I am not sure if anyone outside Minnestoa is following the spectacular impolosion of our state GOP

[kickysnana]

The Chair resigned, they are millions of dollars in debt including unpaid money for the Governor's recount. Two people who were favored for the Chair were eliminated by silly misconduct and the

Four other high ranking GOP party people also resigned their posts.

Senate Majority Amy Koch, leader resigned after pressure from colleagues concerning an "inappropriate conduct with a staffer" She may or may not be resigning her seat. No sex was mentioned. I am not sure what other kind of inappropriate relationship there could be. One of her staffers was fired publicly and it is speculated that is the other party..

I am not sure if it is a purge, a coup or natural selection but I am all for anything that disrupts the GOP especially coming from within. I think this is a great Christmas present.

[elleng]

1. Sounds great!

Hope (and rather expect) we'll see more/similar.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Got a link to juicy details?

I love to watch pukes implode.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Here:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/135802693.html

[kickysnana]

12. Here is another

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/12/16/33912/latest_amy_koch_developments_complicate_gop_plans_across_the_board/?utm_source=MinnPost+e-mail+newsletters&utm_campaign=04b5bfd9c8-12_17_2011_Saturday_Newsletter12_16_2011&utm_medium=email

[Mnpaul]

58. Even better - gossip from the free paper

I want to hear that it was Brodkorb that Koch was having an affair with. Both married to other people. This blows their sanctity of marriage crap out the window just in time for the statewide referendum vote to ban gay marriage in the state constitution.

http://www.citypages.com/2011-12-21/news/amy-koch-affair/

[EFerrari]

3. Thanks for the heads up.

And Go, Minnesota!

[csziggy]

4. Don't count on it too much - that's what we thought in Florida

With the state GOP in debt and past officers indicted. But we still ended up with pRick Scott as Gov AND the GOP in charge of the Legislature.

[southernyankeebelle]

13. Yep, I wonder how that is working for the people that voted for him?

[csziggy]

18. I don't know any one who will admit to having voted for him!

It's as if that election never happened. There are no bumper stickers for either of the candidates for governor last time around on any cars in this area. Not one person I have talked to will admit they voted for Scott. Absolutely no one likes what he has done.

Next time I will have to drag my lame ass out to work for whatever pitiful Democratic candidate we can scrape up. I emailed Alex Sink's campaign to volunteer and they never got back to me. I don't think they had much of a campaign at all.

Maybe we'll get lucky and someone like Alan Grayson will run!

[Odin2005]

24. Please don't insult Minnesota by comparing us to FLORIDA, yuck!

[southernyankeebelle]

26. No offense Minn. but when people like Bachmann gets elected in your state then your

state deserves being compared to FL. Believe me it isn't any better in my state either (TN).

[Odin2005]

27. Bachmann's district is gerrymandered to have most of the...

...conservative nut-fuck parts of the state.

Chip Cravaak is the result of Jim Olberstar being complacent, that district will go Blue again in 2012.

[hifiguy]

52. Indeed.

Looking at Batshit's disctrict on a state map makes it clear that it was carefully gerrymandered to include a slim but consistent majority of snowbillies and right wing cranks.

[csziggy]

28. No, just cautioning Minnesota so you don't go the way of Florida

Florida didn't used to be so bad. After, we had the good taste to vote Bob Graham in year after year. But we've gone to crap with Jeb for two years and now pRick Scott.

[southernyankeebelle]

49. Did you see Maddow's show last night? Jeb's name came up. Maybe sneak this prick in.

I don't ever want to see another Bush in office.

[russspeakeasy]

30. FLORIDA ? no state compares to us for corruption and dirty

politics. I moved here 8 years ago. All political positions are for sale.
(p.s.: how are my friends in Bird Island?)

[AnotherMcIntosh]

37. Have you ever been to Illinois?

Here all politicial positions, including judgeships, are for sale. They call it pay-for-play.

Question -- Do you know what they call an honest judge in Illinois?

Answer -- A tourist.

[southernyankeebelle]

50. Well don't worry if Newty Fruity has his way and that tourist judge leans left he'll have him

arrested. Heil Gringrich.

[SheilaT]

51. New Mexico, which is off the

radar of almost everyone who doesn't actually live here, is astonishingly corrupt. I've only been here three and a half years, and every time I think it can't get worse, it does.

Our recently elected Republican governor, Susana Martinez us amazingly inept. She keeps on pulling stuff that then gets her hauled before the state supreme court, and every time they shoot her down. The most recent was her attempt at a line-item veto in the state budget, and the state supreme court said in no uncertain terms she could not do that.

We have a recently resigned Public Regulation Commission person who almost never bothered to attend meetings or do whatever work he was supposed to do, and was making ninety grand a year. Oh, and it's an elected office. Anyway, he was rather egregiously using his state-supplied gas credit card apparently to buy gas for others and maybe to purchase things that weren't gas. It's not totally clear. He's a Democrat. More recently he's been thrown out of a court-ordered drug program I gather for failing drug tests, and it looks like he'll spend a couple of years in jail.

We had a sheriff, again an elected Democrat, who had to resign because he was caught selling department equipment, including bullet-proof vests, over the internet.

These are just ones I can recite off the top of my head, and there are many, many more. I simply cannot get over the level of blatant, overt, obvious corruption and malfeasance. It makes me wonder if any elected official can be trusted.

At the moment our two Senators, both Democrats, (Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall) seem to be pretty honest and good. Bingamen is retiring at the end of this term, and the Democrats don't seem to have any candidate to run in that office. I have no idea why.

[russspeakeasy]

60. It sounds like we're all up shit creek.

Does anyone have a state that is being run reasonably well???

