Music in the Cafes at Night and Revolution in the Air

There's always been a reason for having the term "dilettante" be part of this blog.

I participate in the Republican Party, but I have always made a conscious decision to maintain a mostly arms-length stance with regard to party politics. I participate in caucuses at the BPOU level, but I've never pursued going any further than that. There are reasons for this, especially since I'd rather not feel like I have to mince words if I feel the need to criticize someone in the party when I write on this blog. And given the current state of the Republican Party in Minnesota, there's plenty to criticize.

Two things are happening right now that aren't especially helpful. First, the state Party has been dealing with a fair amount of negative publicity concerning its finances, including the embarrassing revelation that it is behind on rent for the party headquarters, to the point where the party has received an eviction notice from its landlord. Much of the problem stems from the practices of the previous leadership team of the party, which made some financial decisions that didn't turn out well. The current head of the party is Pat Shortridge, who is a very savvy guy and who will, if given sufficient time and resources, turn things around.

The question is this -- will he have the time? It's been fairly quiet until now, but there has been a bit of a hostile takeover going on within the party. Ron Paul supporters have done a tremendous job of organizing and getting their delegates through the BPOU process and to the Congressional District conventions. Depending on whose numbers you believe, Paul's supporters may end up controlling the vast majority of the Minnesota delegation at the national GOP convention, as well as the leadership in the CD organizations. Mitch Berg has written an excellent synopsis of what went down in the 4th CD, where most of incumbent leadership team was summarily dumped and the Paul supporters have now taken over. Similar things have happened elsewhere in the state as well.

This needs to be said at the outset -- it's not a bad thing per se that the Paulites are taking over. I personally agree with about 80% of what the Paul supporters believe, especially regarding the disastrous financial path the country finds itself on. I'm also quite concerned about the size and scope of government at every level. And I can even be convinced that many of the foreign adventures that our government undertakes are ill-advised. We've been maintaining a diffident empire for the better part of a century now and it's not sustainable. The Paulites are correct about most of these issues.

Having said that, there's more than a whiff of revolution in the air right now, especially within the party. And that's not a good thing. Mitch does a very good job of explaining the issue (emphasis in original):

Now, I know that there are a lot of good, committed people among the Paul crowd who are committed to using their positions in the GOP to work for the party, not just a candidate or two.

But I get a different impression from some of their leadership.  Ronald Reagan once said that if someone agrees with you 70% of the time, it doesn’t make them 30% your enemy.

And from some of the Paul crowd’s leadership, I do get the impression that, whether motivated by single-candidate zeal or roiling anger over 2008 or one of the mind-boggling number of byzantine interpersonal pissing matches that seems to motivate so much of CD4 GOP politics no matter who the nominee or the cause celebre or what the defining issue is, the Paul crowd’s leadership, in the district and beyond, sees “70% friends” as “30% enemies”.

I see that, too, especially in other social media. In one case a week or so back, one triumphal Paul supporter was bragging on Facebook about how the Paul forces had defeated the leadership of the 6th CD, using a term I would prefer not to share here, but that suggested a particularly odious form of criminal sexual conduct. I suspect that, in the moment of triumph, this individual was overstating the case a bit.

But let's set the locker room smack talk aside for the moment. The larger issue is this -- a revolution within a voluntary organization is not the same thing as a revolution in a government. People can, and do, walk away from political parties all the time. And unless the Paulites build coalitions with Republicans of a more, ahem, traditional sort, they will find that they clutch an empty vessel.

I understand the disgust that many people have with establishment Republicans in Minnesota, who have too often been the tax collectors for the DFL. The list of odious establishment GOPers in this state is long. There are individuals I deeply respect who have no use for the GOP as it has operated for the past 20 years or so and are not shy about saying so.

It's also worth mentioning that some of the Paul supporters who came into the party in '08 were responsible for some of the triumphs of '10. Plenty of conservative voices now at the Capitol owe the Paul supporters a debt.

Still. . . still. . . . Perhaps it's just me, but my sense is that while the takeover now underway may be a tactical triumph, it holds the seeds of an epic failure. The GOP of the recent past was not the province of Arne Carlson or David Durenberger; those gentlemen of a different era have long been free to be the operational Democrats they always were. For all the problems of the party organization, it's worth remembering that the GOP of the recent past is as much John Kline and Michele Bachmann as it is Tim Pawlenty and Norm Coleman and Ron Carey. It will be very important that the Paul supporters understand that it will take everyone, even those they might ordinarily disdain, for there to be electoral success in the fall. Right now, there's a lot of anger out there. That needs to change. Leadership of a political party means more than taking control and dictating terms. Leadership means building. And the first step will be to make sure those who were defeated are not disdained.

The Goldstein Brothers

Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker asks a rhetorical question concerning the bizarre assertions that the Koch brothers are paying for George Zimmerman's legal defense in the Trayvon Martin case:

But why does any rumor relating to Koch, no matter how baseless or bizarre, rise to the level where it prompts an inquiry from a major television news network which obviously hopes to include a Koch angle in its story?

So what's that about? Hinderaker:

I wrote here about MSNBC’s campaign to tie the Koch brothers to George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin. That effort was, it is fair to say, insane, but it apparently inspired one or more liberals to take MSNBC’s theories a step farther. Someone wrote–I think it was on Facebook–that Koch Industries had paid for Zimmerman’s legal defense and/or put up his bail money. Other liberals happily repeated the claim, to the point where Snopes deemed it a rumor worth addressing.

There's a hilarious yet dismaying email exchange between Koch and a researcher for CBS News at the link. It's worth your time to read.

Dogs, Squirrels

Again, with emphasis.

• I don't care that Barack Obama ate dog meat at his stepfather's behest some 40+ years ago.
• Nor do I care that Mitt Romney put his dog in a travel carrier and strapped said carrier to the roof of his vehicle some 30 years ago.

So why do we talk about these things? Because just as the movie "Up" so cleverly pointed out, dogs can be distracted from their duties at the site of a squirrel. And humans can be distracted by news of dogs.

One of the primary goals of the Obama campaign and it surrogates, up to this point, has been to portray Mitt Romney as a strange man who doesn't understand the real world or its concerns. The dog on the roof story had been part of that narrative and it's not surprising that heard it repeatedly. That's why the "Obama eats dog" story is simultaneously cynical and useful. If mistreating a dog is a bad thing, eating one is worse. And now neither side wants to talk about the issue. Score one for Romney and his surrogates.

At bottom, this election is about the same thing as the elections of 1964, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1992, 1996 and 2004: it's going to be a referendum on the performance of the incumbent. If the incumbent's campaign would rather talk about dogs, it tells you something important about the incumbent.

Vikings to Semi-Nomadic Existence II -- The Offer You Can't Refuse

After many years, clowntime is over. It's time to get down to bidness:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will meet with state leaders Friday in a high-stakes effort to win a publicly funded stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.

The meeting with Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders from both parties follows a Thursday telephone call in which NFL officials told Dayton it was urgent to resolve the stadium issue this spring. "They didn't issue any threats or anything, but it was more of a warning" that the Vikings might leave Minnesota, Dayton said on Thursday. "It was very clear that they see that the Vikings will be in play [to move] if this is not resolved or unfavorably resolved in this session."

The difference between a warning and a threat is often one of semantics, but I have little doubt that a threat is on the table. Eric Grubman, who is the NFL's designated button man on such issues, had an interview with KFAN's Dan Barreiro yesterday. Grubman said two things that are worth mentioning:

• The NFL believes that there are now two viable sites in Los Angeles for a stadium; and
• The NFL will have a team in Los Angeles, but it may not be an expansion team. In fact, there are no plans for expansion in the near term.

Meanwhile, back at the lege, some people still don't understand the state of play:

Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, a vocal opponent of public subsidy packages for stadiums, said she wanted to know whether Goodell was coming as part of an orchestrated stadium lobbying effort or to show how serious the situation really is.

"I honestly want to know that," she said. "Is it real? Is it rhetoric?"

Now, this is some primo silliness. Of course the effort is "orchestrated." Nothing happens in government that isn't orchestrated in one way or another. And orchestration in itself signals a measure of reality. Although it might seem that way at times, random events aren't brought before the legislature.

This moment has been coming for a long time. You don't get the sort of power the NFL has unless you are willing to be ruthless. Minnesotans have been dodging the question for as long as possible, but now it's time to decide. What is having a pro football team worth to this area?

Dog Breath

Remember this?

“They talk about me like a dog,” Obama said of his political opponents. “That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.

Now, in the wake of much snickering about Mitt Romney's, ahem, unorthodox choice of dog transport, we are reminded of the following autobiographical detail:

Can you name the author of this quote?

“With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”

Yep, that’s Barack Obama, writing about his childhood with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia, from Chapter Two of his bestseller Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

Should we care about any of this? I don't. Although if Lolo Soetero's theory was correct, I have to assume that everyone in Washington is eating weasel meat these days.

