I Don’t Hate America!

In the wake of both Allen Quist and Randy Demmer announcing their campaigns for Minnesota’s First Congressional District, another person has thrown his hat into the ring to face Tim Walz.

Jim Hagedorn announced today he is seeking the GOP nomination for congress.  As noted at Bluestem Prairie and Minnesota Independent, he has scrubbed some entries from his blog entitled Mr. Conservative.  Through these posts, Hagedorn shows his disdain for women, American Indians,  and gays.  While I can’t blame Hagedorn for scrubbing this content, one must ask how, by virtue of these writings, anyone can think he should be suitable for a lake advisory committee, let alone the United States Congress.

One post not displayed by Bluestem or MnIndy is so offensive it’s really difficult to read or write about, let alone comprehend how a person can be so full of hate toward another group of human beings.  Something which would be more expected on a bigoted hategroup’s website, not the blog of a candidate for Congress.

It was titled “Tolerance v. Acceptance: America Files for Divorce” and written July 13, 2004 in the wake of Massachusetts’s acceptance of marriage equality.  I don’t think I can do this any more justice with my own words (as I will likely become more ill the longer I think about how this clown is really running for congress) so below are some excerpts with screen shots. Google Cache here (for now):

And yes, they are EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE.

More so with each passing day, the June 28, 2003, Supreme Court decision in Lone Star Sodomites v. God and Country (Lawrence et al v. Texas) represents an abomination on par with the deviancy it attempted to condone.

Eighteen pages of spew, more resembling of encounter group notes than sound legal reasoning, injudiciously fisted two hundred and twenty-seven years of the Republic’s mores into the bowels of cultural debauchery.

Inexplicitly, Justices not named Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas felt compelled to nullify a dwindling number of rarely enforced morals laws by which States, in essence, prohibited two-way traffic in tunnels constructed by God and marked by nature as “exit only.”

The now invalidated Texas statute had been applied in the prosecution of John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, “Salt and Pepper” Texans whose squealing renditions of the shocking side of AC/DC disturbed more than the peace.

The whole of the story is that barnyard noises incited Houston’s version of Mrs. Kravitz to summon authorities, presumably, so her neighbors could be hosed down by something other than each other. Police dutifully responded to the dispatcher’s call of “code 69…in progress.” In the end, the human erector set were arrested after cops, copped the copping couple “copulating” – weapons withdrawn, in hand, thankfully still loaded, regrettably cocked and primed to shoot.

Shortly after conviction, the assailants challenged the ruling, as well as the validity of laws that discouraged acts most suitably performed at a Ringling Brothers sexual version of the greatest show on earth.

[…]

Never was it imagined the nation’s highest judicial body would entertain such an open-n-shut case and then have the cheek to permit the guilty to come from behind and pull one out of their rears, to use a sports metaphor. Even though the defendant’s line-of-reasoning gave new meaning to the term “oral argument,” the ins-and-outs of the judicial process were exposed as penetratingly confounding. The case confirmed to experts and laymen alike that the “Law Is A Ass,” or as the legal letches of MANBLA now whisper to fresh meat: ass IS the law.

Butt (sic) never have winners lost so dearly. The Court’s voyage into uncharted, untreated cultural bathhouse waters was designed to offer a gentle push from behind…to generate a small skip forward for the pink triangle class…to throw them a bone, so to speak.

[…]

Yet, the sodomy upshot and subsequent Massachusetts ruling proclaiming the right of literally every Tom, Dick and Harry to marry has severely accelerated the battle of culmination that must be waged and won before homosexuals can achieve normalcy in our civilized society. A fight they will surely now lose, as the issue transitions from sexual adventures to the sacrament of marriage; and the field of battle shifts from the chambers of unelected judges appointed by the likes of Michael Dukakis to the halls of the United States Congress and State legislatures.

So, Mr. Hagedorn, First District GOP delegates have to decide now which is more offensive: the fact that you think this way about people, or that you think you should be able to run for the United States Congress thinking this way.  I don’t envy them.

[SHORT UPDATE] As Sally Jo just pointed out:

In an interview with MPR, Hagedorn cited his sense of humor as one of his assets in the campaign. Really?

And earth to Gregg Peppin: Really? This guy? Really???

[End Update]

What Bluestem Prairie first reported this weekend became official this morning: state Rep. Randy Demmer from Hayfield will once again seek the GOP nomination to take on Congressman Tim Walz.

