Does "Endorse me or I'll cause an ugly primary," sound like a spoiled child, or a staunch party regular?

Primaries are not all bad, for had Mark Dayton not saved us from the Iron Rangers getting a bar tender up there endorsed the one time for Senator, Rod Grams concievably might have had a second term. I cannot remember the name. It began with a J.

Yet this is different.

This is an IP guy who held statewide office only briefly as an IP appointee the wrestler liked, who left to cash in "consultancy" opportunity as the door revolved behind him. Is he really anything but, at heart, an IP anti-choice individual? Really, beneath the veneer?

With all advantages, Bachmann causing him to get cash from nationwide sources when he could not raise jack from folks knowing his local history, he put none of his lobbying wealth behind his candidacy, and looked upon the biggest election day landslide DFL showing in memory, if not over the life of the nation, and he lost.

To a plurality Bachmann showing.

He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Now a sore-head; I will get in an ugly three-way primary, he says that; when no other two people have said anything to give cause for him to use that provocative chip-on-the-shoulder language, beyond a will to try to intimidate his way into an endorsement he's done little to nothing, to deserve.

Eric Black reports, MinnPost, online here:

This announcement follows the news that broke here Wednesday that state Sen. Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud has decided to seek the Dem nomination. (Officially, in a non-confirmation confirmation of that scooplet, Clark said that she "is not ready to formally announce her candidacy for Congress.")

At the time, I sought reaction from the candidates who were already in that race -- Tinklenberg, who has sought the seat twice before and was the Dem nominee in 2008, and Dr. Maureen Reed, former chair of the U of M Board of Regents. I asked Tinklenberg campaign manager Dana Houle whether Tinklenberg would enter the race for endorsement as an abider or whether he would be prepared to run in a primary if he lost the endorsement. On Wednesday, I didn't get an answer, but now Team Tinklenberg has decided to state publicly that:

"El Tinklenberg is the best candidate in the field, and the only one who can defeat Michele Bachmann. He will work to earn the endorsement at the DFL convention. But our goal is to win in November, and if El is forced to fight through a three-way primary to take on Michele Bachmann, that's a battle he's ready to fight, and a fight we will win."

Of course, the election is 16 months away and there will be many bounces of the ball, but this is an interesting moment, especially at this formative stage of an upshaping intra-party contest.

Nationally and locally, Dems will want the best candidate to take Bachmann on, but also will want a unified party for the entire summer and fall of 2010, not a three-way primary that will leave the distracted and weakened eventual winner unable to concentrate on making the case against Bachmann until September.

Reed is running hard and raising money fast and it seemed likely that she would pursue a primary strategy. (When I asked her Wednesday whether she would abide by the endorsement, she replied: "Plan A is to get the endorsement. Plan B is to make Plan A work.")

Traditionally, candidates stand little chance of winning a DFL endorsement unless they pledge to abide by the endorsement. Reed's statement would be taken by endorsement hard-liners as cute, but way short of a pledge to abide.

Although Tinklenberg would have some strength in an endorsement fight, I believe Clark would be the endorsement frontrunner on the day she announces, especially if she comes in as an abider. (Until she announces, I doubt I can get her to say how she views the abiding issue, but I'll try.)

Now here's Tinklenberg apparently threatening to go to a primary if Clark gets the endorsement.

I wonder how this selfish crybaby stuff sits with Oberstar.


________UPDATE________
Hat tip to Blue Man - he flagged the fact that FEC campaign finance disclosure reports are online (with a newer related post above linking to Blue Man's post).

Wondering about Oberstar, as noted, and then looking at the finance reporting, I also have to wonder how deep Jim Deal's pockets are.

And even he will tire of the hopelessness of giving CPR to a corpse.

Deal did get that cozy Anoka County $500,000+ per acre, for a 1.2 acre parcel of raw land next to the busiest rail tracks in the State - for Anoka County's new morgue [the whistle screech and track rumbling noise won't bother the stiffs, so it's an opportune site for the morgue in that sense too].

