In Washington, state’s delegations to Congress occasionally meet together to discuss issues that affect their state and to plan. I can only venture that the next Minnesota Delegation meeting is going to be a little awkward.
We pimped the Walz-Kline showdown on Friday , and it was great television.
If you missed it, it can be found here at TPT (click on the link at right that says “Congressional Tussel Over Funding the New 35W”).
After showing how Republicans overspent in their first six years under President Bush, Tim Walz punctuated his opening statement with “[The Republicans], would rather build bridges in Iraq than here.” Representative Kline clearly a little preturbed at this, hit back at one of Walz’s personal causes, Veterans.
It was at this moment, I was reminded that Walz is a teacher. Because he took Kline to school.
Watch Minnesota Nice inter-delegation scrap here.
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Sean,
I am a huge grammar Nazi, and I apologize for that. However, issues *A*ffect the state, or they *E*ffect change upon the state, or they have an *E*ffect upon the state.
/skitters away to avoid flying objects
/sneaks back into the frame
But yes, great smackdown :-)
I’ve always been kind of hit and miss with that one. What can I say, I’m a product of a Federal Government run education system — poor grammar straight out of the blocks.
Yes, I like it when Walz emphasizes that REPUBLICANS are to blame for everything. Real smart strategy when you live in a majority Republican district.
I like Walz, but attacking Republicans probably isn’t the smartest thing he could be doing right now. Leave that to McCollum, Oberstar, and Ellison. Walz should be cozing up with Ramstad instead of trying to attack Kline/Bachmann.
Walz has a very persuasive style. He is effective in debate forums, especially those “discussion” style ones where you can ask follow-on questions and interrupt occasionally.
In the end, though, it was Kline arguing against runaway Government spending and Walz essentially justifying pork barrel spending. It is a difficult task to justify $3 billion of earmarks in one bill, but Walz tried.
Walz had Kline on the defensive, big time. The Hwy 14 improvements have been on the books for years. The needs have been there long before the debacle in Iraq began.
That Bush is far more eager to continue to spend BILLIONS in BORROWED money for the Iraq War that we should not have started in the first place, we would not be having this discussion.
That Walz pointed the finger to the GOP for the 6 years of Bush’s Presidency regarding runaway spending was not a bad thing to do. Walz is not stupid. He has the facts, threw them at kline, and Kline got pissed. What Walz did was to remind John Kline that he was part of that GOP majority in the House during those years. Very effective.
Walz was still justifying huge federal earmarks, something that the vast majority of Americans feel not only negative about, but view as one of the corruptive practices in Washington.
I like Walz, think he is a very skilled debator (as long as he can be on the offense), but would really like to have heard him communicate that there is a better way of doing things than attaching pork to every bill.
“yep” nailed it — if Walz wants to have a long career in Congress, he really needs to speak in moderate tones. His district isn’t looking for the next Ellison or McCollum.
test.