Moderate Left - My roll of local blogs (I'm in Minnesota) grows again - with Jeff Fecke's list of regional political awards fro 2002. Some interesting stuff. But I have to comment on his "Biggest Loss in Minnesota Politics" category:
James Janos, a.k.a. Jesse Ventura. I'll be chatting about the Guv in a few days, but in a nutshell, he changed Minnesota politics--for about four years. Though he failed miserably to reach his potential, thanks to his unfortunate petulance, there's no question that he was a wake-up call to the DFL and Republican parties in this state. That the DFL refused to wake up is to their ongoing shame and electoral misery. The Body also made Minnesota politics fun.In the same sense that hearing how you behaved while you were blind drunk at the New Years party is fun? Yes, he did!
After a few years of the bland, vaguely nice Tim Pawlenty, I think we're gonna miss the big lug--in theory, at least.The left underestimates Pawlenty. He's not only a genuinely great guy - he is as good a speaker and as articulate a politician as any you'll find in this state.
Honorable Mention: Tim Penny. He was clearly the best candidate for Governor--something that Minnesota will realize when Pawlenty cuts the budget by 10% across the board without considering a tax increase.Let's indeed hope Pawlenty has the balls to follow through on this. The budget cut could be the best thing ever to happen to Minnesota.
Let's hope his crushing defeat doesn't spell the end for the former U.S. Rep--and let's hope it doesn't make the DFL think that they had anything but a horriffic choice for Governor in Roger Moe.I once admired Penny. That was before his headlong race for the left during the gubernatorial campaign. As for being the best candidate for governor - well, that's a matter of pespective, isn't it? Certainly better than Moe (or Loury, or Dutcher), but in the end, Penny was just another big-tax, big-spend, DFL-Lite politician.
Like Ventura, without the feather boa and the galloping ego.
Anyway - kudos to Jeff Fecke for covering Minnesota from his perspective.
Posted by Mitch at January 2, 2003 07:11 AM