Bell gains support

Candidate achieves Bergland endorsement

By Kyle Johnson
Herald Staff Writer

Ford Bell has run an under-the-radar campaign for Mark Dayton's soon-to-be-vacant Minnesota U.S. Senate seat so far, a sharp contrast from opponents Amy Klobuchar and Mark Kennedy. But support from a well-known Democrat is beginning to change this.

Bell, a veterinarian and philanthropist, garnered the support of Roseau, Minn., farmer Bob Bergland in late April. Bergland's political career included six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, a stint as U.S. secretary of agriculture during the Carter administration and serving as a regent of the University of Minnesota from 1996 to 2002.

The two met during Bergland's regent days, as Bell was teaching at a college during that time.

"We're thrilled at the endorsement from such a revered political figure," Bell spokesman David Lilly said. "It was a real shot in the arm to the campaign."

Bergland originally had planned to offer only advice to Bell, but decided to endorse him after a brief meeting during the campaign's infancy.

"He's sort of the Eugene McCarthy of this time. He won't necessarily go with the flow, and will not take the easy side on the issues," Bergland said.

Judging by Bell's platform, Bergland's statement is accurate. Bell has called for a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq by the end of the year, a stance that has likely cost him voters already. If that were not enough, Bell also has endorsed a single-payer universal health-care proposal, an issue that has scarred the campaigns of many a candidate.

Bergland said this kind of definitive stance on controversial issues may be just what the voters are looking for, however.

"The odds are against him for sure, but maybe the public will see the wisdom of Bells' ideas by election time," he said.

No stopping him

The pressure has been mounting for Bell to quit the race, but recent statements suggest he'll do no such thing.

During a debate last Friday with fellow Democrat Klobuchar, Bell said he will not seek the Democratic endorsement next month and instead will challenge likely endorsed candidate Klobuchar in the September primary.

Precinct caucuses in late March showed that Klobuchar, the Hennepin County attorney, held a commanding lead over Bell. U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy is the only Republican candidate for the race.

Bell said he would step aside if Klobuchar committed to supporting his "core values" of withdrawal from Iraq and a change to the country's health-care policy, something that is not likely to happen.

"These are issues we just can't ignore anymore," Lilly said. "The time is right for someone to take a stand and do what's right."

Bergland said that Klobuchar is well regarded and would a good senator. "But I think Bell would be one notch better," he added.

Criticizing the Democratic tactic of "beating up on the Republicans without offering a better alternative," Bergland said an open and straightforward campaign such as Bell's is what the Democratic Party needs to score a victory this fall. He also believes that political unknowns need to be given a chance to run if the party is to succeed.

"We tend to go with the candidates we know the best," he said. "But Bell's a man of integrity, and I think his style would give the Republicans fits."

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Warms the heart

Iowa for Feingold

'nuff said

DFL candidates for Minnesota's US Senate seat debate

Veterinarian Ford Bell and attorney Amy Klobuchar, both vying for the U.S. Senate, debate on Minnesota Public Radio's "Midday" starting at 11 a.m. today.

Video shows Bush, Chertoff warned before Katrina

Big hat tip to the always outstanding Crooks & Liars crew for hosting the Associated Press video

Video-WMP Video-QT

WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush expressed a confidence on Aug. 28 that starkly contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm. (more)

Now it's a race - Bell gains in MN US Senate contest

Out of town for a 3-day weekend and look what happens (oh yeah, the Minnesota legislature is back in session too)

Minnesota Senate: Bell Gains Ground

Leap frogging past Rep. Mark Kennedy in the latest Rasmussen Report poll of the Minnesota US Senate race Ford Bell is in a statistical dead-heat with primary opponent Amy Klobuchar.

Both Bell and Klobuchar now enjoy a 3-point lead over Kennedy. Since Rasmussen started to publish polling results in January, Klobuchar has dropped 4 percentage points in a head-to-head match-up with the White House backed Kennedy. During that same time Bell has surged up a staggering 13 percentage points. The question over the next month will be whether both these trends will continue.

Of the 500 likely voters, 42 percent would vote for Kennedy over Klobuchar while only 40 percent would choose Kennedy over DFL candidate Bell.

All this should make Friday's two debates more interesting (yes debates, with rebuttals and everything). The first will be between Bell and Klobuchar on Minnesota Public Radio's "Midday" starting at 11 a.m. The second will hosted by the MetroNorth chamber of commerce. Here are the details from the group's website:

SENATORIAL DEBATE
Friday, March 3, 2006
The Mermaid
Mounds View, MN
Event Time: Noon
Attendance Fee: $18.00 (Prepaid Only)

Why is this debate being held?
This debate is being held among candidates for the US Senate seat to be vacated by Mark Dayton. Confirmed candidates are Congressman Mark Kennedy (R) and Democrats[sic] Amy Klobuchar and Ford Bell.

