From the Draft Ciresi! site:
Those of us who had wished for Ciresi to reenter now find ourselves in a great deal of difficulty in what has turned to a depressing Senate race. We are faced with Al Franken, the man who returned after thirty years to continue his career of partisan attacks. There is Norm Coleman, who has spent his life doing what is best for himself over the interest of Minnesotans. And, of course, there is Dean Barkley, who has settled with running for Senate because he has nothing better to do and because he thinks the job is easy; [...]
Many have suspected us of being a Republican creation; that is surely not true. Now that Mike Ciresi is no longer viable, our site will discontinue. We do not mean to affect the discussion further, [...]
Priscilla Lord Faris should not be a major obstacle for Al Franken to overcome. No major candidate has emerged to challenge Al Franken in the primary.
Jesse Ventura's decision not to run is good news for Franken, so long as Ventura's decision does not push Ciresi into the election. In the Survey USA/KSTP poll released yesterday, Al Franken was 13 points behind Sen. Coleman.
That is excerpted from two posts there. If truly motivated by a belief that Norm Coleman is bad for Minnesota, (a view I have already expressed more than once in viewing him as an opportunistic apprentice underling who did as told and did so to the disadvantage of the state and nation), then they can land somewhere and spend time doing what they can to lessen Norman Coleman's opportunity and chances.
Or they can go off somewhere and be soreheads, which is the implication of "we do not mean to affect the discussion further."
I cannot criticize their right to suggest Franken was not the best choice for the DFL because I have said the same of Elwyn Tinklenberg.
They have anonymously published claiming to be DFL insiders believing Ciresi would have been a better DFL choice, while I remain independent and unaffiliated because the DFL makes "pragmatic" choices such as backing Tinklenberg over a progressive and capable alternative, Bob Olson, when Tinklenberg's true place always was with the IP.
The cynical Sixth District DFL regulars in that fashion insult me and my district by offering a crypto-Republican against a certifiable loony-Republican, so that I get no choice but one between Republican-spirited individuals, with the DFL suggesting I should be happy over a Blue Dog with all those many, many, many fleas.
They do that because the courage is lacking in the district's DFL to run a progressive. Bless them. It's their party. Not mine.
Compromising principles is not my thing.
And do not doubt for a second that Elwyn Tinklenberg is a compromiser and appeaser.
Tinklenberg's website says this of his true IP colors:
Tinklenberg was endorsed [at the IP convention] by a show of hands that indicated he had gained significantly more votes from the delegates present than the sixty percent needed to endorse.
Former Independence Party stalwarts Dean Barkley, Peter Hutchinson and Jack Uldrich all spoke in favor of the IP endorsement after the party's chair, Craig Swaggert, suggeted to the convention that they consider endorsing the Blaine DFLer.
Tinklenberg, who didn't actively seek the endorsement, had made it known that he would accept it if offered. After the convention voted, Tinklenberg told [t]he delegates that he was in full support of the party's values and would proudly campaign on them.
Tinklenberg noted that in the 2006 race the winner, Michele Bachmann, won by a mere 547 votes over the combined DFL and IP votes.
John Binkowski, the IP candidate in the 2006 race, was a delegate to the convention and also spoke in favor of the Tinklenberg endorsement.
The Tinklenberg Blog expands:
Two years ago, Independence Party candidate John Binkowski drew almost 8 percent of the district's vote, helping Bachmann win the seat with 50 percent of the vote. Democrat Patty Wetterling got just 42 percent.
Tinklenberg is positioning himself as more moderate than the conservative Bachmann and trying to win over middle-of-the-road voters.
"What this says about our campaign is that we are trying to do what we talk about, and that is to build through addition rather than division," said Tinklenberg, who worked as transportation commissioner under former Gov. Jesse Ventura, who won office as a third-party candidate.
Not an ounce of conviction expressed. "Positioning himself." No truer words were ever spoken. The dance, no spirit, a technician and bureaucrat with an appeasment mentality, "positioning himself as more moderate" i.e., trying to be just to the middle relative to "the conservative Bahcmann and trying to win over middle-of-the-road voters." Expediency over conscience is what his website and blog brazenly admit. Courage and conviction have no place over flexible "positioning."
The man must be so elastic that anything fits with nothing real or constraining. That's the flavor his own candidacy rhetoric gives us. It is not just me saying so. It is Elwyn Tinklenberg and cohorts saying precisely that. He is posturing. A poseur "positioning himself as more moderate."
There really is not too much conscience expressed in, "What this says about our campaign is that we are trying to do what we talk about, and that is to build through addition rather than division." That is gobbledygook, other than saying it is posturing and posing. My guess is he is "optimistic" that "positioning" around that way will work. He may be correct. P.T. Barnum may have been correct.
Try as hard as I might, I cannot envision Paul Wellstone nor Hubert Humphrey saying he could happily run on what the Independence Party stands for in terms of respect for the excluded and the downtrodden, and belief in helping the little guy.
This is Dean Barkley's soul-brother that the DFL Sixth District bosses have handed down, not a Wellstone, not a Humphrey.
A Dean Barkley clone.*
I have no problem with Tinklenberg courting and gladly accepting the IP nomination.
It is where the gentleman belongs, and you can check that out via the IP website.
That link identifies the IP "party's values" in which Elwyn Tinklenberg was/is "in full support" and, instead of traditional Wellstone-Humphrey values, are the values on which Elwyn Tinklenberg "would proudly campaign."
Please go and read what values Tinklenberg truly holds. The IP does not say it is pro-choice, in favor of tax reform to lessen the burden on the middle class and tax the wealthy their fair share, nor does it favor universal healthcare as an inherent citizenship right. It is anything but progressive.
The IP and its candidates are GOP-lite. Nothing but that.
Tinklenberg belongs there solely because he is a shade insufficiently right-wing to satisfy some of the extreme Sixth District Republicans. Otherwise he could run as GOP, except they have an incumbent. And Tinklenberg IS pragmatic.
It is not expedient to try to challenge an incumbent. So he is allowed to parade himself as a DFL individual, but he sure does not look like one. Bless him.
___________
* Read about Dean Barkley, here, here, here, here, here (where apparently he deferred to Tinklenberg but might have complicated things against a real and progressive DFL Sixth District candidate much as Binkowski did against Wetterling), here, and here.
Read, specifically, about Dean Barkley's choice to run (IP only) for the Senate, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
They even look alike -- like identical forced-smile politician caricatures.