Emily Litella Souhan

Rare mid-day post, because I couldn't let this one pass without comment. Jim Souhan, ace Star Tribune columnist, uncorked a real stemwinder aimed at Rep. Dean Urdahl today, filled with righteous rage and ridicule toward a legislator that Souhan obviously considers his intellectual inferior:

Politicians like Urdahl are counting on you being as shallow as they are. Urdahl ignored all of the legitimate concerns about building a stadium for the Vikings, all of the complications that accompany the serpentine negotiations that result in any public-private partnership, and reduced the dialogue to something you might hear from a drunk at closing time.

Souhan was just getting warmed up. Consider this bon mot:

I can respectfully disagree with politicians who take consistent, principled, stands against stadiums. Those like Urdahl who shamelessly pander to the simple-minded people should not be taken seriously. Next time you ask a question about the stadium, Mr. Urdahl, please get help from someone with a better grasp of stadium politics, like, oh, a Kardashian.

Way to confront ignorance! Way to speak truth to power, Mr. Souhan! Stirring!

 One little problem -- Urdahl voted in favor of the stadium. Just thought you should know.

Don't Want a Stadium?

Never fear -- there are plenty of people who have other ideas for how to spend your money. So if you like big spending, but can't stomach a stadium, get a load of what might be coming if the train guys get their way:

Local officials from the southwest, northwest and east could be converging simultaneously at the Capitol seeking $100 million or more in state funding for each of three possible light-rail transit (LRT) lines – in the Southwest, Bottineau and Gateway corridors.

That could be mission impossible if Republicans retain control of the Legislature in this fall’s election. In the current legislative session, both houses have resisted providing even a $25 million down payment on the state’s share of the cost for the proposed $1.25 billion line in the Southwest Corridor between downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie.

And that's not all -- check out what it all might look like. Click on the image if you'd like a closer look:

Just to put this in perspective -- the blue line is the Hiawatha line that Jesse Ventura rammed through. The green line between "The Interchange" and Union Depot represents the Central Corridor project that is currently underway. The other green line down to Eden Prairie is the proposed Southwest Line that supposedly will cost $1.25 billion, but in truth will be a lot more than that. All the pea soup green lines represent the wish lists of the choo-choo enthusiasts.

Steven Dornfeld at MinnPost has been writing about these subjects for many years and also worked for the Met Council, so he understands it all well. There's a lot more at the link and you should familiarize yourself with it. The train people aren't going away any time soon and if all of this were built, we'll be looking at numbers with a vapor trail of zeros. And while the tracks might not lead to your house, they will lead to your wallet.

And, by the by, if you'd prefer that transportation money go to fixing existing roads, well, here's your wakeup call.

Vikings to Semi-Nomadic Existence

Sometimes you can't believe everything they say in the Star Tribune. Consider this howler:

In Monday's vote, only one member of Dayton's DFL party, Rep. Michael Nelson of Brooklyn Park, voted for the bill, joining five Republican members. That angered Zellers, who is not leading the charge on the stadium but who has said the bill must draw bipartisan support to move forward.

Angered? Not on your life. The only way the DFL could have covered Zellers's butt any better is if they bought him a pair of MC Hammer pants. The deal was simple -- if the stadium bill died at any point in the festivities, it was going to be all the fault of Kurt Zellers. Sid Hartman has been telling us that from the beginning. But since 5 of the 6 DFLers on the committee voted against the bill, including House members from Minneapolis itself, the DFL owns the defeat equally.

So what does it mean? Potentially, a couple of things:

• It's not a given that the team will decamp for Los Angeles, as everyone assumes. There are other markets that would welcome the Vikings. And if you are thinking the options are limited to the United States, think again. Toronto would love to have a team. Most observers have thought that the Buffalo Bills would eventually end up in Toronto when their owner dies, but if Toronto could get a team now, they wouldn't hesitate.  And if you really want a big market, try Mexico City.
• Arden Hills might be back in the game, especially if it becomes clear that the only way to get the thing built is to involve the White Earth tribe. They could build their casino on part of the TCAAP property and Zygi would still have plenty of room for his pleasure dome. The NFL wouldn't be too keen on gambling money being involved in the stadium, but there probably isn't another way right now. 

The bottom line? There is no bottom line. So the door is open for any wild speculation you might want to offer.

Vikings to Nowhere in Particular

The Vikings lost. Nothing new in that, but the venue was very different:

The proposed public subsidy package for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium was decisively rejected by a House panel late Monday night, leaving the team and stadium supporters visibly stunned.

With the Legislature planning to adjourn in two weeks, the nearly $1 billion stadium plan was left needing an extraordinary injection of support to stay alive at the state Capitol this spring.

The result was not particularly surprising. So how does the blame game work? Maybe not as well as the DFL would like:

Just one of the House panel's six DFLers voted for the project, even though Gov. Mark Dayton -- himself a DFLer -- had made the stadium a legislative priority. But DFLers quickly claimed that outstate Republicans on the panel were more easily able to back the stadium because it would be paid for with gambling revenues and city taxes in Minneapolis.

In other words, the game was to have the nasty Republicans from outstate impose the stadium while the local DFLers could then claim they were protecting the taxpayer. Nothing they could do, you see -- that Morrie from Moorhead was just too powerful for us beleaguered DFLers. Yep, plausible deniability, the kissing cousin of a Profile in Courage. By the way, the vote was 9-6 against, which means that the GOP vote, at least in this committee, was actually 5-4 in favor. No matter what Sid Hartman thinks, it's gonna be tough to pin this one on Kurt Zellers. Both support and opposition to this matter have been bipartisan.

Lester Bagley, the guy who has been on point for the Vikings throughout this debacle, was back in thinly veiled threat mode following the vote:

"It's a mistake to think the Vikings and the [National Football League] will continue with the status quo" of playing in the Metrodome without a new stadium, Vikings spokesman Lester Bagley told a large crowd of reporters after the 9-6 vote. Bagley stopped short of saying that the vote could lead the team to leave Minnesota.

I wrote a long post last night as all of the maneuvering was going on and I'm going to repeat the point I made earlier. The only way to ensure that the Vikings stay in Minnesota is to have a local ownership group buy out Zygi Wilf and his partners. I don't think you would see nearly as much opposition and "no stadium for billionaires" rhetoric if the local politicians were dealing with hometown billionaires. Minnesotans may be ambivalent at best about great wealth, but they do love their benefactors. And that's what they need now.

As for the current Vikings ownership, it's difficult to have much sympathy for them. They could have been playing in a new stadium already, but they chose to jettison the deal they had with Anoka County in 2006. Six years on, they have nothing. Which is what they deserve.

Vikings to Plot of Land East of Metrodome VII -- Charter or Charmin?

UPDATE:  events have overtaken this post. For the latest, click here.

When the Minneapolis City Council in 1997 passed a restriction to the city charter concerning the amount of money the city could spend for a new stadium, did it have any meaning? We may find out soon:

State lawmakers will mull Monday night whether to ax a provision in the Vikings stadium bill that effectively nullifies a key section of the Minneapolis Charter.

That could have major implications over whether the stadium will face a citywide vote, per a 1997 charter amendment. The Minneapolis city attorney argues that a referendum isn't legally necessary, but the bill also assures that by overriding the charter altogether.

It's a crucial question, because if the folks at the Capitol decide to let this slide, R. T. Rybak and the gang will ram things through. If not, there will be a vote and the stadium bill is effectively dead unless Rybak, Zygi Wilf and their allies can come up with an alternative funding source, and fast.

You have to wonder -- if the city charter doesn't mean anything when politicians say it doesn't, what was the 1997 vote all about? Was it merely meant to be symbolic? And if the city charter is a dead letter, why not repeal the whole thing? Just a guess -- if the charter is tossed aside, there is almost certainly going to be a court challenge.

Meanwhile, as I write, the hearing is underway and there's more ominous news for the Vikings, since once again Mike Opat, the majordomo of the Hennco board, isn't going to backstop the deal if the state's shaky financing portion of the bill comes a cropper:

Hennepin County Board Chair Mike Opat renewed his opposition to backing up any state revenue shortfalls for a Vikings stadium by tapping excess county sales tax revenues now funding the Minnesota Twins' Target Field.

In a strongly-worded letter sent Monday to Senate Majority Leader David Senjem and House Speaker Kurt Zellers, Opat said using the county's 0.15 percent sales tax for a Vikings stadium was "effectively hijacking county revenue."

The stadium plan has four funding backstops -- estimated to generate at least $9 million a year -- that might be used if the state's plan to authorize electronic pull tabs and bingo in Minnesota's bars and restaurants failed to generate at least $42 million needed each year to pay the state's $398 million share of a Vikings stadium. A 10 percent tax on stadium luxury suites would be the first backstop, and using Hennepin County's sales tax money would be a third.

Opat, no fool he, takes the Brezhnev Doctrine approach when it comes to money. What we have, we keep.

Meanwhile, you also have other representatives asking questions that stadium supporters would prefer not be asked:

The hearing began with a jolt when Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, asked point blank: "Why should the state of Minnesota contribute to a stadium for a billionaire" owner?" Team officials were almost immediately peppered with questions asking why Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was not contributing more to the stadium, and how much the Vikings' value would grow with a new stadium.

"It's difficult to say," Steve Poppen, the team's chief financial officer, said of the team's future value.

