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GOP Blogger Opens Predictable Carpetbagger Attack Against South Dakota Army Veteran

When Corinna Robinson announced her intention to challenge Rep. Kristi Noem for South Dakota's lone U.S. House seat, SDSU poli-sci prof emeritus Bob Burns predicted she'd draw carpetbagger flak:

Bob Burns, a professor emeritus of political science at South Dakota State University, said national polling indicates Republican House members are getting the most blame for the government shutdown and a flirtation with defaulting on the national debt. That could help a candidate like Robinson.

But Burns also predicted that Robinson would have to weather “carpetbagger” allegations.

“Those two may balance each other off somewhat,” Burns said. “But I do believe individual members, and Republican members of the House in particular, do have some liability going into the 2014 election” [Jonathan Ellis, "Iraq War Vet to Challenge Kristi Noem in U.S. House Race," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.10.16].

A few overreactors in the comment section chewed out Professor Burns as if he himself were criticizing Robinson:

Carpetbagger because she left the state to serve her country? Shameful accusation [John Smith].

How dare Burns label her a carpetbagger for going and serving our country. What a hack! [James Jacobson]

"Carpetbagger"? Ms. Robinson went to war to fight the worthless wars brought on by Noem's caucus... [Tom Klemesrud].

...to hang the term carpetbagger on her for leaving the state to serve our country is outrageous [Lanny Stricherz].

I explained to these gentlemen that Dr. Burns wasn't calling her a carpetbagger, but that he was predicting how the GOP machine that regularly and wrongly brands Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Matt Varilek and other Democrats as outsiders would also say Corinna Robinson, who is coming back to South Dakota after spending over 25 years in the military (which doesn't give a gal much choice as to where she lives), is not a real South Dakotan.

3... 2... 1...

So this is what the Dems have come up with against Noem. Someone who decided to move back to her home state after a lifetime away. Someone who as far as I can tell, has never voted in a South Dakota election [Pat Powers, "Corinna Robinson: Freshly Back in South Dakota to Protect Us from Minimum Wage Terrorists," Dakota War College, 2013.10.20].

I invite John, James, Tom, Lanny, and everyone else to visit Pat and explain why he'd better drop the carpetbagger talk against this honorable South Dakota soldier really fast.

22 Comments

  1. bwschwartz 2013.10.20

    Are they really going down that road considering the current wingnut flavor of the day, Stace Nelson, spent 20 plus years away from the state himself?

  2. Joan Brown 2013.10.20

    The last I heard when a person is in the military, they can pick any state to be their home state, for obtaining things like car license, etc. I assume most of them would pick the state they grew up in. I have a sister-in-law that is married to a retired Air Force Capt. and they picked SD as their home state, being that was where she grew up and his parents were career Army, stationed in Germany. Anyway that is the way I understood it when they were talking about it.

  3. David Newquist 2013.10.20

    The many commenters who assumed Bob Burns was calling the name carpetbagger when he was predicting what the GOP would call her is indicative of the real political problem faced by the nation: illiteracy. We have created a generation which can be triggered to pour out mindless invective at the drop of a word, like Pavlov's dog salivated at the ding of a bell. That faction that has worked so hard to eliminate cognitive skills, largely acquired by reading and writing, is getting the kind of unthinking conditioned creatures it sees as the ultimate citizen.

    The yelling of "carpetbagger" by the Demented Weenie Caucus is the alternative to drooling on their keyboards when the bell rings.

  4. jerry 2013.10.20

    This Model T Party is so far removed from reality it is sad. Much like a rabid skunk they charge imaginary threats to their corrupted minds. You may not like the politics of this lady who is challenging NOem, but you should respect her service to this great country. What bwschwartz and Joan Brown say, are spot on about Nelson being away from South Dakota and all who have served being away from their home state. It fractures my mind to read of the complete ignorance of this party and how they relate to our military. It really goes to the heart of the matter, they hate military, unless active duty and dodging bullets and they hate those that have returned. One thing though, they fear her.

  5. Mark 2013.10.20

    The carpetbagger issue will backfire --- as it should. Corinna Robinson: welcome home, welcome to the fray, and thank you for offering yourself up in public service. Most importantly, thank you for your service to the country.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.20

    Mark, should we encourage the GOP call Stace Nelson a carpetbagger, too? He spent almost as much time as Robinson gallivanting around the world in uniform before coming back to South Dakota to be a politician.

  7. Mark 2013.10.20

    Ms. Robinson and Mr. Nelson have served our country honorably. Commenters, voters, and especially political bloggers, should keep that in mind. Most of them do. I mistakenly assumed that a blog w/ "War College" in its name would appreciate that that when people go into the service, they usually go away, as there aren't a whole lot of USMC or army installations here. When bloggers stoop to silly issues, they risk losing their accreditation with me.

  8. Roger Cornelius 2013.10.20

    From what I can gather, Stace Nelson is a carpetbagger, he resides in an alternate universe.

