The excellent South Dakota Politics blog notes that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is dropping the ball on the Janklow case. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune managed to scoop them on the bombshell that Janklow had another close call at the same intersection where the accident occurred.
This shows why the officials in Moody County filed the most severe charges they could – Janklow has repeatedly acted with reckless disregard for the law, and the deadly accident of two weeks ago was not an isolated incident.
I will disagree with the SD Politics blog on one issue, it is clear that Argus Leader executive editor Randell Beck is right on the money in pointing out the state’s efforts to impede the investigation into the crash. Janklow ran South Dakota with an iron fist, and South Dakota has a system of governance that is arrogant and aloof from the people. Janklow personally smeared and threatened anyone in his own party he thought might be a challenge to him, including notables like former Senator Larry Pressler. It is this kind of heavy-handed rule that has made South Dakota’s state government one of the most irresponsible and unaccountable in the nation.
Again, it is clear that Congressman Janklow should step down. His reckless and wanton disregard for the rule of law is unbefitting of a member of the United States House of Representatives or any other body. He is embarrassment to the people of South Dakota, to his party, and to this nation.
I welcome Janklow to stick around as long as possible. Ideally, he’ll go down fighting the way James Traficant did and embarrass the South Dakota GOP as much as possible. An Argus Leader poll a couple weeks ago showed Bush’s re-election support at a mere 43% in South Dakota. That doesn’t necessarily mean a Democrat will win by a 14 points, but it does show vulnerability. As the GOP oversteps on issue after issue, the new yuppie class accounting for all of South Dakota’s population group could easily provide a coalition with East River populists if the Republican party continue to leap out of bounds every chance they can. Having the state GOP leader convicted of murder won’t help their image.
The poor guy on the motorcycle that Janklow steamrolled could very well have died a martyr if it means one less Republican in Congress, or even better the unlikely start of a statewide trend.
I’m sure that comes as some consolation to his family. The fact that you place temporary partisan advantage above human life is simply unconsciable.
Alright, I sort of baited you on this one….and you took the bait like a starving bullhead. Plus, you should keep in mind that this motorcycle-riding Hardwick, Minnesota native (Democratic town) may have been a blue-collar working stiff and not a small business owner, and therefore not really human anyway.
Speaking of which Jay, I hope you protested Labor Day by staying in the office all day (indeed all weekend) long. Such unproductive leisure as three-day weekends spearheaded by those awful labor unions can’t be good for business productivity. I only hope the “more productivity for lower wages” crowd practiced what they preached today and volunteered 16 hours at the office in protest.
Bad show, Mark. This one isn’t worth keeping around, even to go down in flames.
Mark: You do realize that you sound like an ignorant ass everytime you pull out moronic ad hominem attacks like that? Every time you have to resort to cheap shots, bald-faced lies, and obviously wrong arguments you only hurt your side.
If you’re not making sense and just trying (and failing miserably) to take down the other guy, you’re not arguing, you’re masturbating.
BTW, Hardwick is in District 22A, whose representative, Doug Magnus is a Republican, and he won by a handy margin of 54% to 46%. Rock County also voted overwhelmingly for Gil Gutnecht by a margin of 57% to 39%.
Here are the numbers straight from the Minnesota Legislative Manual 2003 Edition. Read it and weep.
Walter Mondale 54 votes, Norm Coleman 35
Steve Andreasen 44, Gil Gutknecht 37
Ted Winter 52, Doug Magnus 39
Roger Moe 44, Tim Pawlenty 34, Tim Penny 11
Buck Humphrey 53, Mary Kiffmeyer 31
Carol Johnson 51, Pat Awada 30
Mike Hatch 51, Tom Kelly 31
Hardwick went for Al Gore and Mark Dayton in 2000 as well and is a solid Democratic town in a county that leans Republican. Rock County’s Republican leanings are primarily the result of a handful of precincts with a heavy Dutch-reformed fundamentalist presence. The Republican margins aren’t often very wide in Rock County, since the majority of precincts are competitive. Democrat Jim Vickerman (an incumbent, but who inherited Rock County after redistricting) won Rock County for instance in State Senate District 22. Winter’s loss was a surprise all-around, but then I knew little about Doug Magnus going in.
District 22 as a rule is much more competitive than what Republicans like to think. Tim Pawlenty won by a decent margin here, but mostly because Penny and Moe split the farm vote and Pawlenty ran away with the plurality. As for the other races, Coleman won the U.S. Senate race by a slim margin–15,485 Coleman to 16,151 Mondale (and that’s not counting a few hundred votes that went to Wellstone and would have likely went Mondale if the Welly voters had the chance to vote a second time). Other than that, Democrats Buck Humphrey, Carol Johnson and Mike Hatch were all victorious in District 22, including 22A where Rock County is.
True, Harwick leans Democratic. (Although a difference of 20 votes is hardly worth mentioning.)
Still, none of that has any bearing on the issue at hand. One’s partisan affiliation is irrelevant to the value of one’s life.
Speaking of Labor Day – it’s funny. I work in the service industry, which is rapidly surplanting industry as the base of our economy. So it’s fair to say that most “laborers” today labor in the service industry.
The funny thing is, I don’t know a single person who got to take today off. We were too busy serving the wealthy, salaried folks who got to skip work today. Kind of defeats the purpose of Labor day, doesn’t it?