J-Ro is allegedly working the phones

I had a note tonight that the word out of Sioux Falls is that, allegedly, former GOP chair Joel Rosenthal, lately of the SD Straight Talk website, is working the phones trying to drum up support for a GOP State Chairmanship. Or at least support from someone other than Dave Kranz who endorsed him earlier this week.

It's a reliable source, so I'm taking it seriously. But as I noted earlier, I've yet to see a groundswell of support for Joel making a third run as chair. It's entirely possible that I might be wrong, and the county people I haven't talked to are all lining up for him. But it's also a long time until the February chairman elections.

Comments

Anonymous said…
it's hilarious to read a Kranz column because everyone knows he gets 90% of his so-called Republican intell from Rosenthal. So Rosenthal calls Kranz and gives him the goods and Kranz gives him lots of love in the column.
Anonymous said…
Big deal. So he might have newbie Jarrod Johnson's support.

I'll bet even Dusty abandons the listing ocean liner "Rosenthal" as it heads for the iceberg.

We bitched about Joel when he was there, and didn't care any more for him after he left.

There's a reason that Randy Frederick's favorite phrase is "there's another thing Joel did that we have to fix."
Anonymous said…
what is Rosenthal's base of support? before, he had power because he carried Janklow's water for him. Now what does he do?
Anonymous said…
Plus most of the county chairs now, we will see after the first of the year, are Thune folks.

Hardly wanting to see JoRo back at the helm.
Anonymous said…
My vote won't go toward Joel. Taking my own survey neither will a host of others.
Anonymous said…
Joel's improprieties in concert with Janklow are well documented on other recent postings. The guy is a janklow-clone : arrogant and power-hungry. Plus he couldn't care less about the social issues important to the grass-roots water-carriers. And in case you didn't know: FYI, he's a member of the same religious denomination as our friend Stan the RINO.
Anonymous said…
Nice anti-semitism anon 12:06.
Anonymous said…
The SDGOP is, with a very few exceptions, bankrupt for sound leadership. It's the status quo now. Fortunately, that's true of the SDDP too. We have a great guy in Washington with John Thune and we need to provide him with a strong base. Can J-Ro deliver?
Anonymous said…
12:26, Anti-semitism is in now. Didn't you know? Praise be to Alla.
Anonymous said…
Anti-semitism. Is this just another by-product of the far right take over of the SD GOP?

You better dust off the jack boots, press those brownshirts, get out the red swastika armbands, and start practicing your goose step.

All together now....Sieg Heil....Sieg Heil....Sieg Heil.
Anonymous said…
Janklow, Rosenthal, and Adelstein are all Jewish and have been very active in politics for a long time. I don't think it's ever been an issue and nobody cared. Only time it came up is when Adelstein would insist on recognizing Hannakuh or something in the state legislature.
Anonymous said…
Allah not Alla. At least get it right.
Anonymous said…
well, if you vote for Rosenthal, you get the package deal: Janklow-Adelstein-Rosenthal. They've been working it for 40 years together. I think it's time for some new blood. They had a good run. Joel, you did some good thing, but enjoy your twilight years. Leave this job to others. Try to leave power gracefully, not like your boss Janklow, who so desperately clung to power that embarassed himself in front of the whole county with his "diabetes defense."
Anonymous said…
this debate should remind Joel about the path destruction Bill Janklow left and how many people he crushed. They certainly remember. And they are going to make sure Janklow's henchman Rosenthal doesn't get back in power. That Kranz article about Rosenthal regretting the Abdnor loss is TOTAL BULL. Rosenthal and Janklow did lots to insure that Abdnow lost that race to Daschle. 30 years later, Janklow and Adelstein and Rosenthal are still in love with Daschle, which Republicans should remember before picking the next chairman.
Anonymous said…
you can bet the next Dave Kranz column will be about how evil conservatives are using anti-Semitism to drive Rosenthal from the chairman's race...who want to bet?
PP said…
12:06, that's so completely off the point. Whether they're Jewish or wiccan or whatever has nothing to do with anything.

Count yourself fortunate I don't track the IP addresses of commenters (although this is evidence that I should start), otherwise I would out you, and let you explain it to the group as a whole.

You want to debate? By all means, please do. But leave the xenophobia at home.
Anonymous said…
a lot of people don't want to return to the dark ages of the Janklow era...in which Rosenthal was the chief enforcer...let's move forward
Anonymous said…
PP:

I wouldn't out anyone. You don't know who at the home address was on the computer at the time. Plus you don't know who all lives in that house. My neighbor's brother lives with he and his wife. You just don't know.

Also, what if somebody was snagging wireless from one house to the other. I used to use my neighbor's wireless then I got my own. Then my other neighbor admitted that he has used mine and his profession is such that he's supposed to be catching the bad guys, etc...

