Earlier it looked like Juliann Ortman was the one candidate running for Senate against Al Franken in Minnesota who might be serious. Although her record doesn't hold a candle to Al's resume, as her homepage tells it:
Ortman has significant experience as a spokesperson for the Senate Republican Caucus. While in office she has served on the Tax, Judiciary, State Government, Higher Education, Public Safety, Transportation, Economic Development and Rules Committees.
But recently she joined the rest of the Rebloodlican gang angling for Franken's seat in agreeing on one thing, that women's reproductive rights should be rolled back in favor of
'personhood legislation' (I could have used real quotations, but yes indeed, those are scare quotes).
Now Ortman has even further betrayed any sensibility she once seemed to have by joining Senate hopefuls in Georgia, Iowa and Oklahoma in taking an endorsement from Sara Palin. We can now settle back for a season of lunatic hi jinx from the right in Minnesota's Senate race, as the goal seems to be who will fill the nutter vacuum left by Michele Bachmann. As Hot Dish Politics reports:
In a post of her Facebook page, Palin slammed Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” star and liberal radio host, calling his political career a “joke.” Palin also heaped praise on Ortman, a state senator, calling her a “conservative champion” and a “fighter for life and for our Second Amendment rights.”
“Let’s give voters a contrast this fall: a clown vs. a Mama Grizzly, an Obama 100 percenter vs. a Blue Star Mom, a talker vs. a doer, and a liberal Obama rubber stamp legislator vs. a proven conservative fighter,” Palin wrote.
“Let’s make this proven conservative the one to take the fight to Al Franken this fall and make him the punch line. Julianne Ortman is the choice. She is good enough, she is smart enough, and doggone it, people like her!”
It is hard to say why but one of Ortman's challengers, Mike McFadden, has the endorsement of former Minnesota Senators Rudy Boschwitz, Norm Coleman, and Rod Grams even though his campaign is a
blank slate when it comes to policy.
Palin even took a shot at Mike McFadden, one of Ortman’s Republican rivals. A host of current and former U.S. senators have shown support for McFadden’s campaign, including former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who lost his seat to Franken.
“[Ortman] is running a grassroots campaign against a well-funded favorite of the Washington GOP establishment whose policy record is a blank slate,” Palin wrote in a veiled reference to McFadden.
Looks like in Minnesota's Senate race, it's boys against girls on the right. For her part, Ortman has this to say:
“I’ve long admired Sarah Palin’s courage, composure and conviction. So you can imagine how thrilled and grateful I was when she answered my request and decided to endorse me.”
Unfortunately Palin has nothing original to add. The fb post about McFadden is an uncredited swipe from a blog by
Eric Black on Minnpost, she's hauling out the old Mama Grizzly meme, and making puns from old Saturday Night Live skits. This looks like a move of desperation from Ortman.