Howie Hates Interracial Marriage and Women in Workforce

The worst writer (and that's saying a lot!) in Gordon Howie's Potemkin blog village, Brad Ford, sullies Election Day with a double dip of doofusry, exposing the true racism and sexism behind Gordon Howie's "conservative" agitation:

After all, isn’t the political “Iron Triangle”–government, education, media–really “owned” by the Left?  Does anyone think for a minute that Western Civilization, Christianity, and traditional values will fare well under liberals of any stripe?  Gay sex will prosper, racial blending will surge, a food-stamp mentality will flourish, and harassed women will be prominent in the consumer-driven workforce-but is that really progress? [emphasis in original; Brad Ford, "Right Must Work Harder Regardless of Who Wins," Right Side, November 6, 2012]

Good grief. I know Howie likes Mein Kampf. But wow: in one sentence, Ford says that interracial marriage and women in the workforce are both bad things.

I don't know who's funding Gordon Howie's little media fantasy game. But we need to find them, show them the racist, sexist garbage Howie is peddling, and ask them if that's really how they want their money spent. If they don't, then they can pull their funding, and Howie can pay his own way for his organization's White Man's agenda. And if they do, we can hold them accountable right along with Brad Ford and Gordon Howie for their retrograde racism and sexism.

Fundagelical Gut Check: Willing to Extend Political Pulpit Speech to All Non-Profits?

Here's a hypothetical gut check for Gordon Howie, who's still beating the drum for pastors to throw off the oppression of the IRS and endorse political candidates from their pulpits:

I know a number of good people who work at non-profit organizations like the South Dakota Resources Coalition, Dakota Rural Action, the Sierra Club, and Repower America. They all have their principles and political beliefs. They can identify certain political candidates who would support the principles and goals of their organizations if elected. Yet they share with Gordon Howie's church the same 501(c)3 status that, under the infamous Johnson Amendment of 1954, prevents their involvement in political candidates' campaigns.

So I'm just wondering: When Gordon Howie stumps for the First Amendment rights of pastors to endorse conservatives and theocrats from the pulpit, is he also campaigning for the rights of my friends in the non-profit world to endorse candidates who fit their principles, from their "pulpits," on their non-profit time and letterhead?

Goose, gander—discuss.

Theocratic Sound and Fury Draws Paltry Rapid City Crowd

Gordon Howie just can't stop making speeches. Howie got 75 people—about 2% of the Black Hills voters who helped him place fourth in the five-man gubernatorial primary—to waste a nice Father's Day afternoon sitting inside the Ramkota listening to Howie, Pastor H. Wayne Williams, and struggling novice talk radio host Shad Olson play more Glenn Beck karaoke.

Now I suppose I can't trust the Rapid City Journal's account of the event, since RCJ is just another tentacle of the godless liberal media. Fortunately, instead of having to go to the trouble of attending one of Gord's self-aggrandizing "On the Right Side" rallies, I can simply download his screeds from his website. The content is predictable:

• Pastor H. Wayne Williams wallows in his persecution complex. He portrays Americans United for Separation of Church and State as an "assault dog" for reporting him to the IRS for endorsing Howie from his church pulpit. Indeed, how vile, that any citizen should report violations of the law to the authorities.... H. Wayne also notes that his church hasn't filed for 501(c)3 status, which I assume means they are thus obliged to pay regular taxes on all income received. Better call the accountant....
  
• Kermit Staggers chimes in with lines weaker than I would expect from a political science professor, rehashing the tired old "Constitution doesn't mention separation of church and state" argument... but ignoring the fact that the whole concept of church-state separation comes from Jesus of Nazareth himself (render unto Caesar... oh, wait, don't remind Gordon of that one).
• Gordon Howie has trouble finding material to fill four pages, so he includes the same Thomas jefferson quote twice. He also includes the Ten Commandments, as if anyone bothering to pick up his little paper doesn't already know them.
  
• Shad Olson uses many big words (and you think I'm bad?).

Kevin Woster wonders if the Howie-Olson-Williams-Staggers show could represent a political force to be reckoned with. If they actually promised to do something for the polis, I might say yes. But Howie and his bloviating pals aren't doing anything. They aren't proposing any practical action. They're just blogging out loud, enjoying the sound of their own voices. They don't say anything about education, the economy, energy, the environment, or any other practical policy issues that South Dakota needs to deal with. Their little puppet shows are all about them, about what wonderful, pious, manly Christian warriors Gord and Shad and H. and Kermit are.

A movement driven by personality and persecution complex is not a sustainable political movement. It's marketing for egomaniacs who can't accept the electoral ruling that they are wrong for South Dakota.

Pastor Endorses Howie, Then Hides with Weasel Words

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," or just "Misstater, misstater, cowboy up and eat your taters"?

During the primary campaign, GOP gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie waged one unsuccessful political stunt after another. One such fizzler was his call for pastors to endorse him from the pulpit. As far as I know, only one pastor in the entire state took that bait (and it wasn't even Howie's own pastor, who explicitly declined).

