Mayor Boke Fighting Booth Hatchery Closure; Noem Strangely Noncommital

Spearfish Mayor Dana Boke understands that we need to save the D.C Booth Fish Hatchery:

“This is part of our culture,” Boke said. “My 10-year-old daughter read about it in the paper, and it brought her to tears. That’s how all the kids feel. There are memories all across South Dakota and beyond of this place and the family memories it’s created over time. It’s tied to who we are.

“We need to champion the cause and assist in any way we can to get this thing turned around,” the mayor added [Tom Griffith, "Spearfish's D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery Helped Change South Dakota History," Rapid City Journal, 2013.08.25].

Senator Tim Johnson seems to get it, too:

“I am very disturbed about the rumors that the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish might be closed by the Fish & Wildlife Service,” Johnson said. “The D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery is a tremendous asset of the Black Hills. I have fought hard for funding to invest in the restoration of the hatchery and to make it an informational and educational showcase of fish hatchery operations in the Black Hills and the U.S.” [Griffith, 2013.08.25]

I think Congresswoman Kristi Noem gets it, although as usual, Noem's aloof, self-absorbed talking-point detachment makes it hard to tell. Rep. Noem told a packed Spearfish town hall Friday that she'll "push to get more information and ask the right questions." But after hearing such vociferous feedback from so many Spearfish residents and even visiting the hatchery herself Friday, our Congresswoman's only social media reaction to the town hall is to thank "interested parties" for the "info" and to post photos of herself while cheering the great turnout at "my townhall".

Kristi, get with the program. You go to a town hall during working hours in Spearfish. Concerned citizens pack the hall to express concern about an obviously bad decision from Washington that will kill jobs and hurt tourism and tax revenue. The mayor's daughter is in tears! Politically, the D.C. Booth Hatchery issue is a no-brainer. You tell those eager constituents on the spot, "The Hatchery rocks. It stays open. I'll call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and read them the riot act." You use your social media presence to send the message immediately that you listened and you're doggedly on the case. "Thx for the info" doesn't rally the troops or make a memorable impression on voters who want to know you'll fight for them and for the Hatchery.

I understand Rep. Noem may have difficulty getting passionate about an issue that doesn't appear in the weekly briefing points from Speaker Boehner. But South Dakota's lone Representative needs to get off script and join Mayor Boke in representing her constituents and fighting to save the D.C. Booth Hatchery from the thoughtless Washington budget axe.

Kristi Noem Criss-Crossing South Dakota in Party Bus

Taking a page from the Gordon Howie campaign handbook, Kristi Noem has decided to counterprogram Matt Varilek's beautiful Buick and tour the state in a big RV:

Ah, the Noemobile. No word on how big a contribution you have to make to get a ride on Kristi's bus.

There's plenty of room for high-kicking daughters Kassidy and Kennedy. Komfy, I'm sure.

Noem is touring the state in RV comfort in what she calls the "Farms, Families, and Friends Tour." With this season-ending campaign blitz, Noem is effectively doubling the number of public meetings... although they aren't really public meetings open to all citizens, at least not citizens looking to document the vacuous campaign-trail malarkey Noem spreads.

On her entirely public Facebook campaign page, Noem snaps this metaphorically appropriate photo:

The water's rising, Kristi. Let's be honest, admit Noem is in over her head, and elect a Congressman who can do the job.

Matt Varilek habla español. ¡Sí se puede!

Wow, haven't hit that button for a while!

While I continue to repair the MadvilleTimes.com database, I can't resist posting this remarkable video, in which Matt Varilek demonstrates that he's not only well-educated and well-traveled, but also bilingual:
 

In this interview with Sioux Falls media outlet La Voz, you hear Matt Varilek speak more Spanish than Kristi Noem has probably spoken in her life.

Meanwhile, conservative political scholar Jon Schaff doesn't even damn Noem with faint praise. He derides her non-record and her desperate campaign against Varilek as verging on "ignorant provincialism":

Noem seems to have little to offer as a candidate other than being "more South Dakota than thou."  As a challenger that isn't really a problem.  But cute ads and plaid shirts are not a subsitute for legislative achievement.  It is not enough that she shares the views and "values" of most South Dakotans.  She's not been elected to share our values, but to do something about them [Jon Schaff, "Noem Not Gonna Get Out Dakota'd," South Dakota Politics, November 4, 2012]. 

Bob Ellis suggests that a good stiff narrow victory may teach Kristi Noem to get back to her values. As a teacher, I reject the notion of giving failing students passing grades. They won't learn that they haven't performed up to standards from a passing grade. The best way to teach Kristi a lesson is to give her an F so she can go back to the farm, think about the errors of her ways... and brush up her Spanish for 2014!