Deal, like the singing seven dwarfs, must regard Tink, Dan Erhart, the DFL old-boy net in the County, etc., properly, respectfully, so for now he is paying and singing, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go."

And there's a disclaimer, that even with seven councilmembers in Ramsey, all male on the existing board, that image is more to represent Deal and his several family members contributing along with the former Community National Bank employee during Nedegaard-Town Center times, now a Deal employee, Curt Martinson who does not have a beard, all going to work, merrily for now, for Tink's fundraising; aka CPR to a corpse. You look at the fundraising data, and after thinking it over you can see why the ten-percent Tinkster is already talking about a primary. Desparate men say desparate things.

Closing now with one last semi-related thought, how long do you figure it will be before Tarryl Clark sends Shane over, to take care of the hired gun? The one brought into town from land of the raging Kos.

_______FURTHER UPDATE__________
As a correction of something that was confusing to me, Curt Martinson's status apparently no longer is as an employee of Jim Deal, but a few summers ago after Martinson had left the Community National Bank (the bank that had given the multi-million dollar bank loan to Bruce Nedegaard and his LLC for his Town Center plans and efforts), Dave Orrick in a series of articles had reported there was an employer-employee relationship then. The Tinklenberg FEC data identifies Martinson as now a "consultant" with Business Solutions Consulting, LLC; with this Secretary of State filing:


Deal's name is not on that filing. From all that, I should make it clear that I have no cause to believe either way whether there is any present business tie between Martinson and Deal, even while one had been published by Pioneer Press in the past. On the other hand, I have no cause to believe any friendship between Deal and Martinson has lessened. There are ties at least of friendship, as I encountered them after the Orrick reporting entering the Anoka Perkins in the lobby while I was leaving a winter or two ago, and I observed both present and conversing with each other last election cycle when Deal hosted a Tinklenberg fundraiser in his Plaza building across the street from the new City Hall in Ramsey's Town Center neighborhood.

Also I should note that Jim Deal has long been a DFL contributor and noteworthy in the community as such, so that his supporting one or another DFL challenger is not out of character and the "dwarf" thing is pure parody - the man is no dwarf in the community. Rather he has been active in property ownership and on the consulting board formed during the James Norman tenure as Ramsey's city administrator, tasked to advise on the Comprehensive Plan prior to the more recent 2008 planning. Deal's longterm DFL bona fides is clearly apparent from his having drawn ire years ago for it, from GOP operative Michael Brodkorb in Brodkorb's past MDE blogging. I have no idea how far back in time Deal's support and belief in Tinklenberg reaches, but my belief is it predates the Tinklenberg Group's activity in "mapping" efforts along the Highway 10 corridor in Ramsey.

My understanding is that Jim Deal formed his crop insurance business after leaving the US Agriculture Department in the late 1980's and has had the business headquartered in Ramsey for most of the years since its formation; and also that he owns or has owned extensive acreage in Collin Peterson's district and has remained a good friend of Peterson for years. I have seen mention of such things online from the past, but nothing detailing any changes in the last year or two. Personally, I have spoken only a handful of times to Jim Deal, without any conversation touching matters of substance. I have seen Deal reported as a supporter of Mike Hatch, and I share the view that Hatch would have made a far, far better governor than Pawlenty.

I remain disappointed that the IP Peter Hutchinson - Maureen Reed candidacy may have attracted enough votes away from Hatch among DFL leaning people to have possibly made the difference in the very close loss the Hatch - Dutcher ticket suffered.

Mr. Yuck; for sale; yours for a mere two million smackolas. BRAVO FedEx - for sending the dirt bags packing. Uh, make that a small bravo.

With an offer of frinedship such as yours, I prefer enemies: Politco has the story three places, here, here and here; as, respectively, the July 16 Andy Barr reporting, then the July 17 Ben Smith follow-up citing Mike Allen for breaking the story, and lastly, the Allen reporting. Fox also reports, while Ben Smith posts the letter [image below at close of the post].