For More Information:
E-mail Deb or call 763-783-3553 to RSVP.

The ticket charge and work will probably keep me away from the luncheon, though curiosity begs two questions; do you think Bell and Klobuchar will car pool from the MPR studios to the Mermaid? - and - do you think Kennedy will be listening in on his Walkman while pressing the flesh at the Chamber?

For those about to caucus / We salute you

One week now until the DFL precinct caucuses. Here are some handy sites to help you find your way there.

• Q: What precint do I live in? Precinct finder
• Q: Where is my precint caucus? Caucus finder

rock on

---

Update: Go to the DFL's one-stop caucus site - precinct, caucus location and starting time from one site.

Friday night is for drinking, but...

Sir Elton John says Saturday night's alright for fighting so maybe there will be some pre-convention show downs at the "Straw Poll" happening tomorrow.

February 25, 2006
7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Local 879 UAW Hall
2191 Ford Parkway; Saint Paul, Minnesota
Cost: $10 to get in the door.
There will also be a cash bar.

Straw poll voting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and stop at 10:00 p.m. Only one vote per person! Vote totals will be announced as the evening progresses with the final results announced shortly after 10:00 p.m. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call Stuart Algar at (612) 961-5334

That's all for tonight, gotta unwind at the local establishment. But you should check out our friend Norwegianity before you call it a night - after listening to both candidates on MPR's Midday he endorses Ford Bell. (audio links of both interviews on his website for a short time).

And remember kids - cronyism is okay!

Hey ladies! Fight for your right to be a power-mongering, syncophant-rewarding asshole too!

Sarah Janacek seems to raise the hackles of knee-jerk reactionaries like few others. So her column about female candidates, particularly Amy Klobuchar, not being judged by some ridiculous double standard blew people's minds.

But before joining other feminists in applause because she's seen the light, let's take a moment for a Prog Prog annecdote;

• Have you ever tried to give a dog a pill? Shoving a small tablet into a puppy's throat can be a frustating experience. So what you should do is wrap it in something they like - watch them gobble it up!

Under the guise of feminism, Janacek slips in her poison. Since, "the supposed sin of hiring people who support their ambitions," is good enough for, "Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Norm Coleman or Klobuchar's likely GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy," then gosh darn it, hiring people who support Klobuchar's ambitions is okay too.

• FYI: Hiring people who support ambitions = cronyism.

Why didn't she throw President Bush into that GOP lineup? Has Klobuchar ever said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of job" to one of her appointees? If she has, well according to Janacek, you must be an anti-feminist to even to call this into question.

Here's the point Janacek - The message to Klobuchar is: "DON'T USE YOUR OFFICE FOR POLITICAL GAIN AND CRONYISM! Janacek implies that somehow it is okay for Pawlenty, Coleman and Kennedy to give their toadies political appoitments- it's not- and that to deny Klobuchar the same ambititous "right" is somehow wrong. Really? I thought doing so would be striking a blow for clean and transparent government.

It's not okay if Republicans et. al. engage in cronyism, just as it was wrong and disasterous (in the case of FEMA) for President Bush to engage in it.

Prognosis Ludicrous - Cowed into thinking that opposing women is wrong no matter, the DFL endorses newly minted resident Ann Coulter over Al Franken in the 2008 Senate Race.

Prognosis Progressive - Listen to what all the candidates say. Blow past all the facts, figures and opinions and ask, "what will you do about (fill-in the issue)?" If they can answer the question and you agree with candidate "A" more often than candidate "B", then vote for candidate "A"! You might just find yourself voting for Ford Bell or Becky Lourey. Being gender blind - that's what feminism is really about.

Public Airwave Cage Match!!

The Star Tribune reports that Minnesota Public Broadcasting is suing over the "The Current" radio station. Seems they have a trademark infringement beef with Current TV's name.

Current TV, which was co-founded by Al Gore, is a cable/satellite channel and website featuring alternative news and "citizen journalism" by amateurs who send in their news and videos. Both entities routinely use only "current" as an identifier.

Why should we care? We really shouldn't, other than both are great and hopefully these public paragons don't tear each other down (whoa ... for a second there I thought I was talking about the convention endorsement battles). While not entirely frivolous I don't see this working out for MPR. I base this on the Fox network empire never suing anyone over the use of the word "Fox", especially considering all the radio stations who call themselves "the fox" (thus setting up a similar media vs. media comparison). And after the whole "fair and balanced" fiasco they had with Al Franken, you know they probably tried.

