Fraters Libertas

The Reports of His Resurrection Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Way, way, way back in January, the Elder commented on a Star Tribune report that Mark Dayton was preparing to come out of his shell and start raisin’ hell on behalf of his constituents. According to the paper, only two years after he was elected, Dayton was going to make his voice heard. Based on their use of terms such as Dayton “unshackled” and Dayton quotes such as ...

“I’m no shrinking violet, I wouldn’t have got here if I didn’t have something to say. I’m just getting started.”

... Minnesotans eagerly awaited Hurricane Dayton’s arrival in Washington and the damage he promised to visit upon entrenched special interests.

And eight long months later .... we’re still waiting. Waiting for him to do anything substantial on matters of importance. As Minnesotans have come to expect, it’s been pretty quiet over at the Dayton camp since January. He votes in lockstep with the liberal wing of the Democratic party, occasionally chimes in with distracted and vague criticisms of the President, proposes legislation on such things as telemarketing, and threatens to shut the government down if federally subsidized soundproofing of houses around the MSP airport doesn’t continue. But that’s about it. When you’re not laughing at his record of accomplishment, you’re yawning at it.

But before you write Dayton off too quickly as an ineffectual backbencher, disrespected even among elites of his own party, I have one request. Put your ear to the ground and listen.

Hear that low rumble? It just might be the long promised arrival of the runaway freight train of political power that is Mark Dayton. At least that’s what the local alternative weekly newspaper might have you believe. In this week’s issue of the City Pages, the title of the article says it all: “Dayton: Back from the Dead?”

Author David Schimke claims to have picked up a few signs that maybe, just maybe, Mark Dayton really is finally getting ready to let him self loose on the body politic. Or as he puts it:

“There is evidence though, that Dayton, heretofore known as a quiet legislator, has finally decided to make some noise in an outside of the Senate chambers.”

The evidence? A churlish, ill mannered performance during a debate with Sen. Norm Coleman at the State Fair. And Dayton’s hiring of a new communications director, whose prime qualifications include “enough juice to warrant a wedding write up in the New York Times last November.”

According to Schimke, Dayton seemed “downright defiant” toward Coleman at the State Fair debate. Including the uttering of statements that had the hearts of liberals like Schimke racing:

"You can’t say you’re for spending cuts when you’re doubling the budget in Iraq and Afghanistan,” an audibly agitated Dayton argued, opening up the throttle 20 minutes into the hour long program."

Wow. Vroom vroom indeed. Hard to deny that logic. Unless you understand (or admit you understand) the simple concept that cutting domestic spending programs considered to be wasteful, inefficient, and ultimately deleterious to the recipients has no relationship to foreign policy expenditures made to further the national interest in an on going war against terrorism. But Dayton can’t make this concession as he went on to say:

“That’s not fiscal restraint, that’s talking out of both sides of your mouth.”

Schimke further illustrated Dayton’s newfound political prowess by this exchange:

"[Coleman’s rhetoric] was plucky stuff, delivered with the eager smile and can-do cadence that still haunts St. Paul’s credit rating. Dayton, who at one point angrily repeated the phrase “it’s a lie” three times, was in no mood for politics as usual, though, and left his unsuspecting opponent bloodied.”

I’m sure that went over well in front of a midday, weekday State Fair audience of geriatrics and families. It makes me wonder if Dayton hired the same consultants who advised Al Gore to make exasperated sighs during George W.’s plucky, can-do rhetoric in that notorious debate of a few years ago.

As was the case back in January, it seems the press is guilty of reporting their own hopes and aspirations as facts. And I suspect Dayton is no closer to becoming an effective advocate for anything than he was in January.

To Schimke’s credit he does include in the article a dissenting view of Dayton’s abilities as an effective communicator. It’s from none other than Paul Wellstone’s former political consultant Bill Hillsman, who seems to know Dayton better than Dayton does:

“As Minneapolis-based political consultant Bill Hillsman sees it, though, expecting Dayton to save the day for Minnesota liberals is neither fair nor particularly realistic.

"Perceptually, the Democrats put themselves in a big hole last fall. After Paul's plane went down, it was Coleman and [Tim] Pawlenty campaigning around the state for the Republicans. For the Dems it was [Roger] Moe and Mondale; now, for all the great things those two have done for the state over the years, the perception was that you had two young, dynamic politicians campaigning against two dinosaurs.

"That's the image that people have of the Democrats in this state, and if you're expecting Mark Dayton to turn that around, that's asking a lot. It doesn't play to his strengths, and it's not a problem of his making."