And, please, click and enlarge that above image to see the names of the luminaries listed as "columnists" owned and/or loved by the American Conservative Union [the only "union" where I'd enjoy seeing a little old-fashioned Pinkerton union busting]. Read the Barr piece as it names several high profile names [okay, mid-level names if you want to split hairs], and read the Allen item because it excerpts and focuses well; while Ben Smith briefly writes:

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million+, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and / or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx that was provided to POLITICO.

The letter exposes the practice by some political interest groups of taking stands not for reasons of pure principle, as their members and supporters might assume, but also in part because a sponsor is paying big money.

Maury Lane, FedEx’s director of corporate communications, said: “Clearly the ACU shopped their beliefs and UPS bought.”

Why only a small bravo for this situation?

For the answer, the two package delivery giants were at war over relative advantage and disadvantage in how bargaining units were arranged at each, to screw the workers more effectively one way vs. the other - yilelding, allegedly, a competitive advantage for FedEx where "Brown" [UPS] sought to even terms for each against their respective union employee groups -- something that [absent the more lurid details] Fox supprisingly presents here in fair and balanced, though abbreviated and incomplete, terms (even crediting Politico for breaking the story):

[W]hen FedEx refused to pay the American Conservative Union, the group sided with UPS, FedEx's rival in the dispute.

FedEx and UPS are battling over a provision being weighed by Congress that would expand union power at FedEx.

The House passed a bill that would force FedEx, which currently has one U.S. union contract for its entire express business, to negotiate union contracts for individual locations -- like UPS -- which FedEx argues would make it much more difficult to promise worldwide regularity for deliveries. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate.

After FedEx said it rejected the offer, Keene reportedly signed onto a two-page July 15 letter supporting UPS as part of a conservative consortium that accused FedEx of "misleading the public and legislators."

"Clearly the ACU shopped their beliefs and UPS bought," Maury Lane, FedEx's director of corporate communications told Politico.com.

But Dennis Whitfield, ACU's executive vice president, said that neither the group nor Keene took any money from UPS and that the group has never received a response to its initial offer to FedEx. He said Keene endorsed the second letter as an individual, even though the letter contained the logo of ACU.

[italics added] And while that is an excerpt, it gives the gist of the Fox item and of the delivery giants at battle; so - check it if you doubt my excerpting.

Read for yourself the three page solicitation letter. Surprisingly as if expecting it could not go public, the for-hire-Conservatives organization wrote FedEx this letter [downloaded per the earlier Politico link]:




Click the successive thumbnails to read the scope and detail of the three-page American Conservative Union's fee-for-services proposal. You have to make it at least three pages, to semi-justify the amount of money the proposal was soliciting.

I saw on that third page the cc "Charlie Black BKSH" and my first instinct was to presume "BKSH" was an abbreviation for baksheesh. Not so, it is instead another conservative priced advocacy services outlet, by all appearances, here.

This is one of those "rare insightful" peep-under-the-kimono situations where two corporate interests, the two package delivery firms, are battling over level-playing-field contentions between them on screwing over their respective employee bargaining units, so that the traditional "conservative value" interests can shop both sides, i.e., ably can walk both sides or either side of this street, for the right John.

For those readers still not understanding the inner-world of the American Conservative Union, and the BKSH & Associates Worldwide, and how Washington DC in general, our capital city, Capitol and all operates, with capital making the rules and playing the game; here is a link on state-of-the-art easy-to-maintain cesspools, reasonably priced, ones you can buy - probably either lump sum or on an installment plan.

_______UPDATE_________
More info to weigh, do you guffaw, or cry, or hold judgment in abatement until more of the truth in the saga unfolds? Make that decision in light of whether Washington Post may recently have compromised itself in tawdry ways, [Crabgrass link].

First, one of the Politico stories; here; mentioned an astroturf [fake grassroots] website FedEx had set up to cast UPS in a bad light; here.

So far, nothing tantalizing, just two opponents facing each other, each getting the shoes wet and yellow from the other. Same story we've heard before.

