“Oh, so Frank Rich is writing about Mother’s Day,” you say.

Not at all. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t list the name of one mother in his article.

What Rich does detail, however, is a rundown of all the “corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals” that have occurred in the brief six years of the George W. Bush administration. He mentions a number of names

Politics is down and dirty. Mothers are hardly that. Or rather shouldn’t be.

Yet mothers are having a greater presence in political life. There are three mothers in Congress representing Minnesotans: Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Betty McCollum and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

And another mother is the speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives: Rep. Margaret Kelliher. We have a mother as lieutenant governor and as state auditor.

In Mankato, the state representative, Kathy Brynaert, and state senator, Kathy Sheran, are both mothers. Rochester likewise is represented by mothers: Reps. Tina Liebling and Kim Norton and Sen. Ann Lynch. As is Winona, Sen. Sharon Ropes; Austin, Rep. Jeanne Poppe; Albert Lea, Rep. Robin Brown; and in Fairmont, Rep. Julie Rosen.

Across the country a number of mothers are governors, and now we have a mother in the forefront of presidential candidates.

The internet generation takes all this for granted. But trust me, kids, it hasn’t always been that way.

Yes, fathers still dominate politics, business and the military. They still run the show in law, science, medicine, religion and the upper levels of academia. Yet mothers are making headway everywhere.

Who knows? Perhaps if we had more mothers instead of fathers making the decisions, we’d have fewer wars and more attention paid to health, nutrition, education and, heaven forbid, the future.

Is there anyone out there who thinks that’s a bad idea?

Perhaps the most prominent name on the list is author, photographer, Arctic specialist and expedition leader Will Steger. Steger has been an outspoken advocate for taking immediate and profound action to deal with climate change, evidence for which he has found on his numerous treks to both the Arctic and Antarctic.

Other representatives from the environment sector include Barbara Freese, an attorney with the Union of Concerned Scientists; Bill Grant of the Izaak Walton League; J. Drake Hamilton, science policy director of Fresh Energy; and Boise Jones of Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota. The Sierra Club, perhaps the state’s largest environmental advocacy group, is not represented.

Three prominent Republican Party donors also sit on the committee. Mitch Davis is general manager of the Davis Family Dairies, a division of Minnesota-based Davisco Foods. Since 2000, he has given $9,700 to the Republican Party or its federal candidates. In 2006, he donated $1,000 to the Pawlenty-Molnau campaign.

A second is Jim Marchessault of Business Card Services, Inc., who has donated $10,110 to GOP campaigns and candidates since 2001, and gave Pawlenty-Molnau $1,250 in 2006.

The third is David M. Sparby of Xcel Energy, who has contributed $6,800 to Republican coffers since 2000, and donated $1,000 to Pawlenty-Molnau in 2006. Sparby has also given smaller amounts to state and national Democratic candidates.

Representatives from business, industry, agribusiness and real estate sectors include Peter Aube, plant manager for Potlatch Lumber Corporation; Alexander Bascom of Global Green Energy, LLC, a German manufacturer of wind generators; David Berg of Fargo, N.D., recently elected president of American Crystal Sugar Company; Laura Ekholm, executive vice president of L & M Radiator and member of the board of directors of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce; Jonathan Holmes, vice president and general manager of Mittal USA, which operates the Minorca mine in Virginia; Greg Jason, corporate environmental manager for Cargill, Inc.; and John P. Kelly of Ryan Companies US, Inc., “a leading national commercial real estate firm providing integrated design-build, development and real estate management services to customers in more than 150 cities around the country.”

Also from that sector are Joe Maher, senior vice president and general manager, UPM Blandin Paper Mill; Jeffry C. Muffat, manager of Compliance Assurance & Initiatives for 3M Corporation and a member of the board of directors for the Emissions Marketing Association; Pat Perry, group manager for environmental services at Target Corporation; Mike Robertson, staff member of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce; Peter Sullivan, Ecomagination product manager for Fleet Services at GE Capital Solutions; Nirmal A. Traeger, industrial hygiene specialist for Travelers Insurance; and Chris Twomey, president and chief executive officer of Arctic Cat.

