Crocodile tears: Five Republican ladies, of the party of Hagedorn who they seem cordial with, satisfied of his qualities, criticize Al Franken,
Yeah, croc. tears. Mercifully kept to a single page. Story and image source, Brodkorb's blog, (where no attribution was given as to that photo's original source).
A have to add note: This Franken thing, said by the ladies to date to 2012 has mysteriously surfaced, and it truly would be helpful if Brodkorb attributed his photo sources, helpful to the public's understanding, perhaps not too helpful to a source that wishes anonymity. The ladies wrote:
Earlier this year, a video surfaced [sic] of Sen. Franken walking around with traffic cones on his chest – clearly pretending that they were breasts. This wasn’t some “Saturday Night Live” skit from yesteryear - this video was from an event in 2012. Months after the video surfaced [sic] online, Sen. Franken has yet to apologize or otherwise provided [sic] an explanation for this very un-Senatorial behavior.
Wow. Apart from the one grammatical error, things "surfaced." Ambiguous passive voice, vs active voice -- somebody seeded stuff with a purpose. The letter fed to Brodkorb for distribution. With a purpose? More of that croc. tear stuff?
And Wow. Again, wow. They write, un-Senatorial. Heavy, heavy, fuel to these ladies' unbiased judgment.
Kind of like teaching the young about the humor of a sock in the crotch being, what, Senatorial?
Five ladies. Two standards. Make of it what you will.
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MacDonald update: Already cited, CapitolReport states MacDonald's situation one way. For a contrasting view, a telling of the story from a different perspective, this link.
One wonders, with the degree of vetting of things now, on the web, where were the GOP officials responsible for vetting at or ideally before the Republican convention where MacDonald made her Bible speech, where the video of the speech is also posted online here and here.
Jeff Kolb, here and here, strangely in this saga, making sense in what he says.
Again, per the First Amendment attorney MacDonald can say whatever she chooses, but when in a public context, seeking public office, it is to be judged. My vote, my part of the public, remains appalled at the direction her remarks took, and more appalled by the response they drew from those entrusted by Republican party processes to choose Republican candidates to endorse.
So what if she was the only one stepping up to seek the run against Lillehaug? That does not mean she must be endorsed by default, does it, if she is not the best option over "no endorsement?"
These Republicans made their bed so bless them as they have to lie in it. (That's in large measure what Kolb wrote.) I do not care much about the DUI, many of us may have been at risk for one but were never stopped, or not held/charged if stopped. I do not care too much about Pat Anderson's role, if any, although it deserves sunshine, fully so.
That MacDonald convention speech is the big time deal killer for me, in any consideration of Michelle MacDonald as fit for interpreting the law from the bench. She posts the video of it, with pride. Think if she were the only candidate for that seat ...
Scary.
___________FURTHER UPDATE__________
MacDonald: Disagreement within the Minnesota Republican Party and untoward situations centered upon judicial candidates and whatever endorsement and/or vetting processes were appropriate are not new in 2014. This administrative complaint from 2012 indicates that people going in different directions created inner party confusion that ultimately had to be resolved by a tribunal. It is unclear to me whether unrest and problems in general might attach to Republicans within the First Judicial District. Crabgrass readers more familiar with things in the state's GOP would have to comment publicly on that question for it to be clarified. Or such readers might know persons fit to resolve unclear dimensions from 2012 and the present.
Greg Wersal and Tim Tinglestad for the Minnesota Supreme Court, and Dan Griffith for the Minnesota Court of Appeals, none of whom I have cause to respect, were the judicial candidates about which confusion was created in 2012.
As I read the findings and conclusions of the tribunal's opinion back then, where readers should rely on their own reading, study, and deliberation; none of those three individuals had any central Republican party endorsement, but some went about falsely casting confusion as if there were some official Republican position taken in accord with the party's body of rules and procedures.
I am unsure how the 2012 situation relates to the MacDonald situation now, but I believe the most recent Downey communication that MacDonald is the endorsed candidate for the seat Lillehaug holds hinges upon the outcome this time being different than in 2012, i.e., this time a convention endorsement happened, unlike in 2012.
Whether the present MacDonald-related memo from the several GOP lawyers was felt necessary because of events of 2012 is something one having interest in finding out would have to ask the current memo authors. I hope somebody does ask them that question.
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FRANKEN: Yogi Berra originated the phrase, Deja vu, all over again.
The five GOP ladies do their thing, not as outraged individuals, but on GOP stationary, bearing a footer,
And they said, "Sincerely." Gee.
Above the "Prepared and Paid for ...".
Actually, the tried and true stunt worked better back in Ron Carey days, when he sent the pony express to hand-deliver a Franken directed missive. More class back then, before Downey's re-reaching into the lets-do-a-gotcha-for-the-hell-of-it bag of tricks, for a 2014 lower budget summer rerun.
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Worth a passing notice, the online lawyers memo re MacDonald which Brodkorb published did not bear a "Prepared and Paid for ..." footer. Is that an error of omission, or an expression of an item being an unofficial but very Republican action item?