Last updated on 2012.05.04
Yesterday I wondered for how many of the South Dakota Legislature GOP primaries Gordon Howie would try to take credit. The answer this morning: all of them!
A statewide effort was launched to recruit conservative Christian candidates to challenge the liberal/moderate Republicans in the Legislature.
At last count, there are nearly thirty Republican primary challenges. 12 in the Senate and 15 in the House. Conservatives have stepped up to challenge these liberal/moderate Republicans who have failed to support conservative Christian principles [Gordon Howie, "Well Done, Conservative Team in South Dakota," The Right Side, 2012.03.31].
Gordon Howie still hasn't named a single candidate who is a member of his theocracy campaign or Conservative Clan Caucus or property tax payment plan or whatever the heck we're supposed to call his game. Looking over the list of primary candidates, we can't tell who's a regular Republican and who's a Gord-fearing conservative. But we can tell which primaries are clearly not a product of true conservative rebellion against RINOs:
- District 2 Senate has Republican Norbert Barrie challenging sitting GOP Senator Art Fryslie. Barrie has worked in inevitably socialist economic development and expressed support for increasing sales taxes, not exactly boosters for Tea Party cred.
- District 4 has a good conservative in Senator Tim Begalka, who signed on with other conservatives to challenge the GOP House leadership on alleged ethics violations last December. The House leadership, in the form of peeved Speaker Val Rausch, is now trying to primary Begalka out.
- District 10 House had a nice simple arch-conservative father-daughter GOP ticket of Don and Jenna Haggar until former Sioux Falls mayor, 20-year Citibank employee, and 24-year legislator Dave Munson jumped in. Dave Munson—can you get more GOP Establishment than that?
- District 19 House already has one of the archest conservatives Gordon Howie could ask for, Rep. Stace Nelson. Yet District 19 has a primary thanks to the entry of all-too-recent Democrat Kyle Schoenfish's party switch. Current longtime GOP Establishment legislator Jim Putnam is also in that race, as is one of a thousand guys in southeastern South Dakota named Roger Hofer.
- District 30 House has two high-octane conservatives, uranium-mining "environmental lawyer" Lance Russell and Bible-lovin', coyote-shootin', science-denyin', vasectomized woman-hater Mike Verchio. Yet they have three GOP primary challengers: Florence Thompson, Travis Bies, and Tim Behlings. If that's part of Gord's insurgency against flimsy, faithless conservatives, it's a serious misfire.
So put up or shut up, Gordon. Name names: which people are your people? Which unconservative, un-Christian Republicans have you effectively primaried?
And why are you flying a British flag for your conservatives?
what liberal/moderate Republicans? They aren't allowed in the republican party.
I have to comment on this. As one of the founding members of the SD Conservatives with Common Sense, I was one of the most outspoken supporters of Mr. Howie during his gubernatorial near-miss. I had to pull my support at the last minute, and that of my fellow Conservatives with Common Sense, when Mr. Howie overgodded on us.
Today, the man seems to have swallowed a garden hose hooked up to a bible shredder at your local whack-job church.
I cut my own hair too, but I fear that this may soon become the mark of the insane like Mr. Howie and his followers. Do not be so liberal or whacko as to cut your own hair. I'm just sayin...
I spoke with Mr. Verchio about this stuff at that little office he has by the lake outside of Hill City where they have a museum to the old CCC guys. I told him it wasn't right for him to be working in museum that celebrates socialism while being such a big bald blank when it came to doing meaningful legislation. He quit speaking to me and pretty much suggested I leave "his" building. Mr. Verchio is a giant Mr. Howie supporter. A SupHowie. A Gordockstrap. A huge Gordockstrap.
Dave Munson:. Sioux Falls certified village idiot. I hope someone takes credit for him. Howie can have him.
Troy on Munson: really? Tell me more!
Fascinating perspective, Grudz. You, too: tell me more!
(And I cut my own hair. Saves ten bucks a month, right?)
Mike Verchio was one of my clients for nearly ten years: his racist jokes were interminable. His son is a former military spook who reminds me of Timothy McVeigh.
You have clients, Kurtz? What do you do? Massages?
BF haircut confession: I get one once or twice a year whether I need it or not. A pro from Boston does it. You'd never know it to look at me. LOL.
Recall that Verchio sold the Continental Cafe in 2000 and that <a href="http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/article_038e4402-e16d-5dfe-b3c1-3fbe1690c437.html"a fire destroyed it in 2001.
"He said HRS's third-party claim against the Continental Cafe alleges that structural problems with the building were to blame. For instance, he said, the second floor was a mobile home that had been placed on top of the one-story restaurant with only one escape route that led through the restaurant building, Brink said."
When I left Sysco in 1992, Verchio was—[CAH Edit: Tweet! Unnecessary personal attack without evidence! Ten-yard penalty, replay the comment!]
Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/article_038e4402-e16d-5dfe-b3c1-3fbe1690c437.html#ixzz1qoCMBFGo
Nice oxymoron here:
"SD Conservatives with Common Sense"
More here http://www.oxymoronlist.com/
30 hours later, still no response from Mr. Howie. He even kicked my question out of his comment moderation queue. Come on, Gordon, just one name! Prove it or lose it!
I lived it, Cory.
Mr. Wilken, you should not denigrate my organization without knowing more about it.
And the Continental Cafe, when owned by Mr. Verchio, sold breakfast platters that went by names like "The Plumber", "The Carpenter", "The Lumberjuacker" and "The Boil Sucker." They were good platters. Today, they have a taller owner who does not glisten his head and they still have good breakfasts (just ask my friend Bill.)
Huether might take us over a cliff but he is leading. Dave's idea of leadership is to ask you what you think, get a blank look on his face because he is totally lost if he should agree or disagree with you, and then pats you on the back with these parting words: "Good seeing you."
Besides being a nice guy, he has no other redeeming qualities for public service. Been in public office for three decades and there is nothing one can identify as even so much as having a Munson fingerprint.
Your description of Munson, Troy, sounds like the direction Mike Rounds is heading. He's been in public office 18 years with nothing to show for it except for a half-water-filled money pit in Lead. I don't think Rounds accomplished anything that wouldn't have happened anyway without him - kind of like Munson. But they will probably both win their next races. A long career without a legacy - these empty suits win and South Dakota loses. Hey, at least future governors have a spiffy new mansion to call home and Sioux Falls has an arch over Phillips Avenue.
Man was Bill Janklow a jerk, but you can't dispute that he led. He brought the credit card banks that diversified and built Sioux Falls. The credit card money now is building the medical community - which one day may cure diabetes (which ironically Janklow suffered from).
Give us a leader who is both bold has a vision. Huether fits that bill for Sioux Falls. I'm not seeing it at the state level from Daugaard.
Women leading mass exodus from earth hater party:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/04/02/women-abandon-gop.html
Domestic terrorism suspected in Wisconsin PP blast: source.