Ever heard of Marco Rubio? As Rubio’s Senior Strategist, Pat Shortridge managed the campaign through the toughest time for now-Senator Rubio. When Pat took over the campaign, it was considered a lost cause for Marco. He was way down in the polls, even farther down in the money chase, and people were telling him to get out of the race. But Pat developed a plan to take advantage of Rubio’s considerable strengths and turned things around.
Pat chooses to work with conservative candidates of the highest integrity, which is evident in US Senator Marco Rubio, US Senate candidate Dino Rossi, US Representative Mark Kennedy, former US House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and Congressman Paul Ryan.
Dino Rossi ran a dirty campaign. Patty Murray is still in the Senate, Dino is still wealthy but unelected, except perhaps he had one term as dog catcher or some such. That's not to say he's a political corpse, but he is not in the Senate where Patty Murry remains despite all the mud the Rossi folks slung.
Marco Rubio, well there is no big Cuban voting block in Minnesota to court and offer concessions and favors.
Batista's dictatorial thug-diaspora never wanted to reach this far north, probably. At least not in numbers. Weather in Miami is closer to the Cuban clime.
Omitted - Enron involvement when that hoax was unwinding. Alleged errand trips to Bush-Cheney folks at the time, giving early notice despite Bush-Cheney claiming not having early notice (at least Geoff Michel has not stooped to disputing Cullen Sheehan's going public about early notice in the Koch-Brodkorb situation, making Michel a cut above Bush-Cheney, but, faint praise again).
Omitted - Norm Coleman, perhaps the greatest indictment of Shortridge, if judged by the company he keeps. Throw in Mark Kennedy, a Bush-Cheney rubber-stamp running a sorry-awful campaign saying he was not that. Nobody bought the bogus pitch, their eyes were open - or more correctly few bought it, and Kennedy and advisory braintrust suffered a Klobuchar clobbering. And it was not all about personality, even with Kennedy lacking one.
Back to things not omitted - Dick Armey, Paul Ryan. Give me a break. That's supposed to be the positive part of the man's portfolio?
Aside from Marco Rubio, of whom I know few details, and the Ventura-like come-from-behind thing that was engineered in Florida, that track record says to me, "Okay, the Chamber of Commerce part of Minnesota's Republican party wants to take back the driver's seat from the Tom Pritchards of bias and hate - who were wanted always by Chamber folks for vote count, but certainly not to mess their noses into the running of things once votes were counted." A "don't go away mad ..." viewpoint.
The Pritchards pushed the hate amendment onto the next ballot, the Chamber folks finally took notice of their Frankensteinian monster, (i.e., they do polling), the purge of Koch/Brodkorb was orchestrated, the money was withheld by the money folks to where Sutton quit in shame over things in hock and disarray, and now the Coleman types are unseating the Pritchards; and can anybody get a comforting Christmas from either of those camps?
However - bottom line - it IS the Minnesota GOP under discussion, and perhaps the best observation is to observe Shortridge in context, and against alternatives. In the land of the blind ...
The movement of the sane Republicans to backing Horner against compromise of principle and Emmer, says that the Shortridge move, the distancing of Sutton, Koch, and Brodkorb, tangible things, all point to the Chamber of Commerce Republicans wanting back into control. They got majority numbers in both houses of the legislature from the Tom Pritchard mentality running amok; but then discovered that what was lacking in the Tom Pritchard mentality was mentality, as well as compliant, obedient following - doing as told.
Insubordination and peasant rebellion have always been put down with maximum show of force. Elites may war cordially against one another, but when the angered mass rumbles, stomp hard, stomp as needed, then stomp more to be certain.
Put that in your tea pot and steep it.