wolf blitzer

A 24-hour news cycle has now passed since Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced that his future plans don’t include running for re-election. And if he hoped to gain a bit of the national news media’s attention, he got it.

Minnesota has had more than its share of the national political spotlight in recent years. The Republican National Convention, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s VP prospects and, of course the never-ending U.S. Senate contest have assured that Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has seen plenty of traffic from national political reporters. But the spotlight is likely to turn [...]

On CNN Monday, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh elaborated about claims he first made public March 10 at the University of Minnesota about a U.S. military “executive assassination wing” (or “ring”) called the “Joint Special Operations Command” that killed people in other countries and answered to Vice President Dick Cheney but not Congress. Video after [...]

Thanks for the memories. Now please go away. Yes, we’re talking about you, Rudy Giuliani. And you, Wolf Blitzer. We no longer wish to be a swing state. Henceforth the residents of the state of Minnesota promise to vote reliably Democratic. Or Republican. It doesn’t much matter which — just as long as you people promise to stop showing up in our little slice of the frozen tundra seeking to feel our pain. But to memorialize the horrors visited upon us during the (still ongoing) campaign season, we offer — in honor of our favorite member of the Statewide General Election Canvassing Board — the G. Barry Anderson Awards.

We’re supposed to learn Tuesday whether a final batch of 24,000 absentee and contested ballots will bring U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, back from a 1,000-vote deficit to win re-election, despite his recent felony conviction. Should Stevens win election but then get booted from the Senate, Gov. Sarah Palin will be in a situation very roughly akin to Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson’s in 1976 after former U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale was elected vice president. Anderson quit as governor, having arranged for his replacement, Rudy Perpich, to appoint him in Mondale’s place. Voters punished both Anderson and Perpich two years later, denying them re-election. If Stevens is the winner after the last Alaska vote is counted tomorrow, what advice would Anderson have for Palin?

Tuesday’s adventures began with my shoulder and Mike Huckabee’s shoulder touching–though he didn’t seem to notice. It ended in front of Babani’s Kurdish Restaurant with a column of riot police who, after firing multiple exploding tear gas canisters a half hour earlier, said “thank you” and “we really appreciate it” in their final effort to disperse the remnants of a particularly dynamic march.