Minnesota’s energy and transportation sectors are also well represented on the committee. Members from those groups include Tracy Bridge, director of government and public relations for CenterPoint Energy; Greg Langford, president of Langford, Inc., a trucking company based in St. Cloud; Bill Lee, general manager of Chippewa Valley Ethanol; Tim McGraw of Northwest Airlines; David J. McMillan, senior vice president for marketing, regulatory and public affairs at Allete/Minnesota Power; and Eric Olsen, vice president and general counsel at Great River Energy.

One more member is Jeff Wilkes, refinery manager and vice president of Minnesota operations for Flint Hills Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. The Koch family has been a long-time contributor to the Republican Party, including giving at least $3,250 to the Pawlenty-Molnau campaign in 2006.

The committee’s first meeting was April 20. It will meet bi-monthly with a report due Feb. 1, 2008. The entire membership follows:

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has put a “hold” on the nominee to block a confirmation vote in the Senate.

Numerous consumer groups have opposed Baroody’s nomination, as has the National Associate of State Fire Marshals.

While these and other blogs don’t have the resources to do hard-line investigative journalism, they are at least keeping the public informed of possible breaking stories and, in this case, the questionable use of taxpayer dollars. A Bluestem Prairie, writing about the 1st congressional district, notes two mainstream media articles on the VA bonuses

Whether rural Minnesota politics is populist-based or not, another trend has become apparent for all of southern Minnesota. This once solidly conservative, Republican-dominated part of the state is turning more and more blue with each election.

more insideAt one time the Mankato-St. Peter area was a mixed political bag, represented by both Republicans and Democrats. But since 2004 it’s been solidly Democrat, mirroring similar changes that have occurred in Rochester 80 miles to the east.

Evidence of DFL strength in the area can be seen in the growth in attendance at the annual Burton dinner, named after DFL stalwarts Dan and Ronnie Burton, who over a lifetime have managed, sometimes almost single-handedly, to keep the local party alive even in the bleakest of times. Dan passed away 10 years ago, but Ronnie, whose real name is Verona, is still active in DFL affairs, and despite all the firepower at the dinner in her name, she was still the guest of honor.

Less than a handful of years ago, the dinner crowd would fit comfortably into the Eagles Club banquet hall in downtown Mankato, and any number above 100 was deemed a success. Last night, for the second year in a row, the guest list topped 220.

Recognized names attending the confab Saturday night included Brian Melendez and Donna Cassutt, chair and vice-chair of the DFL; Secretary of State Mark Ritchie; local freshmen legislators Sen. Kathy Sheran and Reps. Kathy Brynaert and Terry Morrow; announced U.S. Senate candidates Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen, Al Franken and Bob Olson; and Congressman Tim Walz.

Several common themes graced nearly every speech. Paramount was the call for Minnesota to invest in its future

Though I took copious notes, originally I was not going to write on this event, as Ehrenreich more or less covered the same ground as her best-selling book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” And who has not read “Nickel and Dimed”?

more insideWhat surprised me, however, is that Ehrenreich has since published two more books, “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream” and, most recently, “Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.” The latter is a departure from the previous two as it is not a social commentary and covers a more upbeat subject than either the working poor (“Nickel and Dimed”) or the middle-class unemployed (“Bait and Switch”). I’m sure she wrote it as therapy for having to deal with the subjects of the previous two tomes.

As everyone who has read “Nickel and Dimed” knows, Ehrenreich, in a meeting with her publisher sometime (I think) in 1998, suggested that someone should go undercover taking menial jobs and living wherever to see if one could actually keep body and soul together, then write about the experience. The publisher asked, “Why not you?”

Ehrenreich, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology and was already a successful author, took up the challenge, and the result became the funny yet bitingly poignant New York Times best seller.

“Bait and Switch” is the follow-up to “Nickel and Dimed,” yet in tone it’s quite different, which is perhaps why it’s been less successful. Whereas one’s reaction to “Nickel and Dimed” is like hitting your funny bone