Noem Fails to Land Seat on Agriculture Committee

Someone please unspin this for me: Kristi Noem, soon to be South Dakota's lone Representative in the U.S. House, for all her supposed pull with the new Republican majority, fails to land a seat on the House Agriculture Committee.

The Agriculture Committee is the one committee for which Noem has more experience than I do to serve as a useful member. She relentlessly touted her lifelong farm background on the campaign trail. Right after the election, Noem herself said landing a seat on the agriculture committee was among her top priorities:

Once in Washington, Noem says she hopes to serve on the agriculture committee.

"But then we'll go on from there. Maybe commerce; energy will be extremely important. We'll see what we can do and we'll be on the one that's best for South Dakota," Noem said [Shawn Neisteadt, "Noem Reflects on Campaign, Looks Forward," KELOLand.com, 2010.11.03].

Noem repeated later in November that she wanted an Ag seat, plus Energy and Commerce. She also mentioned Natural Resources.

Noem got little of what she wanted. She landed the Natural Resources Committee, which is apparently "less competitive to get a seat on" (i.e., Noem got the crap assignment), and the Labor and Education Committee, for which she as a non-college graduate from a union-busting state is singularly unqualified. And all Noem's spokesflunky Joshua Shields can whimper in response to a direct question about the failure to get the ag nod is "there are several good committees Kristi considered. She is pleased with her assignments."

My only hope is that she will use her position on Ed/Labor to put her Tea-Bag cred to work and kill No Child Left Behind. Why, oh why, do I keep hoping against hope that Republicans will display philosophical consistency?

Noem's assignments are one more sign that the GOP leadership sees her as more valuable as a trick pony for their fundraisers and press appearances than as a strong voice for South Dakota interests. Maybe they noticed that she never did get around to posting a coherent ag policy on her campaign website. Or maybe even the GOP leadership couldn't ignore Noem's clear conflict of interest over making a living off farm subsidies and subsidized crop insurance.

Either way, South Dakota has just lost its only voice on the House Agriculture Committee, which shapes legislation on all manner of ag issues as well as on the rural electric systems and rural development.

Noem Opposes DREAM Act; Pentagon Disagrees

Matt Hildreth of The Independent Local takes Kristi Noem to task for her opposition to the DREAM Act:

You call the DREAM Act “amnesty,” you even say it "rewards those who have broken the law.”

Representative elect, to say that the DREAM Act is amnesty is to say that your children are fugitives. Maybe we should have detained your kids for the +27 times you broken the law.

According to you, it would be “amnesty” not to [Matt Hildreth, "Were Noem's Children Granted Amnesty?" The Independent Local, 2010.12.10].

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act wouldn't exactly let children of illegal immigrants off scot free. The only crime these kids have committed lies in not running away from their parents to avoid coming to or staying in America. The DREAM Act would give these kids a conditional path to citizenship: i.e., they have to work to become citizens, either by going to college or by serving in the military for two years.

Dang, that's not much different from the "advice" the judge gave Bill Janklow back when he was a rowdy teenager raising real trouble.

The Pentagon thinks the DREAM Act is a great idea, since it would get thousands more fresh recruits each year. But Noem and the Republicans see a chance to holler about those others who are threatening our American way of life. Keep fear alive, Kristi....

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Bonus Fiscal Conservatism: CBO says the DREAM Act cuts the deficit $1.4 billion and raises federal revenues $2.3 billion over ten years. Wow! Pass 52 more bills like that, and we'll cover the cost of the tax breaks for the rich we're passing this week!

Washington Insiders Making Kristi Noem One of Them

Screen cap, Washington Post front page, 2010.12.15. Dang: I usually love it when South Dakota makes the papers.

Hat tip to Dr. Newquist!

Monday I noted some out-state bloggers seeing through Kristi Noem's Tea Party image. Now a more prominent reporter confirms what I argued two weeks ago: the "Tea Party" (if they still exist) has been had by a bunch of budding GOP Washington insiders.

When the good people of South Dakota voted last month to send Republican Kristi Noem to Congress, they probably believed that she would give no quarter to the lobbyists and special interest groups who enjoyed, as she put it, "throwing money at the feet of a member of Congress."

But since she defeated Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (in part by making an issue of Herseth Sandlin's marriage to a lobbyist), Noem has hired her new chief of staff from . . . a lobbying firm! And on Tuesday afternoon, she was the guest of honor at a "Meet & Greet" with Washington high-rollers at the powerhouse lobbying firm Barbour Griffiths Rogers. Once these boys start throwing money at Noem's feet, she'll soon be chin deep in lobbyist greenbacks [Dana Milbank, "Forget Tea Party Rhetoric—Pork Barrel Politics Is Back," Washington Post, 2010.12.15].

