Two Peas in a Pod

Fade to Red Ink

Vote Gary Mullen-Schultz for Rochester District School Board: because your local property taxes aren't high enough.

Fade to red (ink).

Mr. Mullen-Schultz's biography fails to mention that he is a protégé of former Rochester School Board Chair and current DFL Minnesota House District 29B candidate Kim "The Tax Lady" Norton. Apparently he is also too modest to brag about his credentials as a Rochester Post-Bulletin columnist as well as a reliable DFL mouthpiece. Mere oversights, I'm sure.

You will remember that Ms. Norton and most (*) of her cohorts, including Senate District 30 DFL candidate Ann Lynch, voted to increase property taxes the week before Christmas 2005. Ho ho ho.

(*) School board member Fred Daly was the lone noble dissenting vote.

Do not be fooled by Mr. Mullen-Schultz's rhetorical sleights of hand. The following come from his campaign website and are accompanied by color commentary.

"... there are no silver bullets that will both suddenly improve our schools and lower our taxes."

So, when if it comes down to a choice, what will Mr. Mullen-Schultz's be? We know that, to liberals, "improving" our schools means raising property taxes and dumping even more money in said schools. As a liberal himself, I rather doubt that Mr. Mullen-Schultz will even consider lowering property taxes. It's not in the liberal nature to let working people keep their own money. Seniors on fixed incomes and small business owners be damned.

"I believe we should take a hard look at introducing Chinese and Arabic languages. To facilitate this, we must carefully examine the need for other language offerings, such as German and French, to decide what level of funding they deserve."

Mr. Mullen-Schultz would probably find it jingoistic, but what about teaching our children how to write and speak the English language properly? Walk around any public school cafeteria or just stand in the hallway and you will realize that if kids are murdering their native tongue so callously, imagine what they will do to Chinese, Arabic, German and French.

"It is important to have varied voices on the board so that a multitude of thoughts and opinions are heard."

With the exception of Fred Daly's thoughts and opinions, of course. A genuine appreciation for a diversity of thoughts and opinions is not exactly a liberal forte.

"I will work to cultivate such an atmosphere, with the goal of creating the best possible school district with a minimum of public funding. "

A "minimum" of public funding.

Sure.

Somehow I doubt that the school district's taxpayers share Mr. Mullen-Schultz's definition of "minimum public funding."

Liberal democrats have adopted the language of fiscal responsibility with pathological fervor. They will not vote in a fiscally responsible way, but darn it if they haven't mastered the rhetoric.

The truth is that the Olmsted County DFL now sees the Rochester School Board as a primary stepping stone to showcase and eventually propel liberal candidates to higher office. The aforementioned Norton and Lynch, are prime examples.

Do not be fooled. The DFL is grooming Gary Mullen-Schultz for higher office. Warn your friends against voting for Mr. Mullen-Schultz or any other liberal wolf in pseudo-fiscally conservative sheep's clothing.

Also, if you live in either House Distric 29B or Senate District 30, remind your friends and neighbors of that cold and dark night the week before Christmas when Norton and Lynch raised our property taxes. Urge voters not to reward their fiscal misdeed by electing them to higher office. Besides, if they raised your taxes here at home, what would keep them from doing so again in St. Paul?

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

For all the talk that Republicans are about to experience electoral defeat at all levels of government, liberals don't seem all that confident they will indeed sweep the November elections.

I say that because of the latest campaign controversy that seems to have gripped southeastern Minnesota. DFL Rep. Tina Liebling's liberal minions are fit to be tied over "Re-elect Carla Nelson" campaign signs. Their underwear is currently tied into tiny little painful knots as they argue Nelson's signs are meant to imply she is the current state representative. According to their delusional argument, Nelson is pretending to be the incumbent in order to deceive District 30A voters into "re-electing" her. Such a wascally Republican.

How dumb do DFLers think District 30A voters are? In the current climate, what advantage is there to falsely claim to be an incumbent anything?

Liebling has cast aspersions on Nelson's honesty, of course, which in itself is a cleverly dishonest way to deflect attention from the freshman DFL representative's mediocre record in the legislature.

Is the term "re-elect" the exclusive property of an incumbent or is someone who at one time held the office entitled to use the term in order to reclaim it? Does it matter?

There is no anti-incumbency talk from DFL activists regarding the Minnesota House races in Districts 27B, 30A and 30B since their candidates are the incumbents. Their anti-incumbency bravado, vitriol and slander are reserved for First District Congressman Gil Gutknecht.

Instead of quibbling over the meaning of the term "re-elect," Tina Liebling and her supporters should explain why she should be re-elected when the first government shutdown in Minnesota history happened on her watch, why she consistently votes for taxes increases and why she is lax regarding the enforcement of our immigration laws.

Embracing Insanity

Howard Dean piqued way too soon.

Had the 2004 Iowa Democratic caucuses been held yesterday, Dean would have been well on his way to clinching the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.

If anyone had any doubts that the liberal Democratic Party is in the process of being taken over by its radical wing, the results of yesterday's primary in Connecticut should remove them once and for all.

Political Cynicism

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

-- Groucho Marx

Ink by the Barrel

I attended a conference a few weeks ago where one of the speakers advised political candidates not to pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. The topic was "Media Relations," as you may have guessed. Well, I don't believe that the media are above criticism, no matter how much ink they can afford to buy. So here it goes.

Jay Johnson's latest anti-Republican editorial tirade ("Attacks feed voter apathy," August 8, 2006) serves a dual purpose; (1) raise School Board member and DFL Senate District 30 candidate Ann Lynch's unimpressive profile and (2) paint Republicans as a whole with the broad brush of "less-than-admirable side of human behavior."

Mr. Johnson's springboard was an online comment by Duane Quam in which the Olmsted County Republican Party Co-chair chides Lynch for considering her School Board experience an asset in her campaign for the Minnesota senate. Mr. Quam is a critic of the fiscal priorities of the School Board and believes that Lynch is very much a part of the problem, which raises questions as to her qualifications for higher office.

The School Board's "excellent bond rating" and " high marks in overall effectiveness," which Mr. Johnson's editorial touts, were built on the backs of senior citizens on fixed incomes and small business owners. The Board's last property tax increase was enacted the week before Christmas last year. Ho ho ho! I should refrain from making any Ann "Grynch" jokes.

The P-B editorial took Mr. Quam to task for "hit-and-run tactics" and "scorched-earth politics." Never mind that leftist bloggers hiding under the anonimity of monikers such as "coezee" and "211094" routinely use invective, name-calling and even vulgarities in the same forums as Mr. Quam but with impunity.

Mr. Johnson admits that Mr. Quam subsequently sent the P-B an email that had "considerable detail" meant to back up his online comments. The P-B editorial page writer never lists those details, however. The editorial goes on to praise School Board actions and imply that Lynch is responsible for their success.

It looks like the P-B has a dog in this electoral fight.

Run, Kerry, Run!

John "The Come Back Kid" Kerry dazzles an Iowa "crowd" and decides that the masses really want him to run for President of the United States once again.