South Dakota War College

Jerry at The Holabird Advocate apparently was in town today, and was wondering if he should have looked me up . You should have - I was having a rummage sale in preparation of the big move to Brookings and I needed the customers! 9 to noon and I'm still waiting for someone to buy my camper. Sure, they buy about 70 kids VHS tapes, but something that involves outdoor entertainment? Noooooooooo. You'd think it was 102 degrees today or something... At 20 1/2 feet, it doesn't fit 6 kids very well. I'm going to have to move up to a bigger model. At this point, I'm thinking of just buying a refrigerated semi trailer. And some bunk beds.

Marion Gay Wofford was born today (7/9) back in 1925. Marion was a 10 year legislator from 1979 to 1988. She was a nice lady who was as conservative as they come. She was kind of an interesting character, in that she seemed to be part of the first wave of modern conservative evangelical Republicans in the legislature, a few of whom got swept out of office that year. They've come back strongly since. Ed Glassgow, whom I would also consider in that category, was also swept out that year by current SDDP Chair Judy Olson. Marion got caught up in a little controversy while she was in office for attending some conferences sponsored by the Unification Church. The SDDP took issue with it and the battle lines were drawn. Both Marion and Ed are still around, although not involved much with the party much anymore. Birthday wishes to a former Republican legislator from the SD War College.

I noticed Joel Rosenthal made another post to his weblog, SD Straight Talk . This time, Joel takes a cue from my June 30th post on the Readers' Digest Guide to fixing the SDDP and offers similar advice to our friends across the aisle.

In one of my prior jobs, I worked for a bank system where I listened to the CEO coin the phrase "If it isn't in-house, it's out house" to express his disdain for outsourcing things. (I though it was a pretty clever zinger.) But in politics, I'm not so sure that the opposite isn't true. If you're spending your time on things because you have created an in-house resource to save money, you might be cutting your own throat while trying to patch a minor scrape. One group I'm familiar with bought equipment to perform a task that they were spending lots of money on. I'm sure the thinking was "Saving money? Hey, that's a great idea." Now, about a year later, some people have left, and new people have come. There's equipment where a significant investment has been made, and there really isn't anyone on hand who understands it completely. Yet the equipment is sitting there nearly untouched and in need of maintainance. Supplies are pile...

(Photo linked from AP Story) This story (Yahoo News) on the cleaning of Mt. Rushmore is just kind of cool. I'm not sure which monument inspires me more, Mt. Rushmore, or the Statue of Liberty. (My photo from my trip to the 2004 GOP National Convention)

Today, in 1916, Joseph Robbie Jr. was born in Sisseton South Dakota. Among his accomplishments, Joseph served as a Democratic House member of the legislature from Mitchell from 1949-1950, and also did a stint as Chair of the SDDP in 1948. In the early 1950s, this young trial lawyer made an unsuccessful bid to become the Governor of South Dakota. Don't feel too bad for him . With his partners, he bought the Miami Dolphins in 1965. See? There's life after politics.

I've had a really crappy day. My website project (not the blog) went wacko today, and I spent most of the day attempting to fix it myself, and with tech support. It's working now, but it's left me with a headache. And now, I'm reading this from a letter to the editor in today's Mitchell Daily Republic : Senate Journal 2/28/05, 2.p.m. - The following Republicans voted "no" or "against" HJR 1001 "anti-gay marriage" amendment to be put on the 2006 Ballot to amend the South Dakota Constitution: Ed Olson, Adelstein, McCracken, Duniphan, Knudson, Dempster, Duane Sutton. 6/30/05, News Service - "This week, the Canadian Parliment, by a vote of 158 to 133, passed the 'National Same-Sex Marriage' bill, making same sex marriages fully legal in every province across Canada. Reading public, do you see any similarity between these two separate articles above? One would have to be a blind not to see a strong similarity of the "mains...

Ok, another post on petitions for a statewide ballot initiative is ripe. This time, it's the Democrat's own Ron Volesky in a bid for pre-gubernatorial glory. The Black Hils Pioneer is reporting that Ron is going to push to raise the minimum wage by $1 an hour. Ron Volesky of Huron, a former legislator, said he's helping organize the petition campaign. It requires the signatures of 16,728 registered voters to qualify such a measure for the general election ballot. The state minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, which is identical to the federal minimum wage. A coalition of various interests is being formed to organize the petition drive, Volesky said. Labor unions are expected to be among supporters, he said. A formal announcement of the campaign will be made in the next month ortwo, Volesky said. I thought he was running for Governor? Or is this multitasking? I'm sure we'll see more to come on this. I also had a very nice note from one of the gentleman promoting the Medic...