Gee, Kristi, what South Dakota constituency does Barbour Griffiths Rogers represent? The GOP central committee is already trotting out Noem as its newest, cutest show pony, and the Snow Queen is more than happy to smile and wave and do what she's told for the big boys.

That may sound harsh, but as a literary exercise, imagine an alternative universe where Stephanie Herseth Sandlin won the election and did exactly the things cited by Mr. Milbank. Imagine you are a conservative blogger in said alternative universe. What would you have written about alt-universe-SHS lobbyist party girl?

Milbank's column supports the thesis that, if the "Tea Party" wasn't GOP astroturf from the start, the Republican National Committee effectively co-opted it, used it for its own electoral ends, and is now happily discarding it... at least unitl 2012, when Republicans will need to distill more outrage (and find better candidates) to beat President Obama.

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Update 10:25 CST: Joe O'Sullivan is on Noem's case, too.

Update 11:03 CST: Let the spin begin: now the Tea Party line is to cloak lobbying in the Constitution. Gaack! Gaaaaacckkk! (sound of hypocrisy hairballs)

Conservatives Already Seeing Through Kristi Noem Facade

All conservatives got with Kristi Noem was looks. Observers outside South Dakota are already seeing that, far from a true Tea Party crusader, Noem is just another pork-seeking farm-state politico. Take her comments on subsidies for ethanol:

Speaking on the Scott Hennen Show Noem says “Ethanol has been very good to South Dakota.” She said that this is not the time to repeal the subsidy “when you look at taking away that subsidy it is the wrong decision.”

She says that supporting the ethanol industry with subsidy promotes investment and continued hiring “In the long run it will get the economy back on track faster” [Kurtis Workman, "New South Dakota Congresswoman Say Ethanol Subsidy Good For Recovery," PlainsDaily.com, 2010.12.09]

Wait a minute: isn't Noem the same lady who spent a lot of time this year blasting federal stimulus efforts?

Let's tour the blogosphere. Rob Port at Say Anything:

How are ethanol subsidies any different than Obama’s economic stimulus spending? The fiscal conservative argument against the stimulus spending spree was that government cannot create jobs because government cannot spend anything without taking away from someone else.

Given that, if Obama’s stimulus spending hasn’t resulted in job growth (and we know it hasn’t) then how is spending on ethanol subsidies any different? [Rob Port, "South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem: Ethanol Subsidies Are Economic Stimulus," SayAnythingBlog.com, 2010.12.09]

Rand Simberg:

This is depressing. Kristi Noem hasn’t even taken office yet, and she’s already defending home-grown pork as “stimulus"... [Rand Simberg, "And So It Begins," Transterrestrial Musings, 2010.12.11].

The Lonely Conservative from New York:

Kristi Noem is conservative only when it suits her.... I'm glad I didn't waste my time blogging about this woman ["Just When I Was about to Praise Kristi Noem," The Lonely Conservative, 2010.12.12].

Ah, but we shouldn't be too hard on our Mrs. Noem. She's just following the lead of John Boehner and the other big Washington Republicans who are engaged in the same hypocrisy on the pending $855 billion tax-rate and stimulus deal. Stimulus packages and deficit spending are bad, bad, bad when Democrats will get the credit and we need to rile up the voters. But when stimulus packages and deficit spending send money to our favored special interests, be they the ethanol industry or the richest 1% of Americans who pay for our campaign ads, then spending money we don't have becomes our patriotic duty.

Lobbyist to Manage Noem

Hat tip to South DaCola and to commenter Dr. Weiland, who pointed this out in my comment section yesterday: Think Progress lists 13 GOP Congressional freshmen who have picked lobbyists to handle them in Washington. Among them, South Dakota's own Representative-Elect Kristi Noem.

Rep.-elect Krisi Noem (R-SD) selected Jordon Stoick as her chief of staff. Stoick is a vice president at the lobbying firm Direct Impact. Direct Impact also specializes in building public support for corporate causes, boasting on its website that it once generated hundreds of letters to the FCC on behalf of the telecom industry [Lee Fang, "At Least 13 New Republican Members Of Congress Hire Corporate Lobbyists To Manage Their Office," Think Progress, 2010.12.09].

Lobbyists?!? Noooooooo(em)!
Mr. Ehrisman, I am so glad you saved this picture.

So that's how Stoick paid for that million-dollar mansion.

During the campaign, Noem said that we couldn't trust a Congresswoman who was married to one of those dirty-bird lobbyists. "“Legislating and lobbying simply should not mix in the same household,” Noem said. “It is a recipe for conflicts of interest and possibly even corruption.” But mixing legislating and lobbying in the office we pay for is apparently fine. And Noem is already meeting with lobbyists to help her set her corporate agenda.