But there is this, via three screenshots, explained below them:





First, a screenshot of http://www.brownbailout.com/ the anonymous attack site FedEx put up against UPS. Note the highlight on a link to a George Will op-ed. Second, that link is to an Arizona Republic item, not any other paper. When the link is toggled, the second screenshot shows the Will op-ed was pulled from the Arizona paper's site. The third screenshot shows the item was still up elsewhere, e.g., Seattle Times. And in that third item, the terminology, "union-supporting ploy" in the headline might refer to the Teamsters Union, per the text Will wrote, or as a Freudian Slip, to the American Conservative Union, choosing the other side when FedEx ponyed up no cash for favors. So, the lingering worrisome question, did FedEx pony up anything for George Will's favorable commentary, or was it a pure, clean, journalistic decision of Will, where he stood on the issue independent of any personal stake favoring either side?

The way American Conservative Union acted is something which, in the next few days, ought to force a statement from Will about whether he had any fiscal motivation to write as he did, beyond the syndication fee income his column ordinarily earns regardless of what he writes and who it favors.

More simply stated; George Will, did you or did you not take payola in exchange for publishing an opinion? Yes/no?

Hired Gun Hubris as proxy on behalf of the IP'er who a decade or more ago was elected mayor of Blaine.

Baaaaad! Bad to the Bone. Jack Palance, as the out-of-town hired gun in Shane.

There is this (hat tip to Political Muse):

I'm Taking a Break From DKos to Take Out Michele Bachmann
by Dana Houle -- Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 05:44:29 PM PDT

About six and a half years ago I discovered Daily Kos. It was shortly after the 2002 election, and I was hooked. There was a bunch of campaign talk, but what really sucked me in were the posts by Markos and the late Steve Gilliard on the idiocy of the war and the horrible planning they were reporting even before the invasion in March 2003. I started commenting in threads—there were no diaries in those days—and within a few months, Markos asked me to become what was then called a guest blogger, and has since become known as a contributing editor.

I've worked in a state legislature, for labor unions, on Capitol Hill, and on campaigns. Since I've been at Daily Kos, I've done several campaigns; I worked in Louisiana helping legislative candidates, I worked for Wesley Clark, I helped run the campaign against Michigan's idiotic marriage amendment, and I've managed two successful races against incumbent Republican Congressmen.

My next challenge is to take out a third member of Congress: Minnesota Republican Michele Bachman.

I won't be involved in any of the administrative activities of the site, but I'll probably still write an occasional piece as a featured writer, at least until the campaign really heats up and I’m working 80 hours a week. And I'll still be commenting in threads and participating in the community.

But for the next 16 months, my obligations lie in doing whatever I can to elect Elwyn Tinklenberg [aka the Ten-percent Tinkster per a fair and balanced Blue blog poll] to Congress and relieving Michele Bachmann of her duties so she can spend more time warning Americans of the threats posed by the US Census Bureau.

Minnesotan Kossacks, please let me know if when you get together; I've gotten to know Kossacks where I've lived in the last six years, including my home state of Michigan, in New Hampshire, Connecticut and in DC. Many of these folks have become close friends, and I hope to make more friends in Minnesota.

And I hope we can work together. I mean, you know how important this race is, I'm confident you'll come to share my commitment to helping El win, and you know it's going to be a lot of fun to win this race.

Well, Dana Houle, toot your own horn why don't you, while you're neither Rajean Houle, nor Dana Patrick, both of whom were talented; just as there's something lacking in the IP-guy from Blaine you're marketing, who the wrestler liked but who in the 2008 Dem landslide could not get 43% nor help Al Franken's vote counts in MN 6; and who was hard pressed through his campaign to excite even an energetic yawn, last cycle.

Muse has the analysis right and tight. Read it there, not even a distracting quote here - go read it!

And, Dana, Sir, should the unlikeliest of things happen in DFL matters and neither Clark nor Reed is the general election candidate, know this (Avidor at Dump Bachmann will tell you):

State Senator Mike Jungbauer [R], whose district includes Ramsey where I live, declared himself a candidate for governor.