Difficult, I suppose, because the Vikings would rather not say.


So, to sum up -- the city is promising money it may not be able to deliver, and the state is promising money that it may not be able to deliver. Other than that, this stadium deal is doing quite nicely, no?

You can tell that the Vikings are getting nervous, because Sid Hartman is now painting his latest nightmare scenario elsewhere in the Star Tribune:

While Zygi and Mark Wilf are more directly involved in management of the team, the other partners are investors who I'm sure weren't happy when recently there was a call for an additional $20 million investment, with each partner's payment based on his percentage of ownership.

The call was made because the club hasn't shown any type of profit the past couple of years and operating capital was needed.

So believe me when I report that the investors other than Zygi and Mark aren't going to keep coming up with money if the club continues to make those calls. And those calls are going to continue if the Vikings don't get a new stadium, which would generate the money they need to operate and compete and not rank at the bottom of the NFL in revenue.

If this pattern continues, Mr. Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers -- who refuses to get behind the stadium bill in the Legislature -- the Vikings will be sold and the buyer will pay a big price if he can move the team to Los Angeles, which I'm sure will happen if the Wilfs sell the team.

Now, we don't know that if the Vikings are actually losing money, because the Wilfs don't have to open their books. I'm glad Sid has his scapegoat, though. And of course there's no way that a local buyer wouldn't materialize, either, right? It's not possible to come up with a local ownership group. It could never happen, not in a million years, because we've never had local ownership of the Vikings. After all, the reason the Vikings operate out of Winter Park is because winter is the longest season in Minnesota, right? Oh, wait....

So what to make of all this?

• If this deal were subject to the normal level of scrutiny that a billion dollar transaction faces, it wouldn't get past the laugh test.
• The bottom line hasn't really changed at all -- dividing the funding among various government entities has always been a fiction. The deal, if it takes place, will be funded through bonding and in truth only the state would be able to float the bonds. And if the state has to pay back the bonds, that means state revenues will pay for the stadium. And the state gets its revenue, in the main, from taxes. No matter how it is disguised, you, as a taxpayer, will be paying for this stadium. If enough taxpayers are willing to do so, then the deal will go through. If not, it's dead.
• In any event, Sid Hartman is right about one thing -- eventually Zygi Wilf and his partners will tire of the temporizing and they will find a way to cash in. So if you want to save the Vikings, don't look to the lege, or R. T. Rybak, or Mark Dayton, or Mike Opat. Look to the guys who have the money to buy out Zygi Wilf.

Oops, Part Two

Lookee here:

Per a senior Dem: “Serious Dem operatives are aghast at Hilary Rosen’s misguided attack on Ann Romney’s work history. She and others at PR firm SKD Knickerbocker have represented many clients that have raised hackles with senior White House staff. It’s an open secret in the Dem consultant community that SKD has been signing up clients based on ‘perceived White House access’ tied to prior relationships and employment.”

As we’ve reported, SKDKnickerbocker is led by a team of former Democratic operatives and key White House figures. But instead of promoting a progressive agenda, or even an Obama agenda, these consultants score huge contracts by helping corporate interests lobby for policies that are not in line with the public interest. Many SKDKnickerbocker employees, including Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, are also frequent White House visitors.

And that, n.b., is from The Nation. More at the link.

But that's not all:

Patrick J. Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works.”

“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.”

Mr. Kennedy visited the White House several times to win support for One Mind for Research, his initiative to help develop new treatments for brain disorders. While his family name and connections are clearly influential, he said, he knows White House officials are busy. And as a former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he said he was keenly aware of the political realities they face.

“I know that they look at the reports,” he said, referring to records of campaign donations. “They’re my friends anyway, but it won’t hurt when I ask them for a favor if they don’t see me as a slouch.”

There's a lot more at that second link.

So should we be outrageously outraged about this sort of thing? You can be if you choose to, but for me, the bottom line is this:  the issue isn't that lobbyists get in the door of this White House, or any other White House for that matter. The issue is that too much power is concentrated on the Potomac. And I'd also like it if we'd have a little less sanctimony on the issue generally. It was always ludicrous to assert that a guy who learned politics in Chicago would somehow be a reformer.

Oops

Just a guess -- I don't think David Axelrod meant to say this:

It's a lot better if you don't make your 2008 arguments in 2012. Then again, I'm guessing Axelrod enjoyed 2008 a whole lot more than what he's experiencing at the moment.

Then again, I'm gratified to see the choice we have in 2012 expressed in such clear terms. And no, I'm not particularly interested in remaining on the "road we're on."

Epiphany

Someone got a wakeup call at the New York Times:

But the edgier and more negative tone coming from the president’s re-election is highlighting another issue. Successful campaigns tell positive stories even while they are in knife fights, and even as it steps up an effort to define Mr. Romney on its terms, the White House is working to make a positive case for Mr. Obama, one built around themes of fairness and security.

Judging by the difficulties he has had selling his policies and himself for the last three years, going positive in an effective way could prove to be more challenging for Mr. Obama than going negative.

Ya think?

This campaign isn't going to be scorched earth. It's going to be Peshtigo Fire, especially if Obamacare gets kicked to the curb.

Five years ago -- watching the Twins with Mike

It was Monday, April 9, 2007. I'd been in the hospital for six days and I was getting tired of it. I finally had the packing out of my nose and I'd been able to take a few walks around the surgical ward. If all went well, I might get out of the hospital the next day, although I was still hooked up to multiple machines most of the time.

My brother Mike came over to the hospital to visit. I'm 12 years older than Mike; we are the bookends of Ed and Mary Jane's six surviving children. As Mike grew up, I had been a somewhat distant figure to him. I'd gone off to college the same year he entered kindergarten, so while we'd spend time together, I didn't get to see him grow up.

One of my favorite memories of Mike's childhood was the time he'd set off on the Greyhound bus at the age of 13 to visit his big brother in the big city of Chicago. We had timed his arrival to coincide with the end of my work day. In those days, the bus station was on Randolph Street in Chicago and it was a little seedy. Mike's bus had arrived a little early and I found him wandering around the waiting area, clutching an enormous 3-ring binder full of baseball cards and carrying an overnight bag that looked to have the storage capacity of a carton of Yoplait. You could tell he was a little scared, but he was ready for an adventure.

That would have been 1989. A lot would change quickly after that. The next year we lost our Dad, which left Mike without a father at a crucial time, just as he was entering the miasma of high school. The future Mrs. D and I would marry the following year and we moved to Minnesota the year after that. We'd continue to see Mike here and there, but I was still a distant figure. Mike eventually made his way to Minneapolis in 1995 and earned his degree from the University of Minnesota. He had often thought about returning to Wisconsin, or perhaps seeking out new adventures elsewhere, but he stayed and established himself here.

As the years went on, Mike became a big part of our family. My kids don't get to see their other aunts and uncles that often, but Uncle Mike has been a constant and reassuring presence in their lives. He's the guy who wouldn't hesitate to get on the ride with them at the State Fair, or to take them to a Twins game. In many ways, he is the ideal uncle.

Now, some 18 years after I'd found him wandering around the Greyhound station, we were sitting in a hospital room in St. Paul. And in some respects, the sibling roles were reversed. I faced a long recovery period and an uncertain future. And now, at this moment, he sensed that I was the one who needed reassurance.

We chatted as the Twins took on the hated Yankees in the Metrodome. In what turned out to be a short-lived experiment, the Twins had sent an erratic righthander named Sidney Ponson to the mound, while the Yankees had sent another erratic (and injury-prone) righthander, some guy named Carl Pavano, who had become the subject of great ridicule in the tabloids.

The game was a trainwreck for the the Twins, as it usually is when the Yankees are the opponent. But that didn't really matter very much. What mattered was that my brother was there and he was optimistic.

The conversation was typically male. We might not say anything for a few minutes, but then there'd be a burst.

"My God, this guy is useless. I can't believe the Twins signed Sidney Freaking Ponson," I said.

"It could be worse. At least the Twins didn't blow $40 million on Carl Pavano," Mike replied.

It was hard to argue with that.

"So, do you think the headaches are going to be going away," Mike asked.

"Two doctors say yes, but one says no. I sure the hell hope so."

"I'll bet."

"I've got other headaches, though, Mike."

"I know. Look, I know that you've been having a rough stretch here, but you're going to figure it out, Mark. It's not as if you've become stupid."

"Well, at least no more stupid than I usually am," I replied.

He thought about that for a minute. They he looked at me and lowered his eyes just a little bit.

"You haven't been saying that in the job interviews, have you?"

I laughed, but I recognized that he was making a point. If you don't have faith in yourself, people pick up on that. There's a small margin between self-deprecation and self-doubt. And while self-doubt is understandable at times, you have to manage it. Had I forgotten that?

We watched the game for a while longer. The Yankees were laying waste to Ponson and the Twins weren't getting anywhere. We mostly just shot the breeze for the rest of the evening. But the needle that my brother had applied that evening had significantly more meaning than all the hypodermics that had been stuck into my arms over the past two weeks.

Next -- getting out and facing the world

Pure Gino

Just go read it.