Constitutional prooftexter extraordinaire H. Wayne Williams of teetotalling Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City ignored his church's own tenet about walking circumspectly in this world and endorsed Howie from the pulpit. But now that Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate Pastor H.'s Howie stumping, Williams is wimping out:

Williams says the church is protected by the 1st Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech and religion. The pastor says he told church members that Howie shared his principles, but he never told people to vote for Howie ["Group Urges IRS to Look at SD Church's Endorsement," AP via KELOLand.com, 2010.06.10].

Come on, H., I thought when you had the Constitution and Jesus on your side, you didn't need weasel words.

The Rapid City Journal makes clear that the good LBT preacher endorsed Howie from the pulpit:

On May 15, the Rev. H. Wayne Williams, pastor of Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City, officially endorsed state Sen. Gordon Howie in his bid for governor during a church service [Mary Garrigan, "Pastors Divided over Howie's Pulpit Challenge," Rapid City Journal, 2010.05.24].

Howie's press release on Williams's endorsement says the same [emphasis mine]:

Reverend H. Wayne Williams, Pastor of Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City, became one of the first to accept the challenge, adding an official endorsement of Gordon Howie for Governor to a message delivered during his Sunday night services.

...[said Reverend Williams] "I’m glad that this issue has been brought to the forefront of public conversation. It is high time that churches return to the role that they’ve occupied historically in guiding their flocks in making election decisions.”

...Howie believes Williams experience represents a reawakening of clerical responsibility in shaping voting choices from the pulpit.

...[Williams again] “I have no fear of the I.R.S.,” Williams said. “Why should the church be silent on the issue of who governs us when I get letters all the time from the government asking us for involvement and endorsement of government programs. Asking us to refrain from participating in determining who governs us is a clear double standard” ["South Dakota Pastors Speak Out in Support of Political Speech from the Pulpit: 'No Laws Broken'," Gordon Howie gubernatorial campaign press release, 2010.05.18].

We can settle the Constitutional questions if the IRS takes up the investigation. What rankles me this morning is Pastor H. Wayne Williams's mealymouthedness. If you're going to make a brave stand for the First Amendment and the Word of God, then, by God, make that stand. Don't play word games and tell us you didn't really tell people to vote for Gordon Howie when your own language says that's exactly what you were doing.

Daugaard Near Sweep; South Dakota Northwest Is Munsterman Country!

Dennis Daugaard won over 50% in a five-man primary last night. Dennis is the big dog.

Daugaard won 59 counties. Where didn't he win?
Secretary Nelson's map shows Scott Munsterman (blue) won his home county of Brookings. In the most interesting geographical note of the primary, he also won the far northwest corner of the state. Harding, Perkins, Corson, and Ziebach: all Munsterman country... representing 1.3% of the state population. Did Munsterman win the great Northwest simply by showing up? Did he campaign there earlier and harder? I've lived in the Lemmon–Bison metroplex, and it isn't exactly the place where I'd think a fancy-pants college-town mayor would light up the crowd. Readers, your explanations for Munsterman's amazing island of support are welcome.

In Shannon County, 56 registered Republicans showed up at the polls and gave Ken Knuppe (green) his single county victory of the night. He beat Daugaard there 27% to 24%. Is his neighboring home county of Custer, Knuppe came in fourth, with 15%, behind Daugaard, Howie, and Munsterman.

Only one county went for Gordon Howie (yellow). Todd County tilted for Howie, giving him 37% over Daugaard's 34%. Howie broke 20% in only six other counties: Meade, Jackson, Harding, Fall River, Custer, Bennett. In his home county of Pennington, where he owes his neighbors $57K in property taxes, Howie got under 19%, second to Daugaard's almost 47% and just barely better than the local paper's endorsee Knudson.

South Dakota Primary Prediction 1: Daugaard 45%

Journalists, start your spell-checkers!

Five men are running for the South Dakota Republicans gubernatorial nomination. The SD-GOP votes tomorrow. Dennis Daugaard will win that vote.

My vote predictions:

1. Dennis Daugaard 45%
   
2. Dave Knudson 23%
   
3. Scott Munsterman 17%
   
4. Gordon Howie 10%
   
5. Ken Knuppe 5%
   

I'm picturing my prediction of Daugaard's number as the middle of a bell curve with a 5% standard deviation. That means I think there's a 68% chance that Daugaard's total will be between 40% and 50%. I think there's a 96% chance he'll win between 35% and 55%.

That also means I think there's a 2.3% chance that Daugaard will draw less than 35% of the vote tomorrow, which is the only circumstance under which any of the fellas vying for second place get a swing at Daugaard in a runoff. Run-off? Hardly.