This cartoon off of Current TV cracked me up (the others in the series aren't that great)

Prognosis Boring - Judge throws out the suit.
Prognosis Extreme - Current TV forced to change name back to original INdTV and pay court fees back to MPR.
Prognosis Ludicrous - Current TV counter-sues and wins. Judge awards plaintiff both the public radio station and half of Bemidji as settlement.
Prognosis Progressive - Just listen/watch and all will be well.

Need more Ford Bell baby

Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription ... is more Ford Bell! See the original SNL cowbell sketch

Sorry folks, but the Bell radio ads are gettin' to me.

If you listen to Air American out of the Twin Cities you probably heard the first and second commercials. With a loud bell sound, followed by a woman saying, "clear as a bell" the ad snaps you out of the commercial block haze. My first reaction was "cheesy", but they're growing on me, much like the Will Ferrell/Christopher Walken sketch.

Now there are four more, though I don't know if they're on the radio yet. Until then check out the other 4 ads on the front page of Bell's website.

Meanwhile, at the Hennepin Co. office...

After a 3-day weekend in which workers' complaints were received and systematically ignored, tomorrow might be the most uncomfortable Tuesday morning in Hennepin County courthouse history.

In spite of Local 2938's objections, the AFSCME Council 5 once again endorsed Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. Local 2938, which represents about half of the 400 employees in the Hennepin County attorney's office (including investigators and 112 non-management lawyers), was similarly snubbed four years ago when it asked Council 14 to withhold the endorsement from Klobuchar.

These recent events center on two of my favorite subjects - Democrats and unions - and more specifically why these two subjects have drawn ire and become less effective over the last two decades.

I believe that this slow downfall is mainly brought on by a disconnect and unresponsiveness between the organizations and the very people they attempt to serve. In short, they're no longer populist.

Some of this simply bad education and poor public relation efforts. Ironically, neo-conservatives have expertly misinformed and been responsive to the demographic groups liberals espouse to help. This is why you'll often hear party hacks moan, "why do people vote against their own best interests?" They're voting for the people who speak to them, not those who try to speak for them.

At the center of this is the political hack or organizer. Often the same person will bounce between working for unions and then Party, bringing with them their peculiar allegiances. This insider track leads to a cycle of endorsement recommendations for candidates who play ball with the party and candidates getting insider knowledge to get endorsements. But often left out of this loop is the membership. This is by no-way all encompassing, and the overwhelming majority of organizers want to see people enjoy a higher quality of life, but denial can't hide that it happens.

Having said all that, let's go to the dueling AFSCME letters, articles and some other statements made in the last 2 days. Then I'll give my final prognosis.

• However, [Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5] said, there are larger issues in a U.S. Senate race than any employer-employee relationship. - "Klobuchar's work with staff is focus of a union battle," by Patricia Lopez, Star Tribune February 19, 2006.

While this statement is arguably true, unions were founded on employer-employee relationships. As unions stray further away from representing the opinions of those employees who pay membership dues it shouldn't be shocking that fewer and fewer people join unions or organize. Reiterating my earlier point; unresponsive to those they serve.

• "With this settlement, Mr. Appleby has no reason to write such a mean-spirited and angry letter." Letter from Paul Scoggin Managing Attorney, Violent Crimes Division Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to AFSCME Council 5 President Michael Buseing.
• "But it seems to me that the letter is little more than politically motivated complaints of an employee who got a 15% pay raise instead of 22%." "BREAKING: AFSCME Endorses Klobuchar," Matt, MN Publius February 19, 2006 01:32 PM.
• "Clearly, Klobuchar deserves the AFSCME endorsement she received today despite the petty grudge of one employee that received a 15% wage increase instead of 22%." Ibid.

These statements are perhaps the most damaging, anti-union words I've heard not coming from the mouths of corporate public relations people. For years anti-labor proponents have focused on the idea that unions only care about money and thus eventually drive companies out of business. The spin on this subject is apparently complete, as two supposedly pro-labor sources destroy the unions from within by reinforcing the idea that the complaint is only motivated by financial greed. But the sources are dubious at best if not duplicitous:

1. This is pure speculation as I cannot ascertain if Mr. Scoggin is a union member of the Local, but as a Managing Attorney he could be in his position because Klobuchar's, "priority has been to choose candidates who support her ambitions."* Both Scoggin and Pete Cahill, Klobuchar's chief deputy attorney, would both seem to fall under this statement which would explain their Klobuchar-apologist quotes in Lopez's article. *Local 2938 President James Appleby on behalf of the Executive Board of Local 2938
2. MN Publius continually states that the letter is from one disgruntled employee, rather than the President of the county employees' Local, on behalf of the executive committee, responding to the concerns of their members. That's a lot more than one person! But MN Publius has consistently shown themselves to be the media arm of the Klobuchar campaign (like FOX is for the Republican Party), so they're just doing their job.
3. If the letter is only about the last pay-raise dispute, then why did the local oppose Klobuchar's endorsement 4 years ago? Maybe it actually has something to do with the next point...

