Monday, December 17, 2007

More on CD 6 labor endorsements

Political Muse, over at Liberal in the Land of Conservative, has an interesting post on the answers to the AFSCME screener by both Elwyn Tinklenberg and by Bob Olson.

Obviously, this is mere conjecture, but all this evidence points to an organization already having made up its mind and simply going through the motion in the hopes of looking fair to both candidates. If this were my union, I would be absolutely outraged that they did not do a thorough examination of the candidates but simply chose one who apparently thinks so little of the union that he is unwilling to completely answer eleven questions.
That's pretty much what I thought when I saw Tinklenberg's "answers" to many of the questions posed by AFSCME.

While the short nature of Elwyn's answers may surprise you, the response from his defenders could be seen coming for miles.

They set out to discredit the bloggers, questioning our role in political discourse. Keep in mind though, these are also the first people that come up to you at a Wellstone Dinner or other DFL event and tell you "I love your stuff on Dean Urdahl" or any other Republican that falls within our cross hairs.

The same due diligence has been performed on "one of our own" and NOW our role is questioned?

How convenient! Other than Larry Schumacher at the SC Times, the mainstream media is failing us. Bluestem Prarie (gasp...a blog) has some info up on this as well.
Updated: if we are lucky, the Free Press's editorial will help the Strib's stenographers go beyond repeating Republican catch phrases in their reporting. We're beginning to wonder what's up with the Strib's coverage of the U.S. House in general: it looks as if it's all GOP news, all the time. From the screen shot from today's "House" section of Politically connected, you'd never guess that there was a DFL candidate forum this week for the open seat in CD 3 during which one non-anointed contender dominated the field or an endorsement battle in the Sixth.
Catch the rest at Bluestem Prairie.

As you recall, I posted about Elwyn's inconsistent statements on the DFL endorsement.

He now states, "We will honor the endorsement if it is an honorable and straight forward process."

I've spent quite some time recently getting info on the other labor endorsements in the 6th.

An interesting pattern is emerging.

UniteHERE, United Laborers, United Auto Workers, and the Pipe Fitters all endorsed Tinklenberg without a screening.

IBEW endorsed Elwyn around 9/25/07. He didn't announce until October 1st...

Despite all of this, being anointed by labor in the 6th, Tinklenberg has the audacity to question the process by which DFLers across the 6th will endorse a candidate to challenge Congresswoman Bachmann?

This is why I have thought for quite some time now that the fix is in in the 6th.

He wants an "honorable and straight forward process" for the DFL endorsement but will compromise that for the labor side of the equation?

Seems like "someone" wants to have their cake and eat it too...

1 comment:

eric zaetsch said...

Time to rethink the Tink.

Where are the environmentalists? Hopefully, they will show up at caucus.

There's a clean energy advocate, who put much of his life into it; Bob Olson; and a registered lobbyist working the levers of past MnDOT headship the same way, perhaps more aggressively than Len Levine. Mega-growth in the burbs, all that.

And the Bohn family behind Tink means the ATV lobby behind Tink, and they're hell on the environment, and want through their lobbyists to be more so.

Rethink the Tink.

We are talking the spirit of Wellstone too; and where is that spirit strongest, Olson or Tink?