Things Get Murkier and Murkier…
Was Al Part of the Conyers Package?
What Next?
When does the intrigue stop? We thought we had this resignation issue pretty well sewed up earlier but revelations keep coming. The District (of Columbia) is a swirl with word that the Congressional Black Caucus had balked about forcing Rep. Conyers out without having him partnered with someone else.
Who was the pigeon? Senator Al was in deep trouble and if this true-he may have filled that bill. If true, he now pays for his own alleged misdeeds and gets to add another’s to his chart. Does that sound like some sort of political double jeopardy? Hm-m!
Poor Al, he’s just a chicken coming home to “roast”.
So, now we possibly have the national liberal eastern establishment Democrats meddling even more with our Minnesota electives. If the national Dem powerbrokers don’t have anything else to occupy them, let us suggest they chase the
Russian dossier for a while.
Minnesota would be better served by a US Senator that has some influence backed by power and clout. Senator Al is now senator non grata in the Democrat senatorial caucus. He has little influence there now. We pointed out two options for him. The first is to resign and leave the Senate. The second is to amend his resignation statement where he says in the coming weeks that he will be resigning from the US Senate. We suggest he strike the period after Senate and add “Democrat caucus and becoming an INDEPENDENT Senator”.
As an Independent, he could represent Minnesota more fully, have his vote sought after from both the Dems and Republicans and be a factor. By not resigning from the Senate, he saves the Minnesota DFLers a potential embarrassment. Pawlenty has the DFL puh-lenty scared of losing the Senate seat.
If Senator Al does eventually leave the Senate, then we suggested a smarter move by Governor Dayton in appointing a replacement. The best candidate and a more ideal choice would be Rep. Tim Walz for various reasons.
The Governor reportedly has said he’ll announce his choice to replace Senator Franken in a couple of days. Maybe he should wait until Senator Franken actually resigns and leaves the Senate. Rampant speculation is that it will be his favored Tina Smith. Think again, Governor, she might fare better as Governor.
Bob Smith 3rd
Gopher State Politics Institute
December 10, 2017
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