How do I calculate these numbers? Pure vibe. But here's what generates that vibe:

Efforts to craft an upset narrative acknowledge Daugaard's frontrunner status while ignoring why he has it. He's been winning buy-in from Republican stakeholders by fundraising since 2007. He's got plenty of that money left to go to war with the Dems right away on June 9. He's the lieutenant to one of the most popular sitting governors in the country. That approval is going to be even higher among Republicans... and they're the folks making the choice tomorrow. Shout something about Daugaard being four more years of Rounds, and the folks voting tomorrow are more likely to say, "Cool!"

(Daugaard also has the best story and the best face of the bunch. If he grew Knuppe's mustache, I'd switch registration. Hubba, hubba.)

Joel Rosenthal likes Dave Knudson's ads. Mr. Rosenthal's commentary reminds me of the very different political world I live in. Thanks to the glory of the digital conversion, we no longer receive commercial TV. My picture of the political world is thus very different. I might see an ad once, if someone points it out to me on YouTube, but then it's gone, and I'm back to reading the news and the blogs. The only thing I've read indicating Knudson has made progress with voters is the May Rasmussen poll that shows Knudson and Daugaard as the only Republicans who poll stronger than Democratic challenger Scott Heidepriem.

The Munsterman wave is alive and well... in the imaginations of the pro-Munsterman blogosphere. Pat Powers insists that big media support for Knudson "continues Daugaard's rapid erosion of voters." Various commenters offer lots of "everyone I talk to likes Munsterman" talk. "Everyone I talk to" is the perfect introduction to the self-selecting and thus invalid sample. I have yet to hear any objective evidence from any objective observer that Munsterman or anyone else is putting a dent in Daugaard's support.

Journalist Bob Mercer does entertain the Munsterman question. He says any purported Munsterman surge is either a hoax or "the greatest stealth groundswell of modern times in South Dakota politics." Mercer says Team Munsterman will be seen as "the pre-eminent grassroots geniuses" of South Dakota politics "if their talk comes true." Given Mercer's opinion of blogs versus good newspapers, I suspect that when he uses genius and blogger in the same sentence, he's joking.

Alas, Gordon Howie doesn't stand a chance. I say alas, because he is the candidate Scott Heidepriem could most handily destroy in November. Howie epitomizes all the reasons the Tea Party can't govern. He thought he saw a big wave coming, he grabbed his surfboard and leapt into the water... but he forgot to tie his swim trunks. And now he's caught in low tide with his tax pants down, behind $58,000 on his property taxes thanks to irresponsible land speculation.

Ken Knuppe failed to transform himself from dark horse to race horse. As a rancher never before elected to public office, he had the best chance to capitalize on any anti-insider sentiment. but he never built the campaign machine or momentum to establish himself in the public consciousness as a viable alternative or an embodiment of any new vision or policy direction folks might be looking for.

I stand by my numbers. Daugaard's going to win tomorrow and rumble hard with Heidepriem.

Republicans, feel free to prove me wrong me at the polls.

Tea Party Candidate Howie Takes $278K in Farm Subsidies

Oh, the humiliation. South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie has discredited the Tea Party movement better than this blog ever could. Yesterday he admits he has failed to pay $58K in property taxes after getting in too deep on land speculation. Now I learn from the Dakota War College comment section that Howie has accepted $278K in federal farm subsidies over the last 15 years. $22K of that is disaster payments.

Update 07:05: Mrs. Howie is also pulling her weight. Over the last couple years, Connie L. Howie has raked in another $33,579 in farm subsidies. These subsidies appear not to be connected with Connie's puppy-ranching operation.

Now Gordon's take is only a ninth of the welfare haul claimed by another Tea Party fave, U.S. House candidate Kristi Noem. Where, oh, where are the true conservatives? Where are the politicians so principled in their opposition to the soul-sapping power of federal handouts that they have refused to take advantage of the status quo?

The only other gubernatorial candidate who appears to have cashed in on farm subsidies is rancher Ken Knuppe from Buffalo Gap. His take since 1995: $43,046, all disaster payments disbursed in four years. Of course, his dad Ray and some other Knuppes around New Underwood have hauled in more of those federal dollars.

I might try to be charitable and say that the prevalence of farm welfare payments even among notable conservatives simply demonstrates how much the current agribusiness system relies on government support, from which you may argue that we need either to radically restructure the Farm Bill or to acknowledge that Tea Party talk of getting rid of government is empty, impractical windbaggery.

But Howie deserves no charity. Consider: in the last two years alone, Howie has taken over $113K in farm subsidies. That's almost twice the amount that he has declined to pay on his property taxes over the same period. Wow. This behavior shows he is no principled politician. He is a shyster, an opportunist, a land-grabbing, tax-dodging, welfare-slurping salesman willing to do anything to make a buck, including cheating the taxpayers.

But hey, welcome to the real face of the Tea Party. It's not about the common man. It's not about the Constitution or God or fighting communism. It's about big business putting on a puppet show to distract you from their casino capitalism.

