Politics

Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on Christian talk radio station KKMS on Tuesday to discuss health care. Along the way, she praised protesters who turned out at town hall meetings and implied that Democrats who oppose health reform — including one woman who tussled with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., last week — are responsible for references [...]

Minnesota’s members of the House of Representatives are back in their home districts gauging how constituents feel about federal issues. That feedback will also include town hall meetings for a number of Congress members including Reps. Tim Walz, Collin Peterson and Michele Bachmann. Will Minnesota’s town halls get as rowdy as ones around the nation? Time will tell. Here’s what Minnesota Congressional delegation was up to this week.

The Blog Cabin, MinnPost’s new blog about blogs, is run by new hire Justin Piehowski (formerly of KSTP). Its name bears a striking resemblance to another political blog:  Blog Cabin, the blog of national gay group, the Log Cabin Republicans.
Piehowski has vowed to reject blogs who are too harsh and to lay down the law [...]

With the Twin Cities set to host massive protests, an influx of media and thousands of Republicans and supporters, local corporate media are looking to fuel fears that things could get out of control. One activist group being targeted — they say, unfairly — is anarchists. They state that their plans do not include violence [...]

Well, that was anti-climatic. DFL delegates endorsed Al Franken on the first ballot to run against Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. The radio host and comedian garnered support from 62 percent of delegates, just over the threshold required for party backing.
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who received support from 35 percent of voters, immediately conceded and the party faithful [...]

Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer just finished addressing the convention. They’re now conducting a 15-minute Q-&-A session (Lord knows why we need another one). Then they’ll get down to voting.

Nelson-Pallmeyer gave a fiery speech that emphasized hope and idealism, repeatedly invoking Paul Wellstone. “We never change the world by saying what can’t be done,” he [...]

There were no surprise nominations from the convention floor this morning. Most notably, the name Mike Ciresi was not uttered by any delegates. That means the endorsement battle will come down to Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (unless Mr. No Endorsement shows up).

Among the primary gripes about Al Franken’s candidacy in the long lead up [...]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar briefly took questions from the media after addressing the DFL convention. The topic on everyone’s mind? The ongoing controversies shrouding Al Franken’s Senate candidacy.

Klobuchar stated that she found some of Franken’s past writings “entirely inappropriate” and believes that he should have addressed the issue directly as soon as it surfaced.

“He needs to [...]

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean delivered a 20-minute, meat-and-potatoes speech to the state DFL convention in Rochester this afternoon, vowing to win back the White House and increase the party’s margins in Congress.

“Our goal is to end the Bush administration and not allow a third term for George W. Bush,” Dean said to thunderous [...]

In October, Barb Olsen drove from her Duluth home to Augsburg College in order to watch Al Franken speak at a forum. She was extremely excited about the radio host and satirist’s then-fledgling senatorial campaign.

“I listened to Al Franken for all the years that he was on Air America,” says Olsen, a veteran Democratic Party [...]