I knew Kristi would be great for blogging. The headlines almost write themselves.

Contra DWC, Outsider Groups Gave Noem Huge $$ Advantage

During this year's Congressional campaign, Dakota War College made the patently absurd spin-claim that Kristi Noem would not get a whole lot of support from out-of-state groups, that her campaign would win mostly on local, grassroots, South Dakota efforts.

DWC has since deleted that claim. That Sioux Falls paper ha since deleted the validity of that claim:

Republican and conservative groups spent about $2 million to help Noem win, most of it in the form of ads criticizing Herseth Sandlin. Democratic and liberal groups spent close to $600,000, most of it in ads against Noem, according to Federal Election Commission reports analyzed by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington watchdog think tank.

Herseth Sandlin said the influx of outside money definitely contributed to her defeat.

"We were outspent pretty heavily," she said [Ledyard King, "Outside Groups Backed Noem 3–1," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.12.05].

Those outside groups do love ladies on horsies. And contrary to the spin offered by the Noem campaign and its fawning conservative blogs, those outside groups were instrumental in helping the less-qualified Noem eke out a slim plurality of the vote.

Noem Staffer Gets Million-Dollar Mansion

Expect a stoic silence from the Noem camp on this one...

Once upon a time, Senator Tom Daschle caught all sorts of guff from folks who wanted to beat him for having a two-million-dollar house (oops, sorry: mansion) in D.C. (or was it $3 million?). Nice houses in Washington, D.C., just don't reflect South Dakota values, do they?

With that in mind, let us turn to the McLean, Virginia, real estate transfers for October. Of 19 home sales recorded at the Fairfax County property tax office, only three were for less than $500K, all condos. Six homes went for over a million dollars. The bargain in that batch: 6134 Ramshorn Drive. Four bedrooms, three and a half baths, 3167 square feet, quarter-acre lot, sold July 30 this year for $1.02 million.

6134 Ramshorn Drive, McLean, Virginia

Whew! I've got four times the lot, but this swanky McLean house has 2.5 times the space and 10 times the mortgage of my humble South Dakota abode.

McLean is a nice neighborhood. Median family income is over $180K; poverty rate is 1.9%. Compare that to Castlewood, South Dakota, where median family income is about $37K and poverty is 7.1%.

Castlewood? What the—oh! I almost forgot to tell you who bought this piece of the American Dream. Please congratulate new homeowners Carine and Jordan Stoick.

Stoick... where have I heard...

Oh! Jordan Stoick! Mobridge boy made good! Successful Washington P.R. dude! And Kristi Noem's new chief of staff:

As I prepare to go to work in Congress, I’m focused on putting together a quality team of individuals that will help me serve South Dakota well. Jordan understands the issues important to our state, and his background and experience makes him a great person to help ensure we hit the ground running on behalf of all South Dakotans [emphasis mine; Representative-Elect Kristi Noem, press release, 2010.12.03].

Catch that? Stoick lives in a million-dollar house, worth seven times more than the median house in Sioux Falls. He lives in a swanky, exclusive D.C. neighborhood. And Kristi Noem thinks he "understands the issues important to our state." But having a big, expensive house doesn't have anything to do with one's ability to understand and fight for South Dakota, does it?

Oh, but I suppose there's a world of difference between Tom Dsachle and Jordan Stoick. Daschle was the elected Senator, the decision-maker, the man directly accountable to us South Dakotans in our $100K sod shanties. Jordan Stoick is just a staffer... the chief of staff, the man behind the scenes, the man who has Kristi's ear every day on every issue, telling her how to be a Congresswoman.

Million-dollar mansion. There's one more meme we won't hear in any future GOP attack ads. Thanks, Kristi!

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p.s.: Boy, I hope Stoick didn't have to sell the boat to swing the payments.

pp.s.: Is Kristi's house that big place by the Racota Valley Ranch sign on Highway 81? How much is her house worth?

Sorry, Tea Party: Noem Going Washington

All Kristi Noem ever had to offer the Tea Party was looks. Don't expect her to really change anything in Washington. She's already going Washington:

• 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....

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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!

Thune Flack: Herseth Sandlin Doesn't Buy Groceries

I was going to leave this alone, but some Republicans just can't win with class.

The Thune campaign successfully backed sock puppet Kristi Noem against Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. They got someone nice and Palin-y in the chute to run for Senator Tim Johnson's seat in 2014 (assuming the Palin and Teabagger fads can last that long...and gods help us if they do).

But gloating over their Ice Queen coronation isn't enough. The Thune campaign now feels compelled to play Oprah and tell Herseth Sandlin how she ought to live her life after an election defeat:

Andi Fouberg, press secretary for Sen. John Thune, said Thune was very visible in the wake of his razor-thin loss to Sen. Tim Johnson in 2002.

