who have demanded a referendum for any stadium tax, Rybak will have to craft a convincing message.

On January 26th, R.T. Rybak visited the usually friendly ground of Drinking Liberally, at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis. As host Steve Timmer noted, R.T. Rybak has appeared at this gathering more times than any other politician. But that night, the topic on everybody’s mind was the proposed Vikings stadium, and the attendees were overwhelmingly opposed.

 

Rybak’s appearance seemed designed to test the message he’ll use to push a Vikings stadium through a reluctant City Council and sell a recalcitrant electorate that generally opposes the use of public money to support billionaire Zygi Wilf’s stadium dreams. Indeed, Rybak admitted at the outset that his support of a stadium is “a minority position.” The news from earlier that day showed that it was a minority position on the city council for now, with Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy becoming the seventh council member to require a referendum for their support. But even more essential will be building public support among skeptical Minneapolis voters, since a skittish council will need the succor of some real support among the citizenry.

While Mayor Rybak didn’t convert his most fervent opponents this evening, his message tested pretty successfully in front of a pretty hostile crowd. Expect to see a lot more of it in the coming weeks.

The outline of his argument is:

- A great city needs to invest in common amenities like parks, libraries and, yes, stadiums
- A Vikings stadium is inevitable, the only question is where it will be built
- The Target Center is costing Minneapolis property taxpayers $5 million a year in debt service
- Redirecting the expiring downtown sales tax for the Convention Center to a city share for the Vikings stadium and the Target Center debt service would save the average Minneapolis property taxpayer 2% a year, and $100 million over 30 years.
- The question is more complex than a bumper sticker or a slogan. The question is not “do you support a stadium?” it is “do you support a package that will reduce property taxes and build a stadium?” 

The linchpin of this deal is the Target Center. Rybak’s pitch barely mentions the Vikings stadium, and hardly makes an attempt to sell the Vikings stadium as a valuable addition to Minneapolis. Talk of the Vikings moving? Completely absent. As the Vikings stadium debate moves toward dual showdowns this spring, the strategies used in Minneapolis and St. Paul will diverge. Rybak’s biggest challenge may be to keep his argument distinct, because what might convince the Legislature will turn off Minneapolis voters.

This might be the biggest political challenge of Rybak’s tenure as Mayor, and if his appearance at Drinking Liberally was any indication, he’s going to meet it head on. He's built up a lot of political capital as Mayor, and he seems willing to spend it.

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz


(Thanks to Dave Garland for shooting the video and Steve Timmer for editing it.)

Jason Lewis hates nonprofits, unless they're his friends

This morning, "America's Mr. Right," Jason Lewis, published a broadside in the Star Tribune against nonprofits and their privileged tax treatment.

Nevertheless, as long as we're talking about paying our fair share, it's time we take a look at perhaps one of the greatest loopholes of them all: the tax-exempt organization. You see, tax-exempt entities raise massive amounts of capital, and what others might refer to as "profits," they call expenses.

Lewis then goes on to list what he calls a "rogue's gallery" of scary local nonprofits like Minnesota Public Radio, MinnPost, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and Transit for Livable Communities. All of the nonprofits that Lewis trots out as examples are media organizations that he dislikes, or folks working for causes he disagrees with.

Screenshot from Civitas Institute webpage

Then again, Lewis just got back from a gig as a headline speaker at the Conservative Leadership Conference in North Carolina, sponsored and paid for by the Civitas Institute. It practically goes without saying that the Civitas Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is supposedly "nonpartisan," yet somehow spearheaded a conference with the theme "Battleground North Carolina." I'm sure that Jason Lewis donated his time and usual speaker's fee in recognition of the excellent work done by this nonprofit organization.

Lewis's Sunday column was particularly harsh on wealthy people using nonprofit organizations to avoid paying taxes:

In fact, these private foundations alone, says Virginia business attorney Ross C. Reeves, control $650 billion in wealth and, depending on the year, have investment income of around $60 billion -- none of which is subject to income taxes. This has proved to be a convenient tool for the Warren Buffets of the world to claim an immediate write-off, reduce their estate tax, and promote such charitable causes as reproductive rights, saving the planet, and world peace. All the while clamoring for higher taxes on someone else.

The Civitas Institute is a private foundation that got 99% of its funding from North Carolina millionaire businessman and GOP mega-donor Art Pope. In fact, Civitas owes its existence to Art Pope. And Art Pope knows a thing or two using private foundations as convenient tools to generate tax write-offs, he's been doing it for years. Heck, the Pope Foundation failed to file federal tax forms for eight straight years! All the while, his private foundation controls over $150 million in assets, which are shielded from taxes and used to advance Pope's conservative political agenda.

Like so much that passes for conservative political thought, Lewis's contempt for nonprofits is pure projection. The right has used private foundations and nonprofit "think tanks" to shield assets and push their regressive agenda for years. But it's particularly contemptible to see Lewis's column published in the Star Tribune literally hours after he got back from palling around with Art Pope.

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz

Close, but no cigar, Mary

Jennifer Brooks reports at the Strib that Rep. Mary Franson made a statement about her funny little clip:

Lege bio photo

It didn’t take long for the blogosphere to take notice [of the video that went last Friday afternoon]. By 10 p.m. Friday, Franson tweeted an apology: “For those offended at the video, I deeply apologize. I have asked for the video to be taken down ...”

I am sorry if you're too sensitive to take a joke is a paraphrase of what Franson really said. That's why I called it a statement and not an apology. For future reference, Mary, here's what a genuine apology would have looked like:

I am sorry for my thoughtless and insensitive remarks.

Fewer words, too! More room for hashtags!

Republicans are really good at the conditional apology that contains no confession or admission of fault. If you don't acknowledge the transgression, it isn't an apology. Just using the magic word is meaningless.

What other example, boys and girls, of the conditional non-apology did we hear about just today?

What set off Rep. Mary Franson

Apparently, Rep. Mary Franson's motivation for telling a deeply offensive "joke" comparing food stamp recipients to animals was her displeasure about a new marketing campaign to increase the reach of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to eligible people.

Here's an image from the campaign, targeting the 44,000 elderly people who are eligible for needed nutritional assistance (via MPR):

Even Republican Rep. Steve Gottwalt, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, supports this marketing program.

"I think obviously we create these programs to help people in need," Gottwalt said. "So if there are people in need eligible for these programs, I think it's perfectly appropriate to reach out to them."

But last night Rep. Franson defended her decision to include the "funny little clip," about a half hour before she asked the Minnesota House GOP to pull the offensive video off of their YouTube channel.

As I noted in a post last night, Franson's recitation of this "funny little clip" is far from original - this "joke" is a rash across the internet. A Google search reveals the kind of folks that are Mary Franson's fellow travelers. A small sampling of the places where this "joke" appears include:

PredatorMasters Forums
GoldisMoney Forums
Gold Talk Forums
The Firearms Forum
Professional Soldiers
Yellow Bullet Forums (Where the Weak are Killed and Eaten)
Colorado AR-15 Shooters Forums
SouthernSXSRiders Forums
GlockTalk

It goes on and on. Somebody even made a cute photo version for sharing on Facebook. Look, it has a bear at a pick-i-nick table!

It's one thing when anonymous discussion board posters slap each other on the back for their trenchant social commentary, it's another when an elected official shares it with her constituents in her weekly video update. Rep. Franson should know better, and if she doesn't she needs to learn why this is wrong.

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz

GOP Rep. Mary Franson on food stamps: "please don't feed the animals"

Republican Minnesota State Rep. Mary Franson compared food stamp programs to prohibitions against feeding animals in national parks in a weekly constituent update. Sharing what she called a "little funny clip that we got from a friend," Franson said:

"Isn't it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn how to take care of themselves." 

Of course, you can't blame her friend for sharing this gem. After all, it's practically a rash across the right-wing meme-o-sphere. It gets over 19,000 hits on Google. And you can't blame Rep. Franson, she was just passing it along.

The video was pulled by the Minnesota House GOP from their YouTube channel. A number of folks who were shocked by it grabbed it before it could disappear down the memory hole. Here's a clipped version that Alliance for a Better Minnesota posted. You can sign their petition to demand that Rep. Franson apologize.

