Minnesota Independent

With nomination secure, Democratic base rallies to Mark Dayton

By Patrick Caldwell | 08.16.10 | 2:27 pm

Mark Dayton won the DFL primary largely without the support on traditional Democratic structures, instead relying on his name recognition and personal wealth. But now that the primary season has reached its conclusion, Democrats have coalesced behind Dayton’s campaign: the state AFL-CIO has endorsed Dayton, and Vice President Joe Biden will come and stump on his behalf.

AM.MN: Biden didn’t resign in Edina

By Chris Steller | 10.16.09 | 8:30 am

In what would otherwise have been his last visit to Minnesota as vice president, Joe Biden did not resign (as Arianna Huffington says he should if President Obama further escalates the Afghan war) during a Thursday…

AM.MN: Twins owner to have Biden over

By Chris Steller | 10.07.09 | 8:30 am

Can the Twins beat the New York Yankees? We’ll know the answer by the time Vice President Biden arrives for an Oct. 15 Democratic Party fundraiser at the Edina home of a member of the…

AM.MN: Sen. Franken does St. Cloud

By Chris Steller | 08.13.09 | 8:30 am

Something about St. Cloud draws a Democrat. In March it was Joe Biden, vice president for not quite two months, pitching green industry as a way to build the middle class. Yesterday it was Al…

St. Cloud seen as symbol of lagging stimulus

By Chris Steller | 07.20.09 | 4:56 pm

The Obama Administration held up St. Cloud as a measure of the federal stimulus’ promise when Vice President Biden held a town hall meeting at a bus factory there in March. Two investigative journalism enterprises, The…

Before he was a senator, Franken played one on TV

By Chris Steller | 07.08.09 | 10:03 am

In a story on the Senate Judiciary Committee taking up Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court next week, the New York Times makes mention of something noted here last week: committee member Al Franken’s…

Franken: My Tuesday swearing-in will feature Biden, Mondale, Klobuchar

By Chris Steller | 07.02.09 | 6:58 pm

Vice President Joe Biden has been booked for Al Franken’s swearing-in as a U.S. Senator, and Franken says he will be accompanied at the ceremony by former Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. Amy Klobuchar. It “looks like” it will…

Live video: Joe Biden in St. Cloud

By Chris Steller | 03.19.09 | 11:20 am

Vice President Joe Biden held a town-hall meeting on beefing up the middle class in St. Cloud today. Watch live streaming video via the UpTake after the jump.

St. Cloud abhors a vacuum: Socialist Angela Davis and cusser Joe Biden fill void

By Chris Steller | 03.16.09 | 9:17 am

Sixth-district podiums left empty by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann are getting grabbed by public figures who pepper their talk with revolution and profanity. Avowed socialist, one-time Most-Wanted radical and now University of California-Santa Cruz professor emerita Angela Davis…

You’ve heard of ‘No Drama Obama’ — now meet ‘Mr. Exact Rybak’

By Chris Steller | 01.14.09 | 8:21 am

“Politics is not an exact science,” said the German and Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck. Another politician whose name ends with the letter K might beg to differ: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak says, about his relationship with the Obama administration: “This is working out exactly as I would want it.” That’s similar to what he told the Southwest Journal: “I live exactly where I want to be … I am exactly where I need to be right now.” Turns out that Rybak, more than being Mr. Minneapolis or Mr. Mayor, is actually Mr. Exact. See his litany of exactitude after the jump.