Thune, who then held the congressional seat that Herseth Sandlin does now, lived in Sioux Falls and was seen at the grocery store, at his children’s ballgames and in the community, Fouberg said.

“Senator Thune held a press conference the day after the 2002 election and had conversations with reporters throughout that week and beyond that,” she said. “There wasn’t really a period of silence” [Tom Lawrence, "Ousted Congresswoman Says She Has 'No Regrets,'" Mitchell Daily Republic, 2010.12.01]

Senator Thune, you pay Andi with an i $100,000-plus a year to say things like this? Our tax dollars at work? Try our tax dollars at jerk.

Andi with an i neglects to remind us that the "press conference" the day after the 2002 election was more likely Thune's concession speech, since the 500-some vote margin wasn't called in that race until the morning after the vote. And the Thune-Noem machine wasn't terribly interested in giving Herseth Sandlin any visibility right after they won, since Noem trotted out to give her victory speech hardly 30 seconds after Herseth Sandlin had begun her concession speech.

Andi with an i makes a whole whack of bogus implications with her other references:

• "lived in Sioux Falls"—still pumping the lie that Herseth Sandlin doesn't live in South Dakota. How many times does someone have to say she lives in Brookings for you to accept the plain fact that she lives in Brookings? Even in victory, is the lie so titillating, so addicting, that you can't give it up?
• "seen at the grocery store"—seriously? this matters? What do you want, Hy-Vee receipts? (Actually, speaking of receipts, we shouldn't forget that Herseth Sandlin was spending more money in South Dakota than Noem during the campaign.)
• "children's ballgames"—golly, we're sorry that Zachary isn't old enough for pee-wee football yet. Should Herseth Sandlin submit affidavits from neighbors who saw her around town with Zachary at McDonald's or the Children's Museum or other places?
  

Herseth Sandlin tells the press that she spent the past month at her home in Brookings, on a family Thanksgiving trip, and back at the office in Washington. She's been particularly busy there: in addition to making every vote so far in the lame-duck session, she's had to move her office, hand over office equipment, and let staff go, even though she's still on the job for another month. Whatever calls she's getting for jobs, the Lawrence article makes it sound as if Herseth Sandlin, the good boss, is more focused on helping her staffers make the transition and land on their feet.

Now I know the Thune-bots at Dakota War College are crushed to lose a fun headline-meme. (Heavens forbid bloggers lose easy snark and have to come up with original, useful news about policy.) But if Herseth Sandlin had taken the opposite route and made lots of public appearances post election, the Thune-bots would simply have resorted to some other slimy line, like "Who does she think she is? She loses but keeps trying to hog the spotlight. Why can't she leave the stage gracefully?"

In a political and media environment highly inclined to brush aside losers, outgoing Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin has been doing her job, helping her staff, and reclaiming some well-deserved privacy. And maybe, just maybe, Stephanie has been making up some quality time with a little boy who's a lot more important than providing fodder for those of us in the chattering class.

Thanks! Shorter Sentences, No Earthquakes, Generous Democrats

Some dressing for your turkey:

• Thankful cons: Governor M. Michael Rounds has brought 270 state prison inmates a few months closer to saying goodbye to creamed turkey on toast. The governor issued a batch of sentence reductions yesterday. Lake County's only winner: our own Stephanie Schumacher, who gets 90 days off her sentence. These commutations weren't free passes; inmates had to do 320 hours of community service, earn GEDs or firefighter certifications, or assist with special projects.
• Thankful for solid ground: We don't have much in the way of earthquakes in South Dakota. With the Keystone pipeline running underneath us and Keystone XL maybe joining it, Plains Justice reminds us we'd better hope it stays that way. Let's not go fault-finding....
• Thankful for Democrats: the new Congressional Republicans eager to activate their government health insurance face some calls to reject their own federal health coverage before they repeal Obamacare. A Public Policy Polling survey finds 53% of Americans think incoming freshpeople like Rep.-Elect Kristi Noem who campaigned against health care reform ought to reject their Congressional health coverage. 33% think they should take the Congressional benefit. Republicans and Independents are much harder on their freshpeople; Dems make the Reject! call by only a 40–46 margin. (I'm not so generous, Kristi: as insurance agents, you and Bryon can surely come up with a better policy on your own, right?)

Chris Nelson Lands PUC Nod

Chris Nelson rides again! Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard has named him as heir to Dusty Johnson's soon-to-be vacated seat on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

After being term-limited out as Secretary of State and losing to Kristi Noem in the GOP primary for that U.S. House seat, Nelson has snagged a pretty nice consolation prize that will keep his brains and talent in Pierre serving the people.

But what's this -- no experience necessary?