For those of of you with short memories, he already tried this once and failed to secure the endorsement against (surpressing laughter) Brian (so hard not to laugh…) Davis (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!).

While we here at IDHA had a ton of fun with Davis that campaign, we did have some fun at the expense of Demmer as well.

Come on! Who doesn’t love Press Your Luck?!  Ah, the good ole days.

So, anyway, Demmer is giving it another shot, this time vying for the GOP nomination with Allen Quist.  While Demmer wasn’t sure if he would abide by the party endorsement, we can only hope that he and Quist will wage a bruising primary with each candidate trying to call for more expanded waterboarding than the other and calling for elimination of more government programs than the other, eventually resulting in one candidate proposing that we close all the federal highways and travel on horseback. Because that would be really following the constitution, right?

Well, we wish Rep. Demmer the best of luck.  Because after all, in this economy it’s tough to retire $135,150 in outstanding campaign debt from 2008 with a single happy hour, bean feed, hog roast, picnic in the park, weenie roast, chili cook-off, fish fry, mini-golf outing, spaghetti dinner, boat cruise, pancake breakfast or pizza party.

Yes, that figure is for real: $135,150; how’s that for deficit spending? Let’s hope Randy is able to use each of these venues to not only retire his debt, but wage a competitive endorsement campaign as well.

After viewing Bluestem Prairie’s coverage of Allen Quist’s announcement that he will be the GOP candidate for Congress against Tim Walz, I have one thing to say:

Sally Jo, you should know that Quist prefers “fisherman” to “angler.”

From a February 8, 1986 story in the Star Tribune about a bill on the horizon to modify state statues to be gender neutral:

Some critics are frowning because the changes occasionally twist normal usage. “My objection is that apparently the changes have not been based on usage,” said Rep. Allen Quist , IR-St. Peter. “You cannot change the language by authoritative decree.”

One that particularly irks Quist is “fisherman.” Said Quist : “I said, `Look, I’m an avid fisherman. I go to fishing clinics … and I’ve never in my whole life seen or heard the word `fisher.”‘ He said his office dictionary defines “fisher” as “an animal (with) four legs and a tail” that is related to the weasel and is found in North America.

“Angler” might be a good compromise if it weren’t for the fact that it means one who fishes with a hook - thereby not addressing those who fish with nets.

When the bill came to the floor just over two weeks later, instead of accepting that the times were-a-changin’, Quist took the logical route of being a pain in the ass by introducing countless tedious floor amendments. From the February 25, 1986 Strib:

For close to three hours Monday, the Minnesota House pondered whether “airman” should be “aviation worker.” It debated whether “repairman” should be “repairer.” It questioned whether “sportsman’s license” should be “sporting license.”

In the end, after wading through at least 20 proposed amendments, the House passed a bill that would eliminate sexual bias from the laws of Minnesota. The vote was 102 to 19.

“I didn’t expect anything near this,” said Rep. David Bishop, IR-Rochester, the author of the changes. “Nobody expected this to be boiled down to a floor fight with 20 amendments.”

[…]

Many of the amendments were offered by Rep. Allen Quist  , IR-St. Peter, who complained that the bill sacrificed normal word usage in order to make the changes. “The bill hits the common folk usage of language  right in the teeth,” he said.

The changes even brought in the profamily lobby. Quist , who said profamily supporters backed him on the issue, said the changes removed the words “father” and “mother” from the laws along with the words “husband” and “wife.”

Bishop said he knew of no instance where the words “father” and “mother” were changed and only two instances where “husband” and “wife” were changed. “This is not a profamily issue,” said Bishop. “This is not intended to be ideology changes.”

Quist said he found the words “husband” and “wife” deleted on one page alone. “What’s wrong with the word `husband’? What’s wrong with the word `wife’?” he asked.

As the House members favoring the amendment that restored “husband” and “wife” were asked to stand, Rep. K.J. McDonald, IR-Watertown, stood and turned to his colleagues and said: “Come on, you male chauvinists, get up.”

Added Rep. Ralph Kiffmeyer, IR-Big Lake: “These words are real crucial to the foundation of our society.” The House voted to restore “father” and “mother” to the statutes - although whether they were ever taken out remained unclear - and voted to replace “husband” and “wife” in the two instances.

Just another instance of why Allen Quist would be one stinky fish for the First District.