Related thought to the previous post

Ann Althouse asserts, in the context of the Hilary Rosen matter:

As we'd talked about earlier: The Democrats don't really believe anything. They're just working on various voting blocs. They started this "war on women" theme, but it was a means to an end. Women were out there, so numerous, so richly exploitable. The campaign made its move. And then... the slip.

I don't know. I think the Democrats believe they ought to run things. In fact, I'm convinced they believe that.

Moderation in all things

When political labels lose all meaning (H/T Professor Reynolds):

Rep. Chuck Kruger (D-Thomaston), the Democrat chair of the Maine legislature’s Moderate Caucus, used his Twitter account to express his view that former Vice President Dick Cheney should be executed. This comment has led some to question the validity of Kruger’s moderate credentials.

I guess it would. So what did this solon have to say?

Kruger made the statement through his Twitter account this past summer, saying, “Cheney deserves same final end he gave Saddam. Hope there are cell cams,” a reference to technology that would allow Kruger to watch the proposed execution of the former Vice President of the United States.

The thing is, the term "moderate" means something else in Maine:

The ‘moderate’ label in Maine has become fashionable as of late, as several prominent Democrats have shed their party affiliation in order to capitalize on the tradition of successful moderate political figures from Margaret Chase Smith to Olympia Snowe.  In the limelight this year is former Democrat Angus King, who has resurrected his ‘independent’ political identity to fuel his run for U.S. Senate. Though King professes inclinations toward the political center by refusing to indicate which party he would caucus with, most political observers believe he would act as a functional Democrat in the Senate.

Well, yes. Then again, Smith and Snowe often have acted as functional Democrats, too.

War by other means

I'd like to suggest that an armistice is in order on the "War On. . . ." memes, from both sides.

I have a Twitter account but I don't use it as much as I could, but it appears that I missed some fun yesterday. Apparently someone named Hilary Rosen, who is a Democratic operative of some sort, decided that it would be a good idea to slam Ann Romney, wife of Mitt, by saying that Ann Romney "has never worked a day in her life."

That got a good ol' fashioned flame war going on the Twitter and, from what I can tell, it hasn't been going well for Rosen. There is a new Twitter hashtag called WarOnMoms and it's a pretty active deal and at current glance I'd say the results are about 80/20 against Rosen's apparent worldview.

The problem this poses for Democrats is simple: they have their own "War on Women" meme going, which may or may not be working, depending on which polling data you prefer. This preferred narrative concerns last month's flavor, Sandra Fluke, who you might remember as the aggrieved Georgetown law student who was seemingly unaware of low-cost, free market contraception options, which apparently is the fault of someone, likely either Mitt Romney, George W. Bush or Emmanuel Goldstein. One can never be sure with such things.

The game here is simple -- there are a lot of partisans who want the upcoming election to be about social and emotional issues, rather than about economics. This isn't particularly surprising, since the economic situation hasn't been very good for a long time now.

Still, this "War on" thing is dumb, no matter who is supposedly the target. We've seen enough real war in recent years to know the difference, so the occasional discomforts that we see hyped are nothing compared to the real thing.

I'm confident that, eventually, this election cycle will turn on the pocketbook issues, as these things generally do. But for now, apparently we have to endure the silly season. I guess it's a War on Common Sense.

Zimmerman Note

So George Zimmerman is facing second degree murder charges in the death of Trayvon Martin. I don't have any particular insight into the case, as is the case with about 99% of the people who have been commenting on the matter. I have two observations:

• I am not surprised that Zimmerman was charged. Given everything that has happened, it would have been well-nigh impossible to let this matter go. And although I suppose it has happened at some point, you don't generally hear much about special prosecutors who choose not to prosecute.
• I am surprised that the charge is second degree murder. It will be more difficult to prove than manslaughter, especially since Florida law requires proving the following: "Murder with a Depraved Mind occurs when a person is killed, without any premeditated design, by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind showing no regard for human life." That's a pretty high bar to cross. My only guess is that the prosecutor is hoping to get Zimmerman to plead down to manslaughter.

Vikings to Plot of Land East of Metrodome VI -- An Interesting Admission

So R. T. Rybak went out and talked to the citizenry last night concerning the Vikings stadium. And as the Star Tribune reports, Rybak made an interesting admission:

Opponents in the crowd shot back that the plan requires a citywide vote -- a referendum that the mayor opposes. One man rose to read Rybak the text of the city's charter amendment requiring a vote when Minneapolis spends more than $10 million on a stadium.

"How can you get around saying the people do not have a right to vote on it?" the man asked, adding that the mayor has "danced around" the issue.

Rybak said the city attorney has told him a referendum isn't legally triggered by his plan, since the taxes are controlled by the state. He later added it was an oral -- not written -- opinion from the city's counsel.

Emphasis mine. So in other words, people just have to take Rybak's word for it.

This is very strange. I lived in Chicago as a young man and worked for a number of years for a large law firm that did a lot of commercial real estate work. As a matter of course, if there was a dispute over the law that affected any project, the lawyers would issue a formal, written opinion based on applicable case law, with specific citations supporting the position. Most of the time the lawyers would have no trouble issuing such an opinion; however, if there was a question of law and the attorneys weren't able to make an affirmative case, a project would not go forward.

So in this case, you have a mayor who is essentially offering hearsay as a basis for going forward. Which city attorney offered this opinion? On what basis and reading of statute does this opinion rest? Or did an attorney in the office say something like, "well, you might be able to get by with this?"

This sort of thing matters, especially when the mayor is committing public money to a project. I would suggest that a formal, written legal opinion from the city attorney's office, signed by an actual attorney, is in order at this point.

Santorum is Gone

Rick Santorum suspended his campaign yesterday, essentially bowing to the inevitable. I was never a supporter of Santorum because Big Government in the service of traditional values is no better than Big Government in the service of whatever it is that our current administration is pushing.

I will say this -- he ran a better campaign than I would have ever guessed. That he would be essentially the last Not Mitt was surprising, to say the least. And even the notion of a Catholic version of Mike Huckabee is a sign of something, even if I'm not sure what it is.

Ozzie's Marge Schott Moment

As a Twins fan, I always enjoyed it when Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox were on the schedule. The games were usually a lot of fun and Ozzie was liable to say and do anything. In a world with a lot of vanilla managers -- quick, give me a memorable Trey Hillman quote -- Ozzie was always a hoot. And since the Twins usually beat the Whities like a drum, it was all good.

Over the offseason Ozzie left Chicago for Miami, taking the helm of the new-look Miami Marlins, who have big plans these days. They have left the mausoleum of a football stadium where they had played in their earlier history, moving to a somewhat garish new stadium in downtown Miami. They also now have a Yankees-sized payroll. Ozzie, who won a World Series for the Whities in 2005, would be the ringmaster of this South Florida circus.

And of course, since Ozzie Guillen is Ozzie, he remains liable to say anything. Only this time, he's said something that's far more problematic than criticizing the umpires or calling Nick Punto a [expletive] pirahna:

 "I love Fidel Castro ... I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last sixty years but that [expletive] is still there.''

Now, if you are the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and you say something nice about, say, Che Guevara, you might get by with it. But praising Castro, even in a backhanded way, is about as big a no-no as any public figure can muster, especially in Miami, a city where hundreds of thousands of people whose families have suffered at the hands of Castro reside.

For their part, the Marlins were having none of it:

The Marlins issued this statement: "We are aware of the article. There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro. He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than fifty years. We live in a community filled with victims of this dictatorship and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today."

And you would think that Ozzie would understand all this, even from his own experiences. When he was with the White Sox, he managed a number of Cuban defectors, including Jose Contreras, Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo, just within the last few years. I would imagine these individuals probably had a story or two to share. And given that Ozzie himself is from Venezuela, where one of Castro's acolytes, Hugo Chavez, has been driving his nation to ruin for over a decade, it's really hard to understand.

I'm reminded of what happened to Marge Schott, the crackpot who used to own the Cincinnati Reds, when she told an astonished ESPN reporter the following about Adolf Hitler:

"Everything you read, when he came in [to power] he was good...They built tremendous highways and got all the factories going...Everybody knows he was good at the beginning but he just went too far."

Baseball quickly ran Marge Schott off after that incident, mostly because she was bad for business. Praising Castro is pretty bad for business, too. Ozzie may survive this episode, but if he does, he's going to be on a very short tether for the rest of his career.

Mark Dayton, Solving the World's Problems, Symbolically

The governor is a healer, or something:

There's nothing Gov. Mark Dayton can do to stop a voter ID constitutional amendment from appearing on the November ballot.

But he's issued a symbolic veto of the legislation that created the ballot amendment anyway.
"Although I do not have the power to prevent this unwise and unnecessary constitutional amendment from appearing on the Minnesota ballot...the Legislature has sent it to me in the form of a bill," Dayton told reporters at a Monday press conference. "Thus, I am exercising my legal responsibility to either sign or veto the amendment...I am vetoing."

He's a deeply silly man, our governor, but considering this is the state that elected a professional rassler to be governor not that long ago, it's hardly surprising that we now find a man at the helm who is exercising imaginary power. In fact, in order to add greater fairness, social justice and goodwill to the commonweal, Gov. Dayton has decided to also use his imaginary power to handle a series of other issues that have heretofore proved intractable. In fact, Dayton confidant Denise Cardinal sent over the following list:

Governor Dayton's Dozen Proposals to Repair Our Fraying Social Fabric:

12.  Providing a posthumous pardon to Johnny Cash for "shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die."

11.  Issuing a symbolic executive order changing the name of Dayton, Ohio to Prettner Solon, Ohio, in order to appear self-deprecating. Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon will then appear in the newly renamed Ohio city, marking the first time she has been seen in public since November, 2010.

10.  Hiring all departing cast members of "Celebrity Apprentice" to positions at the Public Utilities Commission, MnDOT and the Met Council.

9.  Demanding that Macalester, St. Olaf, Bethel and Lakeland Dental Academy all offer Tom Emmer a chance to be a visiting professor, but only if they rescind the offer before any money changes hands.

8.  Requiring state Auditor Rebecca Otto conduct a thorough investigation to conclusively determine how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop.

7.  Solving the Twins current hitting slump by ordering the team to rehire 70s-era slugging sensation "Disco Dan" Ford.

6. Authorizing Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to use whatever methods are required to ensure that Minnesota singing sensation Jordis Unga wins "The Voice" on NBC.

5. Compelling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to award the Minnesota Vikings a "Symbolic Lombardi Trophy" because of those cheatin' Saints.

4.  Filling the Lindstrom "Coffee Pot" water tower to brim with Kombucha.

3.  Appearing in a production of "Cabaret" at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater with ex-wife Alita Messinger, with the highlight being a show-stopping performance of the "Money Song."

2. Directing Zygi Wilf to give naming rights to the new "People's Stadium" to Education Minnesota honcho Tom Dooher.

1.  Demonstrating the importance of bipartisanship by offering to date Michael Brodkorb.

A Well-Deserved Swat

No, Governor, you don't get to force daycare providers to unionize:

A Ramsey County judge ruled Friday that Gov. Mark Dayton exceeded his authority in ordering a union election for certain in-home child-care providers. 

Judge Dale Lindman declared Dayton's order, issued Nov. 15, "null and void because it is an unconstitutional usurpation of the Legislature's constitutional right to create and or amend laws and as such is a violation of the Separation of Powers doctrine."

So what should Dayton have done?

Lindman's order ruled that the elections ordered by Dayton cannot occur.

"The proper method to proceed is for the matter to be brought to the Legislature," Lindman's order reads. He argued that Dayton's order is an attempt "to circumvent the Legislative process and unionize child care providers by executive order, rather than by adhering to a valid Legislative process."

Since the lege would never agree to this, Dayton needed to do something to pay off his union pals. That's politics, but there was a larger implication to what Dayton was attempting, as Ed Morrissey points out:

Dayton attempted to bypass the state legislature in this effort by declaring through executive order that day-care centers that indirectly receive state aid through their clients are in effect public-sector workplaces — a definition not found in law or in legislative intent. 

And what would that mean? Morrissey:

[H]ad Dayton succeeded in his imposition of public-worker status, the precedent established would have been so broad as to threaten the very notion of a private-sector workforce altogether.  Where would the limits have been?  Fast-food restaurants that take food-stamp debit cards?  Medical care facilities that accept Medicaid patients? Just as in ObamaCare at the federal level, it would be difficult if not impossible to find a limitation of power in that kind of precedent.

Which is the idea, of course. We all owe Judge Lindman thanks.

Five years ago -- Easter Sunday

It was Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007. The sun had not yet risen and I was still in a hospital bed. I was now able to attempt to eat a semi-liquid diet, which primarily meant thin broth soup, applesauce and my personal favorite, vanilla pudding with a Percocet mixed in. It's not easy to swallow when you can't breathe through your nose, though, so there was a lot of gagging going on every time I tried to swallow anything.

I had had strange dreams the night before, filled with rural imagery and discussions of harvesting. The only farming I knew was from the occasional visit to my aunt and uncle's dairy farm. I don't know what I expected to see -- it was Easter, after all -- but what I didn't expect to see was part of a very strange old episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, featuring the ever-popular "Up the Palace" and "Limestone, Dear Limestone" promos, among other things. Not typical Easter fare, but this wasn't a typical Easter.

I had heard that, perhaps, if all went well, the packing would come out of my nose. We had asked about it on Saturday, but the medical team decided to leave it in for another day. It would be one of the better Easter presents I'd ever had if I could actually get rid of the packing. I suspect that the nurses were tired of me asking about it, but a fella needs a little hope.

I knew that Mrs. D and the kids would be coming for a visit, which was nice. I hadn't seen the kids for a while and while I knew that they wouldn't be crazy about seeing their father strapped up to a bunch of tubes and monitors, it was good. Mrs. D arrived with the kids and my brother Mike, who had been very generous with his time throughout the whole ordeal.

Kids can process a lot but it's a difficult thing to see a parent in a hospital. When I was about 7 or 8, my own father had been in a somewhat serious traffic accident and had needed medical attention. He got out of the hospital after a day but he had needed to spend a few days at home to rest. When he came home, he had a number of bandages on and it was very scary indeed. So while I was happy to see the kids, I was worried that they would be sad, scared, or both.

We call my daughter Fearless Maria a reason -- she had already had a few surgeries herself, so she understood what she would see in the hospital. She brought me a little Easter basket with some treats that I could not eat, but it was a real day brightener. My son, although older, struggled with this visit a little. Just a few weeks earlier, he had experienced on of the proudest moments of his life as he received the Cub Scout Arrow of Light and began his career as a Boy Scout. Boy Scouts are called to be prepared, but very few boys are prepared to see their father laid low.

During the visit, a nurse and doctor arrived. The good news had arrived -- the gauze and packing were coming out. The medical staff ushered my family out of the room and then the doctor slowly removed everything. I had my nose back.

The family was due for Easter dinner at my in-laws, so I had to bid them good-bye. The afternoon would be confined to watching the Masters. The temperature at August was still in the 40s and the golfers were struggling mightily. There were no red numbers at all and I don't think I saw anyone make a putt all day. The announcers were trying to put a brave face on things, but it was clear that this would go down as one of the worst Masters in history. In the end, an obscure Iowa native named Zach Johnson ended up winning the tournament when Tiger Woods couldn't mount a charge down the stretch, settling for pars on the last three holes.

It was an unsatisfying tournament and, although I could now breathe, an less-than-satisfying way to spend Easter. But there was hope now. I had been promised that I could leave my hospital bed and go for a walk the next day. And if all went well, I might get to go home, to a future that was uncertain, but one that had to be better than the recent past.

And I tried to remember this:


And on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. [2] And they found the stone rolled back from the sepulchre. [3] And going in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. [4] And it came to pass, as they were astonished in their mind at this, behold, two men stood by them, in shining apparel. [5] And as they were afraid, and bowed down their countenance towards the ground, they said unto them: Why seek you the living with the dead?


[6] He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke unto you, when he was in Galilee, [7] Saying: The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. [8] And they remembered his words. [9] And going back from the sepulchre, they told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. [10] And it was Mary Magdalen, and Joanna, and Mary of James, and the other women that were with them, who told these things to the apostles.


[11] And these words seemed to them as idle tales; and they did not believe them. [12] But Peter rising up, ran to the sepulchre, and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths laid by themselves; and went away wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.


In what was once St. Luke's Hospital, it's always worth paying attention to Luke 24.
Next: watching the Twins with Mike

Five years ago -- Good Friday

It was Friday, April 6, 2007. I was still in the intensive care unit at United Hospital in St. Paul. I was feeling less disoriented with each passing hour and was able to focus a little better. The nurses told me that if all went well, I'd be moving to out of the ICU and into a regular room by the end of the day.

Slowly I was starting to re-engage with the world a little bit. It was Good Friday, but it seemed like an abstraction more than something real. Perhaps it's a function of created memory, but it always seemed to me that the weather always turned bad in the afternoon. I remember it raining many times and thunderstorms coming through at least a few times. As a child, I always assumed it was a sign that God was angry about Jesus dying on the Cross.

In 2007, it was a different weather phenomenon. Everyone was telling me how cold it was out there -- the nation was in the grip of a cold wave that extended all the way to Augusta, Georgia, where the Masters was taking place. As I watched coverage of the tournament, the golfers were all bundled in jackets and the galleries were sporting winter jackets. A hard freeze reached all the way down to North Carolina, causing millions of dollars in damage. Everyone I talked to was telling me that winter was back.

None of that mattered much to me, though. I knew that I was getting better, but I was starting to feel a little scared about the future. I didn't have any money coming in and with potentially months of recovery and hospital bills coming, this was going to be tough. Not much seemed good about this particular Friday.

As is always the case in the ICU, a lot of people were coming into the room. At one point I had a visitor I hadn't seen before. Although you wouldn't necessarily know it from the name, United is a Catholic hospital and was known as St. Luke's before it merged with Miller Hospital a number of years ago. And on one of the most important days of the year for a Christian, one of my visitors was a deacon from a nearby parish who served as a Communion minister. He came to my room and we said a short prayer together. Then he gave me Holy Communion.

