Archive for the 'John Thune' Category
Thune ‘n’ Boone
By Denise Ross
It was part school lesson, part persuasion speech at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Wednesday afternoon when Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens promoted his plan to save America from itself.
(Photos by David Larson)
T. Boone spent a good portion of his half-hour presentation at the dry-erase board writing down numbers to explain where our energy comes from and where our money goes. He even made a pie chart. More on that later.
If you haven’t heard or seen the commercials, this energy guru and billionaire is promoting a plan to convert America to a lot more of its domestic energy. (Click on link above.) He’s pressuring politicians, John McCain and Barack Obama chief among them, to sign on to his plan or come up with one of their own.
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Forest slash piles and saw dust will fuel your car
By Denise Ross
Before I get to some of the details from Monday’s field hearing in Rapid City, let’s ponder something that none of use could have imagined back in 2002 — that a Sen. John Thune and a Sen. Tim Johnson would sit side-by-side working on an issue together. That’s what happened at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City.
(Photos by Denise)
Forgive my poor photo editing, but I did not get a photo in which they both looked good, so I cropped 2 shots. Mr. Hoghouse, my staff photographer, had to report to his paying job on Monday so I was on my own.
As you can read from the background panel, the field hearing was about “transforming forest waste to biofuels,” which does seem like a common sense thing to do. I did not attend the entire hearing, but while I was there I heard no objections to the idea.
2 commentsThune the next Cheney? Dems giving it a go
By Denise Ross
South Dakota’s Sen. John Thune would seem to bear little resemblance to Wyoming’s former Congressman Dick Cheney, but the Democratic National Committee now lists Thune at the top of its The Next Cheney website - where it draws direct comparisons between Thune and W but not Cheney.
A fundraising letter paid for by the Thune campaign repeatedly connected George W. Bush to Thune, and emphasized the similarities between the two.
AND …
According to a vote analysis conducted by Congressional Quarterly in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007 John Thune supported President Bush’s position on legislation 84 percent of the time.
Anyway, this splash of Fellini in the ongoing drama that is the 2008 presidential campaign lines up 8 potential McCain VP picks, casting each one as “the next Cheney” one assumes in that one of the eight is likely to fill the same slot on the ticket as Cheney has. It’s part of the push of the message that a McCain presidency would be 4 more years of Bush.
No commentsSD Dems to make pre-emptive strike against Thune VP nod
By Denise Ross
This is a move I haven’t seen before. SD Dem Party Chairman Jack Billion is going to tell reporters why John Thune as McCain’s VP pick would be like having Dick Cheney all over again.
This from my e-mail box this morning:
Wednesday, August 13, at 12:30 p.m. CDT (1:30 p.m. EDT), South Dakota
Democratic Party Chair Jack Billion will hold a conference call with members
of the media to highlight various aspects of Senator John Thune’s record
that would mean more of the same Bush-Cheney policies if he is chosen as the
vice-presidential nominee.The call comes in conjunction with the rollout of a new website,
www.thenextcheney.com, which features Thune and other potential candidates for vice president.
The site features “other potential candidates for vice president”? Hmmm. So anybody would be the next Cheney? I guess we’ll have to hear what gets said. Stay tuned.
John squared: Will McCain pick Thune?
By Denise Ross
(Photo courtesy of Rapid City Weekly News / Andy Jacobs UPDATE: Correct photo credit goes to Tom Lawrence)
Potential VP candidate Sen. John Thune, R-SD, strikes a pensive pose as GOP prez nominee John McCain answers questions from SD reporters aboard the Straight Talk Express bus on Monday.
I wasn’t on the bus, but Tom Lawrence of the RC Weekly News tells me that both Thune and McCain downplayed Thune’s VP prospects. However, they stopped short of outright laying them to rest, and traditionally the thwarted VP contender publicly falls on his/her own sword by saying they really don’t want the job and wouldn’t accept an invitation.
Thune stuck with his line that he’s not expecting an invitation and broadened it out to say he expects probably a governor would get the nod.
Likewise, McCain said he really couldn’t comment in depth. But he then went on to extoll Thune’s resume - solid conservative credentials, young and handsome.
Here’s how Kevin Woster of the RC Journal quoted McCain:
“Sen. Thune won one of the great races in recent history (over former Sen. Tom Daschle), one of the most hotly contested, and probably one of the most watched races in recent political history. … On a broad range of issues, he’s highly respected and highly regarded. And as I mentioned before, he is not ugly.”
We’re mere weeks away from knowing the answer, and Thune’s still in the mix. Whatever happens, that can’t be bad for Thune or for SD.
Bonus photo on the jump.
No commentsThune and Gang of 10: Can’t we all just get along?
By Denise Ross
I’d call it the biggest news to come off of Capitol Hill all year, but it’s not getting a ton of attention in the press. A bipartisan group of senators - 5 Dems and 5 Republicans - have set forth a compromise energy policy. (Details on the jump.)