Yay! GBO is back from vacation. I got hooked on the site, and then he's off like a prom dress for 2 weeks? Although I'm not sure who this person is he's referring to in conjunction with the War College. There's plenty of other people with the initials 'PP' who live in Pierre with 6 kids, that have a wife who just got a job in Brookings, and are slightly overweight with thinning hair.... Yeah, ok. I'm done deluding myself. Now that I'm outed, just don't call me after 10 at night. Or else the mysterious virus that shuts down the websites of identified bloggers may hit me. Thanks to GutzonBorglumOnline for the nice compliment.

Clearly from the Argus Leader this AM, McCook County is where I should be moving instead of Brookings. In one day, they make a move to endorse the zoning ordinance for Laurent , a entire new town for South Dakota, and they also ban nudity again. You know with that whole nudity ban thing in McCook County, I think we need the South Dakota Family Policy Council involved in that. Why? Because the Nude bar owner and the director of the family policy council almost share the same name: Robert Rieger and Robert Regier. Every time I read something from either of them, I have to do a double take. One is defending what he feels is his constitutional right to display nudity. The other I would anticipate would defend the right of the county to ban it. If it's not indicated by their name in articles in the paper, I'm sometimes wondering if I'm reading the words of the nudie bar guy or the conservative crusader. One wants government out of our lives. The other wants government to dictate...

Here’s someone we, and the MSM keep talking about in connection with future South Dakota political races. Happy Birthday to Barb Everist who was born on July 6 in 1949. Lots of honors have been thrown her way for her legislative work: Majority Whip 1997-1998, LRC Executive Board member 1997-1998, Assistant Majority Leader 1999-2000, and Majority Leader from 2001-2002. Barb happened to have been the 1st woman in South Dakota History to be elected Majority Leader. On the way to the Senate, this native of Sioux Falls, SD started her career as a graduate of Lincoln High School. She attended the University of Santa Clara where she earned a degree in psychology. Upon completion of her undergraduate work, she entered graduate school and took Montessori training at the California Polytechnic State University. After teaching and working as a newspaper reporter, she attended The University of South Dakota School of Law where she was an editor of the Law Review and completed her Juris Doctora...

From Keloland.com: Volesky Running for Governor The 2006 election is approaching fast in South Dakota, and the only announced Democratic candidate for governor so far is Ron Volesky of Huron. He is a former 16-year state lawmaker who failed in a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002 and later lost in the general election to Republican Larry Long for attorney general. The Democrat says there's always room for change in politics, and Volesky believes he can beat Rounds. Volesky says, "Nobody is bulletproof." Volesky plans to make a formal announcement this fall, and he pledges to run a clean campaign for governor. (My emphasis added) First, he lost a primary. Then, he lost the Attorney General's race. Now? Now he's running for Governor! Yay! Go Team! Good grief. Dems, this sounds like your last candidate for Governor. On top of everything else, he says he's going to run a "clean campaign." What does clean campaign mean? What is a clean...

Ross Perot's running mate from 1992 passed away today at the age of 81. Yahoo News is reporting that James Stockdale had been suffering from Alzheimers. Interesting story about this guy who was thrust into the limelight without knowing what he was in for. I don't think I realized back in '92 that he was a medal of honor recipient. The Yahoo News writeup follows: A portion of his award citation reads: "Stockdale ... deliberately inflicted a near mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate. He was subsequently discovered and revived by the North Vietnamese who, convinced of his indomitable spirit, abated their employment of excessive harassment and torture of all prisoners of war." Willing "to give up his life, rather than capitulate." Oddly appropriate that he pass away almost on independence day. While he didn't make it to the Vice Presidency, he will certainly be rememb...

I wrote that other post this AM, and hadn't even seen the article in today's Rapid City Journal by Celeste Calvitto. Bill Napoli pulls his tongue out and starts lashing the moderates with it (lash, lash). Good Article.

