The Politico had a story on the 3rd earlier today and it included this little gem:
On the GOP side, former House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen — dubbed an establishment conservative by state politicos — looks like the early front-runner if he opts to run.
But his biggest challenge could come from state Rep. Joyce Peppin, a movement conservative who has drawn opposition from both Democrats and moderate Republicans.
“She’s in the Bachmann mold,” said Minnesota lobbyist Paul Cassidy, referring to the culturally conservative lawmaker Rep. Michele Bachmann, from the neighboring congressional district.
The comparison is accurate - Peppin is as far right as they come (also totally obsessed with nuclear power). Though a Bachmann style conservative would probably tank in the more socially moderate 3rd, Peppin might have a shot at the Republican nomination. Three factors work in her favor:
1. Her gender - DFLers look likely, at least for the moment, to endorse a woman and female candidates do better in the suburbs.
2. Her opponent - Paulsen is locking up support among the GOP big wigs, but he has less personality than a brick.
3. Her craziness - Some segments of the Republican base really hated Jim Ramstad and are itching to replace him with a firebreather. Peppin could just be their gal.
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I didn’t understand what you meant by “obsessed with nuclear” until I read this:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/pressreleasels85.asp?district=32A&pressid=2138&party=2
The problem isn’t her support for nuclear but rather her lack of knowledge of the basic principles behind nuclear energy generation.
She calls nuclear “renewable” and “home grown”; can someone direct me to the famous MN Uranium Range?
I’d be glad to have more people in the primary race (on either side) but agree that in the end, she sounds quite a bit further right than your typical 3rd district voter.
If the Mini Michele gets into the race, we’ll do a lot more about her unhealthy obsession with nuclear power.
Nuclear or Nuculer
She doesn’t quite have the “Bachmann look”, if ya know what I mean:) Not to be offensive, but she probably will not get as many looks her way on first impression. Just an observation…..that Michele Bachmann is blessed with a more, shall we say…chic appearance and Joyce….well, kinda, sorta…..nah….not quite:(
She’s the person who defeated Arlon Lindner for Republican party endorsement. It’s a very wacked out district.
Whacked out robots.
Non-threatening Stepford Women?
People who have no grasp of science, but have an ideology to take us into that Brave New World.
IF this is what they are propping up as their front - it says a lot about how smart they think women in the suburbs are in general!
We keep hearing these statistics that young women tend to be idealistic & liberal, the world is all in front of them - but they don’t vote much.
Once they hitch their wagons to a significant other - generally male, despite the attack on hetero marriage by the gay agenda that want to turn y’all flaming gay…
…these women do what their lord & master wishes of them - they tend to nest conservative.
Its the Texas model. I keep hearing from those who have escaped Texas society, that this is the way people operate in Texas, the chicks are wild until they get a guy — then they all turn into prim Lauras who are to be seen & seldom heard: A good rib.
Is the Republican machine going with a new “front?”
New makeup?
Anyone consider the possibility that she will enter the race to make Paulsen appear more moderate than he actually is? That guy is pretty far right. He’ll probably need a more moderate image to win. What better way to do it than have him challenged from the right?
Nothing threatens liberals more than women and minorities who don’t think the way the master (liberals) want them to.
Funny that supporting nuclear power is now a ‘fringe’ view.
Might want to check with Hillary and Obama before you label them fringe as well. http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4520329-1.html
Great point, Wildblue. I don’t think that would be the reason she enters the race, but it certainly would be an outcome of her being in the race.
Loveit — -
That’s a nice sound bite about threatening women.
Its wrong, but its cute. Well, Its FUNNY.
Wasn’t the right all whacked out about liberal “uppity women” for decades, them “bra-burners” according to the Limbaugh nuts?
Can the right really mutate obedient & prim women into something else?
That district had a chance with Wendy Wilde - to “ELECT MOM.”
A thinking woman who took the time to really understand what she was undertaking in running for public office. Trying to take the community to a better level.
Wendy did pretty well, gaining 30% of the vote considering how entrenched the district is.
If this woman (about whom I know nothing beyond the article) is already being compared to Michelle Bachmann - Minnesota’s own little gropey Katherine Harris… its getting weird out there.
Nuk-u-lahr power, in the form of new state-of-the-art plants
may ultimately be in our future. It may be in the mix.