Daugaard appointed Nelson despite the Secretary of State lacking any experience in the utilities industry, saying Nelson was the right person for the job.

"He's demonstrated time and again that he's willing to fairly interpret and apply our state laws without regard for politics," Daugaard said [David Montgomery, "Secretary of State to fill Johnson's PUC vacancy," Rapid City Journal, 2010.11.23].

No experience in utilities, and he gets the job? That's it—I am totally sending Daugaard a résumé. Make me Secretary of Education! I've at least been in a few classrooms! That's more experience than Nelson has for the job he just got.

The official Dems' line will surely echo what we heard from House Minority Leader Mitch Fargen yesterday on SDPB's Dakota Midday: same old bureaucracy, same old cronies.

But here's a more interesting narrative I see developing. Daugaard moves the chairs to give Dusty Johnson a better position from which to launch a statewide campaign... say, U.S. Senate in 2014. Daugaard finds a way to keep capable and decent public servant Nelson in the game. I see both of these moves as signals from the mainline South Dakota Republicans, the fellas who got a heck of a lot more votes than Rep.-Elect Kristi Noem did on November 2, that they're keeping their best guys in the chute for Tim Johnson's Senate seat. Noem won thanks to lots of outside Tea Party groups (and overheated conservative males searching "Kristi Noem bust" on Google Images) that pose a threat to the proper order of South Dakota Republicanism. The adults in the party aren't going to let that get out of hand.

My, we humans do tend to see patterns where there may be none, don't we?

Update 12:22 CST: The Dems' response, from party exec Erin McCarrick in a press release five minutes ago:

It looks like the Daugaard Administration is the new retirement home for State employees who are term limited or who have paid their dues to the Republican Party. How are we going to fix the huge budget deficit we are facing with the same players?

Just as many businesses are kept out of government contracts in Pierre through the no-bid process, possible qualified persons are being kept out of positions in Pierre. South Dakota should question the hiring process in Republican Administrations—are there no other qualified people in South Dakota, or do they already live in Pierre?

Save Education (and GOP Consistency): Dump No Child Left Behind

President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Untested Behind Act into law. Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative John Boehner flank the President at the signing ceremony in Boehner's district, Hamilton, Ohio, January 8, 2002. White House photo by Paul Morse.

One line in an NPR story this morning reminds me why I left the Republican Party... and how Kristi Noem could just maybe draw me back.

Morning Edition considers Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner: "Rebel or Compromiser?" Reporter Andrea Seabrook mentions that the leader of the newly elected small-government/anti-government majority in the House of Representatives helped pass an enormous expansion of federal authority over education, the No Child Left Behind Act. President Bush flew to Boehner's hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, to sign NCLB into law. Boehner has called this exercise in bureaucracy and testing "one of the proudest accomplishments of my tenure in Congress."

John Boehner thundered from the floor of the House last March against what he misperceived as a government takeover of health care. Yet he proudly oversaw a much clearer federal takeover of public education in the No Child Left Behind Act.

I have yet to hear from any South Dakota teacher or administrator a good explanation of how the No Child Left Behind Act has made it easier for them to educate our kids. One reasonable English teacher has told me that NCLB has produced more standardized testing data that she and colleagues can analyze and use as a basis for modifying their classroom strategies. However, all that data has come at significant expense, as schools pay consultants to process all the testing data into usable summaries, and as school districts rearrange curricula and schedules to make room for more standardized tests and training thereto. All that effort gets us numbers that look like solid, scientific, objective data but which really don't tell anything that conscientious teachers can't tell you simply by talking with the kids, quizzing them, reviewing their homework, and giving their honest professional assessment of the learning they've seen happen in their classrooms.

Opposition to No Child Left Behind and national standards ought to be a no-brainer for Republicans like John Boehner. Opposition to standardization is certainly a no-brainer for Sir Ken Robinson, a well-known advocate for serious educational reform. Robinson sees testing and national standards as a logical extension of the factory production-line thinking that has turned American education into an increasingly mind-numbing and ineffective exterprise.

A speech by Sir Ken Robinson gets this illustrated treatment by RSA Animate:



Representative-Elect Kristi Noem, establish your true classical conservative cred and mention this video to Speaker Boehner (once you get around to admitting you are going to vote for him). Cite this video to launch your crusade to get big government out of education and repeal No Child Left Behind.

And here on the homefront, fellow citizens, I would love to hear some local candidates run for school board and talk about Robinson's prescription for reforming our education system out of its kids-as-factory-outputs model and turning it into a system that fosters all those kindergarten geniuses.

Marking: Noem Was Worst Choice

B. Thomas Marking thinks 94% of South Dakotans made the wrong choice for Congress last week. The 6% finisher thinks the 48% who voted for Kristi Noem made a really wrong choice:

B. Thomas Marking was disappointed not only with his showing in South Dakota’s three-way U.S. House race, but also with the order of the top-two finishers.

