Turn Out The Lights,The (Teabagger) Party Is Over

It seems appropriate, somehow, that the Republican convention last weekend nominated, for the two highest offices on the ballot this year, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the two men who are most responsible for the largest growth in North Dakota government spending in our state’s history. Governor John Hoeven and House Majority Leader Rick Berg presided over a near doubling of tax dollar expenditures in North Dakota in the period 2001-2011. So it is appropriate we send them to Our Nation’s Capital, where North Dakotans look like pikers compared to what the folks down there do. They’ll fit right in. If they win, we don’t have to worry about them going nutso on us by joining up with those phonies Boehner and McConnell and forgetting to fight for the federal dollars we’ve been accustomed to getting from Washington to prop up our North Dakota economy. Those two like spending money. There’s no fiscal conservatism in either one of them.

Fact is, we’ve been making our best investments as a state by sending tax dollars to Washington. We keep hearing that we get something like a buck and a half or more back from Washington for every dollar we send there. I don’t know about you, but my 401(K) isn’t doing nearly that well. I think I’d like a piece of that action. Seems to me we ought to be sending the whole damn state budget down there, and then just sit back and wait for the returns to flow in.

The point here, though, is that the GOP convention showed that the so-called Tea Party had a pretty short-lived run here in North Dakota. Turn out the lights. That party is over. It ended with the roll call vote on the GOP nomination for Congress, where Rick Berg outpolled his “conservative” rival, Kevin Cramer, by more than two to one Saturday afternoon. That’s about the weakest showing by a supposed legitimate candidate that I can remember.

Rick and I grew up in ranch country out in Adams County and we’re familiar with the early summer ritual of branding. Branding is half the job of those neighborhood gatherings of ranchers, ranch hands and able-bodied teens. The other half is turning the bull calves into steers, the local vernacular called nut-cuttin’—the harvesting of what will be the main entrée for a Rocky Mountain Oyster fry. Well, there was some nut-cuttin’ going on Saturday in Grand Forks. When it was over, there were a bunch of conservative nuts on the floor of the Alerus Center ballroom, including those of Kevin Cramer and Paul Sorum and a whole bunch of right wingers who came there to show those big-spending party regulars what-for, and instead went home with their tails between their legs to cover up their sore spots.

That might be a little dramatic, but it’s what happened. Oh, to be sure, the Teabaggers did muster more than 200 votes against the most popular governor in America, and Cramer’s disingenuousness (last fall, he was only in the PSC race, then Dorgan dropped out and Hoeven got in and those long Hoeven coattails lured Cramer back to the Congressional race, and then he waffled again before the Congress vote Saturday and said he would accept a PSC “draft” if he lost to Berg) played a role, but for the most part, it was a mainstream Republican smackdown. Berg and Hoeven are big spenders, and are not going to be credible with the right wing of their own party. Earl Pomeroy and Tracy Potter will see to that. Once they enlist Kent Conrad’s chart-builders and put a little campaign cash together, they going to kick the crap out of any fiscal conservative talk from those two.

(Side note: Speaking of disingenuous, the Tribune wins that prize today with their front page feature interviewing five people on the street who have no clue what is in the health care bill and asking them what they thought of it. Of course, their responses were the Republican pap they’ve been hearing on Fox News, which made it look like all North Dakotans are opposed to the bill. What cheap journalism that was.)

The biggest surprise to me over the last couple weeks has been the role of Ed and Nancy Schafer. Ed’s been all over the radio bashing Dorgan, Conrad and Pomeroy, a role he seems to like (Hey, I’m still around, remember me?) and took an active role in Tea Party stuff, mostly, I think, at the behest of his former staff member Bob Harms (Ed’s nothing if not loyal). This after the fact the delegation all went to bat for him in his appointment as Secretary of Agriculture a couple years ago. And then there was Nancy up there on stage nominating Hoeven, in spite of the Tea Party’s dislike for Hoeven. What’s up with that? Those two things almost make me think Ed’s trying to get Hoeven out of the way so he can take another whack at Governor in 2012. Almost, but not quite. But he’s sure sending mixed signals.

Finally, at the end of the weekend, when most Republican Convention delegates were just arriving home, Congressional Democrats passed the most far-reaching piece of legislation since 1965, giving themselves, and all American Democrats what I believe will be the best campaign issue of the year. Health care for everybody. If the Democratic PR people can do just half as good a job of explaining what this means to the American people after the historic vote as the Republicans did trashing it before the vote, this will be a very good Democratic year. I truly believe that. I’m going to Fargo this weekend to hear one of the very best champions of health care for all Americans, Paul Begala, start that process. Here’s Begala’s early take on Sunday’s historic vote. I’m sure he will have more to say on it this weekend. You should go there just to listen.

All in all, it was a very good weekend for North Dakota Democrats. And there are going to be a whole bunch more coming up. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, turn out the lights. The Teabagger Party is over.