Here is the full text of Kline’s remarks on Thursday:

KLINE: Thank you, Leader.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I think that Senator Alexander framed our overall position very well when he said that we’re looking at thousands of pages of legislation, and we believe a better approach is to go step by step to address these issues of cost.

We certainly agree that you get better economies of scale if you can come together. We have proposed, in both the House and the Senate — in fact, for a number of years — that small businesses be able to band together in small-business health plans or association health plans.

We all know, and I’ve heard everybody say here, that small businesses are the engine that drives our economy. We also know that about half of the uninsured either work for small businesses or depend upon somebody who does.

And so we believe that we ought to address that issue by allowing these small businesses to band together in the same way that I think, Mr. President, you mentioned large companies do. And I mean really the same way, so that they get all the advantages of, if they self- insure, being able to avoid the 50-state mandates; being able to lower their administrative costs because they’re not having to deal with that.

And it will lower the cost of premiums for these small businesses and allow them to insure more people and to keep people that are already insured on the books, because we all know — we all know stories like we’ve heard here of small businesses that are saying “I can no longer provide insurance for my employees.”

Small businesses have been asking for this for years. It’s not a new idea. They’ve been asking for it for years. And we think it’s a far better way to get these economies of scale than the exchange thing that’s in the huge — that’s in the huge bill, that this will actually allow businesses to be able to lower their costs exactly the same way that large businesses do.

The fundraising letter, which was sent out in late December, says, “Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives… …HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US! That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.”

Here’s the full text of the letter:

Dear Fellow Conservative,

Will you let Barack Obama KILL conservatism?

If you’re the type of conservative I trust you are, I know your answer is a resounding “NO!”

Because you and I have our work cut out for us opposing Obama’s outrageous gangster government.

What is happening in Washington right now is BIGGER than FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s “Great Society”…

…and far more dangerous to our freedoms than both combined!

Obama’s plans will do nothing less than socialize our economy and turn every citizen into a ward of the state.

As a conservative, I’m deeply concerned.

But I have some very big news. Despite what some doom-and-gloomers have been saying, there is still real hope.

And this is why I had to contact you today.

Now I just hope and pray you’ll take the next two minutes to read this letter so I can explain why your help of at least $35 is so urgently needed.

As you know, Barack Obama has embarked on the most radical presidency in America’s history.

Obama is advancing a far-left agenda of Socialized Medicine, government takeover of the private sector, higher taxes, increased welfare spending, censorship of conservative talk radio, and empowerment of radical community groups.

If government grows so vast that it gets its tentacles into every aspect of our lives, the American spirit of independence and responsibility will be BROKEN!

Obama’s socialist agenda is a dagger pointed right at the heart of conservatism. He’s playing for keeps.

Obama is a political street fighter who learned the rules of politics from the Democrats’ Chicago Machine.

Unofficial correspondence. Not printed or mailed at government expense. Paid for and authorized by ACU STRIKEFORCE.

Just consider Obama’s ties to the radical group ACORN.

For years Obama worked with, advised, and even trained ACORN and its volunteers in community agitation.

So close is Obama to ACORN that his presidential campaign relied on it for crucial get-out-the-vote drives to win.

But ACORN is a corrupt group, rotten to the core. It’s been investigated for voter fraud in 14 states and its workers have been caught on tape in 5 separate cities willing to help set up brothels for underage illegal alien child prostitutes.

Yet, Obama has used his enormous power as president to funnel millions of dollars into ACORN’s coffers to strengthen this radical group and his base.

Because Obama sees ACORN as his ideological “shock troops” leading his “revolution.”

Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives…

…HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US!

That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.

Obama’s goal with ObamaCare is to make every American utterly dependent of Big Brother Government for health care.

Once every American citizen is on the dole of Socialized Medicine, Obama will have enormous power to decide how to “SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND!”

And by growing government into a LEVIATHAN, he will make small government, pro-family conservatives like you and me politically irrelevant.

Americans will be prevented by Big Government from relying on our own wits, ingenuity, and hard work to take care of ourselves.

This vision for America is my nightmare.

And as long as I have breath in my body, I will fight Obama’s liberal agenda of higher taxes, Socialized Medicine, and funding of radical groups like ACORN.

But the hard truth is that right now there are simply not enough conservatives in Congress to put a full-stop halt to Obama’s socialism – we can only slow him down.

Thankfully, conservative Americans are coming together to stop Obama’s rocket train to socialism.

And today I’m asking you to please join us.

