Politics and Hypocrisy

Where’s Tim?

While the major theme of Senate challenger Joel Dykstra’s campaign has been focused on Tim Johnson avoiding debates with him, I must admit that another issue that Dykstra touched on in his latest ad has kind of made me think.

Much has been made by some, including recently Dykstra, of Tim Johnson being on the Senate Banking committee and voting against a bill in 2005 that would have placed tighter restrictions on the banking industry. While that may or may not have had much to do with our current crisis, his absence on local TV to discuss the issue is more concerning to me. Throughout the mortgage meltdown and the subsequent bailout votes by the House and Senate, our other Congressional leaders Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and John Thune have been quite visible discussing the issue as well as explaining why they voted the way they did.

Tim Johnson on the other hand has been physically invisible on the issue (at least in the stories I have seen, please correct me if I missed something) instead choosing to continue with his press release campaign that while trying to explain his position, just seems sterile and impersonal.

Am I asking too much by thinking Johnson should be speaking to me directly (via news interviews) on important issues? Maybe so but when I am getting ready to be bent over and take on another $1 trillion in debt, I would like a little verbal foreplay first no matter which way you are voting.

Update: Tim has been found. Thanks to commenter Mary for the links to the Johnson interviews

Bizzaro World

What has the world come to when South Dakota’s 2 national Democrats vote like fiscal conservatives while our lone Republican votes for a pork laden Wall Street bailout bill? Stephanie Herseth Sandlin today joined fellow Democrat Tim Johnson, who vote nay a few days ago, when she was one of 171 that voted against the bailout. John Thune, our lone Republican voted for passage….

Tim Johnson On Huffington Post

Senator Tim Johnson is interviewed by the Huffington Post and talks about Sarah Palin’s “experience”, John McCain’s temper and even has a few words of advice for Barack Obama. Read the whole interview here.

Will The Same People Question Palin That Question Johnson?

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson’s decision not to debate Joel Dykstra has brought complaints from all directions, as long as that direction is the right, all questioning his fitness to serve. While in the meantime, other than personal appearances to mainly invite only events and press releases, Johnson stays pretty much out of the media eye.

Something similar is happening on the national front with John McCain’s choice for Vice President, Sarah Palin. From the minute she was announced many have questioned everything from her limited resume. And because the media has been doing their job, the McCain campaign has decided to shelter her from the their questioning.

According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.

We don’t care about her foreign and domestic policy views? We will learn all we need to know from prepared speeches?

Do South Dakotan’s notice a trend here? I do but somehow I doubt the people complaining about Tim Johnson’s limited public appearances will be saying much about their gal Sarah’s self imposed media blackout.

At least with Johnson, South Dakotan’s have years of direct personal knowledge of the man and his qualifications as well as a voting record in the job, with Palin that isn’t the case. Johnson has an excuse, you know that brain injury thing so what about Palin? They were mean to her?

But heck, it’s not like she will be next in line for the Presidency, oh wait she would be…

Tim Johnson Makes 16

6 more Senators crossed the imaginary “drill now” line making the bi-partisan “Gang of 10″ the “Gang of 16″ and South Dakota is well represented. As we all know John Thune was a founding member and he is now joined by our other Senator Tim Johnson making it a clean sweep.

The group supports a bill that would lift a ban on oil and natural gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the southeastern U.S. coast, invest $20 billion in the development of petroleum-free motor vehicles and extend tax credits for renewable energy.

Can you tell it’s an election year with all this bipartisan co-operation? We just might get more offshore drilling leading to more oil on the world markets and little if any changes in prices afterall.

Dykstra Continues His Debate Theme

KELO had a story today about Senate candidate Joel Dykstra again re-iterating his request that incumbent Senator Tim Johnson debate him.

The Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in South Dakota says incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson’s decision not to debate is more of an issue with voters than the senator has let on.

I can’t be sure but I have a feeling Dykstra’s bringing this subject up again has little to do with what South Dakotan’s want and more about desperation from a campaign on life support. The latest poll shows Johnson has actually increased his lead a little to 61-34% according to the latest Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll and wouldn’t you know it, the polling was done a week after Senator Johnson’s announcement that he would not be debating.

So much for it being an issue with most South Dakota voters as Dykstra (and others) would like us to believe.

Photoshop Fun

PP over at the War College has been having fun with l3wis over at South Dacola over some Photoshop image manipulations and criticisms thereof. So not wanting to be outdone here is one of my own.

PP, I kid because I care.

Should He Debate?

Not that my opinion means much on this matter but since just about everyone else has chimed in, some much more than others, I figured I would throw my thoughts out there.

Steve Jarding’s announcement that Senator Tim Johnson would not be participating in any debates against opponent Joel Dykstra has caused quite a stir. Comments ranging from how can he represent us if he can’t speak well? To we deserve a debate, or he lied to us have been prevalent since the end of the news cycle Friday evening announcement.

The question to be answered then is can he represent South Dakota despite not debating or even being able to debate effectively as is the implication from this announcement? My observations:

- Since returning to work last August he has kept his committee assignments and hasn’t missed a vote in the Senate (unlike John McCain).
- Organizations that monitor these things rate Senator Johnson as the most Conservative Democrat in the Senate.
- Does the average non-political blog reading die hard political junky South Dakotan even know where Joel Dykstra stands on the issues? 2 of the 3 voters in my house would say no.

So we have a Senator from the hard working blood red state of South Dakota that goes to work every day and votes conservative more than any Democrat with at least some seniority (re:power) in the Senate. He is facing a questionable candidate that doesn’t seem to want to raise money and who appears to be afraid to go on the offensive even after Johnson puts the health question on the table. And now that Johnson will not be debating him, Dykstra will have almost no opportunity to gain any name recognition that a successful debate would have given him and will be left with limited late election season ad buys and hand shaking tours.

If the Republican’s had a stronger candidate things might have been different so I would say that not debating, while not what some South Dakotan’s want from Johnson, will likely not lead to much other than maybe a 15-20 point win instead of a 30 point win in November. He has too much money, too much name recognition, and very little competition.

Thune Has No Opinion

From KELO

Republican U.S. Senator John Thune is taking no position on a fellow senator’s decision not to engage in any political debates for the November 4 election.

Not much new there…must be waiting for George Bush or John McCain to give him one.

What’s Next For The Senate Race?

So what is next? Has Johnson just handed the race to Dykstra as PP and others now contend or has Johnson built up enough capitol among South Dakotan’s where his not debating will not affect his bid for re-election?

Dykstra has been virtually silent since winning the GOP primary in June, opting for a hands on highway campaign earning him little funding and even less publicity. Will he finally go on the offensive given he won’t be able to do so face to face? We shall see.

I’m leaning towards the political capitol angle but I think that the reaction from this over the next few days will give us a better idea of how this will fly with South Dakotans. Either way, this once one sided race got just a bit more interesting as Johnson himself has injected the health card back into the race.