… or at least the GOP nomination.

By Denise Ross

The John Thune in 2012 movement has officially begun. In case there was any doubt before, New York Times columnist David Brooks (a personal fave here at the Hoghouse) essentially sanctioned Thune as the GOP’s Obama in a Friday column.

(D)eep in the bowels of the G.O.P., there are serious people having quiet conversations. The people holding these conversations created and admired Bob McDonnell’s perfectly executed Virginia gubernatorial campaign. And now as they look to the future of their party, and who might lead it in 2012, the name John Thune keeps popping up. …

If you wanted a Republican with the same general body type and athletic grace as Barack Obama, you’d pick Thune. … (P)eople say that he is unfailingly genial, modest and nice … and possesses idyllic small-town manners, like the perfect boy in a Thornton Wilder play. He appears to be untouched by cynicism. In speeches and interviews, he is straightforward, intelligent and earnest. He sometimes seems to have emerged straight into the 21st century from a more wholesome time.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

No doubt you’ve seen the ads running on SoDak news and blog sites, and they sound pretty good. South Dakota’s own John Thune wants you to help him ”Stop the bailouts.”

Personally, I would like to have a direct hand in reversing the Wall Street bonuses, but I digress. Here’s one of the ads:

I wrote about Thune’s anti-bailout passions in a recent newspaper column:

I was puzzled by the ads. Didn’t Thune vote for the $700 billion bailout, the Troubled Asset Relief Program? Yes he did. So why is he now campaigning to stop something for which he voted?

Thune campaign manager Justin Brasell offers an explanation - that the Bush administration did a bait and switch. And while they certainly did do that, I’m still puzzled that Thune would choose this as a campaign theme. (To be fair to Brasell, he was puzzled that I was puzzled. It all makes perfect sense to him, so perhaps I am missing something or being unnecessarily obtuse.)

Perhaps Brasell and I see things differently because the Mississippi native wasn’t yet on South Dakota soil when Thune defended his pro-bailout vote with passion equal to that with which he is now fighting federal bailouts.

From the Oct. 1, 2008, press release:

It would have been easy to do the `politically popular’ thing and vote against this bill, but for me it would not have been the responsible thing to do.

(The underlining is Thune’s.)

I know Thune’s “end-the-bailout” line is resonating. I’ve heard folks talking about it. (See the page about this on Thune’s campaign website.) So perhaps the collective amnesia is suffient, or perhaps there have been too many big federal spending packages greased through the pipe for them to care about a vote on the original bailout. But I still struggle to see how a principled stand 11 months ago can turn into campaign fodder in the opposite direction.

Should this be a case of, You’ve made your bed; now ly in it? Am I wrong to wonder whether this would be the tone if Bush or some other Republican still held the White House? Will voters ponder which one of Thune’s pronouncements is coming from a place of principal?

To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise RossIf you’re growing weary of screaming about health care reform, there’s another song on the political season of discontent’s hit parade: climate legislation, known by various names depending on the political leanings of who’s talking.South Dakota’s congressional delegation has as diverse a set of views as possible, considering their tiny numbers. Johnson’s for it; Thune’s against it; Herseth Sandlin wants to be for it but isn’t just yet.

“Soon the Senate will consider climate change legislation that could finally help South Dakota to live up to its wind generating potential and capture the benefits of a cash crop that is just blowing across our landscape,” Johnson wrote in a recent op-ed.

Thune, on the other hand, has vowed to fight the bill “with every fiber of my being.” (Insert joke about windy politicians here.)There’s also Matt McGovern, of the Mitchell McGoverns, heading up the SoDak office of Repower America, that group Al Gore’s involved with. He showed up at a confab in Rapid City this week to tout the benefits of the bill to a group of hostiles. Kevin Woster covered the meeting. Read that here.

 ”This is a great bill for South Dakota,” McGovern said.

I learned all of this when I wrote a recent newspaper column about it. To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

As Sen. John Thune, R-SD, adds town hall meetings on health care to his August recess schedule, I offer the newspaper column I wrote recently about his position on the pending reform.

Thune has long been for some specific flavors of health care reform, but at the moment and into the foreseeable future he is against health care reform of pretty much any stripe. That is no doubt because Democrats are writing the bill(s). It’s possible that Thune would change his tune should the Senate Finance Committee’s tortured bipartisan toiling bear fruit, but it’s not likely.

There is little overlap between what Thune has been calling for - telehealth, tort reform, small business health plans and cheap prescription drugs - and the bills in play.

