In the only West River debate to which South Dakota's Ice Princess Congresswoman would deign, Matt Varilek called for letting the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire. He charged that Rep. Kristi Noem is more concerned about the Donald Trumps of society than the rest of us.
Princess Kristi riposted thus:
"So, he (Varilek) may want to talk about Donald Trump, and he may want to talk about millionaires and billionaires, but really, it's the person sitting next to you at the ball game," Noem said. "It could be your grandfather. It could be your child. It could be you" [Kevin Woster, "Candidates Pull No Punches at Debate," Rapid City Journal, October 12, 2012].
So with whom did Kristi sit at the ball game just a few hours later?
I could be mistaken, but a sharper-eyed reader tells me that's Ted Hustead next to Kristi Noem at the Wall HS football game last night, after the debate. Ted Hustead, one of the richest men in South Dakota.
We read you loud and clear, Kristi.
Even if someone agrees with Kristi it's hard to believe she isn't just doing something for a campaign donation.
She's a sell out.
The Hustead family came to Wall with nothing in the 30's. Wall Drug is responsible for a HUGE amount of tourist dollars coming to the SD economy. If Kristi came to town and had her picture taken with a local business owner that was successful, would you bash them too? Politicians have their picture taken every day with lots of people.
Teddy looks like hell.
Hustead is her campaign treasurer and her major west river contributor. This has nothing to do with a random occurance. Hustead aka Trump calls the shots with Noem.
No one doubts Hustead is a great guy. The question is her foolish statement at the debate about regular people at the game.
Hustead inherited his money from the original founder of Wall Drug.
wonder how long it takes kristi to do her face every day.
she makes at least $3300/day: so an hour represents about $115 a day just to do her face and hair to her campaign. Teddy has his hands full of it alright.
I doubt Hustead is a great guy Mike. He is the pot calling the kettle black when he calls the Spearfish Canyon residents arrogant for not wanting him to run his chemical toilet (deadwood standard mine) over the edge of our pristine beauty.
This invasive species who opened his mouth and left no doubt at the Lawrence County hearing in Deadwood is not welcome in our world.
Well you could be right. I don't know him so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
My problem is with Noem. She's a ladder climbing elitest. She only cares about those who can write her a fat check.
I'm not going to attack Ted, because I don't know him.
However I'm sick and tired of the GOP telling me that if you elect them, they will balance the budget without affecting anyone. Its always someone else will hurt. Your taxes won't be raised, your services won't be cut, and the budget will be balanced. Its like a late night infomercial with them, get rich doing nothing in 5 easy steps.
I went and saw Bill Clinton last night in Sioux City, and he makes a great point. How are we going to balance the budget by cutting 5 trillion off the top, when they can only name 2 trillion in reductions. That still leaves 3 trillion behind. You would have to cut parts of the budget that would have a direct effect on many Americans to make it add up but they won't name them.
In the past 50 years only 5 budgets have been balanced, all 5 under Democrat Presidents.
She is so out of touch.
Varilek should start digging though her meetings with constituents to find out how many of those "Meetings" she attended were with big dollar donors to her campaign. I bet most of them.
The PPs would be frothing and slinging spit about this if she were SHS.
800 meetings with constituents spread over about 600 days is a little over one constituent per day. Perhaps she includes her husband in the constituent count.
Joe you speak of Bill Clinton's great moral economic reasoning. Ask Monica Lewenski how her fatal attraction to Slick Willy turned out?
Kristi sat in front of me at a Jacks game a few weeks ago. I didn't see her say hello to anybody at all, NO ONE. We must not have been rich enough.
And Charlie, economic reasoning has nothing to do with "moral" behavior.
Mike Q; tell that to an abusive gambler's family................
I'm betting she counts this football game as a "constituent meeting," along with her traveling to her daughter's volleyball games.
CAH you guys are going to lose this one but there will be many more victorys for you later on; especially if the Purists win in dividing the GOP in South Dakota on smoke screen elements of fear and loathing. (that sounded pretty smart didn't it; Jana?) :)
I wouldn't mind if she spent an hour doing her hair, if when she got done, it was well groomed, instead of looking like she had been tumbling in the hay.
Charlie did I ever say anything about morals? I don't believe in them, I just believe in common sense. And that tells me that we can't expand our military, cut taxes, save everything and cut our debt. It just doesn't add up.
Charlie, in the words of the immortal and nuclear-armed Steve Hiller, "I ain't heard no fat lady!" But nearly 400 people heard Varilek beat Noem in a debate yesterday. Is she going to control the bleeding by pulling out of the KELO and SDPB debates?
(And remember, folks: hair is not a voting issue.)
Tell that to Blake Curd(23%) vs Nelson35% & Noem41% Corey.
The comments confused me . . . is she pictured with the second [or the first] generation Ted Hustead? Either way, the original Wall Drug was started on a shoestring--- probably on borrowed money---and capitalized on a unique idea of free ice water for tourists on their way to the Black Hills. Husteads worked hard and gambled on their eventual success. BHO is totally unfamiliar with that concept, and displayed his unfamiliarity when he stated "You didn't build that [by yourself]." Varilek is an Obama disciple.
GOP lying on the You didn't build that comment.
Question? If the Government hadn't built Mt. Rushmore would the Hustead's have made it?
