On feeling Minnesota:
"I don't want to work anywhere else," Lahammer told the crowd. "I've had job offers all over the country, but I would never want to leave our voters. I think we are the smartest voters in the country. We are so engaged. The way we turn out and the choices we make - it's just amazing how much everybody pays attention."
The primary reaction among conservatives who have observed the past decade or so of election choices in Minnesota is dismay. Not that liberals keep winning, but that clowns, who often happen to be liberals, keep winning. The litany keeps expanding: Mark Dayton, Al Franken, Jesse Ventura, Paul Wellstone. Throw in other choices, like billions of dollars in tax increases for the arts during a recession. Not to mention biennial landslide victories for people like Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison.
Mary Lahammer's swooning over the intelligence and well considered reason behind these choices doesn't do a lot to dispel the notion that government-funded journalists are a bunch of Lefty's. But maybe she was misquoted or taken out of context on this one. We won't convict her of being a pinko, com-symp just yet.
On her trip to Cuba with a delegation led by Gov. Jesse Ventura:
Jesse Ventura and (Cuban dictator) Fidel Castro, side by side for a week, was surreal from beginning to end," she said. "I think you would be surprised by how small Castro is, he's a small man with a ton of charisma and power."
Guilty as charged!
Finally, on Mark Dayton's social circle:
Mark Dayton said his best friend growing up was his imaginary friend, Jerry Jones.
It is not clear whether this means that a) Mark Dayton grew up with the man who was to become the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and doesn't realize he is in fact a real person or b) he came up with the least creative name for an imaginary friend in the history of self delusion.
Either way, this is a case of real life imitating art. One week ago, the satire artists at The Nihilist in Golf Pants posted the Top 11 Things Mark Dayton Will Do As Governor of Minnesota. And I was happy to have contributed the following item:
7. Insist that his official portrait include his imaginary friend Paco
In retrospect, we gave him credit for being more creative, and far more diverse, than he actually is.
