2007 was supposed to be a mellow year. No political races in Minneapolis, a year to catch my breathe. Of course, it hasn't been that way. If 2007 was the quiet before the storm, 2008 is going to be a wild ride. Here's a look back at my favorite quotes from this last year.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar's reaction to the collapse of the I-35W bridge across the Mississippi in Minneapolis was the best:
"A bridge in America just shouldn't fall down."
(USAToday)
Bob Olson's explanation of his position on the Iraq War when I interviewed him about his Senate candidacy. Please note that he's now challenging Elwyn Tinklenberg for the DFL endorsement to face Rep. Michele Bachmann in the MN-06 race.
"The Iraq War is stupid," Bob explained when I began with asking his position on the Iraq War. "I hate to say it that way, but it's true. What if after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese we would've attacked China? That would be similar to what the Bush Administration did. The Bush Administration claimed that there were WMDs and that Saddam Hussein and Al Queda were allied. Al Queda and Saddam Hussein were enemies ... secular dictatorships are not friendly with religious fanatics."
(MN-SEN: The Bob Olson interview)
Keith Olbermann on the the Democratic capitulation on the first Iraq Supplemental bill to come before Congress.
You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions-Stop The War-have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you... for a handful of magic beans.
(Keith Olbermann: Special comment on Iraq Supplemental vote)
Of course no list of quotes would be complete without Rep. Michele Bachmann embarrassing Minnesota by inventing a secret plan to divide Iraq:
"Iran is the trouble maker, trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And do you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided that they’re going to partition Iraq.
And half of Iraq, the western, northern portion of Iraq, is going to be called.... the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it’s meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made.
They are going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more terrorist attacks in the Middle East region and then to come against the United States because we are their avowed enemy."
(Star Tribune's Big Question)
Larry Craig made the men's bathroom near the Food Court at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport famous and added a new excuse to the database of GOP sexual hypocrisy excuses.
"I have a wide stance."
(WashPost)
Brandon Day is an Iraq Vet who returned to MN and became an activist. I'm proud to have met him.
"When a person decides that they will risk their life for their country, they cross a bridge that few do, and they gain a wisdom that few have. I have crossed that sacred bridge, and Congressman Ramstad I tell you that this war is not worth the blood that it costs to fuel it. The next time you are faced with a vote concerning the war, side with America, and side with the troops that live and die defending her. Bring the troops home, and give us the care that we need and deserve."
(Take A Stand, Minnetonka version)
Here'a another from Brandon:
"I'll tell you the epilogue of Hawija. The unit that replaced us lost no less than 20 men. The unit that replaced them a year later was, no one. There are no American forces stationed in Hawija. What were all those deaths for?This war is sapping our nation's strength, running us into the dirt economically and destroying any moral high ground we feel entitled to. There comes a point when a person should admit that they were wrong. Our administration has passed that point. Our country was lied to. The world was lied to. The problem isn't going to just go away. These men aren't going to stop on their own. If you think this war is wrong, you better do something about it. This war is costing you money, your kids money, your grandkids money, and it's costing all of us civil liberty. If you think this war is wrong and you appreciate the sacrifice of our soldiers, you owe it to them to do something about it. They're the ones that are dying. They're the ones that are left scarred. It's time to stand up America. It's time to start screaming bloody murder."
(Iraq Vet Brandon Day speaks at Augsburg College)
Bill Moyer's had a brilliant summation of Karl Rove's political career upon his resignation.
Moyers: "Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious draft-averse naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco inhis back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God's anointed in a state where preachers andtelevangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat — a batteringram, aimed at the devil's minions, especially at gay people.
It's so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber, and if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew that, in politics, you better bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion."
(Bill Moyers: Rove is riding out of Dodge City as the posse rides in)
A Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, supplies drinking water to our troops in Iraq. Ben Carter tells us what's in the water they drink.
I'm here today because I want the american public to know what's happening. There are lot of soldiers over there, they might come home without a bullet wound, but there's a lot of them that are gonna have pathogens in their blood....because of Halliburton.