This is the South Dakota War College reporting from Pierre, on Day 6 of the Moderate Coalition Crisis... Okay, it's not that bad. I did say that this wasn't going to go away soon. Todd Epp, over at SD Watch makes his case for the Moderate Coalition to jump ship to the SDDP . The GOP talking Bryce Healy to come over to the Dark Side, maybe. But those moderate coalition guys going over to the lite side? I agree, it's never going to happen. I'd make the argument that Todd, who has one of my favorite weblogs, is correct in his assumption, but wrong on the reasons why the people in the moderate group are going to stay at home wth us Republicans. You've heard from him, so now what's my reasoning why these Republican Legislators are NOT going to bail on the GOP? #1 - Didn't you ever squabble with your siblings whan you were a kid? Same thing here. When my sister took my two oldest kids to Kentucky for a week, while they were staying there she coached them to ask ...

I was reading Mt. Blogmore , the Rapid City Journal's eminently entertaining weblog, and catching up on comments by Charlie House , Sibby , Don Frankenfeld, Doug Wiken , and the rest of the regular cast of characters that clash time and again on that board. It's kind of neat, because unlike many blogs, including this one, the fun is in the comments, as opposed to the monologue. I was kind of wishing that they talked more often about the politics behind the news on my side of the river, not that Pierre is very far from being 'West River', and I was reminded of the fact that the Argus' own weblog was not there anymore. Ah, Argus Leader Weblog, we hardly knew ye. How could that weblog not survive, when it was backed by the mighty Gannett publishing empire? Yes, the fact was that the Argus Leader had a weblog for about a month and a half before it went down in flames . (Look, up in the sky, it's a weblog and.... it's on fire! Oh my god, it's going down fast...

I was doing some poking around the 'Net today while my youngest 2 kids are taking a nap, and the rest of the family is at the beach. And I decided to take a walk on the wild side and access the "hidden Internet." Actually, these are databases and other things typically not indexed by Yahoo or Google. Profusion looks like it's going to be my new 'bestest friend' as far as search engines are concerned. WOW! It searched 7 search engines within seconds, and gave me way more than I ever needed to know about South Dakota politicians. In perusing it, I also stumbled across "Brainy Quote" which includes databases of quotes from our own politicians: Governor Mike Rounds Senator John Thune Senator Tim Johnson No big moral here, just a useful item to add to your toolchest.

The Rapid City Journal's top story this AM was on the South Dakota Mainstrean Coalition . And who were two of the people quoted in it? Bill Napoli and Stan Adelstein. Bill was quoted extensively. Wasn't I just saying they were two of the most influential men in the SDGOP? You can see by this article, this is getting pretty good from an observer's standpoint. Why? Quotes like this from the RCJ: Linda Lea Viken, a former Democratic state legislator from Rapid City, said she was "delighted at the prospect of joining together on moderate issues." "When I served in the Legislature, I always found that in committee, people of different parities and different backgrounds could come together on many issues, each compromise a little, find common ground in the middle and take the good from each viewpoint," Viken said. "I think this kind of coalition is a way to do that on broad issues that affect the people of South Dakota in a significant way." "I...

You would have thought that the Blogger spell check might have had this term added by now.

I think people love these "most" posts coming from one weblog or another. And actually, coming from the author's standpoint, they are kind of fun to come up with. It's just an off-the-cuff gut check on who comes to mind as the people who affect different aspects of the political spectrum. Now that we've touched on the ladies in a previous post , we men can discuss the most powerful Republican men in much more manly manner... or I'll at least come off as slightly less misogynistic as I did before. Really, how do you pick who is the most influential? That's why when I do this, they are in no particular order. I can't tell you who is the most influential. It could change tomorrow. Arguably, it WILL change tomorrow. What I don't like about this category is that some of these are just bonehead choices. Duh, the Governor and John Thune are on the list. That's like the biggest "no shit, Sherlock" statement ever. OF COURSE they are on the lis...

I've noticed myself doing a little too much editorializing, and far too little discussing the lessons of politics. So, back to business with regards to some topics dealing with political strategy; In 1992, the Public Utilities race between Ken May and Jim Burg was hard fought. Ken had graduated from college with a degree in engineering, but had long been doing more managerial in his career. Ken really put up a serious challenge to Jim, and took some solid pokes at him over his tendency to travel a lot, using a commercial developed by an out of state media/campaign consultant. It honestly looked like Ken might win that sucker. Then, a week or two before the election, a bomb was dropped. It came out in the media that the State Board of Engineers, Architechts and Surveyors (now the Board of Technical Professions) had questioned Ken's ability to refer to himself as an engineer. In other words, it was brought to the attention of the public that this candidate might possibly be lying...