The folk from Minnesota Democrats Exposed posted a press release from former three-term MN state representative from the 80’s, Allen Quist, announcing his candidacy to challenge Tim Walz in the 1st district.  This 65-year old who should be retiring is now an ambitious McCain clone with views that actually hurt our senior’s healthcare (as a nurse, I’ll never understand that conservative viewpoint).  What is most interesting is Allen Quist’s lack of mentioning GOP efforts to support him, the Mayo Clinic (given the issue of healthcare and of course, the failure of Brian Davis to win in 2008), but instead mentions the Tea Party!  This is awesome (or blatantly stupid on his part) considering recent posts on Bluestem and here on IDHA about the tea baggers ridiculous anti-immigrant views.  Seriously, just watch the video from the two posted links above to see how proud they are of being “European Americans.”  Hell, if I was there they’d be hating me simply because I am of mixed blood of two of our enemies from WWII, Germany and Japan.  I’m guessing their ancestors at least have one of those two in them as well, yet they are clearly much better… sure.  I’m hoping for them to announce their public support for Allen Quist very soon, especially after Quist mentions them in his press release:

 “Southern Minnesota voters have been holding Tea Party rallies and contacting Congressman Walz’s office asking him not to support these wasteful government spending bills that force more government control of our lives,” said Quist.

DJ recently discussed Allen Quist’s horrible political ads when him and I were just youngin’s, but DJ’s incredible memory is relived through this post.  He also mentions Quist’s tendency to be a “super-mega-ultra right winger.”  If Brian Davis got a little over 30% of the vote in 2008, I’m guessing someone even more right-winged would likely get less of a turnout.  Again, let’s hope for a public endorsement from the Tea Party.

Here’s MDE’s posting of Allen Quist’s press release announcing his candidacy (credit must go where credit is due):

(St. Peter, MN) – Former State Representative Allen Quist has announced that he will run against U.S. Representative Tim Walz for the First District Congressional Seat.  Quist served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1982 to 1988, runs a family farm of 1200 acres with his son Andrew in rural St. Peter, and recently retired as a teacher at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato

Quist, a Republican, said his message will be simple and straightforward:  ”If people like what Congress is doing, they should vote for the incumbent,” Quist said.  ”But if they believe, as I do, that Congress is headed in the wrong direction, then I will be the alternative.”

According to Quist there have been three unusually important bills under consideration during this session of Congress: the $787 billion Stimulus bill, Cap and Trade, and the Health Care bill.  ”Representative Walz has been on the wrong side of all three,” said Quist.

Quist emphasizes that government spending is totally out of control.  ”Just the Stimulus bill by itself added over $10,000 of new government debt for every family of four in our nation,” he explained.  Quist also said that present Congressional spending trends will almost double our national debt-from 40% of GDP today to 87% of D+GDP by 2020.  Quist says this means, “continued high unemployment and burdening the next generation with a level of debt that will substantially reduce their quality of life.”

“The Cap and Trade bill will add $6,800 per year of higher energy costs for every family of four and the Health Care bill, which is supposed to reduce medical costs, will actually increase total costs by over $100 billion each year,” said Quist.

Quist added that the Health Care bill contains a huge hidden tax on the middle class and will substatnitally reduce the access senior citizens have to needed health care.  ”In terms of costs,” Quist said, “big business is the big winner and the middle class is the big loser.  American citizens of the middle class will be forced to pay the bills.”

“Southern Minnesota voters have been holding Tea Party rallies and contacting Congressman Walz’s office asking him not to support these wasteful government spending bills that force more government control of our lives,” said Quist.  ”Congressman Walz continually shows by his votes that he is out of step with the voters of the First District.

Not a real bad press release, despite the ugly spelling error of “substantially” (spell check anyone on a major release?) to try and emphasize his agenda.  In other news, I just finished my Master’s degree so I should have more time to post!  Woohoo!

[Update 11/19/09, 8:00 P.M.]

In a press release sent out by the Tim Walz camp, they responded to Allen Quist’s announcement of his candidacy by mentioning the Tea Party connection as well.  Check out this excerpt:

Today, the right-wing tea party Republicans announced their plans to run long-time politician and former State Representative Allen Quist from St. Peter. 

I really hope the tea baggers and Quist work closely together in this race as a simple google search (”tea party rally”) of the group portrays their not so patriotic movement.  A substantial amount of the news and blog links focus on the groups attacks on protesters at Tea Party rallies across the country while they appear impervious to expressing racism.

Here are some excerpts from the Christian Science Monitor about Tea Party violence around the country.  Visit the aforementioned link for the entire article.

