Great

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Those of us born and reared in North Dakota don't need Newsweek to tell us this is a great place. Again. Always.

But just in case you didn't know.

Great thanks are due to the tireless work of a North Dakota legendary Senator: Byron Dorgan.
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And hopefully Newsweek will find a buyer soon so they can hire themselves a fact-checker. They can start looking at the local campus of the renowned NDSU Bison in Fargo. Because we all know it's Karen, not Carole. And we coulda told you so...if you'd asked.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

In a Blaze of Glory....

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Don't you think for a minute that a son of the Dakota prairies (North, that is) will go quietly into retirement. Nosiree.

Way to go, Byron. Give 'em hell.
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Loyal-ties

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Loyalty has been on my mind today, ever since I caught portions of Morning Joe's conversation during the Political Roundtable. Not sure who said it, Joe or Mika or guest Matt Bai or the nonentity from Newsweek, but the consensus seemed to be there is no loyalty anymore...it's cultural these days not just the political quakes we're seeing courtesy the teabaggers and other independents.

No loyalty to party, no loyalty to employees or employers or spouses or....well, you get the idea.

So when I came across this commentary, John Hoeven (Opportunist-ND) for US Senate, at North Dakota's premier political blog, northdecoder.com, I decided to share it with you. Because right now a lot's being said about Governor John Hoeven's inevitability to take the Senate seat long held by Byron Dorgan.

But there's a growing volume of talk about Hoeven's party-hopping, too. Portraying his fealty to loyalty as the political equivalent of corporate values like companies who've gotten all kinds of tax breaks by communities to locate there only to jump borders for cheaper labor, or faux family values like John Edwards or Mark Sanford's concept of loyalty to their wives.

Whaddya think about Chet's posit that Hoeven [and perhaps other minority party novices] would rather switch and be powerful than stay in the far reaches of the minority once reality sets in? And should Democrats accept 'em in the fold? Is there a value to loyalty anymore?
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Prairie's Reading: Gail Collins prompts ND

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I agree with Gail Collins. North Dakota Democrats will find a strong candidate among local ranks. We're a sturdy lot in North Dakota...just step outside...into the breeze of a typical North Dakota winter's day, and whoever's still here...we'll nominate 'im.

Of course, on the Republican side, the build the inevitability of Who???????????ven campaign has begun.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's the tactic any savvy consultant would advise. Pre-empt the opposition if you can.

'course it does beg the question: if Who?????????????ven's so inevitable, why has he not yet announced his candidacy? If the polling numbers were such a reliable forecast [and we do take our forecasts of all varieties pretty seriously hereabouts], then why was Who?????????????ven too gutless to announce while he still believed his opponent would be Byron Dorgan?

Just asking.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal
h/t Marion in Savannah for the milemarker

Prairie Cautionary

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Last week, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Forum. It finally appears in today's issue. The announcement of Dorgan's decision to retire from the Senate does not change the message I had for my fellow North Dakotans;

Republicans and their fat-cat friends trying to stampede us

By: Sandy Scheel Huseby, Fargo

Looks like the Republican big boys are coming to town whipping up a stampede to distract us from the past decade of failed Republican policies and actions that President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress are working doggedly to clean up.

A stampede intended to drive Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Congressman Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., from office. A stampede that would send us right back into the abyss of economic disasters and buckshot cowboy blunders in sobering matters of national security.

State Republican honcho Gary Emineth and National Republican Chairman Michael Steele were on local talk radio recently full of bravado and bluster about how they’re going to steamroll over Dorgan and Pomeroy this election year. Seems to me what they’re really saying is they intend to steamroll over North Dakota’s way of living.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need the likes of the Wall Street fat cats crowd telling me that I should turn away from public servants who have dedicated their lives to making life better for their North Dakota neighbors from Regent and the western range to the fertile farmland of the eastern Valley cities.

It’s going to take more than bluster and bravado and the kind of fishing-tale whoppers that would make true outdoorsmen blush to unseat Dorgan and Pomeroy. Oh, I expect they’ll try more. The Republicans have been downright shameless in their twisting and shouting spin-and-smear tactics as they’ve gotten more and more desperate in recent elections to keep control in the hands of a few big-money interests.

Those big-money interests that hide behind fake names of groups that basically consist of themselves and their own checkbooks.

This year, there’s too much at stake to go back to the failed Republican policies that have devastated everything from jobs to health care to the mortgages on the homes we live in. Can big money buy the 2010 elections in North Dakota? Oh, they’ll try. But I trust that the same pioneer spirit that brought my grandparents to homestead in Dakota Territory as immigrants from Germany runs deep in most families in this state.

We know common sense, hard work and community spirit that puts neighbors before partisan party politics. And we know what’s left behind on the trail in a stampede.

Writer Huseby blogs as Prairie Sunshine at www.prairiesunrising.blogspot.com.

Now Dorgan has decided to retire. Was he stampeded? Who knows, but him. I won't be. Neither will the pioneer spirit of the kind of North Dakota Democratic-NPL which dug in all the deeper when threatened by storms and the harsh life on the prairie. Dorgan steps back, but there are more than enough willing to step forward that are committed to the pioneer spirit that built our state.
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In a comment over at firedoglake this morning, I said:

Sorry to mess with your theory, David, but ND Dems have no intention of ceding the Dorgan seat without a strong campaign. The opportunistic Whooooooooooven??????????, best known for community appearances at events like Hostfest in his hometown of Minot, has been playing coy with running for months now. Expect to see him emerge as the Republican candidate.

As for winning, he’ll have to earn that, if he can.

So Hoeven—or whoever the Republican candidate may be—can likely count on big bucks backers for this race. We'll see if they have the grit for it.
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UPDATE: whole lotta buzz in the media about Ed Schultz invited to make a run for the Dorgan seat. Call me a Valley Girl, but I just don't see him making that decision. There's a flood of reasons why. Burning bridges and all that.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

UPDATE II: Recommended reading

Resolved for 2010: Re-elect Dorgan

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Here's the way grown-ups respond. The way genuine public servants act. Not partisan party hacks or rise-from-the-ooze has-been vice-presidents who lack only an indictment to make their curriculum vitae complete.

Byron Dorgan's my senator. I live in the county (Cass) that CNN Money has just named as number one place to work in the country. In the only state (North Dakota) I'm aware of that still is operating in the black. Dorgan works for this country and our state. Because he understands what is good for the country will be good for our state. He sees the big picture.

Building technologies, while lambasting frivolous waste like boondoggle border sites. He's the senator who's trying to save people money on the exorbitant prices Big Pharma charges for drugs. Well, I could go on, but for the moment, take note.

Republicans may think they can come after Dorgan in 2010 because their slime worked against Daschle.

Dorgan's calling them out on trying to line their pockets and push their failed partisan policies at the expense of national security. Called them out on using the tactics of fearmongering, warmongering, hate-baiting. The likes of Hoekstra, DeMint, and Cheney who would try to profiteer on the blood of America's finest, the working class that built this nation and is first to step up to serve in harm's way. Dorgan's drawn a swift and strong line in the sand.

Make no mistake. Dorgan won't back down. And neither will the people of North Dakota who value his leadership and his service. Count me among 'em.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal