a Twin City perspective (0.00 / 0)

you are exactly right. If Madia (or Tinklenberg, or Sarvi) wins against Paulsen (for open seat vacated by "faux"-moderate, but actually Bush supporter, Jim Ramstad, he (or they) will join Colin Peterson and Tim Walz as blue-dogs. That is the lay of the land here. In those seats, either Republican Bush supporters, or bluedogs.

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by: VLaszlo @ Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 20:23:55 PM UTC

Agreed (0.00 / 0)

In Minni we have to move to the left in increments in some of these conservative districts. Tinklenberg > Bachmann, Walz > Davis and Madia > Paulsen.

Most of the voters in these districts continue to vote against their own pocketbooks and best interest. I should know. I grew up in Bachmann's district. It's heartbreaking.  

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by: bcb @ Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 20:31:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's patently false (0.00 / 0)

If you look at some of the state legislators in these districts they pursue a much more economically populist and social justice oriented agenda than congressional candidates like Madia or Tinklenberg (who has shades of gray-area corruption around him btw).  OR they run on a pragmatic ideas based agenda that looks towards the future and calculates what is needed to get there.

Steve Kelly, Steve Simon, Melissa Hortman, Maria Ruud, and Andy Luger are all examples of "pragmatic" progressives from the Twin Cities western suburbs (Madia's district).  They know how to communicate with and win over suburban voters with progressive ideas.

The Minnesota DFL endorsement process has been falling apart over the last several years and seems to have an almost institutional inability to advance the best qualifed candidates through the process and get them elected.  A number of future-oriented leaders are now MIA because of this process.  

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by: northcountry @ Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 00:03:06 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

WTF?? (4.00 / 1)

Man, I am so sick of the Blue Dog b.s. about balancing the budget. We're $10 trillion behind. Unless the next President gets serious about trimming fat off the entire budget, especially military spending, we're in huge trouble.

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by: Danno11 @ Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 20:32:37 PM UTC

Since defense spending is the key (4.00 / 1)

we should take these people at their word.  Someone says they want to balance the budget, then demand they tell you how much and in what ways they plan on cutting defense spending.  They should be hounded with that question, which takes for granted the obvious truth that one can't balance the budget while spending on two occupations and increasing defense spending aside from Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.

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by: David Kaib @ Sun Oct 26, 2008 at 20:48:40 PM UTC

But even then we will have problems (0.00 / 0)

What the country really needs right now is Kenysian spending targeted at infrastructure broadly defined and advanced manufacturing in order to provide jobs and build-up new economic sectors.

Deficit reduction can come after.

China, India, Russia and the Gulf States are essentially pursuing mercantilist policies.  They only thing deficit reduction policies do right now is to create a sort of unilateral disarmanent of U.S. employment and economic growth.  

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by: northcountry @ Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 00:08:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

This is crazy (0.00 / 0)

How about you talk to some Minnesotans before declaring Ashwin Madia a "moderate to conservative Democrat"? On what do you base this? on the fact that he was endorsed by a newspaper?

Ashwin Madia wants to:

* end the War in Iraq, where he served

* end the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans (some of whom live in his district, by the way)

* end the politics of social issue divisions.  He has his rightwing Republican opponent running from his anti-gay, anti-choice positions (As a Marine Corps JAG, Ashwin successfully defended a Marine during a "Don't Ask Don't Tell" court martial)

On what issues, exactly, are you choosing to label Ashwin Madia conservative? He may not frame  issues the same way that, for example, Congressman Keith Ellison might in the neighboring Minneapolis district, but Ashwin is FAR from being a conservative.

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by: thatswhatshesaid @ Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 03:53:12 AM UTC

Bush-dog (0.00 / 0)

What is sad about this is that this fellow is a minority person.  One would think that such people would be more radical, favoring government programs for members of their group, etc.
Maybe, however, that means that the left should reconsider the belief that women, gays, and minorities are always "progressive" and that the left should base it's appeals on everybody, like they do in Canada and Europe.  

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by: jim s @ Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 14:49:56 PM UTC