-- Ben Carter, former KBR/Halliburton Water Purification Specialist
(This is the reward what lack of oversight reaps)
The 1994 Dick Cheney explaining how it would be a bad idea to invade Iraq:
Because if we'd gone to Baghdad, we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us — it would have been a US occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over, and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world.
(Dick Cheney predicted Iraq quagmire in 1994)
Keith Ellison lectures Mississippi US Attorney Washington who prosecuted the six black kids, but failed to prosecute the white kids for hate crimes. The white kids had hung nooses on a tree on school property (a federal crime). He'd even failed to prosecute a white kid who'd brought a loaded gun onto school property (another federal crime).
If you claim to be a beneficiary of the work of Martin Luther King, you gotta stand on that. It's not a matter of career advancement. Martin Luther King did not do his work so you could get a Lexus or a nice house. Its not just a matter of your own career advancement and buying consumer items. Its fidelity to a set of ideas.
(Why Keith Ellison ROCKS!!!)
Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID) is one of the slower knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathers among the Republicans. He was still shocked in August of 2007 that a muslim was in Congress. Luckily, Idahoans came to Keith's defense after Sali uttered this:
"We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes—and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers," said Sali.
(This August so far for Keith Ellison: the Bill Sali edition)
The bridge collapse wasn't Pawlenty and Molnau's faults. According to KARE11, it's the bird's, man:
Pounded by heavy trucks, weakened by missing bolts and strained by cracking steel, the failed Minneapolis freeway bridge also faced a more mundane enemy: Birds.
The pigeons that made the bridge their home also used it as their toilet. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the Interstate 35W bridge two decades ago, a problem that persisted through the years.
Experts say the guano they deposited all over steel beams helped rust the bridge faster.
The Star Tribune does a poor job covering Minnesota politics and when they do, they assign whatever writer has a spare moment or two. There is no single writer covering solely the MN-SEN beat or the State Capitol. Readers will be lucky if they cover the MN-02 and MN-03 races at all. There's no consistency in their coverage and they never analyze anything Norm says. Then they slashed their reporting staff so there's even fewer around. You wonder why more and more people are no longer subscribing and turning to other sources ... but Nancy Barnes, an editor at the Strib, doesn't get it. The infrequent coverage and lack of any analysis is what sucks about your paper.
"How many of our readers still look to us as their primary source for this information?"
(Nancy Barnes laments what she doesn't understand)
You know I wouldn't leave out some choice quotes from Norm. This is the home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter after all. Here are some quotes from Norm Coleman:
"Let me also say that the last four years have been riddled with bad predictions and broken promises in Iraq - and I understand that."
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) lets a little truth slip out on MPR
On transportation:
Northstar rail isn't the answer to post-collapse congestion, Coleman replied. "But if we can move more traffic to transit, it'll be a net benefit to the whole system."
(Norm incoherent on transit)
On the Iraq War:
I disagree uh with the President ... uh ... I, I, I, I agree with him and I disagree with him ... [laughter from crowd] ... I disagree with him on disaster assistance, I disagree with him on [mumbles incoherently] funding, I disagree with I that things I that again I have to tell ya I don't call him up and ask him what he thinks, I try to represent you. And on this issues, and on this issue I was uh by the way I was one of the ones I didn't think the surge would work and by the way ..."
"And you were right," A woman says from the crowd. Most everybody in the crowd laughs.
(Norm and Iraq: he will say anything)
Norm begging Gen. Petraeus for a plan in Iraq:
"Can we get a longer-term vision? Can we get a longer-term plan? Can we say that, yeah, we can be down to half our troops in three years; we can get to five years; we can be turning over our bases in some other paradigm?" Coleman asked. "But I think we need something a little more than, say, give us more time to come back again in the fall."
(A little bit more truth slips between Norm's brilliantly white teeth)
More on Iraq:
"Americans want to see a light at the end of the tunnel."
(Norm Coleman: light at end of election tunnel is a train)
On healthcare:
"There are aspects to Hillary Clinton's health plan that I agree with."
(Norm Coleman reelection health care epiphanies)
On renewable energy:
"Renewables are a good thing," Coleman said, adding he supports a broader-based approach to the problem that would also increase production, such as moving forward with nuclear energy.
(Norm Coleman: nuclear power part of energy solution)