Just delete the jackass next time.
Anonymous said…
Joel Rosenthal was the most vocal defender of SF Mayor Dave Munson during the two mayor crises of his first term (breaking the law by overspending the City's sales tax fund to pay for Phillips to the Falls, and breaking the law by failing to report $30,000 in campaign funds.) This guy puts the capital C in Cronyism. If you want your ideals and morals thrown out the window, he's your guy. As a Democrat, I would love it. First Dave Knudson and Tom Dempster, now Joel Rosenthal? Given enough rope to hang yourselves, the SD Republican Party is doing a fantastic job.
Anonymous said…
How can you J-Ro haters be so forgetful? I recall that he led the party to magnificent heights which led to state jobs and contracts for thousands of good Republican soldiers, some of whom I suspect use state time to diddle on War College. You might not have liked Janklow's and Rosenthal's style, but you always knew where they stood, why they felt that way and what was going to happen. I'd rather have that in a leader than some mamby-pamby passive-aggressive dork/dorkette who lets the herd run loose.

Saying that, Joel's had his time in office and deserves credit for his deeds. Yet I can't believe that there isn't someone out there who can't fill the chair's shoes competently without retreading Joel for a third era of growth.

Put a want-ad in the paper.
Anonymous said…
12:06, pp, 8:23

You definitely don't want to out people without solid proof of anti-Semitism (those pesky libel suits, ya know)....

But I don't think you should just knee-jerk delete those posts. If there is latent anti-Semitism (or other kinds of -isms), I think it's better to identify it, criticize it, and leave the posts for all to see.

Pretending it was never there passes up a chance to try to fix it.
Anonymous said…
PP, if only Rosenthal/Adelstein's religion was off the point.

It was an issue in Adelstein's primary races with Schwiesow.

It is an issue now that Rosenthal is putting out feelers to be state GOP chair again.

This is what has become of your party.

This is what happens when religious extremists take control.
Anonymous said…
Let's try a little experiment...

The central committee should elect the most conservative Republican we can find to be party chairman, then turn the party's focus to the social conservative issues that donimate this blog. The state party should also work as hard as possible to replace the moderates (or RINOs as some like to call them) with conservatives and narrow the big tent to only those who truly share the GOP philosphy.

Then, in four years compare election results of 2010, voter registration numbers, fundraising, etc to similar benchmarks from the Janklow/Rosenthal era.

I think the results would be quite interesting.
Anonymous said…
MJB -- I'd be interested in some specifics of what some of those things are that Randy needed to fix.

Seems to me that Joel left the party in very good shape. There may be a few things Randy wanted changed - that's the case with any new chairman. But having been to many central committee and executive committee meetings during Joels tenure, there didn't appear to be many things that were "broken".

Under Joels leadership Republicans were getting elected, there were no public divisions in the party (yes, there were internal struggles, but Joel was always able to deal with them internally to keep them out of the press), there was a good working relationship between the party and the governor, and Republican legislators were focused on a wide range of issues to improve the state.

What happened?
Anonymous said…
10:20:

4 things for you to digest:

First, there were no blogs like this for people to publicly comment and the world to see during Joel's riegn. So, the only difference is that those divisions, which have always been there, are now on display on the web.

And actually, this is healthy to have these types of discussions. We never had this type of influence, discussion and debate before blogging and the modern 90's internet style of politics.

Secondly, Joel aided in the defeat of a sitting Republican U.S. Senator by supporting Janklow's primary bid against Abdnor. One word, unnaceptable.

Joel and Janklow sat on their asses when Pressler needed the party's top resources against Tim Johnson. Janklow had a vendetta against Pressler that went all the way back to their time at USD, petty isn't it?

Joel supported that inaction and cost the Republican party another Republican Senate seat. What did Abdnor and Pressler have in common? They both came from the vast part of the GOP that stood for family values, fiscal responsibility and grassroots development as opposed to Janklow and Joel who only stand for fiscal responsibility and are opposed to grassroots development. I.e. b/c the grassroots are too conservative to stomach them.

Third, on October 13, 2004 Joel and Janklow rose again to publicly criticize the GOP victory operation during the middle of a campaign season. see: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/10/13/news/state/state02.txt for the story. The lead sentence in the story sums it up.

Their public comments were a collateral attack on Thune because Victory was set up to aid in the defeat of Daschle, A LONGTIME CLOSE FRIEND OF JANKLOW. (Have you ever Janklow and Thune working on party building together? No)

BTW, Janklow, the leader of the South Dakota GOP as Governor, said he voted for Daschle on CSPAN during a Washington Tribute dinner after the Schmidt/Daschle race.

So Joel could have aided in taking down Thune as well because of his publicly vile and angry comments against a Republican operation two weeks before election day.