“At one anti-Obama protest in Arizona this summer, a protester carried a rifle slung over his shoulder. “[Tea-partiers] bringing weapons does suggest a stronger degree of alienation and threat,” he says.

Conservatives place the blame at Mr. Obama’s feet, saying his liberal leadership has made “union thugs” comfortable enough to confront conservatives in the streets.”

“The first spark of violence connected to the Tea Party movement came in St. Louis Aug. 6 when a Tea Party protester named Ken Gladney was injured after a confrontation with Service Employees International Union protesters.”

“A second scuffle also broke out last Saturday when Tea Party protesters in Phoenix attempted to evict a group of neo-Nazis trying to join their protest.”

Since these guys continue to be buzzworthy, IDHA will continue exposing connections between this radical conservative group and their support of candidates seeking positions in a government representing the great freedoms in our country.  More to come later!

This week, the Georgia gubernatorial race brings us an internet advertisement which is going viral and potentially will end up as the worst political ad of all time.  Currently, the “Willie Horton” ad from the 1988 Presidential election is widely believed to hold that title.  Floyd Brown, the man responsible for this ad which aided in bringing down Michael Dukakis, has been hanging out with our own absentee Gov. Tim Pawlenty, but that is neither here nor there.

This brings me to the ad which I consider to be the worst I have ever seen. Let’s rewind to 1994, when super-mega-ultra right winger Allen Quist was endorsed by the Independent Republican party for governor over incumbent Arne Carlson.   The primary would prove to be a no-holds-barred affair, which featured Quist in his attempt to use his brand of conservativsm to “retake” the party (which would in the not-too-distant future after that shed the word “independent” from its name) by taking down Gov. Carlson, generally judged to be a centrist.

Quist lost to the popular Carlson in a landslide.

I was only the age of 10, however one advertisment from that bloody primary struck me as particularly farcical despite my young age. In fact, I still remember it to this day in all of its inflammatory glory.

Here’s how Dane Smith explained it in a September 3, 1994 story in the Star Tribune:

Video and audio (Ad  1): Throughout this 30-second ad, a man wearing a suit and a President Clinton  mask dances with another suited man, who has his back to the camera and is supposed to be Gov. Arne Carlson.  Their dance opens with children’s voices singing to the tune of “Love and Marriage.”  The lyrics are: Clinton  and Carlson, Carlson and Clinton, go together on a lot of issues.”  As the men dance on, a narrator says: “They’ve raised your taxes.  They support government-run health care that will lead to rationing.  They support gun control as an answer to crime.  They favor legalized abortion into the ninth month.  And neither Clinton nor Carlson has ever been endorsed for governor by the Independent-Republican Party.  On Sept. 13, elect the real Republican.  Vote for Allen Quist.”

Bill Clinton: never endorsed by the IR party for Governor.  That might have been the most obviously absurd assertion in the ad, but Smith’s analysis shows it wasn’t the only one:

But the ad ’s claims on gun control and ninth-month abortions have been criticized as distortions by IR Party chairman Chris Georgacas. Carlson and Clinton did raise taxes, but Carlson also cut spending programs and balanced the state budget. And although Hillary Rodham Clinton lavishly praised the MinnesotaCare program, which Carlson helped initiate, Carlson has been critical of Clinton ’s health care proposal. The ad is supposed to be humorous and light, but the Clinton mask, the shadowy background and the disembodied dancing shoes give this ad a strange and ominous quality. Quist’s campaign manager, Leon Oistad, offered the unsolicited disclaimer that the dancing has nothing to do with the gay rights issue, which has become a symbolic dividing point between Carlson and Quist.

Yes, in perhaps an unprecedented move, the state chair of the IR party publicly criticized his own endorsed candidate in a separate Strib story saying the ad “stretches the truth to the edge of credibility” and could cause the losing side in the primary to “sit on its hands, won’t vote, or worst of all, support Democrats.”

Now it’s developing that, having already registered a domain name, Allen Quist is a likely candidate for congress against Rep. Tim Walz.

If Quist ultimately decides to run, my only hope is that he will run ridiculous, off-the-wall TV ads again.  We can never have enough whacky spots like Quist’s from 1994, especially in this age of YouTube and viral video.

Oh, and seeing Walz win with 70 percent of the vote would be cool too, I suppose.

By the way, does anyone have video of the “Dancing Carlson and Clinton” ad? If so, please upload it to YouTube immediately; the “new generation” must see it!