One of the big raps against Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer was that she had politicized the office. Not so, she responded, despite the fact that she: Pushed policies that would have, in effect, made it more difficult for minority and elderly voters -- two groups predominantly Democratic -- to register to vote. On Nov.
7, DFLer Mark Ritchie finally made the rap stick, defeating Kiffmeyer 49 percent to 44 percent. The first transition meeting was held Thursday. In attendance were Kiffmeyer; Ritchie; Beth Fraser, a Ritchie senior staffer and soon-to-be director of intergovernmental affairs, and, of course, rabidly partisan blogger Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed (1).
No, Kiffmeyer's not political at all. For something important like a transition meeting, you'd think Kiffmeyer would invite an aide to attend, as Ritchie did. "Mark brought one of his campaign people with him -- a very adversarial, political operative campaign person [Fraser]," Kiffmeyer said in an interview.
"I kind of thought that might happen. And I wanted someone. I didn't want to involve my official staff or any of my campaign people .
.. [I wanted] someone who would be able to be an advocate for me.
" No one better than Brodkorb for that role. When you're looking for Republican water to be carried, look no further than MDE. And he came through.
The brief meeting was in the early morning; Brodkorb had an anti-Ritchie post up by noon. Brodkorb's not the bad guy here. Any blogger would have accepted this kind of access.
But it's hard to imagine any other officeholder doing what Kiffmeyer did. She claims she was protecting herself. "If someone walks out and mischaracterizes the meeting, then I would have the ability to make sure that it was clear and understandable.
" Ritchie didn't have much of a chance to mischaracterize anything. Brodkorb started posting less than four hours after the meeting broke. Kiffmeyer said she was "shocked" that Brodkorb was posting about the meeting: "If I had known that, I would have told him not to.
" But she wouldn't commit to asking him to relent from future posts. If Kiffmeyer were really interested in a record of the meeting or in protecting her office, she could have invited a representative of the media, rather than the state's leading GOP attack blogger. Kiffmeyer recalled that, during the campaign, Ritchie had charged "that I'm incompetent, my staff is incompetent, we're all just terrible," she said.
"These kinds of comments ...
do make a difference." Fine. But right now, she's still on the state's dime, and the transition between administrations is important.
If Kiffmeyer is miffed about the campaign, she can make crank calls to Ritchie when she's Private Citizen Kiffmeyer. In the meantime, she's Secretary of State Kiffmeyer, and, for a change, she might want to leave her politics at home. The Washington Post reported last week that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are opposed to the plan being pushed by the White House that would send more troops to Iraq.
The Net took note. "Every time Bush has been criticized for his poor handling of the Iraq war -- from the number of initial troops sent in, to their body armor and plan for victory (or lack thereof) -- Bush always replied that he was listening to the commanders on the ground and doing whatever they wanted," blogged John in DC at AMERICAblog (2). "Now, not so much.
...
So now, rather than listening to the military experts, Bush will conduct the war based on the grand powers of his own intellect." Michael Crowley of the Plank (3) was, well, frightened by President Bush's Wednesday press conference. " 'A dangerous hypothetical': That's what Bush called a question this morning about the possibility that he may impose an Iraq troop surge against the wishes of military leaders.
The mere fact that Bush used a loaded word like 'dangerous' makes me queasy. When was the last time even the whiff of military insubordination was in the air during wartime? Truman-MacArthur?
Seems we're flirting with some uncharted territory -- and it's all a bit chilling." Nihilist in Golf Pants (4) offers its take on Dean Zimmermann's two-year prison term with one of its top 11 lists -- "Top 11 Reasons Former Minneapolis City Council Member Dean Zimmermann Is Looking Forward to Prison."8.
Prison now actually safer than living in Minneapolis ...
6. Former fellow Minneapolis Council Members Joe Biernat and Brian Herron always talking about how much fun they had in prison ..
. 5. Wants to participate in a big song and dance number like the prisoners in the Broadway musical 'Chicago.
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