MOB's Evil Council Emergency Session
After listening to
Marty Andrade's &
Tony Garcia's show, I had the opportunity to get together with Marty & Tony as well as
Mitch Berg and my blogging partner at Murtha Must Go
Leo Pusateri for an emergency session of the
MOB's Evil Council
at an undisclosed watering hole here in the St. Cloud area. I'll withhold the name of the establishment because they've got an otherwise fine reputation, which I don't want ruined by our visit there.
First of all, if you missed today's Race To The Right radio program, you simply blew it. They had one of the most informative, most freewheeling conversations I've heard in awhile. It sounded like they had a great time bouncing ideas off each other.
After the show, Leo, the St. Cloud resident of the bunch, got our fine guests lost, which is something we'll let slide this time but we won't tolerate again. If that happens again, Leo will be on double open probation. As conservatives & libertarians, we believe in being as open as possible as long as it won't hurt national security.
After Leo & his wife Denise left, Tony, Mitch & I had a great conversation on Minnesota & national politics. Suffice it to say that there weren't any lulls in the conversation with three opinionated people like Mitch, Tony & I. Marty was fairly silent through this discussion, which I took to mean he was simply in awe of the command on issues Mitch, Tony & I had.
Mitch did a great job of explaining the connection between Amy Klobuchar and Minneapolis' increasing violent crime rate by talking about the "catch-and-release" mentality towards bail. Mitch cited a violent criminal who killed his ex-wife's boyfriend, got caught, posted bail which was set at $500,000. Immediate after getting out on bail, this violent criminal then started stalking his ex-wife. He got caught again and went before another judge who set bail at $750,000. The prosecutor didn't even oppose it. As I told Mitch later, if he would've gotten released again & caught again, it would've given new meaning to the term "three strike law."
I led a great conversation about why Michele Bachmann is good for Minnesota politics. Tony asked why I thought that & I simply told him that my pet peeve with conservatives is that they're lousy communicators. Michele certainly doesn't fit that mold. I told Tony that I've been watching Minnesota politics for 34 years & that Michele was the most polished, articulate Minnesota politician I'd ever seen.
I said that it's important that we got more people who could help grow the party, not just accept the status quo. Frankly, we need people throughout the state, not just in Central Minnesota, that think winning is doable as long as you don't bring a defeatist attitude to the BPOU meetings. There's no reason to think that any congressional district in Minnesota should forever be a safe seat for Democrats. Anyone in leadership at the precinct or county level who has that type of mentality should be dumped for someone with a can do attitude.
I made my point by using the 1980 Olympics as my analogy. I said that the talk amongst the sportswriters covering the US Hockey team was whether Herb Brooks should buck conventional wisdom & shoot for the Gold medal or if he should just try for a bronze or silver. Most experienced hockey writers thought he should be satisfied with a silver or bronze, that surely his team couldn't beat the vaunted Soviet team. Brooks didn't buy into that mentality. They won the gold that year in one of the great sports stories in American history.
My point is that GOP leaders shouldn't accept defeat 'because we've always lost here'. They must be held accountable by setting goals from the MNGOP & RNC levels to keep building up the party annually. If you don't grow the party in your district, you aren't in leadership anymore.
The best model for this type of thinking is Mark Kennedy's winning over the H'Mong people by engaging them in dialogue, explaining what he stood for, etc. That's what happens when you don't accept the defeatist status quo.
All in all, it was a productive emergency session. I definitely hope that there will be a need for more of these types of 'emergency' meetings.
Originally posted Sunday, July 16, 2006, revised 17-Jul 1:32 AM
June 2006 Posts
Comment 1 by Leo Pusateri at 16-Jul-06 10:17 PM
Comment 2 by Marty Andrade at 16-Jul-06 10:53 PM
First of all, if you missed today's Race To The Right radio program, you simply blew it. They had one of the most informative, most freewheeling conversations I've heard in awhile. It sounded like they had a great time bouncing ideas off each other.
After the show, Leo, the St. Cloud resident of the bunch, got our fine guests lost, which is something we'll let slide this time but we won't tolerate again. If that happens again, Leo will be on double open probation. As conservatives & libertarians, we believe in being as open as possible as long as it won't hurt national security.
After Leo & his wife Denise left, Tony, Mitch & I had a great conversation on Minnesota & national politics. Suffice it to say that there weren't any lulls in the conversation with three opinionated people like Mitch, Tony & I. Marty was fairly silent through this discussion, which I took to mean he was simply in awe of the command on issues Mitch, Tony & I had.
Mitch did a great job of explaining the connection between Amy Klobuchar and Minneapolis' increasing violent crime rate by talking about the "catch-and-release" mentality towards bail. Mitch cited a violent criminal who killed his ex-wife's boyfriend, got caught, posted bail which was set at $500,000. Immediate after getting out on bail, this violent criminal then started stalking his ex-wife. He got caught again and went before another judge who set bail at $750,000. The prosecutor didn't even oppose it. As I told Mitch later, if he would've gotten released again & caught again, it would've given new meaning to the term "three strike law."
I led a great conversation about why Michele Bachmann is good for Minnesota politics. Tony asked why I thought that & I simply told him that my pet peeve with conservatives is that they're lousy communicators. Michele certainly doesn't fit that mold. I told Tony that I've been watching Minnesota politics for 34 years & that Michele was the most polished, articulate Minnesota politician I'd ever seen.
I said that it's important that we got more people who could help grow the party, not just accept the status quo. Frankly, we need people throughout the state, not just in Central Minnesota, that think winning is doable as long as you don't bring a defeatist attitude to the BPOU meetings. There's no reason to think that any congressional district in Minnesota should forever be a safe seat for Democrats. Anyone in leadership at the precinct or county level who has that type of mentality should be dumped for someone with a can do attitude.
I made my point by using the 1980 Olympics as my analogy. I said that the talk amongst the sportswriters covering the US Hockey team was whether Herb Brooks should buck conventional wisdom & shoot for the Gold medal or if he should just try for a bronze or silver. Most experienced hockey writers thought he should be satisfied with a silver or bronze, that surely his team couldn't beat the vaunted Soviet team. Brooks didn't buy into that mentality. They won the gold that year in one of the great sports stories in American history.
My point is that GOP leaders shouldn't accept defeat 'because we've always lost here'. They must be held accountable by setting goals from the MNGOP & RNC levels to keep building up the party annually. If you don't grow the party in your district, you aren't in leadership anymore.
The best model for this type of thinking is Mark Kennedy's winning over the H'Mong people by engaging them in dialogue, explaining what he stood for, etc. That's what happens when you don't accept the defeatist status quo.
All in all, it was a productive emergency session. I definitely hope that there will be a need for more of these types of 'emergency' meetings.
Originally posted Sunday, July 16, 2006, revised 17-Jul 1:32 AM
June 2006 Posts
Comment 1 by Leo Pusateri at 16-Jul-06 10:17 PM
Thanks, Gary--for the company and the conversation--it was truly a great time!
-Leo-
Comment 2 by Marty Andrade at 16-Jul-06 10:53 PM
In my defense, I defer conversation to my elders out of politeness when I'm not doing radio, I'm not even 25 years of age yet.
