Ron Paul

Across the country, Republican politicians glommed onto yesterday’s Tax Day Tea Party movement — much to the consternation of grassroots organizers. But in Minnesota, only one elected official put her name on the events: Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has crapped out of the elite eight in National Public Radio’s contest to see who will head the Republican ticket in 2012. After surviving a tough battle against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, T-Paw got blindsided by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. The eighth seed had already shocked former Arkansas Gov. Mike [...]

Gov. Tim Pawlenty probably wishes he hadn’t been included in the presidential straw poll at the just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference. Pawlenty was the top choice of just 2 percent of voters to be the GOP’s standard-bearer in 2012.
The winner of the straw poll was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, garnering 20 percent of the [...]

It sounds like a question on a StatShot chart from The Onion: Why are we not rioting? But AlterNet’s Joshua Holland seriously probes why people in Europe and developing countries are taking to the streets to protest the global economic collapse — while Americans, who started it, are not.

As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives approved, by an overwhelming 390-5 bipartisan vote, a non-binding resolution “[r]ecognizing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States’ strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.” Aside from Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum, who voted “present,” Minnesota’s delegation, [...]

In the last couple weeks, I’ve tried to extract extra political meaning out of all sorts of stuff — Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s growing back his mullet (for a presidential run in 2012?), Al Franken’s traveling to D.C. (to cast a provisional ballot against U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s committee chairmanship?), and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s playing with [...]

Here’s a behind-the-scenes postscript about the lengths to which the planners of the Republican National Convention went to ensure the appearance of a discord-free GOP: They tried to scuttle Ron Paul’s counter-convention across the river in Minneapolis, and the next night’s Rage Against the Machine concert as well.

Ron Paul has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. tomorrow at the National Press Club. He’ll be joined by Chuck Baldwin, the presidential candidate of the Constitution Party. The announcement has prompted speculation that the Texas Congressman might be mulling a presidential run on that party’s ticket. He’s already been added to the ballot [...]

Over at Salon, Avi Steinberg has written a highly entertaining account of his time patrolling the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, headquarters of the Republican National Convention, for a (unnamed) private security firm. He explores the perils of tight pants and Sarah Palin, the noshing habits of secret service officers and the unexpected joys of chanting “Rudy! [...]

It’s not the Ron Paul blimp, but a plane pulling a Ron Paul Revolution banner has been flying over downtown Minneapolis this week — sharing airspace Thursday with a hovering helicopter that was presumably security (but not black!) rooting out holed-up Rage fans, unless it was Gov. Sarah Palin hunting moose. Makes you wonder who [...]