“I think that was probably the third-best choice,” Marking said this week of the winner, Kristi Noem [Tom Lawrence, "Marking: Noem Was 'Third Best' Candidate," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2010.11.11].

Alas for us bloggers, the ideologically enigmatic Marking does not elaborate on why he ranks Noem last. (Apparently Kristi's giving B-Thom top billing over Stephanie in her victory speech Election Night didn't impress him.)

Alas as well for true Indies, B.-Thom doesn't plan to build on his 6% momentum and make a run for other office any time soon. He says his experience and focus is national, so local or state office is out. And he found running a $10,000 campaign against million-dollar war chests futile, so he won't throw in for national office until campaign finance reform brings public funding.

Noem's First Big Post-Election Lie: "I Read All the Bill"

Congresswoman-Elect Kristi Noem transitions smoothly from lying to win the election to lying after the election. In a discussion about repealing or at least defunding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to take away numerous benefits from South Dakotans, Noem tells this whopper to Jon Walker:

Noem said she read the 2,700-page bill online during her campaign earlier this year.

"I read all the bill. It took me forever," she said [Jon Walker, "Noem Expects House to Starve Health Reform Bill," That Sioux Falls paper, 2010.11.07].

Bull. Noem couldn't even focus long enough to read the seven-page Tony Dean Cheyenne River Valley Conservation Act before parroting Senator Thune's opposition to the national grassland proposal.

Kristi Noem did not spend her summer reading every page of the health care bill. She hasn't read anything more substantial than the talking points sent by her GOP puppeteers.

Who Needs Two Parties? GOP Cognitive Dissonance Covers All Philosophical Bases

Dr. Blanchard writes an intelligent critique of political culture in South Dakota. For most of its existence, South Dakota has labored under unhealthy one-party rule. All too often, the state Democratic party has branded itself as imitation Republican. As demonstrated by Tuesday's election results, voters have no reason to buy imitation when they can get the real thing for the same price.

But Dr. Newquist gets me thinking that, if we want a real debate between conflicting ideas, we may not need Democrats. We can just listen to the simultaneously held contradictory positions of South Dakota Republicans:

...for a state that is so predominantly dependent upon federal handouts for its survival, the elimination of those programs would be devastating to the agricultural economy of the state. One comment cast the usual charge of socialist to the post, and I replied that a state that is dependent on so many federal handouts is about as socialist as a state can get.

I have been engaged in reporting on farm programs since I had that responsibility as the farm editor for a newspaper in the early 1960s. There has been a bipartisan concern about the degree to which the farm programs might become a major source of farm income so that it could turn American agriculture into a version of the collectivist system that was such a failure for the Soviet Union. What the commenters cannot grasp is that the matter is not a partisan issue. Both liberal and conservative politicians from urban areas think that budget cutting has to begin with farm programs [David Newquist, "Hey, Democrats...," Northern Valley Beacon, 2010.11.05].

A paltry plurality of South Dakotans (with the assistance of Dem-leaning voters who tended to abstain for lack of choices) just elected to Congress Kristi Noem, a woman who stirs our local Sarah Palin fantasies by promising to cut big government even as she and her family make a living selling federally subsidized crop insurance and collecting more farm subsidies than all but 17 other South Dakota ag operations.

Dang: Maybe Kristi Noem has a first-rate intelligence after all.

But maybe Noem will surprise us and reject the farm socialism that has made her family rich. Maybe she'll bite the bullet and vote for reform of the farm subsidy program that will shift the safety net away from her big-money family and friends and commodity crops and toward the small farms and more diverse healthy foods that really need our support. Voting for continued subsidies didn't protect Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin or dozens of other Democrats from electoral defeat:

As of the last count, 46 seats switched from Democrat to Republican in rural districts that rank in the top half in EWG’s farm subsidy database. In every single one of those races, incumbent Democrats who were in office in 2008 supported the last Farm Bill and the generous subsidy structure that brought billions of dollars home to their districts. Yet their support for the traditional subsidy system did not make enough of an impression on voters to shield them on election day [David DeGennaro, "Democrats' Bitter Harvest," Environmental Working Group, 2010.11.03].

EWG notes that Nancy Pelosi caved to big ag interests in the 2008 Farm Bill, thinking her rural members would need the political cover. Oops. Moral of that story: quit thinking about power, special interests, and the next election and just vote for what's right while you have the chance!

In the heart of farm country, voting for big farm subsidies doesn't protect your Congressional seat. So go ahead, Congresswoman-Elect Noem. Surprise us. Assuming you can even formulate a coherent agriculture policy (that would be surprise enough), advocate smaller, better government in agriculture. Get on board with John Boehner, who voted against the 2008 Farm Bill. End corporate socialism by cutting direct payments to the rich folks (like you) who don't need it. Redirect subsidies toward healthy food.

