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.

Awww, our boy from Murdo hasn’t lost his touch. (Seriously, imagine what a refreshing novelty Thune must be - as Daschle was before him - in a place filled with folks who often lack manners equal to their bursting egos.)

When I read the Obama comparison, I cringed a little because Obama emerged by taking a bold stance - opposing the war - and has followed that up with so many more bold and ambitious initiatives many analysts think his presidency could derail into a fiery wreckage under all the strain. I can’t think of a single truly bold move Thune has made, outside of taking on Tom Daschle five years ago.

But then Brooks gets to that piece of the Thune puzzle.

His positions on the issues are unremarkable. He is down-the-line conservative on social, economic and foreign policy matters.

Brooks goes on to note that it is Thune’s style moreso than his substance that GOP insiders hope might right their creaking ship.

What’s notable is the way he talks about the issues and jumps off from them. He is a gracious and ecumenical legislator, not a combative one.

Thune’s such a rock solid conservative that his sterling credentials leave him free to talk about bread and butter issues and leave the social issues alone, Brooks says. When it comes to containing government, he’s conservative but not radical.

Brooks sees a perfect presidential package, wrapped neatly with a bow, awaiting the 2012 convention when the faithful will discover the gift that is John Thune. When compared to others now leading the field - Palin, Romney, Huckabee - Thune does look darn good. But he’s not the exciting candidate he could be. If he took on a knotty challenge and accomplished something undeniably consequential - if he attempted something difficult and did it on the high wire over the public square - he would be formidable indeed.

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One of the ususal suspects as the potential secret $750,000 donor to the 2006 Vote Yes for Life campaign has been the Catholic Church, a notion I dismissed almost out of hand. For some reason, I thought the church wouldn’t funnel its money into political campaigns, even on an abortion measure.

Not being Catholic, I shouldn’t have assumed such things. What do I know about the culture of the church, beyond the sadly salacious headlines about pedophile priests and the lawsuits they generate? (The massive payouts that have brought some parts of the church to its financial knees accounted for part of my belief that it wouldn’t spend money on campaigns.)

As it turns out, not only did the church contribute to the campaign that turned back a law legalizing gay marriage in Maine, but it was former Sioux Falls Bishop Robert Carlson taking part. (Read it all here.)

The Archdiocese of St. Louis says Archbishop Robert Carlson used $10,000 in discretionary funds to support the successful effort to prevent legalization of gay marriage in Maine. … Dioceses in Philadelphia and Phoenix gave $50,000 each.

With those kinds of donations coming in from around the country, it wouldn’t take long to hit the $750k mark on an issue the seems to incite more passions amongst Catholic leaders than even gay marriage.

So I’m rethinking the Catholic Church as a possible secret donor. The church now makes as much sense as anyone else in the parlor chatter speculation.

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Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., takes a break from being pummeled about the head and shoulders for her no vote on health care to file this Veteran’s Day op-ed, which provides an overview of some of the veteran-related legislation Congress is working on:  

Honoring Our Veterans

-Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin

     As we observe Veterans Day this year, I would like to recognize all of those who have bravely served our country in uniform and offer my gratitude on behalf of a grateful nation. South Dakotans have bravely answered the call to serve for generations. Men and women from our state have served in every conflict this nation has seen in the 20th century — including our current missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I salute their memory and honor their bravery. 
     This patriotic sense of duty to country is one of the many reasons why I am proud to represent South Dakota in Congress and serve on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and chair its Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. As a member of this committee, I have been committed to ensuring our veterans receive the benefits they deserve such as (more…)

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From the files of stuff you couldn’t dream up, South Dakota’s own Larry Pressler has a post in the Obama administration. If that’s not awesome enough, it’s on a commision that I - at least - would not have imagined possible. It’s the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

It’s the “abroad” part that gets me. Seems like that maybe ought to be a private non-profit or something. Must be the South Dakotan in me.

 In any case, here’s what came out in a White House press release:

Larry Pressler, Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Former Senator Larry Pressler served as a Member of Congress for 22 years—four years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eighteen years as a U.S. Senator from the state of South Dakota. Senator Pressler sat on numerous Committees during his tenure, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he served for sixteen years. He chaired the Senate Commerce Committee. He also twice served as a Congressional Delegate to the United Nations. In addition to his work in Congress, Senator Pressler serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has lectured at several universities in the United States and overseas. He was awarded a Fulbright grant as a Professor at the University of Bologna, Italy where he lectured in International Relations for five months during the 2009 Spring Semester. Senator Pressler was a Rhodes Scholar and served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the U.S. Army.

Oh, the University of Bologna. Let the wise-cracking begin. 

