Speed Gibson

Have you ever made a presentation, a sales pitch, or a bet where an early clue let's you know that your cleverness will soon be running down your leg? Poor Wendy Wilde earned her pay this segment trying to reign in DFL "enthusiast" Marty Ariones (sic?) who agreed with Mark Kennedy, that Patty Wetterling didn't know the issues.

Wendy: I am really pleased to welcome to The Wendy Wilde Show somebody who’s doing some moving and shaking in central Minnesota, trying to take back the State, and trying to take back America. […] Marty Ariones […,] you live in central Minnesota and you have been working diligently to invigorate the Democratic Party in central Minnesota. That is the area, folks, if you’re not familiar with it, where Mark Kennedy blasted the heck of our amazing Patty Wetterling. He just went for the throat. It was merciless. [Do] you think that that might have been, Marty, a turning point for people in central Minnesota, seeing what they did to Patty Wetterling?

Marty: No, I don’t that in itself was.

Whoops! You were supposed to agree with me.

Marty (con’t): What I think is that people here have become sickened to death of this vicious, malicious, mud-slinging, muck-raking, Republican Party, and all of it in the name of God. They’re all Christians.

Oh, oh. Where did my producer find this one?

Marty (con’t): […] We’re in the middle of a state shutdown. They’re trying to say it’s oh, it was the Democrats, the Democrats, it was gridlock and they just wouldn’t compromise. They brought several compromises to the table, and the Governor each and every time, as soon as it looked like it was going to reach compromise, added things to that budget that had nothing to do with the budget, and made it very clear he would not sign the budget unless those things were included. And of course, Democrats said this doesn’t include that, and this isn’t what this is about. It’s really quite a war. Everything that’s been cut here has been cut, affecting middle class and working people. I notice that none of the Senators or Representatives are going to be going without pay. Neither is the governor.

Wendy: It’s funny, the Governor is still getting a paycheck and for what – for scheduling hunting trips?

Marty: Yeah, that’s about it, too. As far as Mark Kennedy goes, this guy is such a weasel, it’s just not even funny.

Wendy: Bit Marty, I have to interject. There was just an election there in November. He won again. And I noticed because I actually lived in St. Cloud […] for a couple of years. It was an area that surprised me, because it talked a lot about family values, but then it puts people like that in office who would deal in such an atrocious manner as he did Patty Wetterling. And you’re talking about smearing mud, but he won re-election.

Marty: He did. He didn’t win it by that much. It was very close. It was very close.

Kennedy won 56% to 44%, by over 30,000 votes. That's not close. And it's far better than Bill Luther ever did.

Marty (cont’d): I think that the problem that Patty had was that she had not educated herself on the issues. She was not able to get up and speak publicly. When she was questioned about health, education, health care for the poor, and so on, she knew nothing. She simply kept repeating the mantra, “I’m for the kids, I’m for the kids.” I’m sorry, that’s not enough. We’re all for the kids.

Yes, that's the atrocious behavior Mark Kennedy exhibited, challenging Wetterling on the issues, most of which she didn't know. Remember how she kept dodging debates?

Marty (con’t) I think his attacks on her would have worked to her benefit [if she’d had] a stronger message, and if she had bothered to educate herself, bring herself up to speed on issues. I think she could have just whipped him seven ways from Sunday.

Pretty strong stuff, not what Wendy wants to hear. Especially since it's true.

Wendy: I don’t want to sit around and bash Democrats and the Democatic Party or any progressive, but shouldn’t the party have been there educating here before she ever ran?

It can't have been Patty's fault! She's amazing, remember? Only a weasel could have beaten her.

Marty: I think this was a hastily thrown-together campaign for one thing. […] We’ve got the 2006 elections coming up and we need a fireball candidate. We need somebody that’s going to get out there and speak their mind, and not be afraid to stand up for what they truly believe or believe to be factual or true without worrying about what these other people are going to say. We have so much in-fighting in the party itself.

This guest is just not drinking the Kool-Aid. Let's change the subject.

Wendy: Oh, so do the Republicans. I don’t want to keep bashing Democrats because the Republican Party even in Minnesota is sharply divided. We bring Republicans on the show who asked to be on because they want to speak against what’s going on in St. Paul. Repeatedly, we’ve had numerous Republicans on the show who say “I can’t go along with this, I have to stand up for what’s right for my district.” So there is in-fighting within the Republican Party. […] Phil Krinke actually brought forward agreements trying to negotiate agreements behind Steve Sviggum’s back, Marty.

I'd sure like to see that long list of masochistic Republicans begging to be on Wendy's show.

Marty: Oh God, doesn’t he make you sick? I tell you, we’re just sunk here. We are just absolutely sunk here.

Careful, Wendy...

Marty (con’t): We’ve got Michelle Bachman, a Representative, we’ve got Steve Sviggum, both of them so obsessed about other people’s sex lives, they can’t attend to business. These people are absolutely immersed in this stuff, visualizing scenarios of people wanting having sex with animals, and beastiality being the next thing down the line…

Wow! Sure didn't see this one coming. This could be actionable; better cut her off before she removes all doubt.

Wendy: Marty. Marty. Marty! Hello, Marty! This is my show and I told you in e-Mail we don’t go over the line and you’re going over the line.

Hmmm. Apparently this has happened before. I think we're learning more about the guest's sexual fantasies than those of Rep. Sviggum or Senator Bachman.

After some inside baseball, the interview continued:

Marty: [We] are now reaching we hope somewhere around six to seven hundred people. And every day this number seems to be growing. [With the] dissatisfaction with what is going on in this country as a whole, people who were formerly just hard-core conservatives are moving to the left. They’re frightened. People are scared of what’s happening to us.

Wendy: It’s interesting [that what you just brought up is] what these Republicans who call and want to be on our show are saying the same thing. The people who’ve taken control both in Washington and in St. Paul are not conservatives. Look at the enormous deficit spending they have going. And the cronyism, they funnel money to their friends. They give giant contracts to their friends. That’s cronyism, that is not conservatism, that is not conservative financial values.

Marty: These people are like parasites. They have simply attached themselves to the path of least resistance. You have to look at The Federalist Society who’s behind all of this, behind what they call “the movement.” Of course they could not go to the left with the Democrats, because the couldn’t sell the […] immorality […]

Wendy: […] The interesting thing about what you’re saying, is the left actually isn’t left. Because compared with these people, everybody’s left. We’re all stuck in the middle together.

Now that's real projection. The Democratic Party hasn't been this far left since 1972, while GOP base complains daily over RINO's wandering all over the political spectrum. But, no, it's the Republicans who went hard right. Explain that phenomenon to Phil Krinke.

Marty: Exactly, exactly. And people are going to have to stand up, Wendy. They’re going to have to quit sitting back.and going, “oh, I just don’t know what to do.” You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to get up, you’ve got to start talking, you’ve got to start pushing back. This is our country. It is not their country. They don’t own it. They don’t our flag. They don’t own God. This is our country.

Wendy: Good work, Marty. […] Central Minnesota, a growing movement, a growing number of people dissatisfied with the right wing agenda and how it has harmed our cities. How it is harming families by pushing families over the brink. [Remember,] our median family incomes are down almost $1,000 a family in Minnesota. That is the right wing policy result.

There you have it. Vote for Democrats because Republicans are creepy.