Or just acknowledge that South Dakota is a welfare state and that you, your family, and our whole state rely on socialism, on collective community effort, to survive. Either way, end the cognitive dissonance. After all, we in the loyal opposition can't loyally oppose you if you're occupying both positions at once.

Votes from the Fringe: Stacey Outpolls Marking

In the South Dakota U.S. House race, Independent B. Thomas Marking got 5.99% of the vote. That 5.99% of the vote had little to do with Mr. Marking's qualities as a person or candidate. Lori Stacey, Constitution Party candidate for Secretary of State, nuttiest person on the statewide ballot, got 6.60% of the vote. 832 votes more than Marking.

B. Thomas Marking didn't say much, but what policies and positions he did advocate were debatable yet reasonable. Lori Stacey spouted conspiracy theories and baseless threats and dwelt on minutiae of word choice as only a desperate paranoiac fringe candidate can. Her campaign finances were laughable even compared to Marking's paltry sums.

Yet she got more protest votes than B. Thomas Marking, who got to play referee (a good role for Indies—keep that in mind for future elections!) between Kristi Noem and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the marquee race of 2010.

Maybe worth noting: Marking's third-best showing came in Hamlin County, Kristi Noem's home turf. Noem's own neighbors were among the folks most willing to vote for the third man. He drew 8.32% in Noem's backyard, even better than the 7.89% he pulled in his home county of Custer. Marking had his 17th-best showing in Brookings County, Herseth Sandlin's current home county. He bombed in Herseth country up north, Brown County, where he got only 4.59% of the vote.

RCJ Ignores Noem Conflict of Interest on Crop Insurance

The Rapid City Journal is one of the few major newspapers endorsing Republican Kristi Noem over Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. (Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, and Mitchell papers are backing the incumbent.)

RCJ bases its endorsement on bogus arguments:

1. They grumble that SHS hasn't been visible enough in West River, yet they say nothing about Noem's skipping the KOTA debate, the Rapid City Tea Party rallies, and even a visit from her own national party chair to stay home in East River and shoot birds.
2. They brand the stimulus a Democratic boondoggle, ignoring the good the stimulus is doing in their own backyard.
3. The biggest whopper: the RCJ editorial board chafes at Max Sandlin's lobbying but ignore the Noem family's own blatant conflict of interest:
   

   Some of Herseth Sandlin's decisions have been difficult for the congresswoman, when her personal and/or party's convictions cross with those of her constituents. Noem would have no such conflict [editorial, "Noem in Tune with West River," Rapid City Journal, 2010.10.31].

No such conflict? Bull-roar. In addition to surviving on farm welfare payments, Kristi and Bryon Noem sell crop insurance. Crop insurance has been recognized by Republicans and Democrats as a "textbook example of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending." Crop insurance companies have regularly made three to nearly five times the benchmark rate of return on their policies. A 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office found that from 1997 to 2006, 42 cents out of every federal dollar spent on the crop insurance program went to the crop insurance companies, not to farmers.*

In response to this waste and inefficiency, the 2008 Farm Bill includes a new Standard Reinsurance Agreement that cuts six billion dollars from the crop insurance program and applies some of those savings to reducing the deficit. Those savings come in part by capping commissions for crop insurance agents like the Noems.

Those caps don't kick in until next year. Put Kristi Noem in office, and she'll have a chance to repeal those caps before they cut into her family's crop insurance profits. Wouldn't that be a nice little anniversary present for Bryon?

No conflict of interest there, is there, Rapid City Journal? Noem is clearly in tune with West River and South Dakota values of taking every penny we can from Uncle Sam.

Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has explicitly addressed concerns about her potential conflict of interest... in the pages of the Rapid City Journal itself. Kristi Noem has said nothing about her own direct business interest in the federal crop insurance program that she'd like the chance to vote on. In manufacturing its endorsement of Noem, the Rapid City Journal is holding the GOP challenger to a much lower standard than it applies to our incumbent Congresswoman.
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Bonus endorsement ding: RCJ concludes its Noem endorsement by saying "This country needs elected officials with positive, proactive solutions." That's funny: Kristi Noem hasn't offered any positive, proactive solutions. She hasn't even offered a clear agriculture policy.
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*That same 2007 GAO report suggest another possible connection between Noem, crop insurance, and the Farm Service Agency. The GAO found that the Farm Service Agency was not conducting enough inspections to prevent bogus crop loss claims. Crop insurer Kristi Noem served on the state committee of the Farm Service Agency in the 1990s. What government connections might Noem have made then that are now helping her crop insurance business?