[Zoeisright]

34. Thank you. Bachmann is an outlier.

In more ways than one.

[glinda]

39. This is why we have to take into consideration election fraud and make sure our votes truly count.

[teddy51]

5. Has Minnesota been Governed by Repubs or Democrats? n/t

[kickysnana]

7. We have the first Republican majority in both houses since 1949 but a DFL Gov following

GOP with Jesse thrown in for a term a while ago.

[hifiguy]

6. I gotta start reading more local news.

I live here and I didn't know about anything other than Koch resigning. I remember when the words "Minnesota Republican" made one think of sensible folks like Arne Carlson, Harold LeVander, Bill Frenzel and Elmer L. Anderson.

Sounds like a fun thing to watch.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Delightful, isn't it?

[Scuba]

9. Time to insert a bunch of RINO's. n/t

[T S Justly]

11. Great! Will their policies be going down with them? Is there a Democrat ...

,or a Democrat Lite poised to take the reigns of State Government?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. I'll ask here....

Any word on who the thugs plan to run against Klobuchar?

[kickysnana]

17. Not according to this.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/93094cce387f4f5eb2e8d9a40788d864/MN--Senate-Arwood-Gun-Conviction/

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican hoping to challenge Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar next year once pleaded guilty for having a loaded handgun at the airport. The councilman also had no permit to carry a weapon at the time.

Joe Arwood, a St. Bonifacius city council member, discussed his 2005 conviction Friday with The Associated Press. He said it taught him to "slow down" in life, especially when it comes to firearms.,,,

Despite Minnesota's propensity for close Senate races, the state GOP has struggled to attract a big-name candidate for next year's race.

Klobuchar heads into her re-election campaign in strong shape, with a sturdy approval rating and a huge fundraising advantage over possible opponents. She had $4 million banked by the end of October while none of the others had cracked six figures.

[provis99]

15. and Minnesota republicans are probably the most honorable republicans.

just compare what they do to the sewer hole that is Republican headquarters in Florida.

[MH1]

20. well ... Bachmann is from Minnesota.

just sayin'.

altho in aggregate, you are probably right.

[glinda]

40. Chip Craavack and Norm coleman can be added to the list also.

[RBInMaine]

23. Bachman honorable??? They are virtually ALL right wing corporate looney bins who need to GO!

[provis99]

31. which tells you how much worse Florida republicans are...

[bluestate10]

16. Sounds good. Thanks for the update. nt

[lovemydog]

19. Thanks for the update.

I've met some wonderful Minnesotans. None of whom are republicans, lol.

[Odin2005]

21. The Tea-Bastards overplayed their card here.

2010 was a flash in the pan, Minnesota culture is communitarian and so is antithetical to Tea-Baggerism.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. If it is so 'communitarian' why is the Statehouse in year 60 something of GOP

majority in both houses? That just seems odd to me. Communitarian Republicans are a breed I am not familiar with.

[Odin2005]

44. A bad case of "throw the bums out" in 2010.

The teabaggers took advantage of the anti-establishment sentiment and had lots of funding from outside sources. They are a flash in the pan and will not last past 2012 here.

[Zalatix]

53. Voters' remorse is in full effect now. A GOP rollback is in progress. n/t

.

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. K&R!

[Spazito]

25. Wow, the crap has really hit the fan there...

financially, ethically, you name it.

Typical repubs, it's always 'do as I say not as I do'.

[glinda]

41. They had planned for a Republican Gov and then have the Lakes surrounded for mining, logging, etc...

So in desperation and strong will to want this, it blew back just as hard right now. Fate.

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Congrats ! Imploding Repugs are always welcome news. nt

[lonestarnot]

32. We are watching. Clowns.

[Zoeisright]

33. I am LOVING IT.

I so look forward to kicking their fucking asses to the curb in 2012.

[liberalhistorian]

35. I'm sure they'll find

a way to make it all Dayton's fault. And their sheep followers will go along with it. But given how they're trying to destroy a once-great and greatly-populist state, I say more power to their implosion and the sooner the better. I was especially disgusted with the party's behavior during the shutdown this summer (I live in South Dakota but attend graduate school in MN). How the same state that gave us Franken and Wellstone can also be responsible for the likes of Bachmann, Coleman, Emmer and all the state repub legislative idiots is beyond me.

[mahina]

36. They do give us a break sometimes.

We had kind of a similar situation here. Some staffer got PO'd and started badmouthing everybody and everything. They ran out of money for a while. I hope it helps!

Of course now they have a shiny new chair and are fundraising again.

My theory is that the party itself just attracts horses' asses, no offense to horses, and these kinds of things happen so much more easily with that kind of population.

We have our share too...

[roguevalley]

38. congrats Minnesota. Another reason I love you.

[greiner3]

43. I think this is a great Christmas present."

And asshat O'Reilly keeps insisting we are declaring war on Christmas.

[WI_DEM]

45. Saw the Dem mayor of Minneapolis on "The Ed Show" last night

and he didn't mention it, of course, he wasn't asked either. But good!!

[kenfrequed]

46. Well

I really didn't think the Minnesota GOP would give me anything for Christmas but wow!

[jwirr]

47. Great news.

[myrna minx]

48. It's quite delicious, isn't it? 2012 will be a fun political season for the DLFers.

[lefty16]

54. Daycare Union

You forgot to mention all the republican lunatics out there against the proposed daycare union. There are plenty!

[Scurrilous]

55. Thanks.

[DebJ]

56. Natural selection! Ha! Perfect for the party of Social Darwinism! n/t

[arthritisR_US]

57. This truly made me smile, thanks! :-) n/t

[hootinholler]

59. No I haven't

And this has put a big ol shit-eatin grin on my face.