American Conservative Union Strikeforce (ACU STRIKEFORCE) is the group to TAKE ON and TAKE DOWN Obama’s agenda by rebuilding our party and helping elect real conservative candidates to Congress.

ACU STRIKEFORCE doesn’t support just any Republican candidate…

As the political arm of the American Conservative Union, the oldest and most respected conservative grassroots organization in America, ACU STRIKEFORCE is dedicated to electing ONLY rock-ribbed conservatives.

We must fight Obama’s agenda tooth and nail until we beat it at the polls.

And we must win more seats in both the House and the Senate to put the brakes on Obama’s out-of-control spending.

Now I trust you see why this group is of such vital importance. And why after you sign your ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT I hope you’ll enclose an urgent contribution of $35, $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, or $5,000.

Time is of the essence!

Your immediate support will make a huge difference by helping to strike a severe blow to Barack Obama’s plan to ELIMINATE conservatism – before it’s too late.

As a conservative, I’m sure you agree that there is nothing more important you and I could do at this time.

Please understand, Obama sees himself as a “Reagan-in-Reverse.”

Ronald Reagan’s strong national defense, tax cuts, and support of traditional values not only won the Cold War, ended the seventies’ economic stagflation, and ushered in an era of personal responsibility…

…IT DISCREDITED LIBERALISM FOR A GENERATION!

Obama’s socialist plans are nothing less than an attempt to remake America so completely that conservatives will GIVE UP and GIVE IN to the entire liberal agenda.

I’m not throwing in the towel. I’m energized by freedom-loving citizens like you who are standing up across this nation to stop this socialist agenda.

My friend, in the critical weeks ahead, ACU STRIKEFORCE will be leading the counterattack against Obama’s agenda.

The battle for America’s future is being fought today! Yes, it’s here today that we can take down Barack Obama’s agenda!

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves.

It won’t be easy.

To keep building the type of grassroots network we’ll need – ACU STRIKEFORCE and I must have your help within the next 14 days.

We must help support all the conservative candidates that are in direct opposition to Obama’s socialism, and we must do it now.

If we do this, we can pull the rug of public support right from under Barack Obama – no campaign of charisma can save his agenda!!

That’s why I really hope you will do two things before you do anything else today…

1) Sign and return the ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT.

2) Send back an immediate contribution of $35, or even as much as $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or $5,000.

Your help will be put to immediate use as we work to attack directly Obama’s socialist agenda by helping those conservative candidates who are unafraid to speak the truth.

Remember, the more you can help today, the more damage we can do to Barack Obama’s socialist agenda. It’s just that simple.

So please be as generous as possible.
Sincerely,
Michele Bachmann

P.S. ACU STRIKEFORCE is a unique grassroots group dedicated to stopping Obama from reaching his ultimate goal of remaking America in his socialist image.

The time for you and me is now! So please sign the enclosed ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT and send it back with your most generous gift of $35, $50, $75, $100, or even $1,000 or $5,000 today!

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

STATE CAPITOL: Minnesota better get mentioned during T-Paw’s big speech. Maybe those cop lay-offs and school-aid shifts too, when Gov. Pawlenty delivers his State of the State for Feb. 11. [Hot Dish Politics; West Central Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Oh, “No“! Paul Thissen charges fellow DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher with stealing his “Yes-No” refrain. [Polinaut]

ST. PAUL: Lucky 13. The DFL gubernatorial race sounds like so much fun, someone new has signed up. [Associated Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: City Council president defends paying for personal expenses with campaign funds. Barb Johnson’s life is a perpetual campaign, and “one bad-hair day gets published on the Internet.” [Star Tribune]

ST. CLOUD: “I’m scared of this city.” A public forum inspired by the posting of anti-Muslim cartoons could be just another in a string of “kumbaya meetings” if no action is taken.[St. Cloud Times]

ALBERT LEA: Suit filed over abuse at nursing home. The details do not live up to the name “Good Samaritan Society,” to say the least. [Albert Lea Tribune]

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MINNEAPOLIS: Tim Pawlenty calls Brown’s win a “cannon shot.” Democrats “foolishly overplayed their hand,” said Minnesota’s governor, following a home-state fundraiser for his political action committee, Freedom First, which helped Brown. [YouTube; Polinaut]

EAGAN: Joe Repya announces guv run. He’s a Republican-turned-Independence Party guy who knows lawn signs. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