In conclusion Joel was actually not as successful as you make it sound. In fact we hold more constitutional seats today than when Joel was the head of the GOP, all but one. Burg was in the PUC and the stuck on citibank auditor guy were both in during Joel. Also, Daschle and Johnson were both during Joel. We also held a 2/3 majority in both houses after Joel left the GOP chairmanship as well.

Joel should not be rewarded with leadership of the GOP for clear and blatant violations of the Reagan's 11th amendment and his not so private machinations aimed at defeating conservative republican U.S. Senators.

So under Joel we got Johnson and Daschle, less constitutional seats, no family values protections, a big fight with the state auditor over citibank, Janklow and his skidloader and shady land deals, endless litigation brought on by Janklow's propensity to sue, endless stories about Joel's failure to develop grassroots, but hey we did get some fiscal responsibility and saved some money by not plowing the roads as often during the winter snows, etc...

Hmmm...Joel...I think not.
Anonymous said…
that's good stuff! we cannot reward anti republican behavior.
Anonymous said…
Hey 10:20 in case you haven't noticed we are still electing republicans to office!

In fact we control more constitutional seats now than under Joel.

We hold more U.S. Senate seats now than under Joel.

We hold just as many legislative seats now than under Joel.

Quit ignoring/rewriting history in order to push your GOP-lite and divisive agenda on the base.
Anonymous said…
Feedsack,

You're sounding a bit defensive here. Kinda like a bitin' sow! Ouch!!!
Anonymous said…
I guess we "GOP-lites" sure know how to get the "extreme rights'" undies in a twist now don't we!!
Anonymous said…
To Anon 11:11...

Yes, we are still electing Republicans to office, but losing 5 senate seats didn't happen when Joel was in charge

Yes, Jarrod Johnson won his race. His election advisor was Joel Rosenthal. Otherwise the number is the same and the GOP lost Sahr's seat on the PUC.

Yes, we one US Senator. By the same argument, we've lost one US House seat.

We used to hold a super majority in the state senate, we don't now.

I think history plays a part, but dwelling on the past isn't going to move the party forward.
Anonymous said…
Why is it that, almost daily on here, we can hear someone referred to as a Right-wingnut, fundamentalist, biggotted, extremist CHRISTIAN, ... and nobody cares, but just the mention that someone is maybe JEWISH, everyone goes into anti-semite-hating, politically-correct orbit???
Anonymous said…
PP, why don't you give Joel a call yourself and ask him rather than making assumptions based on speculation of what someone may or may not have heard?

Last week the blog was all abuzz that Bill Peterson was the guy.

Actually, I think Joel should be flattered that you are even writing about him. Evidently there are people out there who think he did a very good job and also see the need for a chairman who can clean up the mess the GOP has made of itself over the last four years. Thank God the Dems are so unorganized, they can't take advantage of the currnet GOP implosion.
Anonymous said…
1:06:

all things being equal then, why go with rosenthal when is so divisive?

Your flawed calculus shows your leftist leanings.
Anonymous said…
2:22, who says BP isn't the guy? Just because Joel is running, doesn't mean that Bill isn't.

and a "hint" - Odds are that Bill has Thune, and will probably have Rounds.

While Joel might have Knudson and Jarrod, they aren't the ones who pay the bills.
Anonymous said…
who says the county chairs will sign off on Rounds' next selection?

Rounds and his family/political team have only shown political ineptness and dysfunctionality.

Why should the grassroots reward or even trust his judgment regarding political party operations?
Anonymous said…
3:19 - I'm not saying whether or not Joel is running, I'm saying PP sometimes goes off on a tangent without the whole story.

From what I've heard BP IS the guy and I think he WILL do a good job much like I think Joel DID a good job. I'm just tired of all the Joel bashing.
Anonymous said…
Good point, why should we trust Rounds' political judgment? Just because he's governor?

This guy refused to implement a grassroots ground game in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

He refused to fully support all Republican candidates because of grudges and petty bickering, i.e. the freeze list.

He refuses to reach out to the county chairs.

We could go on and on, can someone name a reason other than him being governor as a reason to trust him?
Anonymous said…
uhh....he sells insurance??
Anonymous said…
Well, I would say Governor Round's 70% support from the voters just might be a small reason why we should listen to him!

Overwhelming support of the people must mean something, doesn't it?
Anonymous said…
VJ,

According to the Sec. of State's website Gov. Rounds received 61% of the vote. What crazy right wing newspaper did you get 70% from? The RC Journal?
Anonymous said…
I'm not tired of the Joel bashing. Please keep it up. There is no one who deserves it more.

This handsome, womanizing man simply doesn't have enough to do with his hands when he's not party chairman.
Anonymous said…
I HAVE seen him womanizing, but I wouldn't call him handsome!
Anonymous said…
Do you really want to open the can of "womanizing" rumors? If so, I'm assuming we'll all want to read more about John Thune's activities.

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