But its not “renewable” - with no downside.
To call it that is whacked.
Remember all those barrels of spent fuel rusting at Prairie Island.
Fuel which will be deadly for a very long time.
Either the Discovery Channel or National Geo Channel did a reprise of Chernobyl recently, with the radiation-burned firemen dying an agonizing death just for being in the vicinity of the fuel there.
And this woman’s article linked to above goes on spinning about how “hotly debated” global warming is - as though it is a matter of opinion.
We can hotly debate whether the sun comes up tomorrow - but that debate doesn’t change the reality or the science.
It also doesn’t change the fact that this administration wants the PUBLIC to insure the power plants.
Curious that any potential disaster is on the public dole, public INSURANCE — yet they want to privatize everything else, including Social Security. Why is that?
Nuclear is as renewable as the goal gasification plan on the Iron Range. (which was designated as renewable in law) Supported by oodles of Iron Range Democrats.
Oh, but we can’t criticize Democrats. They are always correct.
If corn is a renewable resource — we have to work the soil, buy the seed, plant it, cultivate it, fertilize it, harvest it, and only then can we use it — I think nuclear energy is as well. We can create more as we need to. To me a non-renewable energy is one where you begin with a finite amount of natural resource, harvest it, and one day it will be gone never to return.
Wind and solar are the two “true” renewable fuels. I place nuclear right there with ethanol — they are renewable but both require human intervention in order to exist.
loveit — -
Are YOU going to store the spent fuel in YOUR back yard?
What is the half life of the coal gassification process?
half-life
In science, a half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of a substance or entity to undergo some specified process. For example, the half-life of a radioactive substance is the amount of time it takes for half of its atoms to decay…
What is the half life of “spent radioactive waste?”
What is Nuclear waste?
How does it multiply?
How deadly is it? Where does it go?
Oil is renewable too - if we wait long enough.
Questions to be answered, certainly. No solution is perfect.
But the nuclear waste that a family of four would create over a 20-year period would fit in a shoebox. The amount of waste that same family produces in 20 years as a result of burning our coal and other “old-fashioned” fuels could only fit in a freight train. About 5,000 tons, much of it with radioactive properties, mind you.
It is personal preference, but I’d rather be very, very careful with a shoebox than have to know that my freight-train full of waste is floating around in our atmosphere every day.
I think the point is this: even if you are pro-nuclear power, Peppin’s advocacy is pretty over the top. Its a way to generate carbon-free baseload to back up the wind and the solar, but its no panacea and has consequences. Storage requires significant funds, sober planning, and a willingness to accept something that is not a quick, painless fix.
Which is why I don’t trust a Republican on this. Disposing of spent fission fuel is to serious a matter for the implementation to be funded by passing the buck, whether to future generations (bonding), the metro counties (like the stadium), or the feds (T-Paw running for Prez). Until Republican lawmakers show they can be trusted with a bridge, they shouldn’t be trusted with a reactor.
John S - you rock!:
UNTIL REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS
SHOW THEY CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A BRIDGE,
THEY SHOULDN’T BE TRUSTED WITH A REACTOR.
Joyce is very well liked and given the population of the 3rd, she has a more than great chance.
If anyone actually reads more than a sentence in a post — ->
I allow that limited nuclear plants MAY wind up in the mix.
I sure don’t feel even close to comfortable about it — -
look what the push was on fuel efficient cars when we had shortages & lines in the 70’s: out of sight, out of mind!
Stupid crap like a phrase I keep hearing:
…WHO would’ve thought that airplanes could fly into buildings?…
Um, what are the radioactive properties of
power plant generated Nuclear Waste
vs Coal?
And how deadly IS that shoebox vs the truckload of different isotopes derived from coal?
I don’t know the woman…
Big Kahuna would of course NOT be partisan.
So she bakes good cookies, dogs & small children like her.
Hardly a reason for an important job that requires more.
Hardly a reason for an ideologue?
She is one of the worst legislators I’ve seen. Whenever she couldn’t handle a debate she’d start blubblering. Tough to have an honest discussion about stuff when she’s doing that. But don’t bring it up to her she’ll start crying.
John S is exactly right, its not that I am dismissing nuclear power out of hand, its just that Peppin is a nuclear zealot.
