- Noem has picked an experienced Washington insider as her chief of staff. As Mr. Woodring describes Jordan Stoick, he's "a native South Dakotan who knows his way around DC." Gee, describe Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin with those same words, and the Noem people jeer and boo.
- Noem's ability to impress the party bosses with fundraising may keep her from getting much work done for South Dakota on committees. SDSU poli-sci guy Gary Aguiar says its tough for members of Congress to pursue both committee power and leadership power. Herseth Sandlin focused on committee work to fight for South Dakota interests. her main leadership push was in the Blue Dog Coalition, which put her at odds with her party leadership. Now who's that cute freshman on John Boehner's leash?
- As she gets swept up in the D.C. power games, I'll bet Noem still won't find the guts to say no to the $141.50 per capita in earmarks that South Dakotans gobble up each year. Has anyone heard Noem name a single South Dakota earmark she'll turn back? Do you think she'll tell Madison Republicans she's shutting down their four-lane dreams for Highway 34 to save our grandchildren from debt? We're waiting, Kristi....
p.s.: Maybe I'm just overdosing on Noem snark to compensate for Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin's bad vote against protecting the budget from more tax cuts for the richest 1%. Stephanie! That's the Blue Doggery that got you beat. Read some Robert Reich!
Read some Robert Reich!
ReplyDeleteThat may be my next tattoo.
i would think you would at least wait until kristi is sworn in before you judge her record. she might surprise you. regardless, steph thought she was a slam dunk for reelection and could have worked a little harder maybe? if - if - if
ReplyDeleteYou might think that, Doug, but I want to beat the rush.
ReplyDeletemight surprise me? By all means, I hope she does. Let me hear her advocate ending farm subsidies (and giving back the $3M her family got). Let me hear her tell Madison no to all the earmarks and pork it gets. Let me hear her be an independent voice from Speaker Boehner. Let me hear her say anything original. I would revel in such surprise and praise her for it.
But does anyone think any of those things will happen?
CAH-
ReplyDeleteNope. She obviously doesn't know how congressional pork is used. I would say that in 90-95% of the cases anyone who heard the use would say "wow, what a good use". Only once in a long while do I hear of obviously bad pork.
She will go to Washington, learn about SD's existing earmarks, and then realize that they are almost all intelligently designed projects.
Also, just as a side note, I tend to think that earmarks return a little bit of the control of the money to local authorities. Earmarks are put together by local coalitions focused on local problems that could be aided by funding.
Tony, I think you've got something there: if just use the phrase "intelligent design" to describe it, fundagelical Noem should be all over it!
ReplyDelete