or "Why Gordon Howie Is Full of Crap, Part 47"
Gordon Howie continues to make stuff up to push his empty political agenda. At the end of 2011, he published a useless legislator report card based on a cherry-picking of votes that don't apply to all candidates and don't effectively distinguish conservatives from liberals. He launched his theocracy campaign with a bogus poll with no methodology or substantiation of data.
And now he adds to his Potemkin village of blogs and clubs the "SD Liberty Caucus Candidate Evaluations," as series of Legislative candidate scorecards based on eight of Howie's favorite policy litmus tests. My brief perusal of the scorecards finds that Howie urges people to vote for specific candidates only if they get a 100% on his scorecard. In the District 31 House race, for example, Gary Coe gets a 100%, John Teupel gets a 62.5%, and Fred Romkema and Tim Johns both get 0%. Howie calls Coe the "clear choice" and urges people to only vote for one candidate instead of backing Coe and blocking the really liberal Romkema and Johns with Teupel. Like Coe, Howie must have no compromise in his life whatsoever.
Perhaps even more stunning is Gordon Howie's rating of the District 10 House race in Minnehaha County. Rating only seven issues in this race (now the methodology is really out the window), Howie looks at Republican Representative Jenna Haggar's votes, divides 4 by 7, and gets 80%.
Last I checked, 4 divided by 7 was 57%. But to fit Jenna's rating to his desired Ronald Reagan quote, Howie doesn't count two missed votes. He does not extend the same courtesy to challengers. If they do not "vote"—i.e., if they do not pick up the phone or respond to whatever little questionnaire or e-mail or telepathic message Gordon sent them—he nukes them! The other two Republican candidates in District 10 thus get zeroes. *Update 07:16 MDT: A source tells me Howie's survey didn't even offer recipients a courtesy warning that a non-response would be interpreted and publicized as No.
And who are those other District 10 candidates again? Former legislator and mayor from Citibank Dave Munson (yeah, I can see Gordon not liking a successful fixture of the Establishment) and Don Haggar.
Don Haggar?! The man who planted the seed in the womb whence sprang Jenna Haggar is not in Gordon Howie's mind a "strong principled conservative"? Don Haggar does not support Howie's Issue #1, a 72-hour waiting period on abortions? Don Haggar does not support Howie's Issue #3, rejection of abortion in general and Planned Parenthood specifically? Oh my. That should make for fun dinner conversation at the Haggar household.
Gordon Howie's 0% score for Don Haggar proves that the Howie scorecards are worse than useless. Contrary to his purported Christian principles, Howie is peddling blatant lies to advance his favored politicians. He just makes stuff up and hopes people won't look at the facts beneath. Howie's few remaining supporters should be appalled. Those receiving Howie's endorsement should run hard away, lest they be tarred by Howie's indiscretions.
Why is Jenna Haggar missing votes? Does she have bad work ethic or something? Or is she afraid to go on record on the tough issues?
@Rorschach those two bills were killed in the infamous State Affairs Committee that she was not assigned to.
@Mr "H," Curious how you came to the conclusion to make the statement: "..blocking the really liberal Romkema.." Additionally, you always struck me as the type that would expect/demand candidates be honest were they stand on the issues when running for office.
Gordon, bottom line, is a two issue political philosopher. Pro-birth and pro-gun. There is, of course, in modern times, a paradox there which shorts out brain circuits. But in the old days, it made perfect sense. And the extreme right is all about the old days (even as they are loathe to admit how long ago those old days really were.)
Maybe Howie should rename his scorecard to reflect this.
Call it the "PaleoMeter" or something.
Man on hunt, women back at cave.
Oh no... just lost Mogur and Klug to Bear.
Better go back, make better spear, and two more babies.
Vote for Gronk (or else...)
Amazing how Cory and Fleming are all too willing to carry water for the fascist SDGOP corporatists. Larry talk some sense into your New Age comrades.
Gronk no carry water. Women cary water.
Fleming the sexist. And a deceptive one at that.
Gronk not Fleming. Fleming no hunt. Like women. Gronk anti-Fleming
Not going to spar with you today, Sibby.
1. Cory is sick of it
2. You don't get it
3. There are other opinions besides yours and mine. We should hear them.
"Gronk not Fleming."
You should not be so sure. And Fleming listening to other opinions? More deception. I thought your point is that I listen to too many opinions.
KKK stuffing books with Sibson-style literature:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/ku-klux-klan-literature-found-in-local-stores/article_2906db20-0691-11e1-a7ab-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1tgft0MsN
As a Democrat, I love these rankings and the deliberate attempt by Gordie et. al. to split the Republican party in two...or at least wage a bloody coup.
One just has to wonder if they see that their brand of the extreme right wing has had it's run and is now being rejected wholesale by the rest of the party and America as a whole.
Think of it...Gordie got what percentage of the vote for Governor? Our neighbor in Iowa ran a right wing idealogue for governor, Bob Vander Platts, and he got killed.
Nationally, are you telling me that after all of the news, retail politics, caucuses and primaries that Etch-a-Sketch Mitt is the far right choice over Bachmann, Perry, Newt and Santorum?
Heck, the Tea congressional delegation has Newtered John Boehner, and made this the most do nothing congress in history.
The rodeo clown Beck was forced off of Fox News, advertisers are running away from Limbaugh and the Republican cable news channel is losing ratings.
Crazy might sell at the precinct level, but on the broader consciousness, the ideas come up short and people are starting to see the damage that the shallow, simplistic and radical populism causes.
But thanks for the entertainment Gordie and the rest of the nameless brave who create these report cards.
Why does Ms. Haggar get credit for missing votes in committees she should have gotten assigned to if she had strong opinions on the matter, when others who simply didn't answer don't get credit?
I will tell you that Ms. Haggar did score higher than Mr. Nelson on the Conservatives with Common Sense 2012 scorecard. Our scorecard takes into account not only actual votes or purported positions, but effectiveness as a legislator regardless of your position, party, or lackthereof in Ms. Haggar's case.
Unlike Mr. Howie, who has gone insaner, we have some of our mathier members triple checking our scoring before releasing the individual numbers. I can tell you, it's not terribly surprising to me who some of the higher scoring Conservatives with Common Sense are, though.
Stace: ah, so the votes surveyed never even reached Jenna or the full House? That only further demonstrates the invalidity of Howie's scorecards in fairly measuring all legislators. Comparing actual legislative votes, votes available only to a few committee members, and answers to non-binding surveys is apples and oranges. Invalid.
And when I call Romkema "liberal," I'm speaking from Howie's apparent worldview that says not filling out a survey from a fringe group makes you not a clear conservative choice.
Howie is a joke. I personally know both the Haggars are uber-conservitive. We'll know where people stand in Nov.
That's what I thought. Howie's report card seems more likely to alienate more conservatives from him than it will help any of his people win elections. Howie appears to have no sense of how to build a coalition.