Posts by Chris Steller

Gov. Pawlenty is a “natural antidote to Barack Obama” says the British newsmag The Economist. It’s a phrase also applied to Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign last year, and a possible clue to who wrote the unsigned story, datelined St. Paul. The last Minnesota pol to make such a splash across the pond was [...]

The buck that Gov. Pawlenty shot on Saturday apparently didn’t die, but neither has the story about him leaving the woods near Thief River Falls for a speech to Iowa Republicans without having successfully tracked the deer. “The buck apparently didn’t stop anywhere,” reads one headline. Different theories have the animal grazed or severely wounded, but [...]

For the second day in a row, CNN.com has posted an in-depth story on U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

When U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News TV show to celebrate her anti-health care reform rally, she said it had drawn as many as 45,000 — a figure almost everyone else put at 10,000. Then Hannity showed video that began with scenes of Bachmann’s Thursday rally under a clear fall [...]

The city of Wayzata is the go-to trough for congressional campaign funds in Minnesota, according to a Smart Politics analysis of donations so far this year. Residents there gave nearly $150,000 — that’s $36.24 per person — to the state’s Reps in Washington, D.C., a total topped only by Minneapolis ($193,079), which is 100 times [...]

Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau mishandled the I-35W bridge collapse badly enough that the state Senate stripped her of her second job as transportation commissioner. But at least she didn’t live-tweet that tragedy, as her counterpart in Missouri is doing today with a hostage standoff in a Jefferson City government office building.

The furor over the Stupak amendment banning abortion in the House health bill was already highly charged. Now one conservative commentator has dared touch the third rail in the right-to-choose debate: optional knee surgery.

“Where is Michele Bachmann headed?” asks CNN.com in a longish story that charts her rise alongside Sarah Palin’s. Once upon a time the Sixth District congresswoman had to prime the pump to get speculation about her future flowing. Now it comes almost unbidden as part of the Bachmann media overdrive.

The Twin Cities are the least-dangerous for pedestrians among America’s 52 biggest urban areas, a report released Monday says. (Duluth is safest among all Minnesota cities studied.) So that means watch your step today. Remember last week, when Minnesota was named the most civically engaged state on Monday, then on Tuesday got smacked by some [...]

There’s the well-known Sports Illustrated curse that has seen athletes as mighty as Joe Mauer struggle soon after they appear on the magazine’s cover. Now for the bevy of Minnesota politicians hovering around the soon-to-be-open governor’s seat, a hex seems to descend once a “buzz” is detected.