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Sioux City Journal Endorses Noem on “Potential”

By caheidelberger on 2012.10.26

Last updated on 2012.12.01

The Sioux City Journal has endorsed Rep. Kristi Noem for a second term. That's easy for the Sioux City Journal to say; they don't have to live with Noem as their Congresswoman!

What's the best the SCJ can say about Rep. Noem? She's got potential:

In the end, Varilek hasn't made the case for why he's a better choice for South Dakota than Noem. He's thrown a lot of accusations Noem's way, but offers few specific plans.

Noem, a former state lawmaker, is fond of discussing her background as a farmer and small-business owner. She believes that experience gives her unique insight into how the federal government's actions and regulations impact regular South Dakotans. There's something to that argument.

Simply put, Noem has taken her surprising 2010 win and made the most of it. She has shown considerable potential in her first two years in the House [editorial, "Noem Earns Re-Election to U.S. House in South Dakota," Sioux City Journal, October 25, 2012].

Let me get this straight: I can earn a second contract just by showing "potential"? Holy cow: I thought my school board only used "potential" as a justification for hiring me to teach French here in Spearfish the first time. I thought that to get a second contract, I had to demonstrate some results and actually teach some kids some French last year. Heck, if I had known that "potential" was all I needed to get rehired, I'd have just played movies for the kids last year and done a lot more blogging!

Let's get clear: Noem was hired to do a job. She has regularly skipped that job or phoned it in. Her impotence hurts South Dakota. When she does show up, she does more damage by voting for bad policies. (Note: that's more concrete reasons to vote Noem out in two lines of hyperlinks than the concrete reasons SCJ can give to vote for her in an entire op-ed.)

The Sioux City Journal resorts to willful blindness to endorse Noem over Varilek. One click shows that Varilek has made clear his policy positions on a number of issues. Varilek published a position paper on agriculture this summer before Noem did, even though Noem had been a sitting (and not much else) Congresswoman for a year and a half. To suggest that Noem has more specific plans than Varilek is obvious horsehockey.

Maybe in endorsing Kristi Noem, the Sioux City Journal is looking at its web referral records from Google Images. They certainly aren't looking at Congresswoman Noem's record or Matt Varilek's ability to improve upon it for South Dakota.

Update 10:16 MDT: Tim Giago still can't come up with any solid policy achievements to justify rehiring Noem, either.

Published in South Dakota

caheidelberger

10 Comments

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.10.26

    I'm glad some out-state press is noticing Noem's nuttiness. (Now if they'd just link back to some of the sparkling local commentary!)

  3. Jerry 2012.10.26

    Lee owns this rag just like they own the Rapid City Journal, what else could you expect? They both share one thing, they are only honest and are clear on who they support, tea party new republicans. This group of fake news papers, has only one thing they are focused on, the potential of ruining democracy in America, only that. Keep in mind that this paper also loves them some Rep. Steve King, head idiot of the party they support.

  5. G-Man 2012.10.26

    Out of state interests trying to influence an election, who would have thought? Don't you just love it? The same thing is going on in my new congressional district here in Oregon. An out-of-state hedge fund billionaire (Robert Mercer) has dumped as much money as he is allowed into the campaign coffers of an extreme right-wing Republican who is challenging our Democratic Congressman, Peter DeFazio. DeFazio is well known in Congress for taking on wealthy special interests. The Republicans have to bring in money from outside of Oregon to help support DeFazio's challenger who has expressed his desire to eliminate social programs, including Social Security. Like Paul Ryan, Art Robinson wants to privatize Social Security, placing it in the stock market.

  6. G-Man 2012.10.26

    After leaving South Dakota, I've had to get use to living in a state that has more than one US House Representative. I live in Oregon's 4th Congressional District and this year my district is facing the most contested race compared to the other districts which are pretty much "safe" districts. The majority of them are Democratic, with one Republican one. The Republican one is all of Eastern Oregon which is a very sparsely populated district. All of the Democratic districts, including mine, are located between the Cascades and the Coast, where most of the population of the state resides, also known as the I-5 corridor. I have to admit that it feels great to live in a state that has a larger Congressional delegation and more electoral votes than just 3. You feel like your state has a little more political muscle.

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