I really couldn't chew or swallow, so I let the Host slowly dissolve on my tongue. As it did, I continued to pray. I knew that many, many people were praying on my behalf as well. And at that moment, I started to feel a sense of calm that I hadn't felt in many days. The fear I had started to dissipate.

Catholics are called to profess their faith, but they aren't always very good at it. I suppose there are reasons for that, but at that moment all the teachings I'd had over the first 43 years of my life seemed to lock into place. That sense of calm would make a big difference in my recovery.

Later in the afternoon, I was moved from the ICU to a room on the surgical ward. The room had a huge window wall with a view of the St. Paul Cathedral and, in the distance, the Minnesota State Capitol, the twin landmarks of St. Paul. It was a better view than I'd had before. But the view was less important that what I was starting to see in the future.

Next -- Easter

For what it's worth

A few random thoughts on Good Friday:

• Much of the discussion concerning the Trayvon Martin case has concerned whether or not George Zimmerman uttered a racial slur during the course of his conversation with 911. CNN (via Legal Insurrection) has a new enhanced version of the recording (it's NSFW, by the way). Listen for yourself. And as always, think for yourself.
• The White Earth tribe was back yesterday with a version of a proposal they made before: let us build a casino in the metro area and we'll pay for the state's "portion" of the Vikings stadium. Only one problem -- there will be scorched earth from the metro-area tribes to oppose this idea. I haven't written as much about the Vikings lately because nothing has really changed -- the only goal is to push the proposal across the finish line and start construction. All the financing mechanisms aren't going to pay for this thing, but no one has the cojones to tell the Vikings that they can't have what they want, so we'll continue to pretend that charitable gaming, or something, will pay for this thing.
• Michael Brodkorb is still planning to sue the Senate, for something or other. Go home, Michael.
• If this story from Yahoo Sports is accurate, and the tape is authentic, you can stick a fork in Gregg Williams.
• If you didn't know it before, even the New York Times is admitting something that even math-challenged liberal arts guys like me understand: you can buy a hybrid car or a Chevy Volt if you'd like, but if you're buying it to save money, you're not going to save anything. 

Time to take offense?

Keith Olbermann makes a disturbing discovery:

After being enticed to leave MSNBC and come to Current with promised of editorial control, freedom from corporate influence and the professional support to produce a high-caliber political commentary show of the type his viewers have come to expect, Keith Olbermann was disheartened to discover Al Gore, Joel Hyatt and the management of Current are no more than dilettantes portraying entertainment industry executives.

Emphasis mine. So tell me, Keith, what's wrong with being a dilettante? Dude, if you're going to go around bad-mouthing dilettantes, you need to do your due diligence and find out who the real dilettantes are.

It's evident, sir, that you don't know the first thing about dilettantes.

Five years ago -- the fog of ICU

The surgery was over. Or that's what I understood. I can dimly, dimly remember being in the post-op room and hearing someone clapping hands and saying "Mark, Mark, wake up Mark!" Apparently I did wake up to the satisfaction of the individual exhorting me to do so, but after that, I don't remember anything else about that day.

What I do remember is waking up around 10 a.m. the next morning and seeing Mrs. D's face. She was looking intently at me.

"Good morning," she said.

"So how long have you been here?" I asked.

"I got here a little while ago -- I had to get the kids on the bus for school. The nurse says you had a good night and that you were watching CNN this morning and making comments on the news."

Well, that sounded like me, but I had no idea that I'd done that. I was only slowly beginning to understand where I was. I was in the ICU at United Hospital, on the edge of downtown St. Paul, with multiple monitors hooked up to me. I could feel the compression wraps on my legs, which are designed to keep clots from forming -- something I had asked about at the outset, remembering what had happened to my dad nearly 17 years before. And I also noticed that both nostrils were completely stuffed with gauze. Lots and lots of gauze.

It felt like my face weighed fifty pounds. I wasn't sure that the Allied Expeditionary Force could have gotten through all the gauze.

The doctors had explained the reasons for the full nose before I had the surgery. Since the otolarynologist had to do a little busting up of my sinuses to allow space for the neurosurgeon to get to my pituitary gland, things needed to heal up. More importantly, open nasal passages could lead to a sneeze, which could rip open any sutures and cause a very, very bad result. So things had to heal and my nose would be filled with gauze and packing for at least a few days.

I couldn't even imagine what I must have looked like with my face blown up like a float in the Macy's Parade. It shouldn't have mattered, but for some reason I started to worry about my appearance. "So do I look ridiculous?" I asked.

"You look fine," Mrs. D replied. Ever the diplomat.

A little while later, I got a report on the surgery. It had been successful, but more importantly it had been timely. The pituitary tumor had started to bleed, likely during that last, awful headache, a condition known as pituitary apoplexy. All of the symptoms I'd experienced, including the horrific headache and the visual impairment, were present. It was a very good thing the surgery took place.

As the day went on, a few other things became evident. I wasn't going anywhere, since I was tethered to just about every medical device that I'd ever seen watching episodes of ER. There were more monitors in the room, it seemed, than on the trading floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. I would have to breathe and, eventually eat through my mouth for a while. It's a very good thing that nature provides us with redundant systems for taking in oxygen. I would also learn later on that it's tough to eat and breathe at the same time, but on the first day, that wasn't a concern because I would be sustained with the IV. And just for laughs, I was strapped up with a Foley catheter, because there was no chance I would be able to get to the bathroom any time soon.

An intensive care unit is a busy place and it seemed like everyone who worked at the hospital was in to visit at one point or another, checking charts, looking at me, writing things down. The one thing that puzzled me is that the nurses were checking what looked to be a high-tech version of a carpenter's level at various times. Eventually I asked about it.

"We need to use this to keep your body equalized so that you don't have a drain of spinal fluid," a nurse explained. If you end up out of proper position, you'll have a leak and it would be a big problem for you. At a minimum, you'd have a horrible headache."

Well, I was used to that, but I didn't want to find out what horrible meant in the context of an intensive care unit.

"Okay, I'll try to stay on the level," I said.

"Good thinking, sir," the nurse replied.

It's difficult to remember much about that first day after surgery. I apparently did sleep a lot, but it seemed like when I awoke, my wife was always there, with the same, steady gaze. Some 15 1/2 years before, at an old Polish parish in the heart of Frogtown, we had promised to love each other, for better or for worse. I had to wonder if things could get any worse than the moment we were living through. Or were we headed for better days?

Next -- Good Friday, Holy Communion and a room with a Cathedral view

Oh, that's right -- there's a campaign going on

Haven't spent a lot of time lately on the Republican presidential campaign, but it's now becoming increasingly clear that Mitt Romney, warts and all, will be the nominee. Rick Santorum had a nice run, but he was never going to win and no one has been talking about Newt for weeks. Ron Paul continues his campaign, which isn't so much about winning the nomination as it is about setting the groundwork for a more libertarian Republican Party in the future, a cause that I support.

You're starting to see some speculation about potential VP candidates to run with Romney. Since the campaign has just been in Wisconsin, and because he has been in the news quite a lot as the point man for the House budget, Paul Ryan's name has come up a fair amount lately. Writing over at his place, Brian makes an excellent point:

If you really like Paul Ryan for his views and influence on economic policy, why on earth would you want him to be Vice-President, where his ability to accomplish anything in that arena would be virtually nil? If he's really that important, the last thing you want him doing is attending state funerals and breaking ties in the Senate.

If he's your man on the budget, he's already got the best job you could hope for him to have. What you really want are more congressmen that will work with him.

I couldn't agree more. Vice Presidents are problematic in most instances -- it seems like either you have an oddball in the office (Biden, Agnew) or an operator with an independent power base and insufficient accountability (Cheney and, to a lesser extent, Gore). Neither is really desirable.

 We'll probably do a Veepstakes post as we approach the convention, but for now, the task is to see if Romney applies the coup de grace in Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania. It's certainly looking that way.

Five years ago -- the day arrives

It was Wednesday, April 4, 2007. And I was up early. It was time to get up close and personal with neurosurgery.

We arrived at United Hospital around 6 in the morning and checked in. Although I'd been there just a few days before, we needed to pull out the insurance card and fill out more forms. Always, always, there are more forms.

The days prior to the surgery had been weird. Even though I knew that I wouldn't really be able to pursue any job leads, I'd still made my way over to the Minnesota Job Force Center for a little while each day. Although I wouldn't be able to work for a while, I still needed to find some money, because there were going to be a lot of bills to pay. But now, on a cool, somewhat clammy morning, none of that seemed to matter so much.

We made our way to the surgical ward and found ourselves in a pre-op room. The surgery was scheduled for mid-morning and periodically people would come and go from the room. First a nurse, then another. Then the nurse anesthesiologist, then the anesthesiologist himself.

Next came the otolarynologist, who explained what would happen. After I was put under, he would begin the surgery by making an incision in the roof of my mouth. He would then do a little excavation work in my sinuses, providing the neurosurgeon a clean path to my pitiutary gland.

