Elmer L. Andersen: Why this Republican ex-governor will be voting for Kerr

[dflprincess]

This was in today's Strib. I posted it in editorials but I wanted to make sure Minnesotans saw it.

This article was really hard to cut down - read the whole thing at:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/5029512.html


Throughout my tenure and beyond as the 30th governor of this state, I have been steadfastly aligned -- and until recently, proudly so -- with the Minnesota Republican Party.

The present Republican president has led us into an unjustified war -- based on misguided and blatantly false misrepresentations of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The terror seat was Afghanistan. Iraq had no connection to these acts of terror and was not a serious threat to the United States, as this president claimed, and there was no relation, it's now obvious, to any serious weaponry. Although Saddam Hussein is a frightful tyrant, he posed no threat to the United States when we entered the war. George W. Bush's arrogant actions to jump into Iraq when he had no plan how to get out have alienated the United States from our most trusted allies and weakened us immeasurably around the world.

Also, if there as well had been proper and careful coordination of services and intelligence on Sept. 11, 2001, that horrific disaster might also have been averted. But it was a separate event from this brutal mess of a war, and the disingenuous linking of the wholly unrelated situation in Iraq to 9/11 by this administration is not supported by the facts.

I am more fearful for the state of this nation than I have ever been -- because this country is in the hands of an evil man: Dick Cheney. It is eminently clear that it is he who is running the country, not George W. Bush.

Bush's phony posturing as cocksure leader of the free world -- symbolized by his victory symbol on the aircraft carrier and "mission accomplished" statement -- leave me speechless. The mission had barely been started, let alone finished, and 18 months later it still rages on. His ongoing "no-regrets," no-mistakes stance and untruths on the war -- as well as on the floundering economy and Bush administration joblessness -- also disappoint and worry me.

Liberal Republicans of my era and mind-set used to have a humane and reasonable platform. We advocated the importance of higher education, health care for all, programs for children at risk, energy conservation and environmental protection. Today, Bush and Cheney give us clever public relations names for programs -- need I say "No Child Left Behind? -- but a lack of funding to support them. Early childhood education programs and overall health care are woefully underfunded. We have not only the largest number ever of medically uninsured in this nation, our infant mortality rates, once among the lowest in the world, have worsened to 27th.

[trotsky]

1. Old-time Minnesota Republicans.

Today they'd be called moderate Democrats.

Arne Carlson was probably the last of that breed we'll ever see, and even he had some right-wing delusions. (Vouchers, for one.)

[MnFats]

2. entirely logical....still, amazing!

Elmer, probably the nicest man ever to enter Mn. politics, carries huge weight among state repubs.
his credentials are impeccable.


hey, remember when that lunatic Jason Lewis (KSTP onair nut)told him to stay away from the GOP convention because he no longer qualified as a conservative? Ol' Jason, now of North Carolina, would have his head explode....

[Raster]

3. Oh<very long OOO sound> Right On!!!

Lutefisk for Everyone!!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I LOVE it that he came right out and called Cheney "evil"

I wish some Democrats would have the guts to do that publicly.

Anderson is from the era when Minnesota's governors might be Republicans and might be Democrats, but you knew you'd have a decent government either way.