• "only 'a couple of grievances a year' had made it to [Cahill's] level during the five years he had been Klobuchar's chief deputy." Lopez, Star Tribune, February 19, 2006.
• "If this had been about serious grievances one would expect there to have been some record of increased registered complaints in the office or a wider range of complaints levied against Klobuchar, but neither of these occurred." Matt, MN Publius, February 19, 2006 01:32 PM.
  

The second point above is so blatantly false it's staggering, but its inclusion is there only to solidify the earlier statement that MN Publius is shilling for Klobuchar's campaign.

Working conditions are overwhelming why unions were originally forged, despite resistance and bloodshed, in the early years of the 20th Century. And while no one at the county office is in danger of losing an arm (we hope) addressing complaints is the main reason people do choose to organize. So only "a couple" get to Cahill in a year? That is still more than the one grievance former County Attorney Mike Freeman had "during his 8 years as county attorney starting in 1991."*Lopez

In fact... let's see... 8 times 2 (couple)... 1 divided by 8 (years) ... if my math is correct that's 2 reported incidents a year versus .125 per year under the previous boss - a 1600% increase. And remember, these are only the complaints that got to Cahill's desk. This does not address what the letter, on behalf of the Local, says involved "informal disciplinary matters in which the union was asked to intervene on the employee’s behalf." Also...

1. Scoggin's letter does not address the grievances.
2. Seide said the council has met with members of Local 2938 and hopes to resolve any issues. "These attorneys have legitimate issues with their boss and we are working with the County Attorney to resolve them," he said. Asked if that was the case, Appleby said, "I sure hope so." "State AFSCME endorses Klobuchar in Senate race," Janet Moore, Star Tribune, February 20, 2006.
   

I sure hope so? Met with members? Obviously the council is not letting the elected Local 2938 representatives in on the proceedings. Kind of reminds me of President Bush saying he's meeting with members of congress on wiretapping concerns, but not with the ranking Democratic committee members... you know, the ones filing the complaints.

So wrapping it up, tomorrow should be uncomfortable at the county courthouse. The Republicans have laughabley issued a challenge for Klobuchar to "come clean about her 'Hostile Work Environment'." Sure thing, right after the President can think of any mistakes he's made while in office. Hopefully this would all be handled internally, but with Klobuchar out the door I don't see labor standards improving until the next County Attorney is sworn in. The Local 2938 members can breath a sigh of relief though, because win, lose or draw in the primary Klobuchar won't be the boss anymore.

Prognosis Boring - Members grumble and stay home during caucuses and primaries, wait for things to get better.
Prognosis Extreme - In retaliation toward being blown off a second strait time, Local members vote to reorganize, leaving Council 5, and work against Klobuchar every step of the way.
Prognosis Ludicrous - After the laborer uprising is put down, the survivors attend mandatory (and unpaid) re-education seminars - which will be on the schedule until moral improves.
Prognosis Progressive - AFSCME Council 5 internally withholds endorsement until, using its endorsement clout, the first steps toward improving conditions are taken.

Tags: Amy Klobuchar, Ford Bell, MN Senate 2006

Attorneys in Klobuchar's office ask their union not to endorse her

(AP) MINNEAPOLIS - The local union representing the staff of Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar is asking its parent group, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, not to endorse her in her bid for the U.S. Senate.

Jim Appleby, an assistant Hennepin County attorney and local union president, said in a letter to union leaders this month that Klobuchar had denigrated lawyers at her office publicly and privately, taken credit for their work and "created a hostile work environment."

The two-page letter said Klobuchar's management style had resulted in increased grievances and that she used successfully prosecuted cases to give the public the false impression that she was actively involved in those cases.

The local union represents more than 300 employees in the office, including investigators, paralegals and all 112 of its non-management attorneys.

"Has it made some people angry that I've done some things differently? Yes," said Klobuchar, who held the office since 1999.

Klobuchar said the focus of the discontent seemed to be last year's contract negotiations and the charge that she did not support a wage increase for those employees.

But Appleby disagreed.

"It's about how our people are treated in the workplace," he said.

He said the union also asked that Klobuchar be denied endorsement in 2002, when she was running for re-election. That request was ignored, he said.

Veterinarian Ford Bell is also seeking to be the DFL nominee. The likely Republican candidate is U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, who faces only token opposition in his own party.