(h/t @stribrooks, @atomrobinson)

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

To pick up on one and leave the other behind

Steve Sack (Star Tribune 3/1/12)

A panel of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota told Steve Sviggum, "You'd better go home, son, and make up your mind."

Sviggum, Minnesota's premiere conflict of interest magnet, doesn't think there is a problem in being both a Regent of the University and a flack for the majority caucus in the Minnesota Senate. But his colleagues don't exactly agree:

Even if a superhuman regent-slash-executive assistant to the majority caucus could manage through all the situations I think could arise there by using tools like recusal," he said, "I don’t think such a person… could ever overcome the public perception that his or her loyalty, confidentiality and duty of priority to the university could remain intact situation after situation after situation.

Lawyers are supposed to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest for the same reason that the author of that quote, Regent David McMillan, states. Even if Sviggum could pull it off, well, it just smells bad.

And if Sviggum is recusing himself every time there's a conflict, why bother to have him there in the first place? Don't Regents get appointed to make decisions, not sit on the sidelines?

Lyrics from the Lovin' Spoonful

The link to the Sack cartoon is here.

Not even Bradlee Dean II

Ern the Fibber

[The post is updated below.]

Ern the Fibber

I noted yesterday the story about Rep. Ernie Leidiger paying a speeding ticket out of campaign funds and how he justified it by saying that he had loaned his campaign money so paying the fine out of campaign funds should be no problemo!

But there is an, um, problemo! You see, Ern got paid back for his loans. He loaned the campaign $3000 in the summer of 2010 when he was starting his campaign. He got about a $6,000 public subsidy from the State of Minnesota, and the campaign paid about half of the loan back at the end of 2010.

If you want to check it out, you can go to the CFB filing by the campaign for the calendar year 2010.

In 2011, when he got ticketed for speeding and was reimbursed by the campaign for the "transportation" expense, as recited in my earlier post and at the Brick City Blog, he was also repaid the rest of his loan to the campaign.

You can read about these items in the CFB filing for calendar year 2011.

You do see the problemo, don't you, Ern?

Even if he was still owed money by the campaign, this was not the way to report the repayment. Ern and his treasurer obviously knew that.

But it does get even better. After the linked Brick City Blog post went up, and the matter had become public, Steve Nielsen, the campaign treasurer, wrote a letter to the CFB, which was faxed this morning, and you can read here. But here's a paragraph from the letter:

Mr. Nielsen does not mention the source of his hindsight. And apparently it was Ern himself who decided that getting nicked for speeding was just one of the "costs of serving." Mr. Nielsen, "rationalizing" is not a synonym for "lying."

And you're entirely correct, it didn't seem right to call it a "speeding ticket," because you obviously knew that wouldn't be a legitimate campaign expense.

Bullshit on top of bullshit.

And now gentlemen, here's a little friendly advice. Keep your mouths shut, and turn this over to your lawyer, or get one if you don't have one.

Update: Here is the language on the report for to the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board's, just below where the campaign treasurer, someone like, say, Steve Nielsen, signs:

Not even Bradlee Dean

Can pray Ernie Leidiger out of this one

Lege photo

There is a Hot Dish Politics post this afternoon that after flaunting the speed limit -- doing 74 in a 55 -- ol' Ern, and his campaign treasurer, too, flaunted campaign law by paying the $178 fine out of the campaign treasury. When contacted about the matter, Ern said: What's the problem?

Leidiger told the Star Tribune this week he didn’t see the reimbursement as a problem and that nobody had complained. He said he donates more than $1,000 to his own campaign, so paying the ticket should not be a problem.

The reason that nobody complained, Ern, at least for a month after your campaign report was filed, was because you and your treasurer tried to bury it by calling it a "transportation" expense. A payment to Hennepin County at the address for the Southdale Courthouse?

Right.

The DFL has filed a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings.

(Bradlee Dean, the tracksuit gay-hate preacher, was invited by Ernie Leidiger to give the opening prayer in the House last session, humiliating everybody from Kurt Zellers on down.)

Update: Be sure to read my follow-up post.