----------------------

Gordon Howie is a personable guy who also happens to be so far off between Saturn and Pluto that we, as South Dakota voters, would be irresponsible to allow him to hold office again. And, Republicans would be foolish to advance his candidacy. Gordon's primary issue is bringing God to government. His God [Michael Sanborn, "Governor? Part Deux," Decorum Forum, 2010.05.26].

Gordon Howie: Tea Party Tax Cheat

I'd give credit where credit is due, but the creator(s) of the "Stop Gordon Howie" website still haven't cowboyed up with real names. So credit goes to Jonathan Ellis, who verifies their claim that South Dakota Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie really hates texes... so much that he doesn't pay them.

Ellis checks the Pennington County records and finds the singing real estate agent is over $58,000 behind on 32 properties. Gee, Gordon, are ordinary taxpayers supposed to feel sorry for you for buying more property than you could sell? Are voters supposed to trust you to balance the state budget when you can't rein in your own spending and meet your legal obligations?

$58,000... hmmmm... that would pay for a couple of teachers.

Let's see... Tom Daschle turned out to be $128,000 behind on his taxes due his accountant's mistake. Daschle lost his chance to be HHS secretary. Howie owes us taxpayers $58,000 by choice, by willful resistance to paying his fair share. Anyone who gloated over Daschle's downfall had better cross Howie off his ballot. (I know, most of you Republicans already have.)

According to Ellis's article, not only does Howie have the gall not to pay his taxes, but he also had the gall last year to propose a bill to raise our sales tax to take the tax burden off his real estate business. Gordon Howie. Raising Taxes. Nice. Of course, as the anonymi point out, the Howie family tries evading the sales taxd, too, by taking food from the food pantry.

Gee, Gordon, my family expenses went up this past year. My family income went down. I still paid every penny of my property tax.

I can't wait to see the campaign finance report to see how much money Howie has spent on his own campaign that he could have used to pay his legal debt to us.

Do Howie a favor: vote him down hard on June 8 so he can knock off his silly campaign, sell his extravagant RV, and get back to real work so he can pay his taxes like the rest of us.

----------------------
Note that Daugaard, Knudson, and Munsterman avoid comment in the Ellis article, clearly obeying the principle that you never look back at the guy trailing you. Ken Knuppe takes a swing, though, saying quite simply, "I pay my property taxes" and noting that paying your taxes is part of being a landowner. Knuppe's "Code of the West" includes paying your debts. Republican readers, if you're still toying with the idea of "sending a message" to the party establishment with a Howie vote, why not switch to Knuppe instead? Vote for a real rancher who pays his bills.

Gordon Howie's Pastor Declines to Endorse

Mr. Kurtz points us toward Mary Garrigan's report on how Gordon Howie's political pulpit publicity stunt is working out. She finds one pastor who has joined the South Dakota Republican guberatorial candidate's lawbreaking crusade. She finds six local religious leaders who say they likely or definitely won't... including Howie's own pastor:

Even Howie's own pastor, Bishop Lorenzo Kelly at Faith Temple Church in Rapid City, said he has no plans to endorse his friend from the pulpit. "I have encouraged our people to be participants in the political arena and showed them the scriptures that back it up," Kelly said. "But I have not from the pulpit endorsed him. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't put my church in jeopardy of anything" [Mary Garrigan, "Pastors Divided over Howie's Pulpit Challenge," Rapid City Journal, 2010.05.24].

Even coconut transplant and apparent Howie spokesman Pastor Scott Craig, who sends out the press releases on Howie's church-state stuntwork and urges pastors to let the Howie campaign co-opt sermons, has not yet said on the record that he has endorsed Gordon Howie on church time.

Gordon Howie Imploding, Claims Death Threats

Prepare for a primary meltdown: Gordon Howie is losing it. Pat Powers reports that the South Dakota GOP gubernatorial candidate and self-professed teabagger is claiming he's received death threats.

Wow. Failing to generate any real groundswell of support, failing to turn an unsuccessful petition blitzkrieg into an effective campaign organization, winning nothing but the highest negative polling numbers of the five GOP gubernatorial candidates, Howie has no strategy left other than to end each week saying whacky things in a desperate bid for headlines. (Mission accomplished there... at least on the blogs that find his desperation pitiful.)

Howie's "death threat" cry proves his immersion in the Christian persecution complex that is so prevalent among the right-wingnuts who support him. Everyone's against us, everyone hates us... we must be special!

So help Howie out. Reinforce his persecution complex. Help him finish last in the primary. If you want to protest the mainstream GOP, cast your protest vote for Ken Knuppe and the Code of the West. For Howie, crushing defeat will be resounding victory.

Fifth place for Howie would be a victory for the rest of us as well.

Poll: Readers Don't Want Politics (Howie's or Otherwise) from Pulpit

Gordon Howie thought he could win support with his latest political stunt, calling on pastors to break the law (and perhaps violate the tenets of Christianity—something about false idols?) and endorse him from the pulpit. Gordon Howie was wrong.