I was paying attention, but my mind tends to wander down strange alleys when something stressful is coming. There's always a soundtrack in my brain, with random songs popping into it. My brain is full of earworms. In fact, on more than one occasion before the surgery, someone in the family would jokingly suggest that while the neurosurgeon was in my skull, he might want to consider removing some music trivia or ball scores from 1974.

As the otolarynologist was explaining what would happen, a song popped into my head, an oldie from the 60s:

I've been trying to get you for a long time
'Cause constantly, you've been on my mind
I was thinkin' about a short cut that I could take
But it seems like I made a mistake

Yep, of all things, "Expressway to Your Heart" had popped into my head.

It's much too crowded (too crowded)
No, it's much to crowded (too crowded)

But it wasn't anyone's heart that was too crowded. It was my brain. So much to worry about. So much history. Heck, I'm still young and my kids are very young. I could hear what the cavalcade of doctors had been telling me, but the worst-case scenario, wrapped in vintage 60s blue-eyed soul, was there, honking in my brain like the car horns that resound through the song.

A short time later, the neurosurgeon came in. He told Mrs. D and I that he was just about ready to begin the surgery. It would be a complicated surgery and they needed to bring in a lot of medical equipment, including monitors and computers galore. He said he needed to review my medical record one last time to make sure there wasn't anything that might pose a problem. The files from the clinic had arrived and he would be reviewing them, then it would be time.

Shortly thereafter, the neurosurgeon returned. He had a concerned look on his face. He asked me a question:  did I recall getting a chest x-ray a few years back?

I didn't. And now I was wondering why he was asking me that. He told me, in a way that was both straightforward and a little chilling.

"The clinic took a chest x-ray as part of an exam a number of years ago. There is a spot on the x-ray. I need to find out what that is. If it is cancer, I'm not going to perform the surgery. I don't want to get you on the table and find out you aren't going to be able to handle the surgery."

Holy shit. I had no idea. I didn't remember any of this. There hadn't been any followups, so if I had had a conversation about the x-ray in the distant past, I didn't remember it.

I looked at Mrs. D. She was scared. She had been an absolute rock throughout the past week and had managed to keep the family moving forward, getting the kids to school and taking me where I needed to go. But we hadn't seen this coming.

I tried to put a brave face on. "Well, if this were something serious, I would have known about it, right?" I asked.

"You would think so, but I don't know," she replied.

We didn't know. Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe it was something and the clinic hadn't tumbled to it. I had no way of knowing. While I was grateful that the neurosurgeon paid this much attention to the tiniest details, his explanation was no comfort to me at all.

The scheduled time of the surgery passed. We waited. By now it was past noon. I was hungry and scared. Can't eat anything, of course, because if the surgery does take place I need to be ready. The random parade of nurses and aides continued, but not quite as frequently as before. And we waited, fearing that whatever problem I had with my pituitary tumor, there might be something worse.

By the time we got to the middle of the afternoon, the neurosurgeon returned. He had found the answer.

"We are going to go ahead with the surgery. I finally got the answer. The spot that we saw on the x-ray is a calcium deposit. It's not a tumor and it's not cancerous. You should be fine. We'll begin preparations again and you'll be going in soon."

I looked at my wife. For the first time in quite a long time, she was smiling, but only a little. We held hands. A few minutes later, the nurse anesthesiologist returned and gave me some medication in my i.v. tube. "This will start to put you to sleep," she said. "When you wake up, you'll be out of surgery and in post-op. Then we'll take you to the intensive care unit."

For the first time in quite a long time, I also mustered a smile. My wife gave me a kiss. We told each other, "I love you," as we had every day for many years. And then I closed my eyes.

Next: the fog of ICU and a half-ton of gauze up my nose.

The value of editing

I still don't know what happened in the Trayvon Martin case, and neither do you. But I do know this: I don't have any reason to believe anything that NBC tells us about the case:

NBC has completed its investigation into the mishandling of the police dispatcher’s conversation with George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case. And the process ends with a finding of error, plus an apology. Here is the statement just issued by the network:

During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.

So you understand what the "error made in the production process" really was, let's go back to the two versions of the conversation. Here is what actually was on the 911 call:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.

And here is how NBC News reported it:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

While I'm loath to assign motivation to the editing, since I can't get into the editor's head, it's pretty egregious. The way the conversation is rendered in the version NBC aired, it gives the impression that Zimmerman made a racist observation about Martin apropos of nothing, when that was not the case.

Ann Althouse is a little less reticent about it:

That is the most outrageous, truly evil editing I've ever seen. 

And when you have Mother Jones calling you out, you've really stepped in it. Cue Kevin Drum:

This is now fated to be Exhibit A in conservative charges of mainstream media bias for about the next century or so. And who can blame them? What a cockup.

While I don't think this is Exhibit A (the Dan Rather/Mary Mapes scandal will always take the top spot), NBC deserves whatever blowback it gets.

And one other thing -- you may have noticed that while NBC has apologized to its viewers, it hasn't apologized to George Zimmerman.

Five years ago -- getting ready

It was Tuesday, April 3, 2007. I would be undergoing transsphenoidal surgery the next morning at United Hospital to remove a pituitary tumor. As the day went on, my siblings started to arrive in Minnesota. My brother Mike, who lives here, had already been around a few times to help out with the kids. My brother Pat and my sister Marge came from their respective homes in Wisconsin. They would spend the next day in the hospital with my wife.

Their support was great to have, but there was more than a little fear underlying the events we were facing. In the years prior to my surgery, hospitals and surgery hadn't been so good for my family. My father had a heart attack in 1990 and had a number of complications following bypass surgery. He eventually died two weeks later of a pulmonary embolism, which happens when a blood clot forms in your leg and travels to your lungs. Ten years later, my mother faced breast cancer surgery. She had had a number of underlying health issues as well, including emphysema from over 40 years of cigarettes. She ended up dying in the hospital five days later.

Everything about this surgery would be, in theory, different than that. I was 15 years younger than my father was and although no one has ever confused me for a great physical specimen, I was not suffering from any serious health issues other than the immediate issue. I had been assured, repeatedly, that the surgery, although complicated, would be fairly straightforward and that the recovery time was predictable. I had mentioned the pulmonary embolism issue to the doctors at United the week before, and they assured me that with the compression devices that hospitals now place on the legs of bedridden patients, the chances of a clot forming were slim. Still, it was tough not to worry. We'd had a lot of worst-case scenarios happen before.

We had a nice visit. My brother Pat brought up several books for me to read. My sister spent a lot of time talking with the kids, catching up with them on their activities and also trying to reassure them that everything would be okay. We told tales of the past and laughed a lot. And we kept smiling, because we knew that this time it was going to be different. We were convinced of it. Or so we told ourselves. As they left for the evening, my sister gave me an enormous hug. "You're going to be fine, Mark," she told me.

"I know, Marge. Nothing to it," I replied.

That's what you have to believe. And we did, mostly. But not entirely.

Next -- a long day at United Hospital

Vikings to Plot of Land East of Metrodome V -- Send the Bill to Hennco

The Vikings stadium plan did get past a hurdle yesterday, but it sounds like there might be, ahem, a few problems with funding the state's "portion" of the stadium with charitable gambling. The Star Tribune reports:

Hours after Gov. Mark Dayton and the chief Senate author of the legislation criticized a key ingredient of the new proposal, a House panel adopted the plan and sent it on its wobbly way.

The plan to fund the nearly $1 billion stadium could get more hearings in both the House and Senate this week before the Legislature begins a 10-day spring break. No Senate panel has yet approved the plan and any stadium deal likely faces choppy political seas as stadium supporters race against GOP hopes to adjourn the Legislature by month's end.

The proposal presented Sunday by Republicans in the House would create funding backstops for the state's share of stadium costs. It quickly drew criticism from several corners, and Dayton said a provision to also allow so-called tip board betting on professional sports games would violate federal laws against sports betting.

"It doesn't strike me at first glance as a viable option," the governor said.

You may not have heard the term "tip board" before, but there's a decent chance you've played one in an office pool. It's the game where you can buy a square and it corresponds to two numbers that would match the last digit of a game score. It's a classic game and it's illegal, even though the law is rarely enforced. The problem is that, as Dayton points out, it is against the law.

So what do you do if you're not sure you can get the money to pay for the Vikings stadium? Give the bill to someone else, of course. Congratulations to Hennepin County!

Hennepin County officials also huddled with lawyers on Monday over a separate provision that would tap excess county sales tax money for Target Field as another funding backup.

"That's a travesty," said Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. "It is breaking faith with the people of Hennepin County. They are scrambling because they can't find their own solution to this problem, so they are taking other people's money. It's obscene."

That's hilarious, Commissioner McLaughlin. Taking other people's money is job one of any governmental entity. That's how you and your pals built Target Field, remember?

While I applaud McLaughlin's newfound commitment to principle, his views are only good for soundbites. What really matters is what Mike Opat thinks, and he is skeptical, too:

"This should give all levels of governments some heartburn," Hennepin County Board Chairman Mike Opat said. "I am against this because they are backing up [a] state revenue shortfall with a local tax."