To read the full colum, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

Since I panned the Health Freedom Blog recently launched by Sen. John Thune’s campaign staff, I ought to point out where there is some actual information about how Thune stands on health care. It’s his official Senate website:

We need common sense reforms to reduce health care costs for small businesses and the self-employed. I support creating Small Business Health Plans (SBHPs), which allow individuals and small businesses to band together to purchase more affordable health insurance for their employees.

There’s just one example of a straightforward statement that we’d be hard-pressed to find anybody to argue with. Granted, the site is brief, but it packs information in about telehealth, prescription drug pricing and medical malpractice lawsuits. Hoghouse Blog recommends.

So, hey, Health Freedom bloggers, mine the senator’s official site for a few posts. I just did one. You can, too!

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s own John Thune has launched the Health Freedom blog, and, frankly, it’s killing me.

C’mon guys, you can do better than giving in to the reflexive GOP urge to name everything “freedom.” You know how some things become parodies of themselves? Don’t let it happen to your campaign. Or your candidate.

So aside from a title that suggests, I guess, that one is free to be healthy - and who could argue with that, right? - how’s the blog itself? Well, it borrows heavily from the fine blogging tradition of quoting from MSM articles. Borrows heavily might fall a bit short. It does this and offers no extra commentary designed to generate discussion. This post is typical:

Politico: Liberals gag over health deal

Reported by Politico:

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

It’s not hard to find East Coast media - especially in NYC - taking on South Dakota’s own John Thune over his (failed) proposal to have concealed carry gun permits recognized by other states. But the New York Daily News did it in graphic form, which is great for blogs.

Personally, I’m not familiar with the Country Corn Maze. Anyone else? Of course it’s great fun for coastal big city types to make themselves feel more sophisticated by making fun of us out here in flyover country.

The murder comparison is an attention grabber, though.

Meanwhile, the NYDN had plenty to say about Thune’s gun bill, including this:

The senator from the state that kills Wild Bill Hickok every day for tourists says we would be safer with gun-toting yahoos walking around Central Park.

Read it all here.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s own John Thune might be rising fast in the GOP ranks, but today he got the cold shoulder from the Washington Post. They don’t much like his proposed amendment that would require states to honor concealed carry gun permits from other states.

THE GUNS-everywhere-guns-for-all crowd in Congress is at it again. This time it’s Sen. John Thune’s turn.

…

This is a frightening prospect. 

…

Conservatives usually argue against the federal government telling states what they can and can’t do. If approved, the Thune amendment would trample all over the rights of states and cities to enforce reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. There are already enough guns on America’s streets. A vote for Mr. Thune’s bill would make them that much more dangerous.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

John Thune’s new campaign manager doesn’t sound paranoid, but ever since I interviewed him for a recent newspaper column I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what threats he sees. And he does see them, SHS notwithstanding. (Read the full column on the jump.)

 We always said Sen. McConnell was going to have a tough race. It just took awhile to convince others that would be the case. It’s the same situation here, said Justin Brasell, who managed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s close 2008 re-election race in Kentucky.

…

We’ve gone from 55 Republican senators to 40. Sen. Thune has seen lot of his GOP colleagues not return because they had tougher races than expected.

True enough. But I still can’t identify a Democrat who could seemingly unseat Thune. Then again, South Dakota is home to the unlikely governor. Thune himself has won his share of contests as the supposed underdog.

As for Brasell and his distinct Mississippi drawl, he seemed easy-going over the phone and was able to laugh at our often ridiculously cold winter weather. (He arrived in Sioux Falls in January. Poor thing.) At 32 he has already scaled the ranks of the campaign world. A young chap like that must be looking for bigger and better things down the road, wouldn’t you think?

Now that Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is officially out of the Senate picture for next year, let’s hope young Master Brasell doesn’t get too bored here in the Rushmore state.

To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

Spread the word

Hide Sites

By Denise Ross

The website Politics Daily agrees with my recent analysis that South Dakota’s own John Thune ought to be in the mix when the future of the nation’s Republican Party is discussed.

After observing that Thune is “very tan,” Politics Daily makes the more substantive point that Thune is a favorite among “rank-and-file” Republicans, who will be key when choosing the next few presidential nominees.

Also,

Thune becomes the #4 Republican in the Senate and is a lesser-known, but fast-rising spokesman for GOP in Washington. If you don’t know who he is now, take a moment to read up, because you’ll hear the name “John Thune” soon enough. 

Whether or not one might or might not be thrilled with Thune’s socially and fiscally conservative politics, he does seem to be a good fit for the GOP in its current state.

Spread the word

Hide Sites