The latest Madville Times poll asked "Do you want your pastor (rabbi, etc.) to endorse political candidates from the pulpit?" By a margin of almost 7 to 1, you said no:

• Yes: 13% (15 voters)
  
• No: 87% (103 voters)
  

Now Bob Ellis will tell you you're all a bunch of ignorant, immature liberals who are embracing the dark instead of reading your Bibles. But I humbly suggest that you, my South Dakota readers, are much more of the mind of MHS alumnus and good Catholic Phil Germann, who notes that candidates are too fallible and politics too complex and subjective for a pastor or a church to officially hitch its wagon to any one candidate or political party. (That's a short version of some very thoughtful arguments that you should read.)

Howie's political pulpit stunt won't win him any votes he didn't already have. It shows Howie is more interested in stunts and slogans than connecting with a majority of the electorate and offering real plans for practical governance.

-----------------------
p.s.: Further evidence of Howie's election-losing obsession with the culture wars: his vow to use abortion as a litmus test for state employees.

Howie Stumps for Pastor Vote... Gets One

Perhaps Gordon Howie's next slogan will be, "A Groundswell of One."

South Dakota GOP gubernatorial candidate and self-proclaimed teabagger Gordon Howie challenged pastors last week to endorse him from their pulpits. Now the Howie campaign issues a press release trumpeting the results of that bold challenge: one pastor said "Vote Gord!" from the pulpit Sunday. One. Constitutional prooftexter extraordinaire H. Wayne Williams of teetotalling Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City. So much for walking circumspectly in this world.

The press release also cites Pastor Steve Hickey, but only to say that pastors' political speech is "a very important topic to be talking about." Pastor Hickey addresses the issue of whom to endorse directly on his own blog:

I can't stand up and say vote for Howie**** because I have no Scriptural justification to favor him over Munsterman, Daugaard or Knuppe. Pastors need to focus on what is clear in Scripture - good/bad/right/wrong- the leadership and fiscal nuances that distinguish these four candidates right now don't catagorize them morally as good or bad choices [Pastor Steve Hickey, "Pastors: IRS Code Does Not Trump U.S. Constitution," Voices Carry, 2010.05.17].

I would love to see Pastor Williams and Pastor Hickey compare notes on Scriptural justification on this one.

So a candidate tries to manufacture an issue. He adds one pastor to his vote count. Not the best return on investment.

-------------------
Kevin Woster tries to help Howie raise his profile by asking another gubernatorial candidate, Dave Knudson, what he thinks about Howie's "challenge" to pastors. Knudson, bless him, doesn't pander to the Howie crowd:

Knudson: America was founded on a concept of freedom of religion. The safest way to preserve that is observe separation of church and state. You are in fact free to endorse from ther pulpit as long as you do not want the special tax exempt treatment. I think the restriction against direct involvment in political campaigns is fair if you want the special tax exempt treatment.

Woster: Do you think this is an effective political point for Gordon in a primary where the Republican base - what some might argue is a strong pro-God entity - is especially influential?

Knudson: It is always dangerous to encourage people to break the law (even a law you do not agree with ) at their risk and not at your own risk. This is especially suspect when done for political gain.

Woster: As a business lawyer, if you were representing a church, what would you advise the minister to say about politics during a primary season?

Knudson: This not an area in which I am particularly knowledgable but I believe one is free to talk about issues but not to endorse particular candidates. As a lawyer I would not advise a client to put their tax exempt status at risk [transcript, live chat, Mount Blogmore, 2010.05.17].

Politics in the Pulpit: New Madville Times Poll!

The good Dr. Blanchard finds my weekend post on Gordon Howie's call for pastors to break the law (or at least sacrifice their churches' tax-exempt status to entreat divine intervention in Howie's doomed candidacy) "interesting, thoughtful, serious, and wrong." The good professor writes a response of at least equivalent worth.

Given this very interesting question of politics from the pulpit, I offer the latest Madville Times poll here in the right sidebar. Forget which candidate is asking for it: very simply, I want to know if you want your pastor or rabbi or other spiritual leader to endorse political candidates from the pulpit.

Put it in personal terms: picture yourself in church. Pastor steps up for the sermon. First words out of his or her mouth, "Today I'm going to tell you why you should vote for ___." How would you feel? What would you say to the pastor afterwards? What would you talk about over coffee in the fellowship hall?

Back to Dr. Blanchard: his effort to equate Martin Luther King to local collared yokels telling parishioners to vote for Gordon fails. King's advocacy of civil disobedience to fight racial discrimination was not "political campaign activity" of the sort forbidden to churches and other non-profits by the IRS rules Gordon Howie wants pastors to violate.