Meanwhile, back to the commission, here’s an excerpt from its website:

The establishment of the Commission recognized that the population of the United States is mostly comprised of immigrants and their descendents. Because it is, the United States has an interest in the preservation of sites in other countries. These sites are an important part of the cultural heritage of many Americans.

The Holocaust and 45 years of atheistic, Communist governments created a critical need that led to the Commission’s establishment. The Holocaust annihilated much of Europe’s Jewish population, killing most Jews and forcing others to flee. In many countries, none were left to continue to care for the communal properties that represented an historic culture in the area and constitute an integral part of the Jewish religion.

Hoghouse Blog congratulates Sen. Pressler on his new appointment and notes the bipartisan achievement - and is grateful to have learned something new today.

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The growing rift in the Republican Party, highlighted by yesterday’s House election in New York’s District 23, reminds CBS’s Bob Schieffer of the Democrats in 1972 and the presidential defeat of South Dakota’s own George McGovern.

Here’s video from Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, with Schieffer’s comments specific to McGovern transcribed below. (Shieffer begins his analysis at about 3:09, and the McGovern bit starts at about 3:55.)

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ANCHOR HARRY SMITH:  Does this race tell us trends in terms of how Republicans expect to be running in the future?

BOB SCHIEFFER: In this case, I think it will, Harry, because what have is this third party conservative who literally pushed a moderate Republican out of the race, and she went on to endorse Obama. The Republican Party is really split, and it is the conservatives who seem to have the juice right now. It’s very much like what Democrats went through in 1972. The party activists on the left were so upset with mainstream candidates that in an effort to purify the party, they pushed it so far to the left that they nominated the very liberal George McGovern for president.

Of course the talk post-election is all about whether the two Republican gubernatorial victories reflect negatively on President Obama and whether New York’s House race, won ultimately by the Democrat, reflects negatively on the GOP. No doubt the spin is going in all directions.

I caught a bit of conservative talk radio Wednesday morning and heard jubilation in all cases. First, the governor wins were sweet and, of course, interpreted as a big FU to Obama; second, the NY situation was heralded as a victory because the liberal Republican was driven from the ballot by the conservative Conservative. Nevermind that the Dem won the seat. (This is logic that escapes me, but that’s what I heard. I know you’ve heard it, too, and maybe even share the sentiment.)

I’m not sure I can completely agree with Schieffer, whom I regard as a model newsman. For the Dems in 1972 (and he was there and I was in diapers) it seems that it was only after they suffered the landslide presidential loss that they regrouped. Reverberations can still be heard today with plenty of rebuttals to rants reminding purists that none of what they seek can be had without the power of elected office.

The modern GOP already has lost a presidential bid, and while McCain’s loss wasn’t on the scale of McGovern’s, it was pretty handy. That loss seems only to have emboldened the right-wing purists. Perhaps a bigger loss would be needed to rejoin the feuding GOP family? Or perhaps the pundits who say the Republican Party is all but a lost cause will be proven correct.

And perhaps neither of these scenarios will prove out. Perhaps the conservatives will rise like a Phoenix, and perhaps that rise began this week.

Whatever the outcome, the game is on and it will be a wild ride until 2012. Saddle up.

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One has to look for the good news when it comes to the news business these days.

For the Associated Press, it might be that the Tribune Co. is dropping it only for a week (for now).

The Tribune papers (including the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times) will use reports from its papers around the country, as well as content from Reuters, the Washington Post, New York Times, Agence France Presse, Cable News Network, Global Post, Bloomberg and McClatchy newspapers.

Just last week I was speaking to a college class in Sioux Falls (taught by KELO’s Beth Jensen), and I predicted that newspapers would start dropping AP, as they do charge subscription fees that hit a budget hard. I also know discussions of such a move have gone on in SD media circles, predating by years the trend of newspapers routinely closing up shop - in other words, before the media world’s budget woes got truly woeful.

Could the MSM be at a tipping point with AP? Could a fall come quickly and brutally? All things are not only possible but plausible in the current environment.

The AP Board of Directors in April announced $35 million in rate reductions for 2010 for its member newspapers on top of $30 million in rate reductions for 2009.

So there was a little fat to trim?

Meanwhile, the good news for Rapid City Journal parent company Lee Enterprises (my former employer) might be that its stock price is 10 times what it was about 10 months ago - now above $3.60 and even topping $4 recently. (It was trading north of $40 back when I was slaving away covering the SD Legislature.)

The bad news for Lee is that investment analysts don’t see a bright future for the company, saddled with more than $1 billion in debt — and then watching its market cap shrink to less than 1/10th of that — after buying the Pulitzer chain a few years ago. The Motley Fools have seen fit to put Lee on its list of 5 deathbed stocks - “a financial death rattle if you will.”