I first saw the info in Anoka County Union, print edition, and have not found it on the online site. However, reports are online here quoting a Jungbauer candidacy announcement, MPR's Polinaut here, a brief Wikipedia page here and MinnPost here. The official senate site is here, and the photo from during the recently-ended legislative session and this "about" excerpt are from the campaign site, here:

A pastor, a water treatment designer and a business man, Senator Jungbauer has fused his diverse backgrounds for a common goal of common sense public service, particularly in the field of environmental policy. After an early political start lobbying Congress for farm policy reform, Senator Jungbauer spent two decades becoming a national expert on waste-water treatment design, earning a patent in bioremediation and consulting on water projects in Poland, Germany, Honduras and the Philippines. A degree from Moody Bible Institute also prepared Jungbauer for years of youth ministry and coupled with his professional experience, enabled he and his family to join church members on several missions to build safer water quality infrastructure in third world communities.

Years of listening to each side’s frustrations in key debates -- from environmental and land use policies to the respective concerns of unions and employers - renewed Jungbauer’s interest in public service and building better consensus in state and local law. After winning two terms as the Mayor of his hometown, Jungbauer ran for and was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 2002.

Recently, Senator Jungbauer has been appointed to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) standing committee on Agriculture, Environment & Energy.

When he’s not working at the Capitol, Jungbauer spends his free hours pursuing a degree in Environmental Policy at Metropolitan State University and his main stress relievers are running, biking and traveling to new locations with his family.

That's the main part of that web bio statement, but read it all and check the links. If the effort leads to a blind end, the Senate seat will not likely be sought by any GOP challenger, there is security that way in entering the statewide contest.

Eric Black of MinnPost (with decades of Twin Cities metro news experience) gives a sure bet - Tarryl Clark will be in the DFL's MN 6 starting gate

The fun begins. Black's item, updated by him, excerpted by me, states:

Update: Tarryl Clark will run for Congress in Bachmann's district
By Eric Black | Published Wed, Jul 15 2009 10:46 am

Sen. Tarryl Clark has been telling people over recent days that she was heading that way, and now I'm confident that she will seek the DFL nomination for Congress to run for the seat held by arch-conservative Republican Michele Bachmann. I haven't been able to speak to Clark directly about it. But since I first posted this morning, I have spoken to more DFLers, with direct knowledge of her plans, who confirm that Clark is in the race for Congress and is assembling a campaign staff.

That is short of a "take it to the bank" report, but Black does not chase ghosts, and never has. He further explains and reports:

Clark authorized one of her political associates to convey this statement:

"Sen. Clark is not ready to formally announce her candidacy for Congress from the Sixth District, but recently she has spent a great deal of time meeting with political leaders and key donors in the Sixth and across the state. She’s been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support she’s received. She knows how important it is to make a decision soon and wants to hit the ground running if she decides to run. She’ll formally announce her decision in the near future."

Tinklenberg won the DFL endorsement and nomination in 2008 but his campaign did not catch fire nor receive much attention until close to Election Day when Bachmann's crazy statements about Barack Obama being "anti-American" brought tremendous attention to the race and big money to the Tinklenberg campaign. Bachmann still won, by 46-43 percent, with the Independence Party nominee receiving 10 percent.

I spoke to Reed, who said Clark's entry would not change her plans in any way: "Our race is the same, regardless of who's in it." Reed will seek both endorsements. When I asked whether, if she loses the Dem endorsement, she would run in a primary, Reed said: "Plan A is to get the endorsement. Plan B is to make Plan A work."

After 2008, some DFLers concluded that if Bachmann couldn't be defeated in 2008, with Obama-mania elevating Dem turnout everywhere and with Bachmann creating a major embarrassment in the last days of the campaign, she might be unbeatable in the Repub-leaning district, at least until the district lines are redrawn, which will occur before the 2012 cycle. Clark apparently thinks otherwise.

Clark is an abortion rights supporter, which will make it easier for her to attract national Democratic financial support (Emily's List?), but could complicate her chances in the 6th District, which is the most anti-abortion of Minnesota's congressional districts.

