True North

Usually one does not see Congressmen or Senators flipping parties to join the minority.  However, Politico’s Josh Kraushaar has a scoop that Blue Dog Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama, a freshman in Congress, has seen enough of Nancy Pelosi’s leadership.  He will join Republicans in a move that has far more symbolic than substantive impact — for now:

In July 2008 The Weekly Standard published an excellent article about how democrats took over Colorado. The article bears repeating as Minnesota is clearly identified by the left as a target state for the same type of infrastructure and strategy development. It's actually much more critical than that folks. The left is well beyond targeting Minnesota. They are well into their agenda for 2010 in Minnesota and the propagation of myriad action groups is easy to find, if we just look. The problem is, few of us are bothering to look.

READ THE WEEKLY STANDARD ARTICLE HERE.

There are specific roles for political parties to play. And I would submit that those roles are so critical and consuming that the party can't afford to insist on being the only game in town. Nor do I suppose the new guard at MNGOP would be that territorial. There are signs everywhere of center-right willingness to play well in the sandbox with one another.

1) First Minnesota Majority invites Governor Pawlenty to join 8 GOP gubernatorial candidates to request an ACORN investigation:

2) Two days latter, Bill O'Reilly calls on Governor Pawlenty to launch an ACORN investigation:

3) Yesterday Michele Bachmann joined in the call for Governor Pawlenty to appoint a special investigator:

4) As of this morning, Minnesota Majority members had sent nearly 1200 petitions to Governor Pawlenty requesting a formal investigation.

5) O'Reilly says he will be reporting on the Minnesota ACORN situation on tonight's show.

QUESTION: Why won't Governor Pawlenty simply call for an ACORN investigation?

In the wake of the recent ACORN scandals, it seems that everyone is running as fast and far as possible from the disgraced advocacy group. The U.S. House and Senate recently voted to end public funding for ACORN by margins of 345-75 and 83-7 respectively. Even Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation. Most of ACORN's reliable liberal allies have, in the name of political expediency, thrown ACORN under the hybrid-electric bus. Everyone, that is, but Minnesota 2020, the liberal think tank founded by former state legislator Matt Entenza.

According to their website, as of October 5, 2009, MN2020 is "pleased to continue working and consulting with," among other groups, ACORN (text highlighted by FFM for clarity).