[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Taking Stock

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Taking Stock
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1190776216.shtml


   Some recent headlines including the retirement of U.S. Rep. Jim
   Ramstad have me thinking about Minnesota's future and what role its
   Republican Party might have in shaping it. In this, part one of a
   series, allow me to take stock.
   We have George W. Bush, President of the United States. He's decent
   and determined, but clearly from the Rockefeller wing. (For those in
   Rio Lindo, that's not a compliment.) But as the Democrats keep
   forgetting, he's not on the ballot in 2008.
   In the House of Representatives, we have two Republicans, five
   Democrats and now an open seat. In the Senate, we have one Democrat,
   and one maverick Republican.
   Here in Minnesota, we have another maverick Republican as Governor,
   Tim Pawlenty. Each chamber in the Legislature has barely enough
   Republicans to be heard, and even then, only by sustaining vetoes.
   Among the various local offices, conservatives are rare and
   unappreciated it seems. In some areas, the Green Party is more of a
   threat to DFL power than the Republicans.
   The courts are largely a toss-up, slightly better at the Federal
   level, but these are mostly non-elected positions.
   We're at a pretty low tide here in the GOP, the real GOP that is.
   Looking at our holdings in a poker setting, we'd keep Reps. Kline and
   Bachmann, then throw the rest for the draw. It's that bad.
   What's happening? Are we running poor candidates? Poor campaigns? Or,
   as the 20 point victory of Sen. Amy Klobuchar would suggest, are the
   concepts of liberty and capitalism just too difficult for the average
   Minnesotan to understand?
   Let me pose another possibility, that it might be more than a simple
   lack of Republican effort. It may be that some of our efforts are
   actually enabling the Democrats, as I'll explain in part two.