    I agree with Mark, Republicans maybe picking the wrong fight with fight with Corinna Robinson, but again they seem to be good at picking the wrong fight.

  9. grundznick 2013.10.20

    Who is this young woman and what is she running for?

  10. Michael B 2013.10.20

    She will make the race much more interesting. Veterans bring a lot of great insights and problem solving skills to any job they choose to pursue.

  11. Vincent Gormley 2013.10.20

    Fleas like Powers are frequently found in carpets and bags. They keep carpet cleaners in business. Powers would not last five minutes anywhere else.

  12. grudznick 2013.10.20

    BAH on all this carpetbagger nonsense. Even Mr. Nelson returned to this state for reasons other than becoming a professional politician.

    Did you know that Ms. Noem has a half a million dollars in some sort of leadership PAC that this other young lady will have to raise up to? I, for one, would welcome hearing what this new lady has to say about running for congress. I will not poo-poo her attempts to run against Ms. Noem at this time. Let the lady get her feet wet and on the ground.

  13. Deb Geelsdottir 2013.10.20

    This conversation has a great deal to do with irrational arguments and/or accusations. There is a well-done blog I follow named "The Same Rowdy Crowd." One of the posters has very recently written a post about the thinking of the extreme right, especially the Teabaggers. He links to some reputable sources too. It's at thesamerowdycrowd.wordpress.com. One of the first posts you'll find is "It's the Hysterical Delusion Affirmation Syndrome."

  14. Winston 2013.10.20

    What about Leo Thorsness? South Dakota Republicans never had a problem with his precarious South Dakota residency. Sure he unfortunately spent six years in captivity during the Vietnam War, but his South Dakota ties prior to his run against McGovern in 1974 were quite weak. His wife established or maintained her residency in South Dakota while he was in Southeast Asia before and during his captivity. Up to 1974, Thorsness had lived in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, California, and Southeast Asia. After his release from captivity in March of 1973, he returned to South Dakota and within 10 months he was the RSCC choice to run against McGovern. Thorness then went on to lose to McGovern in 1974 and Daschle in 1978. Ten years later, Thorsness finds himself in the state of Washington as an one term State Senator. I thank him for his service to our country and his captivity must have been hell, but five states in your life time and you ran for office in two them, I think the facts speak for themselves; but this reality for some reason never bothered the South Dakota GOP.... nor the Washington GOP.

    Also, is voter registration good enough or must you also live in the state on a regular basis? Pressler left South Dakota in 1964 for Oxford, Vietnam, Harvard, and the State Department. He then came home in 1974 and was elected to Congress in the First Congressional District.... That didn't bother the South Dakota GOP either....?

  15. interested party 2013.10.21

    The Brookings Register is loaded with trends in socialism this morning: PP lives in a fantasy.

  16. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.21

    Good history on Thorsness, Winston!

    Voter registration is good enough. One must inhabit the state when elected, meaning, if you really wanted, you could wait until November 1 to buy a house in South Dakota and still legitimately be elected to represent us in Congress on November 2. RVers who maintain their de jure residence in South Dakota by renting a mailbox and licensing their cars in Madison or Alexandria but spend the entire year touring the country could qualify for office.

  17. Liberty Dick 2013.10.21

    Something to note on the "carpetbagger" assertions is she has been out of the military since, what 2007? It isn't like she just got out and is moving home so there definitely is validity to the question.

  18. Jana 2013.10.21

    Oh and PP makes a very important statement to the Dakota Roots folks. We want our best and brightest to come home...but you aren't good enough for full citizenship in the GOP world. You see the "Mean Girls" that are the GOP decide who's in the clique.

  19. Douglas Wiken 2013.10.21

    Thorsness had a near miracle recovery because of his campaigning . After he lost, he tossed his cane.

  20. twuecker 2013.10.21

    Dr. Newquist's point about the basic discursive illiteracy of the whole conversation about Robinson's South Dakota bona fides is applicable to other parts of the political climate at the moment as well. So much of the Tea Party anti-government rhetoric is designed to elicit the same kind of knee-jerk, Pavlovian responses. Say "Obamacare" and get people to hurl fiery phrases about "socialized medicine" and "death panels." Ring the "Evils of Big Government" bell and get your followers to respond in advocacy of policies that are against their own economic and social best interests. "Buzzwords" exists in a lot of places in our society, but their nearly exclusive use--and frustratingly frequent success--is evidenced nowhere better than in Tea Party campaign rallies and Noem-ish/Cruz-y/Bosworth-ian speeches and YouTube videos.

  21. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.22

    Spend time outside South Dakota, be relegated to permanent second-class citizenship... uh oh, Jana! Don't tell Governor Daugaard (Northwestern Law School, 1978, Chicago lawyer, 1978–1981). There must a 16-year time limit on counting out-state experience against a candidate.

    And TW, your political observations are astute, but what rocks even more is your diversity of adjectival suffixes. Rock on! :-)

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