But Dr. Blanchard agrees that Gordon Howie wants pastors to break the law. Dr. Blanchard contends something bigger, that the targeted law is unconstitutional, in that it restricts what the pastor says in his constitutionally protected sermon. I'm inclined to argue allowing endorsements from the pulpit is still an inappropriate use of a pulpit funded in part by tax breaks given to the non-profit organization that makes that pulpit available for sermons.

I could go the other direction though: I could accept Dr. Blanchard's argument, repeal the IRS rules against political campaign intervention, and allow every non-profit organization to use its resources to endorse candidates and advocate for ballot initiatives. Let Jon Lauck solicit donations for his boss Senator Thune's campaign fund at his MAAC Chautauqua event tonight. Let MAAC solicit Democratic campaign volunteers and sublease their office as local Dems HQ this fall (since Dems are the big arts supporters around here, anyway!). Let the Children's Home Society hand out Daugaard flyers at their fundraisers.

Anyone have a problem with that? Is there any problem with letting tax-exempt organizations take advantage of their government-subsidized status to advocate for who serves in government?

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Update 10:42 CDT: More knowledge from the north: citing James Madison and Roger Williams, Dr. Newquist says keep that wall of separation high.

Gordon Howie Tells Pastors to Break Law for His Political Gain

Gordon Howie really is the candidate of secession and lawlessness. Howie is urging pastors to break the law. Howie wants pastors to violate the rules of their non-profit status and endorse him in front of their congregations.

So do you want your pastor taking time in the sermon to tell you for whom to vote? That's what you may get in the sermon at Bighorn Canyon Community Church in Rapid City, where Pastor Scott Craig is a big Howie supporter:

Craig said the tax law is sometimes touted as protecting the separation of church and state, but it instead involves government telling churches what to do. He said he is not worried that his nondenominational church could lose its tax-exempt status.

An IRS publication says the law does not prevent pastors from expressing their political views as individuals, but they cannot do so on behalf of their church or at an official church function [Chet Brokaw, "Rapid City candidate for governor urges pastors to endorse candidates," AP via Rapid City Journal, 2010.05.15].

Craig's comment is a mistaken interpretation of separation of church and state. There are all sorts of laws where government tells churches and every other organization what it cannot do. Do Candidate Howie and Pastor Craig want to repeal the laws that block pastors from performing polygamous weddings and human sacrifice as well? And those damnable child abuse laws sure crimp the style of priests who dig altar boys.

The free-speech argument is bogus, and Howie and Craig know it. Pastors are still perfectly free to express their political views outside of church. They just don't get to take advantage of their position, their pulpit, their captive audience, and their non-profit status to spread those views. It's the same for teachers: I'm free to endorse Scott Heidepriem and deride Gordon Howie here on the blog, but if I engage in that advocacy on the job, in front of a classroom of voting college students, you will (and should!) freak out. An educator using his position to promote a specific political agenda on the job is unacceptable (unless you're endorsing a Republican in this state, of course).

Besides, Pastor Craig still has the right to endorse Howie from his pulpit tomorrow morning; he's just not willing to give up his tax-exempt status. He wants special treatment from the government, but he doesn't want any rules accompanying that special treatment. How selfish. How childish. How politically cynical.

This isn't Martin Luther King's advocating civil disobedience to win civil rights for an oppressed minority; this is Gordon Howie's desperate attempt to increase his vote count. He knows he can't win on practical policy issues: Dennis Daugaard, Dave Knudson, and Scott Munsterman all three can wipe the floor with him when talking about issues that actually matter. Howie thus persists in his strategy of manufacturing culture-war non-issues that won't do a thing to balance our state budget, create jobs, or fix roads.

So there's your choice, Republicans: a candidate who tells his supporters to break the law, or reasonable men who concentrate on plans for governing.

Road Warrior Gordon Howie Brings T-RV to Madison!

A less than eager reader has declared suggesting any association between responsible Madison citizens and GOP gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie constitutes "character assassination."

Well...

If you buy that, then Gordon Howie shot an awful lot of characters at last night's Lake County Republicans' Lincoln Day Dinner. He parked this big rig smack dab in front of the shindig at Nicky's:

Dang! Go big or go home... and Gord goes big! Gotta respect that.


I caught Howie's T-RV gassing up at the F&M in the afternoon. I didn't catch a shot of the beastie parked out front of Nicky's, but I'll say this:

1. The T-RV was darn good advertising, parked right there on Highway 34, in front of all those cars at Nicky's. Anyone driving by would have thought, "Wow! Nicky's must be hosting a Gordon Howie rally! Or maybe a Tea Party!"
   
2. The T-RV make Munsterman's lettered windows look awfully small. At least I think they were Munsterman's; I couldn't tell from the highway. Item #1 on Team Munsterman Wednesday briefing: Never ever let Gordon Howie make you look small.
   
3. Gordon at least knows how to lose a primary in style!
4. Daugaard has a million bucks or more on hand—where's his shrink-wrapped RV?
5. Heck, Gordon just cut his travel budget 80%: he can skip Super 8 and camp in the state parks!
   