Clark was encouraged to run by some Washington Democrats, who have grown skeptical of Tinklenberg's ability to win the seat.

Read the entire item, for full detail.

Ah, the smell of the horse barn is in the air, the "arch-conservative Republican Michele Bachmann" is the one below wearing the most restrictive blinders, and the tote board indicates that while her stakes-race record speaks for itself there is close betting on a pair of favorites, with one long shot handicapped as such on a record of inability to close in the stretch on a favorable track after the lead horse stumbled [and with no actual tote board because this is not an actual horse race, we use the current as of 7 pm, today's best surrogate, the vote-your-choice poll of the Political Muse (use that Crabgrass post for links)]:


photos from here, and here, via Google Images

.
,
_______UPDATE_______
KSTP Channel 5, full story online here, as of Thurs. 8am, July 16 -- still not take it to the bank, Tarryl Clark WILL run, but similar to Black's report. This screenshot has the gist of KSTP's feature:



Dump Michele Bachmann reports on Black's MinnPost reporting; here, for that post and comments.

The Political Muse's latest poll results, as of Thurs. 8 am, July 16 (several days after the start of polling) still shows the Ten-percent Tinkster [of the middle part of the MN 6 district] doing better than the none-of-the-above "other" choice, but well behind officially announced Maureen Reed [of the east end of the MN 6 district], and as-yet unannounced Tarryl Clark [of the west end of the MN 6 district]; and you can keep updated as more people vote, via this link to the poll:

Two search engines. Different results.

I will do this with partial screenshots, all from the FireFox 3.5 browser (using the Fire Shot addon where a full page "screenshot" is possible but I only capture the visible screen image on the monitor). With the addons and configuration I use things look as shown, and the return list should not depend on browser settings. You judge which camp is more gentlemanly in the sequence.

Also, try it yourselves and if, from different search engines (configured differently) you get differing results, post a comment.

I use Adblock Plus, so your screens may look different than mine that way. I have not tried this from the Internet Explorer or Chrome browsers, or Opera. Try it and see [and as always click an image to enlarge and read]:

First, a Google = google


Second, a Bing = google



Well, that's different - less informative in one way, informative in another sense.

Third, a Google = bing


Fourth, a Bing = bing


Fifth, a Google = "But It's Not Google"



Sixth, finally, a Bing = "But It's Not Google"



Those last two show acronym awareness in each search engine, Google not "piling on" where it might. Other than the first set, (items 1 and 2), there's less difference.

Surely Bing could return more when you google it for "google." It makes you wonder.

From the relative number of hits for the acronym, the Google exact phrase syntax, (enclosing the word string in quotation marks), is not used by Bing. My understanding is Bing has yet to be supplemented with an advanced search starting window.

_______UPDATE________
Useful hints, for Google -- I am still unfamiliar with Bing -- include:

Ways to use Google you might not have thought of [and do they have the type-in-a-phone-number feature there]

http://www.google.com/help/features.html

Then, a full featured calculator, in the Google search line:

http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html

Finally, Google has specialized search features Microsoft has yet to even offer in early beta version; Google Scholar, Google Patents, and Google Books being examples; shoppers and travelers might know others; and that latter Books item, if you wanted out of print and out of copyright texts for scholarship, as an example turn-of-the-century works by Heaviside, Steinmetz, and Gibbs are downloadable. Also, old treatises on banking, historically useful concerning Bank of England history for example, as well as contemporaneous documents from the 1913 formation of the Federal Reserve, etc. I do not know if many rare books are yet in the system, the Book of Kells, or Dead Sea Scroll images might have to be found elsewhere, ditto for a Shakespear first folio, Blake's illustrated poems, etc.

The Amphibian's latest circus comes to town today -- Health Here, Health Now, Pay Less.

Newt. Again. Still. This Link, screenshot below. Strib reports today online, this link.



Strib's online headline, "Pawlenty, Gingrich speaking at U today on health care"

That deserves this image, both wearing some appropriate GOP red; but decide for yourself, which is the dog, which is the pony.