Later would it have survived and later thrive without the interstate?
The point is that private business doesn't do too well without public investment.
Varilek has ideas not talking points.
Patrick they would have to dig up the first generation to do a photoshoot.
BTW Patrick, Husteads could not have done it themselves without the federal highway system going through Wall. Bought and paid for by all Americans to support job creation in the USA.
Sorry to confuse you, Patrick. The photo above appears to depict the current, living Teddy Hustead, not his dearly departed grandfather. Les's comments about Spearfish Canyon also refer to the current Wall Drug CEO's advocacy here on behalf of the mining industry and his dismissal of local environmental concerns as "ludicrous" (no wonder Kristi likes him).
We're also talking about the Ted Hustead who has given Kristi $9700 in campaign donations since 2010. (Karen Hustead has given an identical amount to Noem.)
I hope that clarifies your confusion, Patrick.
I'm all for millionaires & billionaires. I just don't think they should pay a lower tax rate than I pay. For the life of me I have never understood why Republicans think millionaires & billionaires SHOULD pay a lower tax rate than me, and are willing to defend rich folks' tax breaks to the death. The fact is, somebody has to pay taxes and those who have been successful in America ought not complain about doing their share. It offends me when millionaires & billionaires complain about their taxes, or simply don't pay them - like that doctor in Rapid City who gave a pile of money to Noem while he was cheating Uncle Sam.
By the way, Noem is counting this game as 50 constituent meetings.
I have to echo other's comments, Patrick you prove the President's point exactly. Wall Drug was successful because people travel on a publicly funded highway to see a publicly funded monument on public land. Without these things, it would not exist in it's current format. I like it when Repub's don't know what their talking points really mean.
Cory points out that Noem has been given nearly $20,000 by the Hustead's. No wonder she likes spending time with him.
Huesteads brother in law is former LG Steve Kirby of Sioux Falls. Guess what? He's the treasurer of KRISTI PAC.
The Husteads and the Kirby's are keeping this congressional candidate in their back pocket.
R: 50 meetings—you may be right! Kristi probably confuses constituents with dollars.
Curd didn't lose because he didn't have hair. He lost because he has the personality of a hand surgeon.
Wonder how she would have done without hair?
Now you have me trying to figure out what party you belong to mike. Personality wins elections? And here I thought it was all about ability. Nelson had all the ability and you guys were shooting him down from every angle. Didn't I hear all kinds of stache comments too?
facial hair is voodoo in politics.
I had to see Curd on an emergency basis on morning. One of the most painful doctor visits I have ever experienced. I would never see him again. Probably one of the worst patient - doctor relationships ever. Made me ever more happy he lost. We average citizens are ungrateful....
I'm a Republican and a conservative/libertarian. But I dislike Noem because she is an absolute sellout to anyone who will get her to the next step.
All the legislators who she will be counting on to back her over Rounds will show their true feelings towards her when they go with Rounds because they dislike her as a person.
Kristi Noem is a bad apple in a barrel full of good ones. She needs to go before she spoils the entire barrel.
Mike, there's not a lot of love between legislators and Rounds, but maybe time heals. You're right on the money about Noem though.
Republicans ARE abusive gamblers.
Mike, how about getting those Republicans to show their true feelings now by throwing her out of office this year, thus crippling her political aspirations before she does any more damage? Make it clear she needs to get out of the way of other Republican up-and-comers who not only look good in ads and photo ops but who can actually do the job once elected.
Ted and Dorothy Hustead were New Deal Democrats. Their kids didn't stick with their parents' political identity, perhaps because they didn't experience the Great Depression as Ted and Dorothy did. My grandparents were very good friends of Ted and Dorothy going back to the 30s.
Without a doubt, if it weren't for FDR's heavy duty infusion of money and resources in states like South Dakota, this state would be dramatically different today. West River would be Buffalo Commons if it were not for earmarks and disproportional investments of federal dollars. There would be no Wall Drug and no worthwhile tourism in West River. It's impossible to think how Rapid City and surrounding communities could possibly have even 20 percent of its present population if it were not for I-90, Ellsworth AFB, Mount Rushmore, Black Hills National Forest, Rural Electric Administration, the School of Mines and Black Hills State, and federal ag supports to enrich an otherwise desert economy. And where would West River or any state be if it were not for Social Security, the GI Bill, the Veterans Administration, Medicare and the myriad of social programs that keep the bottom from dropping out of the American economy?
It's a good thing for West River that its voting record does not match the massive investment of federal dollars to prop up an otherwise low production regional economy. Since FDR was President and because of Democrats in Congress and the White House, South Dakota has received far more federal dollars than its residents pay in federal taxes. When people like John Thune and Kristi Noem go to Congress to eliminate earmarks and big spending federal programs, they are cutting the throat of South Dakota's economy.
There are plenty of states willing to take South Dakota's share of the federal pie if South Dakota voters are dumb enough to send people like Thune and Noem to Washington.
It's funny, about Dr. Curd. In 2007 he did hand surgery on my adult developmentally disabled daughter, and she worships him. Then a year later I went to him for a broken arm and she insisted on going with me when she heard I was going to see him. I thought he had a really crappy "bedside" manner, but when he walked into the exam room, he recognized my daughter instantly. However, his bedside manner was better than his PA or whatever he was.