We’ve unearthed a handful of stocks that look like they might be headed six feet under, based on their one-star ratings. … Are these companies only mostly dead, or have they already given up the ghost?

Lee gets poor ratings for liquidity and for its likelihood (high) of filing for bankruptcy.

As I understand it, most of Lee’s individual newspapers are turning profits. They’re just not sending enough money to Davenport to pay off the Pulitzer debt Lee is choking on. Pulitzer is like a python squeezing an otherwise healthy organism. Also as I understand it, with just one looming debt - which Lee execs have already renegotiated once - there wouldn’t be much to restructure in Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. I’ve been told a judge would be just as likely to order Chapter 7 liquidation for Lee.

Let’s hope the bells about to be heard by RCJ employees are of the Christmas variety.

Meanwhile, the Argus Leader’s parent company - Gannett - did not make Motley Fool’s list of deathbed stocks, but it gets less than a robust endorsement:

While ad sales at both Gannett (NYSE: GCI) and McClatchy also declined more slowly, that still doesn’t make them an investment worth considering just yet. Once the (health care reform) debate passes, they’ll still have to contend with low ad revenue, declining subscriber numbers, and competition from alternative news sources.

Finally, I’ve been away for awhile - again. Traveling some and recovering from traveling some. Hopefully I’ll be a more regular caretaker of the Hoghouse as we begin the one-year countdown to the 2010 election.

My parting thought on the news I’ve missed - Bill Napoli (almost) entering the gubernatorial race seems most interesting. As he continues his increasingly frequent public statements that, “I’ll run if ______,” one could surmise that the self-annointed king of the “blue collar conservatives” is his own puppet master. Don’t be coy, Bill. Stick with the self-assured outrage that has carried you thus far. Don’t muddy your brand. Be as bold and loud as your tie collection. And be proud. Own your candidacy.

In any case, having Napoli in (and he is in) is sure to make reporters and bloggers look forward to covering the debates next year. And admit it, even if you’re not a Napoli fan, you’ll be making appointments with your TVs and live streams.

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I thought of the angry, pitchfork-bearing villagers demanding that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Tim Johnson hold town hall meetings during the August recess when I heard about the congressman who spent a summer vacation on a deserted tropical island.  

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., sought to test ought his survivor skills by living on fish he speared himself and coconuts after being dropped off by “the military” (ah-hem; taxpayer money?) to a tiny Pacific Island. Read more about it and see a photo slideshow in The Hill.

This story has quickly spread in the national press, so you might have already heard about this. I hadn’t until a relative from Arizona asked me how this amounted to news. Oh, honey, this one’s irresistable.

Commenters on the various stories I’ve read either love the guy for his independent spirit or revile him for being, well, a duty-shirking flake. I’m leaning towards the latter crowd but probably would feel fine about the congressman’s little vacation if he hadn’t turned over his photo album and diary to the media. Maybe he and ballon boy’s dad ought to share that island for awhile. A long while.

I think this would be a career-killer for any South Dakota politician. Am I wrong?

(more…)

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By Denise Ross

Tired of the health care debate yet? If so, too bad as it’s likely to dominate Capitol Hill news throughout the end of the year. Here’s some health care news about SD’s House member that’s not been widely reported and might even become relevant in the coming weeks.

I wrote a recent newspaper column about Stephanie Herseth Sandlin’s co-sponsorship of a health care reform bill that would, among other things, end Medicaid. It also would be cheap, according to the CBO, and would cover everyone via a mandate. (Read the full column on the jump.)

The Healthy Americans Act would require everybody to buy health insurance, would provide government subsidies to help the poor and near-poor buy insurance and would mandate that insurance companies cover all comers, thereby ending practices such as capping lifetime benefits.

Americans would buy health insurance from a marketplace of plans, called pools, set up by state or region. Each plan would be required to meet minimum standards.

The HAA, also called the Wyden-Bennett bill, has not gained the support of South Dakota’s two senators. Others are apparently offering some lip service to the bill. This from Wikipedia:

According to Ezra Klein of The Washington Post, the list of HAA Republican supporters is deceptive: “The plan has a lot more fake support than it has real support. If every Republican who has co-sponsored [HAA] would commit to voting for it, the plan might pass. But they haven’t.”

To read what I wrote about HAA, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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There’s a battle brewing between the telecom giant of yore and the tech giant of now, AT&T and Google, over little old us. AT&T is demanding that the FCC require Google to stop blocking some calls to rural telephone numbers on the relatively new Google Voice application.

Last Friday, the FCC launched an inquiry into Google Voice’s blocking of calls and began an review of whether the application should be regulated as a traditional telephone service, also known as a common carrier. Google has rejected such claims, saying in a blog posting that Google Voice is a Web application and not a telecom service.

