Minnesota's top two Republicans seem to be getting religion
...and not the kind you go to church for
by Leigh Pomeroy
In many ways, a good politician is like a good sailor; he knows that the best way to get from point A to point B is to follow the wind.
It appears that the state's two most prominent Republicans are becoming good sailors. Seeing the results of this month's elections, Captain Tim Pawlenty and Skipper Norm Coleman have altered the courses of their scows to take advantage of the new prevailing winds.
In the case of the Captain, he has reversed himself on the health and welfare of Minnesota's poorest children. Three years ago he was all for cutting their health care benefits. Now he wants to offer universal health coverage to all the state's under-18 population.
As for the Skipper, he's suddenly decided that protecting the Mayo Clinic is more important than playing buddy-buddy with his fellow Republican senator in South Dakota. At issue is the proposed $2.3 billion (that's $2,300,000,000, lest the number of zeros be underestimated) for the DM&E railroad, so that it can upgrade its route to haul coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to the aging, pollution-spewing power plants in the Midwest.
During the campaign season, Captain Pawlenty said precious little about health care in Minnesota, despite the fact that its increasing costs are paramount on the minds of the state's citizens.
Likewise, Skipper Coleman, fortuitously not up for reelection, has been ambivalent about his position on the DM&E. Does he support the loan, which was inserted in the middle of the night into an appropriations bill without any congressional debate? Or does he protect one of Minnesota's venerable institutions, the Mayo Clinic, and draw a line on pork-barrel legislation?
No doubt Coleman's change of heart was cued by fellow Republican Gil Gutknecht's loss to upstart DFLer Tim Walz, who, after vacillating himself, finally came out strongly against the loan and on the side of the Mayo. While the war in Iraq and the President's unpopularity entered strongly into Walz's win in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, what put him over the top in Rochester, the district's population epicenter, was undoubtedly the DM&E issue.
Skipper Norm, if nothing else, is a consummate politician. After embracing the liberal mantra in his youth, he converted to Republicanism and eventually became a pragmatic, effective mayor in St. Paul, appealing to left-leaning voters and conservative business interests alike.
He had wanted to move up to governor, but the national Republican powers-that-be, like gods on high from Mt. Olympus, decreed that he should run for Senate and that the lesser-known but engagingly youthful Tim Pawlenty should be the candidate for governor.
It is almost without doubt that Skipper Coleman's ascendancy to the Senate would never had happened had incumbent Paul Wellstone lived through the election. It must be a terrible burden to know that one's elected position is due to his opponent's demise.
One who is a true statesman would readily acknowledge that fact. But true statesmen are few and far between, and in this era of dirty, money-driven politics, they either choose to remain quietly in the background or opt to pursue other occupations that offer more fulfillment, both individually and for society as a whole.
Moving from mayor of an avowedly liberal city to Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate required a retuning of the Coleman image. In 2002, the country appeared to be on a GOP-driven roll. President Bush was still riding high on his post-9/11 popularity, and it was fashionable to espouse right-wing jingoistic and socially conservative issues. The Skipper, seeing that direction as a way of differentiating himself from the popular yet avowedly left-leaning Senator Wellstone, took up this mantel as a modus operandi to please those at the top of the GOP hierarchy and possibly even win the election.
As history has well documented, Senator Wellstone's plane disappeared mysteriously into the forests of northern Minnesota shortly before election day, and the Democrats, in an effort to eulogize their hero, politicized the memorial so badly that the voters, disgusted by that behavior, thrust both Pawlenty and Coleman into elected office, much to many folks' surprise.
Since then the Skipper has acted much like a good flag in a stiff breeze, changing direction according to the wind. Periodically he has ventured forward to try to distinguish himself from his White House bottom-kissing Republican colleagues, and although the media has duly recorded his efforts, they have largely elicited no more than a ho-hum from his constituents. As the common wisdom goes, Skipper Norm's forte was being a mayor.
In a way the DFL trouncing of the GOP in these last elections has allowed both the Skipper and the Captain to come out from under the Republican rock and show some... er... balls. Whether their seeming move to the middle on the issues of health care and the DM&E is where their real beliefs lie, or whether it's simply strategic politicking, only the two sailors know. Either way, many Minnesotans are not going to complain, for their new positions more accurately reflect the will of the people.