6. Life and Liberty Tour... hey, what happened to Pursuit of Happiness? Or just Lockean Property? (Say, while I'm thinking of it, where do Gordon and his compatriots stand on property rights, eminent domain, and the Keystone pipelines?)
   

I really, really, really should have bought a press pass for the Lincoln Day Dinner. I would have loved to see the faces of our reliable and cautious Lake County Republicans coming to dinner past this audacious rolling billboard for the movement that wants very much to crash their party. Those expressions were probably something like what you'd see on Stephanie Herseth Sandlin's face if Kevin Weiland and I parked an RV out front of the Dems convention proclaiming, "Dems for Single-Payer in 2011!"

Anonymous Chicken Californians Attack Gordon Howie

Dakota War College brings to our attention a new candidate slam page, an apparently anonymous effort throwing mud to Stop Gordon Howie.

Now I'm as eager as anyone else in South Dakota to stop Gordon Howie's effort to refight the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War, or whatever other Christian persecution fantasy is playing in his head.

But I don't have much time for an anonymous website that doesn't have the guts to take full ownership, by real name, of its words. You want to participate in public discourse? You want to attack a person by name? Using your own name and showing your willingness to take the same heat you dish out is a fair price of admission to public discourse and a good check on unsupported mudslinging.

My interest in inviting the website's message into the public discussion of Gordon Howie's unfitness for the South Dakota governorship completely disappears when I click on the Stop Gordon Howie "Contact Us" page:

3375 Edison Way

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Phone: (415) 555-5555

Fax: (415) 555-5515

info@homestead.com

Out-of-staters with fake phone numbers running a smear campaign on a South Dakotan. I'm not sure this helps. Until I see a name on the attacks, I'm positive it doesn't help. Keep your anonymous baloney to yourself, Menlo Park. If you want to beat Gordon Howie, I've got it covered.

Daugaard Clear Favorite Among Liberal Blog Readers

GOP friends, is that a good thing?

The latest Madville Times poll asked readers "Which Republican is best qualified to be South Dakota's next governor?"

Dennis Daugaard	58% (105 votes)
Dave Knudson	17% (31)
Scott Munsterman	12% (23)
Gordon Howie	7% (13)
Ken Knuppe	3% (6)

Granting a margin of error for online polls slightly larger than the Jim River Valley, what alternative hypotheses might we frame from these results?

1. The sensible read: The GOP primary will go the way the conventional wisdom expects, with Dennis Daugaard's three-year fundraising campaign swamping all comers.
2. The whisker read: Republicans think more like my wife than I about handlebar mustaches. (Or maybe Knuppe just needs to big mutton chops!)
3. The skeptical read: The fine young folks working in the Daugaard campaign office are spending too much time on the Internet.
4. The right-wing read: The liberal readers of the Madville Times clearly prefer Progressive Republicans-in-Name-Only to brave and pure conservatives like Gordon Howie who know that nothing is more important than fighting the culture war.

I'm willing to speculate at this point that South Dakota's gubernatorial candidates will come out in the primary in the same order as this poll... with the possible exception that Munsterman and Howie might swap places, given Howie's potential to coalesce the wingnut vote. The most interesting question may be whether Daugaard can get the mainstream of the party to close ranks and give him a clear majority on June 8.

Howie Petition Shows Ignorance of Civil War, U.S. History

At best, Gordon Howie's failed petition drive to nullify health insurance reform was futile political grandstanding. At worst, it was the kind of Calhoun conservatism that led to the Civil War.

I'm not the only one who smells secession—or at least ignorance of history—in Howie's political posturing. Here's what Madison business leader Mike McDowell says about Howie's nullification drive:

Whatever your opinion of the new federal law, you should be amazed that a candidate for our state’s highest office seems to have no knowledge that the Civil War which ended in April 1865 settled that issue – nullification of federal laws by the states lost. Send Mr. Howie back to 6th grade history class and keep him there until he knows American history much better than he seem[s] to know it now [Mike McDowell, "Election Silly Season Continues," Forward Thinking, 2010.04.07].

Jerry Prostrollo visits with R. Blake Curd and Gordon Howie at a Madison 9-12 Project meeting April 2, 2010. Perhaps JP is setting the candidates straight on the meaning of the Constitution and dangers of nullification?

I had a nifty screenshot here of the 9-12 Project meeting showing what I'm talking about, but the photographer who snapped the image included in the screenshot has claimed copyright restriction. Above is my recollection of what I saw in on the 9-12 website before the photo in question disappeared from the 9-12 website and from the photographer's Facebook photo album. The green rectangle represents the portion of the screen shot that is my graphic work, superimposed to prevent the dissemination of copyrighted photographic imagery that could make a Madison businessperson unhappy. (And a big welcome to all my new friends at the Canon Digital Photography Forum!)

