The GOP state convention started yesterday, and in a surprise to noone, nominated one of Bush's most obedient poodles for the US Senate race to replace Mark Dayton, who is retiring.
What was surprising (or perhaps not) was how vigorously the nominee, Mark Kennedy, ran away from Bush and his buddies in Washington.
From the
StarTribune:
Kennedy said he would push for "change in Washington." He criticized the dominance of lobbyists, interest groups, pork spending and a government that he said "hasn't controlled our borders and didn't respond promptly to a major disaster."
Wow. Sounds like this guy is going to go to Washington and clean things up, huh?
Except...um...just one thing about that. He's been representing Bush's...ummm...I mean, Minnesota's interests in the US House of Representatives for the last six years.
Oops.
Ben Goldfarb, [Amy] Klobuchar's [the likely DFL Senate Candidate] campaign manager, said after the speech that "Mark Kennedy can try to run from his record and his close friend George Bush, but he can't hide the truth: For six years he's put big oil, drug companies and party leaders ahead of Minnesotans. As a Washington insider, Kennedy can't be part of the solution, because he's part of the problem."
Doesn't stop him from trying though...
Kennedy later told reporters that he has "a great bipartisan record -- one of the best in the House."
I guess that depends upon how you define "bipartisan"...or "best". Because, you see, Kennedy has one wee problem in playing the independent outsider:
That will be a delicate task, given that he has long been considered a Bush loyalist with a better-than-95-percent record of voting with the president.
The Saint Paul Pioneer Press chimes in, quoting local Congressional scholar Steve Smith who says Kennedy is "recognized as one of the most loyal Republicans in Congress"
Kennedy insists it's all coincidence:
"I vote with Minnesota, I vote with my mother and vote with the standards I was raised with, which happen to sometimes coincide more or less with other people and other groups" Kennedy said...
There, you see? No Bush lapdog here- just America, Minnesota, and his mother. No word yet on apple pie.
Sheesh.
So far the papers are playing this as "one of the closest races in the country", but in a statewide contest, with his voting record, against a solid Democratic candidate in Amy Klobuchar, I don't think it'll be that way for long.