Dems need to decide: Are you going to whine about global warming or about nuclear risk? Because by being anti-nuclear you are encouraging more and more fossil fuel to be burned (we generate about 50% of our energy from coal plants).
“Um, what are the radioactive properties of
power plant generated Nuclear Waste
vs Coal?”
Uranium and Thorium. Both are nuclear waste, and we generate about 15,000 tons a year from our existing coal-burning plants. It all goes straight into the air.
Not sure what a nuclear zealot is. I say put the spent fuel in the old taconite mines on the iron range. Otherwise, go ahead, put it in my backyard. No more or less dangerous than the stuff riding around on rail cars in my neighborhood right now.
Switching gears. Anyone know if Steve Simon is running? Campaign finance reports show that he raised over $55,000 in the last 2 years. This is pretty awesome, especially considering he doesn’t take the public subsidy. If memory serves me right, I think he raised about $70k in 2004.
That has to be more than any other DFL’er.
Certainly a stronger candidate than Bonoff.
The problem here of course is that telling people they didn’t have to pay for infrastructure got Pawlenty to 59%. Its tragic really - properly contained, the shoebox never touches you. The freight car can, and coal does produce some radioactive byproducts. Not million year life ones, but some that still kill people.
So I don’t mind nuclear power - I’d just like these Republicans here who are flogging it to show how they’ll pay for it. Devoutly praying to the free market and the spirit of the Great St. Reagan won’t cut it for me - I demand real money, for real maintenance. If you don’t like that freight-car, could we hit you up for a gas tax? Schools, Hospitals, and infrastructure are strapped for cash as it is - so don’t breath a word about ‘government waste’.
Any answers? Or is this belief in nuclear power just one-upsmanship, with no real commitment.
Saw Simon on alot of early lists much his name kind of disappeared….
Simon is still considering, we will let you know as soon as we hear something.
Childish and ignorant fits this discussion to a T, the type of behavior that I would expect to find here.
I’m just not sure which of you is playing the part of Cliff Clavin? Just too many choices I guess.
3 Mile Island killed the Nuke industry in this country.
The industry has come along since then. Waste is still an issue.
There still is that curious question about INSURING power plant
operators against catastrophes.
What is OUR liability for the damaged potentially done to US?
You have to wonder, when everyone is reluctant to insure a power plant privately.
Republicans & Libertarians don’t believe in public financing of anything. The all think they got to where they are - all on their own in a sort of cognitive dissonance.
WHY, is a big question…
The 3rd is fairly well educated.
If Ramstad was a moderate Republican, & his record indicates relative to the rabid crop like science denier Bachmann these days, he HAS been moderate & he is likable,
then why would that district want a more rabid representative?
I’ve been all for raising the gas tax since the late 90’s. Stongly disagreed w/ the Guvs veto. I even like LRT. Not all Repubs are the same when it comes to transporation funding and delivery.
I like how everyone on the left is saying only a moderate can win the third district. If that is the case what do you have to fear? You should be promoting a conservative candidate through your political branch called the Star Tribune. Don’t tell me you’re above that.
Lee, Lee, Lee,
You are so mistaken in your worldview.
Come into the light - just because what you read doesn’t reinforce what you wish, doesn’t mean you are even close to correct, or that what you read is wrong! Its an amazing world.
No one said ONLY a moderate could win, did they?
Why - a liberal might even win!
You obviously are not well read as far as newspapers.
The Strib has been pandering quite heavily to the right wing with that Kersten woman & others, including the editor.
Is it Primal Scream therapy to post here?
Back to Peppin re the third: I think Blogger and WildBlue are on to something here. Paulsen is a very smooth operator, and convincingly being a pretend moderate has been one of the few successful GOP strategies in the last little while - just look at the governor.
Peppin is just convincing enough to seem serious - but still more of a sixth district type than a third district type. She enters, she generates just enough press for Paulsen to look moderate, and Paulsen goes up against Bonoff a bit stronger.
Al Franken is a big supporter of nuclear power, and thinks the problem of nuclear waste is no big deal.
Eva - you forgot the link to support your claim.
I guess people will just have to go look… http://www.alfranken.com/content/issues
So is not mentioning it on his web site at all a position?
Franken said this during the DFL Progressive Caucus debate between the DFL Senate candidates.