That is from the Washington Post’s tech blog. Read it all here. AT&T claims that Google has blocked calls to an ambulance service, a community center and a tribal center. (Out here in the sticks, we are more expensive to connect up to the grid. Ergo, phone companies - including AT&T - have tried but failed to find ways around the rules that say they have to connect to the more expensive numbers.)

The FCC’s answer to the question of whether Google Voice is a telecom carrier or an Internet site might already be available in how the federal agency has structured its inquiry. It is investigating whether Google has violated telecom rules but has declined so far to do the same when it comes to net neutrality and other rules designed to make sure all Internet users can access the same websites and tools. I say, If it looks like duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck …

The outcome of this FCC inquiry will matter immensely to states like South Dakota. Should Google get a pass on this, it would probably be less than a decade before we Dakotans would be living parallel lives to our big city brethren, suffering a similar fate to those towns bypassed by the railroads or the interstate highways. There are a smattering of hollowed out buildings near Ellsworth Airforce Base that illustrate the importance of an on- and off-ramp.

Google’s apparent intentions to prevent some people from using its voice app raises the question of whether the company is violating its own mantra - Don’t be evil. What might not seem so terrible in Palo Alto must seem downright cruel and inhumane in Eagle Butte.

And, as a fan of Google fan and tech enthusiast Jeff Jarvis, I wonder where he is on this one? So far, radio silence.

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A sleeping baby is keeping me from Dennis Daugaard’s official campaign announcement, so let’s look at one of the plethora of events in the evolution of media and journalism.

Late last week, UC Berkeley’s J school hosted a summit on new media at Google HQ. (The venue just about says it all; it wasn’t, after all, at the San Francisco Chronicle despite its fairly great website.)

The best message came from an old media casualty:

The stakes of the digital media debate were underscored during the opening session as John Temple, former publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, discussed some of the missteps that led the nearly 150-year-old daily to close earlier this year. That closure left Denver, like most U.S. cities, a one-newspaper town.

One critical mistake was thinking of themselves as a newspaper instead of an information company, and viewing every new media initiative merely as a means to protect the core product, he said.

If the company had instead monitored and responded to what consumers were doing online, the business might have invented a service like Yelp, instead of competing with it for ad dollars it used to own.

“We had all the advantages and we let it slip away,” he said.

Those still running newspapers would be wise to listen to Temple, but I don’t expect them to. The very concept of R&D at most newspapers (and I’m told TV & radio stations) is anathema. That would be spending precious profits - which long hovered around the 30 % mark - on the “non-revenue generating department,” as my old home at the RC Journal’s newsroom was referred to by those in charge. Even if attitudes and the MSM culture were to drastically change, those profits no longer soar at such lofty heights.

Instead, I’m reading with equal parts amusement and dismay about AP’s plans to embed a “tracking beacon” into its content and that of its members (ie, almost all MSM news outlets) - see hilarious graphic on the jump. (Apologies to my friends at the AP in Sioux Falls.) Meanwhile, here’s how Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab describes what AP is up to:

The point, of course, is to identify uses of AP and potentially member content that isn’t licensed. So if someone copied an article’s source code onto his own site, by hand or automation, the beacon would follow along and, according to the document distributed to some AP members, “send reports back to the core database each time the item is clicked on by an end user. The beacon will identify each piece of content, the IP address of the content viewer, the referring Web server and the time of use.”

That’s right - “the IP address of the content viewer.” The Nieman blogger also notes that the graphic (see it on the jump) unintentionally depicts a “faceless news consumer will be deposited into a toxic waste recepticle.”

The same blog post notes that AP spokesfolk aren’t being terribly clear about what they plan to do with whatever information they gather, but the anger and bitterness level amongst many ensconced in the upper levels of the MSM has been growing steadily. For reasons I can’t understand, I seem to hear most of the vitriol targeted at Google for its success at monetizing search.

It also appears as though the AP is searching for methods to block its content from anyone who doesn’t pay, a thoroughly effective way to lose most of your readership. They talk a lot about protecting copyright, which is a valid pursuit and which also completely misses the vast technological opportunities at any media organization’s feet. (ie, per the Rocky Mountain News’s Temple, “Maybe if we weren’t so busy snarling at all the new technology and those using it to good effect, perhaps we would have invented search-targeted advertising.”)

There’s no shortage of discussion of this topic online, but I’ve got to stop here. Click “CLICK HERE” below to see that graphic, which includes the cryptic, detached phrase “royalty settlement,” described on the Nieman blog thusly:

The AP’s graphic explaining the beacon and a new microformat was easily mocked and labeled “magic beans” by prominent tech blogger John Gruber.

  (more…)

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