Besides, I'm sure Opat has other ideas on how to spend the money.

Something Wickard This Way Comes

Writing for the liberal political site Politico, Josh Gersten makes a very important point about the Obamacare case:

If the justices knock out key parts of the law or bring down the whole thing, the reverberations could be felt across the legal landscape for generations to come, radically reining in the scope of federal power, according to supporters of the law and others who closely track the high court.

And if the justices decide the individual mandate is a constitutional overreach, these observers say, federal labor and environmental laws could be the next on the firing line.

I suspect that's correct and it's hard to see why that's a bad thing. One of the benefits of landmark cases like the one we saw last week is that it casts light on previous decisions that have affected how we live. One of the more important cases involved in what's happening now is the 1942 case Wickard v. Filburn. Roscoe Filburn was a wheat farmer who sold most of his crop, but kept a portion for his own personal use. Wickard in this case was Franklin Roosevelt's Agriculture Secretary, who fined Filburn because he had grown more wheat than he was allowed to under the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1938.

Filburn argued that since he was growing the crop for his own personal use, it wasn't part of interstate commerce. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise and upheld the fine, reversing a lower court decision.

The summation from the link:

The wheat marketing quota and attendant penalty provisions of the AAA, even when applied to wheat not intended in any part for commerce but wholly for consumption on the farm, are within the commerce power of Congress. The power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to regulate commodity prices and practices affecting them.

The effect of the AAA is to restrict the amount of wheat which may be produced for market and the extent to which one may avoid resorting to the market by producing for his own needs. That the production of wheat for consumption on the farm may be trivial in some cases is not enough to remove the grower from the scope of federal regulation where the aggregate effect of such behavior by many others is far from trivial.

You can see the issue involved and why it would apply to Obamacare: if you extend the logic of Wickard, then it's difficult to argue that Obamacare's depredations are unconstitutional. If Congress can tell a wheat farmer he can't keep part of his own crop, Congress can bloody well tell anyone to do anything it wants to do, since just about anything you do could, in theory, affect interstate commerce.

Wickard and the attendant cases that have flowed from it are the reason that the feds can tell you not to build something on your own land, among other things. Wickard may also be the reason that Obamacare may stand. It's possible that we are all Roscoe Filburn; the Obamacare decision will go a long way to determining that.

SD41 Convention -- Process and its Discontents

As we discussed in an earlier post, the Republican SD41 convention took place yesterday at the Eagles Club in New Brighton. It turned out to be a pretty long day because of two things, circumstances and geography.

The new Minnesota Senate district 41 comprises the following communities:

New Brighton
Fridley (and a small corner of its neighboring community, Spring Lake Park)
St. Anthony
Columbia Heights
Hilltop

While these communities are all contiguous, it's a riot of a district for these reasons:

• New Brighton, and the northern third of St. Anthony, are in Ramsey County
• Fridley, Columbia Heights and Hilltop are in Anoka County
• The southern two-thirds of St. Anthony is in Hennepin County

In addition, the area is divided this way:

• New Brighton is in the 4th Congressional District
• The other communities are in the 5th Congressional District

And as the redistricting line was drawn within the overall district, the district was apportioned this way:

• Fridley and the northern half of New Brighton are in House District 41A
• St. Anthony, Columbia Heights, Hilltop and the southern half of New Brighton are in 41B

Demographically, the cities line up as follows:

• New Brighton and Fridley are both primarily middle-class, with a mix of white- and blue-collar workers and retirees, while both cities have wealthy areas
• St. Anthony is a small enclave that is a little wealthier than the other communities in the district, but also skews significantly older
• Columbia Heights is a working class suburb that is has seen a lot of hard times. Increasingly, it holds a larger immigrant population than the other communities and the population tends to be more transient than the other communities, even though most of the community features single-family homes
• Hilltop is a trailer park community

As you can see, it's possible to slice and dice the district in any number of ways. You can even point out that New Brighton is considered to be a suburb of St. Paul, while the other communities are considered to be suburbs of Minneapolis. 

So if you are a political party and you are trying to organize, how do you do it? The state party rules allow you to either set up the district as a single, unified district, or to split up into two units based on the two house districts.

That was one decision facing the delegates at the meeting. To complicate matters, the delegates were operating under rules that had held when they were in the old districts that existed prior to the current plan. In the previous map:

• New Brighton, Columbia Heights and a small portion of Fridley were in Senate District 50
• The remainder of Fridley and the small portion of Spring Lake Park were in Senate District 51
• St. Anthony was in Senate District 54

This was important because the areas were operating under different rules concerning delegate strength. Explaining the mathematical formula would take time, but the upshot of the rules was this: some of the delegates at the convention would have their votes count twice, while others would have their votes only count once. I had two votes, although I wasn't entirely sure why, while some other New Brighton delegates only had one. The same thing held true for the Fridley delegation.

So how do you come up with a coherent outcome with all those variables at play? Well, it isn't easy, and it takes a lot of time. I got to the convention about 8:40 in the morning and did not leave until after 4 p.m., and things were still going on.

So how did it play out? The key things, as I mentioned yesterday, were these:

• Even with all the disparate strands and strains inherent, we decided to remain one unified Senate district. Had we split our BPOU (Basic Political Organizational Unit) into separate house districts, we would have immediately had to adjourn and start anew with organizing the two units in separate rooms in the facility. That might have been the smarter thing to do in the long run, but after nearly 3 hours of parliamentary hijinks, I sensed that most people didn't have the heart to see it through. In the short term, I think it will be beneficial to the upcoming campaign. I'll explain why in a future post.
• Gina Bauman, who currently serves on the New Brighton City Council, has the party endorsement for the Senate seat for the new district. Gina is a strong fiscal conservative and has been a key player in keeping costs under control in municipal government here. She ran for the old SD50 seat and lost to Barb Goodwin, who apparently will be running for the new SD41 seat. At one point, it appeared that Goodwin would be stepping aside for another DFL candidate, but that did not happen, so it will be a rematch. Goodwin hasn't done much in the Senate other than be a gadfly and I'm guessing that while she'll get DFL support, she may have to win this on her own, because I'm guessing the DFL will think they can win the seat without expending too much effort. I think that is a miscalculation. With the population shifts involved, the race should be closer than last time and Gina should have a good chance.
• On the 41B side of the district, the endorsed candidate is Laura Palmer, who has served with distinction on the Columbia Heights School Board. The race in 41B is going to be a tough one, with DFL incumbent Carolyn Laine in the race and a third party candidate, Tim Utz. In the last cycle, when the seat was for 50A, Laine beat Utz, who was running as a Republican. Utz had a falling out with the party following the election and is now running as a Constitution Party candidate. There's a long story involved in all that, but it's really not worth rehashing. The larger issue is that Utz will likely split the potential conservative vote with Palmer. Laine is a backbencher with little to recommend her other than having the initials DFL after her name, but that might be enough to win by itself. I live on the 41B side of the district, so we'll be watching this one closely.
• On the 41A side, the endorsed candidate is Dale Helm, who ran a very strong race for the old 51B seat against the incumbent, Tom Tillberry. The geography of 41A is likely to be better for Helm and he should be a formidable candidate. The DFL had two incumbents who lived what is now 41A, Kate Knuth and Tillberry. In addition, the previous representative from 51B, Connie Bernardy, was seeking the endorsement. Knuth had stepped aside earlier, leaving the battle between Tillberry and Bernardy. As you can see from this report from the lefty blog The Cucking Stool, the challenger Bernardy won the endorsement. It's an interesting situation, because if you look at sheer political talent, Knuth would have been the best standard-bearer for the DFL in the district. We've had plenty of criticisms of Knuth in this space, especially concerning her global warming climate change politics, but no one doubts her intelligence and diligence. It had seemed like Knuth was going to be part of the leadership team for the DFL and she might still be, but for now she's out. Tillberry has been a backbencher and isn't an especially impressive individual, so it was surprising that Knuth would step aside for him. If a particularly strong candidate had emerged to oppose him, I could see why Tillberry would be in trouble. But it's hard to understand what happened in this case, because Bernardy had been a backbencher as well in her tenure in the House. I won't pretend to know what caused the maneuverings on the DFL side, but the upshot is this:  instead of running against an entrenched incumbent, 41A is now an open seat. Bernardy and Helm both have the same job -- to introduce themselves to the north side of New Brighton. I suspect Helm should have a good chance.

The rest of the convention was about electing delegates to the CD4 and CD5 conventions and, ultimately, to the State Convention. This was a bit of a logistical nightmare, because it meant that the newly unified district had to split to conduct the vote. Eventually all the delegates were chosen, but only after a protracted debate concerning how to split the room, with so many parliamentary dodges that it became nearly impossible to figure out what was being debated. While this sort of thing is often necessary, it's also what chases a lot of people away from the political process. A lot of people want to make a difference and get involved, but most people aren't especially interested in trying to hack their way through the parliamentary thicket.

All told, it was a day that was alternatively frustrating, amusing and, in the end, satisfying. You play the cards you are dealt and given the hand we have in SD41, things don't look too bad.