STATE CAPITOL: Mark Dayton announces guv run. That’s less of a shocker than Repya’s move, but the Democrat also says he’ll skip the party’s straw poll and endorsement contests for a straight shot at the August primary. [Hot Dish Politics]

STATEWIDE: Pawlenty floats plan for new drunk-driving penalties. As when he took TVs from sex offenders last fall, the governor’s action comes two days after a Star Tribune story on the topic. [Associated Press]

TWIN CITIES: As the superintendents turn. Minneapolis picks its next one, Osseo hears it’ll lose one, and the new one in St. Paul dispatches three deputies. [Minnesota Public Radio; Star Tribune]

PRAIRIE ISLAND: D’oh! Radioactive tools go missing from nuclear power plant. [Minnesota Public Radio]

Bachmann spoke on the floor of the U.S. House Wednesday:

Why would we give him his way by bringing him to New York City, at over $200 million a year taxpayer expense, to give him a show trial when he has already plead guilty and already asked to be executed? What happened? Did the president, did the attorney general say to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, “Now wait a minute, you don’t want to plead guilty. Wait a minute, you don’t want to be executed. You want to come to New York City. You want to have the trial just like you asked for in the first place.”

In November, Attorney General Eric Holder promised that “the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is. I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial and no one else needs to be afraid either.”

[Via TPM]

Simpson, a former test pilot who has worked in the defense and aerospace industries for 30 years, has downplayed the role her gender identity plays in her new job.

“Being the first sucks,” she told ABC News.com. “I’d rather not be the first but someone has to be first, or among the first. I think I’m experienced and very well qualified to deal with anything that might show up because I’ve broken barriers at lots of other places and I always win people over with who I am and what I can do.”

Religious right leaders, are not looking at Simpson’s qualifications, however, and are instead targeting her appointment on political grounds.

“This isn’t like appointing an African-American in order to try to provide diversity and right some kind of discriminatory wrong,” Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth, a group that opposes homosexuality, told a conservative website. “This is about political correctness. President Obama, before he was inaugurated, told the world that he had signed off on every single demand of the homosexual-activist lobby.”

Focus on the Family released a statement criticizing the appointment. Focus’ spokesperson Monica Schleicher said, “Efforts to promote ‘transgenderism’ in public policy deconstruct one of the most fundamental concepts known to mankind… In doing so, activists like Simpson are asking the rest of society to radically reorder the ways in which the culture makes reasonable and rational accommodation for the two genders.”

LGBT rights groups said it’s progress that a qualified transgender person wasn’t overlooked for the position.

“What is noteworthy about this appointment is not that a transgender person is serving this administration — many transgender people work for the federal government — the real story is that Amanda Simpson was selected based on her exemplary credentials and not because she is transgender,” Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in a statement Monday. “Countless transgender people are overlooked every day for jobs they can do very well. When an employer does not discriminate based on gender identity, they have access to more highly qualified people. That’s what happened here.”

Trevor Thompson of the Human Rights Campaign in a statement Monday said, “As the first transgender person appointed by the president, Amanda is not only eminently qualified for her new position in the Department of Commerce, but she is also a trailblazer for equality.”

Simpson is one of a number of LGBT appointments that Obama has made since taking office. Last week, the Senate approved Obama’s selection of Minneapolis’ Sharon Lubinski as the country’s newest U.S. Marshal.

Franken told Minnesota Public Radio that Majority Leader Harry Reid had instructed him and others taking their turns at presiding over the Senate on Thursday to hold speakers to 10 minutes:

I was presiding over the Senate and when you’re presiding you really have no choice on what to do. The Leader, the Majority Leader, is the leader of the Senate, and he gave me — gave all of us today who were presiding — instructions that no one was to speak over 10 minutes, on either side of the aisle. …

Usually you’re allowed to do this, but just today we were told not to let it happen because there’s been some attempt to string out the debate. So I really just had no choice, and Joe knew what I was doing. Joe was surprised, but later figured out what I was doing. It was just fine. …

Joe was actually speaking on an amendment to the bill that I am totally in favor of. I agreed with every word he said for the entire 10 minutes [video]. I think he probably had only, like, 30 seconds left, and I just was kind of– he didn’t take it personally at all.

Video clips of the exchange suggested Franken was sticking it to Lieberman in retribution for the Connecticut independent exploiting his swing-vote status on the pending health-care reform bill.

It seemed by his later griping that Sen. John McCain saw it that way — perhaps in light of Franken’s Senate-floor take-down of Republican John Thune on the same issue earlier in the week.