What's next on deck for the Skipper and the Captain? No doubt it depends upon the prevailing breeze and the political currents. Or, as one Minnesotan has famously said, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The answer is blowin' in the wind."
by Leigh Pomeroy
In many ways, a good politician is like a good sailor; he knows that the best way to get from point A to point B is to follow the wind.
It appears that the state's two most prominent Republicans are becoming good sailors. Seeing the results of this month's elections, Captain Tim Pawlenty and Skipper Norm Coleman have altered the courses of their scows to take advantage of the new prevailing winds.
In the case of the Captain, he has reversed himself on the health and welfare of Minnesota's poorest children. Three years ago he was all for cutting their health care benefits. Now he wants to offer universal health coverage to all the state's under-18 population.
As for the Skipper, he's suddenly decided that protecting the Mayo Clinic is more important than playing buddy-buddy with his fellow Republican senator in South Dakota. At issue is the proposed $2.3 billion (that's $2,300,000,000, lest the number of zeros be underestimated) for the DM&E railroad, so that it can upgrade its route to haul coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to the aging, pollution-spewing power plants in the Midwest.
During the campaign season, Captain Pawlenty said precious little about health care in Minnesota, despite the fact that its increasing costs are paramount on the minds of the state's citizens.
Likewise, Skipper Coleman, fortuitously not up for reelection, has been ambivalent about his position on the DM&E. Does he support the loan, which was inserted in the middle of the night into an appropriations bill without any congressional debate? Or does he protect one of Minnesota's venerable institutions, the Mayo Clinic, and draw a line on pork-barrel legislation?
No doubt Coleman's change of heart was cued by fellow Republican Gil Gutknecht's loss to upstart DFLer Tim Walz, who, after vacillating himself, finally came out strongly against the loan and on the side of the Mayo. While the war in Iraq and the President's unpopularity entered strongly into Walz's win in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, what put him over the top in Rochester, the district's population epicenter, was undoubtedly the DM&E issue.
Skipper Norm, if nothing else, is a consummate politician. After embracing the liberal mantra in his youth, he converted to Republicanism and eventually became a pragmatic, effective mayor in St. Paul, appealing to left-leaning voters and conservative business interests alike.
He had wanted to move up to governor, but the national Republican powers-that-be, like gods on high from Mt. Olympus, decreed that he should run for Senate and that the lesser-known but engagingly youthful Tim Pawlenty should be the candidate for governor.
It is almost without doubt that Skipper Coleman's ascendancy to the Senate would never had happened had incumbent Paul Wellstone lived through the election. It must be a terrible burden to know that one's elected position is due to his opponent's demise.
One who is a true statesman would readily acknowledge that fact. But true statesmen are few and far between, and in this era of dirty, money-driven politics, they either choose to remain quietly in the background or opt to pursue other occupations that offer more fulfillment, both individually and for society as a whole.
Moving from mayor of an avowedly liberal city to Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate required a retuning of the Coleman image. In 2002, the country appeared to be on a GOP-driven roll. President Bush was still riding high on his post-9/11 popularity, and it was fashionable to espouse right-wing jingoistic and socially conservative issues. The Skipper, seeing that direction as a way of differentiating himself from the popular yet avowedly left-leaning Senator Wellstone, took up this mantel as a modus operandi to please those at the top of the GOP hierarchy and possibly even win the election.
As history has well documented, Senator Wellstone's plane disappeared mysteriously into the forests of northern Minnesota shortly before election day, and the Democrats, in an effort to eulogize their hero, politicized the memorial so badly that the voters, disgusted by that behavior, thrust both Pawlenty and Coleman into elected office, much to many folks' surprise.
Since then the Skipper has acted much like a good flag in a stiff breeze, changing direction according to the wind. Periodically he has ventured forward to try to distinguish himself from his White House bottom-kissing Republican colleagues, and although the media has duly recorded his efforts, they have largely elicited no more than a ho-hum from his constituents. As the common wisdom goes, Skipper Norm's forte was being a mayor.
In a way the DFL trouncing of the GOP in these last elections has allowed both the Skipper and the Captain to come out from under the Republican rock and show some... er... balls. Whether their seeming move to the middle on the issues of health care and the DM&E is where their real beliefs lie, or whether it's simply strategic politicking, only the two sailors know. Either way, many Minnesotans are not going to complain, for their new positions more accurately reflect the will of the people.
What's next on deck for the Skipper and the Captain? No doubt it depends upon the prevailing breeze and the political currents. Or, as one Minnesotan has famously said, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The answer is blowin' in the wind."
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