I would love to hear what another well-heeled member of Madison's economic development leadership thinks of Howie's tom-dick-and-harry-foolery (tomfoolery seems inadequate when describing Howie's politics). State Board of Economic Development chairman Jerry Prostrollo attended Gordon Howie's campaign stop in Madison a couple Fridays ago. He heard Howie preach his gospel of nullification. Did Prostrollo sign that petition? Or did he explain to his aspiring fellow Republicans that Howie's petition drive was actually decided 145 years ago when Lee surrendered to Grant?

Tear Party Notes Republicans and Democrats Killed SB 137; What to Do?

Local 9-12 petitioneer and fellow patriot Jason Bjorklund rallies Howie's Hollerers after their failure to get health reform nullification on the November ballot.

In less than a week, we got a crash course on how the ballot initiative process works. We will take lessons learned here and use that to get things right, right out of the gate in the future. Thank you for all of your hard work. You stepped outside of your comfort zone. You sacrificed time with your family. You sacrificed your office supplies and your money. For all that you have done I cannot thank you enough!

I would also like to thank Senator Gordon Howie for starting this ballot initiative on our behalf. He has been tirelessly fighting for the SD Health Care Freedom Act. He twice introduced SB 137 this legislative session, the second time requesting a suspension of parliamentary rules. The language on our petition was the same basic language as was on his bill. Our senators voted 2 to 1 (66%) AGAINST IT! It is time we paid very close attention what side our senators are on! [Jason Bjorklund, "As You May Have Heard...," Facebook page for health reform nullification petition drive, 2010.04.07]

Bjorklund sagely provides links to the bill and the vote that gave SB 137 its first killing (for those of you still counting, we're up to three deaths). Let's see: 14 Dems in the Senate, 24 nays... that's 10 Republicans who voted down Howie's Harrumph. Sounds like our secessionist petitioneers have some bipartisan housecleaning to do in November.

Two numbers to consider:

• Number of signatures required to form a new political party in South Dakota: 8388.
• Number of signatures gathered by Howie's Hectors for their failed petition drive: between 8000 and 8400.

Electoral energy is a terrible thing to waste. Connect the dots, la la la....

Gordon Howie, Please Quit

South Dakotans will not get to celebrate Confederate History Month with their own reënactment of secession. Gordon Howie's last-ditch attempt to nullify health insurance reform has failed, with petitioneers gathering only half of the necessary 16,776 signatures necessary to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Wait, did I say last-ditch? Apparently when it comes to declaring state law superior to federal law, last-ditch isn't in Senator Howie's vocabulary. Neither is quit, or lose gracefully. Having lost three times now (the South Dakota Senate soundly rejected this bad legislation twice) The gubernatorial candidate and self-proclaimed teabagger now says he'll continue gathering signatures to take to Pierre to bolster his demand that the Legislature take up his nullification crusade again next year... or maybe even in a special session this year.

Gordon, stop. There comes a time to admit defeat and move on to other issues. Other senators make proposals that go nowhere during the legislative session, and they have the grace and good sense not to wage futile petition drives and go grandstanding around the state for the rest of the year on it. Can you demonstrate a little gubernatorial statesmanship and do the same?

Obviously not. Gordon Howie knows he can't win the governor's primary on practical South Dakota issues, not against wonks like Dennis Daugaard, Dave Knudson, and Scott Munsterman. (Watch Gord's YouTube campaign video, see how little relevance his slogan collage has to specific South Dakota issues.) Howie has not one practical solution for governing this state.

So Howie has only one way to win: he has to gin up supporters by aping Tea Party mantras on national issues that the South Dakota governor really can't do anything about but which are a lot more fun to scream about while wearing a tri-corner hat. (Try reading Dennis Daugaard's economic plan or Scott Munsterman's policy briefs the way Sarah-Palinites screamed about death panels—it just doesn't work.)

The dead legislation Howie keeps flogging, this year's Senate Bill 137, also happens to be unnecessary. South Dakota is already suing Uncle Sam to overturn health insurance reform. The lawsuit is based on the same constitutional arguments Howie hollers to justify his bill. If the federal health insurance law is unconstitutional, we won't need a state law to nullify it: the courts will find in favor of Jackley et al., the law wil be overturned, and there will be nothing for South Dakota to nullify. If the courts rules against the suing states (and that's the smart money), the courts would also rule against Howie's nullificatory bil.

Howie's endless nullification campaign is, therefore, a cynical publicity stunt. He knows further petitioning is legislatively futile. It's a Saul-Alinsky-style organizing tactic, a chance for his supporters to shout "Obama is Hitler!" and stay all juiced up long enough to vote in the Republican primary. It is a ploy to distract South Dakotans from practical state issues that Howie just can't handle.

If Howie were really interested in governing, he'd show some statesmanship and let health reform nullification die. But Tea Bag ranting is all Howie has to offer... and that's proof that he can't hold a candle to any of the other men, Republican or Democrat, who want to govern South Dakota.