The New Energy Reform Act literally has something for everybody - something for everybody to love and to hate - from the greenest enviros to the multi-million-dollar-salaried oil exec. Of course, those on either extreme are focusing on what they hate. Sigh.
The oil industry is warning that revoking its tax breaks could slow its production of new energy supplies.
AND FROM THE OTHER CORNER:
“This is Exxon’s drilling agenda wrapped in a veneer of other energy policies,” said Anna Aurilio, federal legislative director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a lot of reporting on what is essentially a stunt by House Republicans, who seem to be struggling with the notion that they no longer run the place.
Reps. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) led a spontaneous revolt to protest the Democrats’ decision to adjourn the House for the five-week August recess without giving the minority party a chance to speak out on rising gas prices. Even after Democrats turned off the lights and microphones, and with TV cameras shut down, Republicans kept talking and chanting, “Drill, drill, drill!” …
Two dozen Republicans kicked off their second day of protests with an array of sometimes inartful, off-topic or histrionic floor speeches ranging in topic from John Quincy Adams’ views on slavery to a shout-out to Moses. …
House Republicans were vowing to continue their talkathon on the floor “as long as it takes,” claiming they would continue their protest indefinitely if Pelosi does not allow a vote soon.
This makes news when we have real leadership and a substantive proposal coming out of the Senate. Double sigh.
Perhaps of most interest here in SD is that our own John Thune and a few other senators from ethanol states have shored up the standing of ethanol and other biofuels in the bill.
And it’s still just a bill, younger than Brad and Angelina’s twins. The Gang of 10 hopes to build support for their proposal during the August recess, then get a vote on Capitol Hill in September.
(Hey, Gang of 10, how about a website? That would make it easier to promote your cause, and it would make life easier on all us bloggers.)
In lieu of an official website, here’s my little summary of what’s been reported and released so far, followed by the full official press release from Sen. Thune:
No commentsAlert: Thune on FOX News Sunday
By Denise Ross
South Dakota’s own John Thune will be on FOX News Sunday (airing 7 am and 4 pm out here in West River), representing John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Our exclusive guests this week:
• Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., McCain supporter
• Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Obama supporter
• Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President Bush…
And, the “veepstakes” continue. With the conventions looming, just how close are the candidates to picking their running mates?
Gaaah. Karl Rove. Sen. Thune, don’t look directly into his eyes. (Wait, I thought Rove was officially part of FOX’s team now. Why is he listed as a “guest”?)
In any event, it looks like Thune’s been assigned this portion of Operation Deflate Euro-Obama. Tune in to see if he’s up to the challenge.
2 commentsWashington Post swoons for Thune
By Denise Ross
In the latest VP installment, our junior senator is not on a mere list of potential McCain VPs. He’s got an entire Washington Post column to himself this weekend. And the columnist, she made note of some of Sen. John Thune’s finer qualities.
He’s young, easy on the eyes, articulate and personable. At the ripe age of 47, standing tall, trim and fit, Thune’s good looks could counterbalance McCain’s most glaring liability: his old looks.
Imagine if some menfolk had made such observations about our congresswoman. The disapproving tsk, tsks would deafen us - not that that’s stopped folks in the past. I recall making a Blogmore post featuring both Herseth and Thune for winning some literal beauty contests.
But all this going-weak-in-the-knees is only a distraction.
There are more important signals being sent in this column. Our old friend Dick Wadhams makes an appearance, after a run-down of Thune’s recent appearances on behalf of the McCain campaign.
6 commentsThune still a hit on the fund-raising circuit
By Denise Ross
After defeating Tom Daschle in South Dakota’s historic 2004 US Senate race, Sen. John Thune, R-SD — who we all still know as that tall guy from Murdo — remains popular on the GOP fundraising circuit.
As evidenced by this item courtesy of Google news alerts:
Republican meeting: The Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee hosts its annual Lincoln Day Dinner with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., as keynote speaker. 7:30 p.m., Friday; Grand Hyatt Hotel, 2900 Bayport Drive, Tampa. For tickets, tables and sponsorships, call (813) 978-8228 or visit www.hcrp.org.
Tampa in July. I’m sweating just thinking about it.
4 commentsThune’s Clinton connection
By Denise Ross
I was interviewing John Thune recently, writing a newspaper column about his efforts to boost the number of law enforcement officers on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. And I broke one of the cardinal rules of interviewing. I had a “Holy cow!” reaction to something he said:
I was talking to Hillary Clinton about this after she visited Pine Ridge, and she wants to help.
“Wait, wait,” I said. “You were talking to Hillary Clinton about crime on South Dakota’s Indian reservations?” (With emphasis on the you and the Hillary.) Thune realized I wanted to pursue this further — which is why interviewers should not react as I did – and he shut it down.
He said something like: Well, it was on the Senate floor, not in South Dakota. And she just said, “Hey, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
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