But with Franken’s explanation, Thursday’s incident appears to fall into the category of much-ado-about-something-procedural, as happened last July when U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared to advance the birther cause by objecting to a resolution that recognized Hawaii as President Obama’s birthplace.

Nelson-Pallmeyer speculated that “when [members of the Nobel Committee] made their decision they recognized how the stars had alligned in one of those rare moments in history in which crises converge with opportunities.”

In October when the announcement came that the prize would go to Obama, Nelson-Pallmeyer told the Minnesota Independent the choice was “deeply problematic. … One can only hope that receiving the prize will encourage Obama to fundamentally change the direction of U.S. foreign policies under his watch.”

But after Obama’s speech in Oslo this week, Nelson-Pallmeyer told MnIndy by email he agrees with David Cortright of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, who told The Nation Obama’s address was “disappointing. … To use the Nobel dais to justify the use of military force is unseemly.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer elaborated:

A new president was elected on a rhetorical platform of hope and change at a time when the world deperately needed, and a majority of the U.S. citizens and the world’s people longed for, authentic hope and real change. Those hopes were further shredded in Geneva.

With this speech the Nobel Committee’s gamble became an embarrassment. Last year the United States, the most militarized country in world history, accounted for nearly half of all global military spending and 67% of global weapon’s sales.

The Committee, it turns out, awarded the Peace Prize to a President who in his first months in office: increased military spending to record levels; acclerated wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan while continuing the bloody occupation of Iraq; and, maintained many Bush era foreign policy planners, rendition practices, and war-on-terror ideological foundations.

His arrogant claims of U.S. exceptionalism (we don’t occupy countries for their resources but for noble purposes) trample truth and ring hollow to much of the world. His references to and dismissal of King and Gandhi were condescending.

His lack of knowledge and his abuse of just war theory were stunning. Most troubling was his continued faith in the utility of violence and war as the means to peace despite all the contrary evidence.

Nelson-Pallmeyer, who conceded the DFL endorsement for U.S. Senate to Al Franken at the party’s 2008 state convention, also contrasted the United States’ fiscal commitment to environmental threats with its military budget, in light of the Copenhagen climate-change conference.

“It is revealing to note that the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize has submitted a proposed budget to congress for next year which allocates 83 times more money for war than to address climate change,” he observed. “This is pathetic.”

Photo: WDCpix.com

In a matchup between President Barack Obama and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Obama would win by ten points, according to a new St. Cloud State University poll (pdf) released Tuesday. When asked who they would vote for in 2012, 49 percent of Minnesotans surveyed said they’d support Obama, while 39.7 percent said they’d back Pawlenty.

The poll of 550 Minnesotans also found that among independents, when pushed, many are more likely to identify with the DFL (40.5 percent) than the Republican party (23.7 percent).

Just over half of Minnesotans (50.5 percent) gave President Obama a favorable rating in the poll. Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn’t fare as well, with only 48.5 percent rating his job performance as excellent or pretty good. Almost as many, 48.4 percent, rated Pawlenty’s performance as fair or poor.

The poll found that 50.3 percent of those surveyed say Obama is doing an excellent or pretty good job, but 47.4 percent rated the president’s performance as fair or poor.

Topping the list of the main issues facing the state are health care insurance at 19.6 percent, the budget deficit at 13.8 percent, education at 13.3 percent and unemployment at 12.8 percent.

Wedge issues barely registered with poll respondents with abortion at 0.8 percent, “family issues” at 0.2 percent, immigration at 0.8 percent and religious moral issues at 0.1 percent.

Overall, respondents said the state was heading in the wrong direction; 42.5 percent said the state is moving in the right direction and 43.8 said it was moving in the wrong direction. Nine percent said the state’s situation is neutral.

The poll doesn’t reveal its margin of error or polling methodology.

Ben Smith of the Politico reports that the DNC won’t be paying for media to carry that message — yet — but will begin by sending messages to constituents who are on the Obama campaign email list.

Paulsen may have had in mind preempting such an attack when he released a statement via YouTube about his “no” vote within minutes of having cast it Saturday night.

Paulsen was one of seven GOP lawmakers targeted by a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad campaign over health care last summer. (Another of those seven, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, cast the sole Republican vote in favor of the pending bill.)

The National Republican Congressional Committee earlier put Paulsen on its own list of vulnerable Republicans in Congress.

Paulsen’s latest campaign-finance reports show he raised nearly $1 million this year. Democratic challengers to the first-term Republican are only beginning to emerge.