Minnesota GOP finds a guv candidate modeled, not on Virginia's Gov. "Slick Bob" McDonnell, but on AG Ken Cuckoonuts

MN's certified-Tenther GOP guv candidate Tom Emmer

by Ken

Still searching for a link to that Rachel Maddow Show clip with Ira Furman doing his impromptu Mr. Science-style demonstration of the totally counterintuitive basic principle of "lift" that makes flight possible, I was wandering around the Maddow blog looking for the entrance to the attic when I stumbled across a blogpost from this afternoon by Laura Conaway which seems a logical sequel to my post earlier today about Virginia's uneasy wingnut tandem of Gov. "Slick Bob" McDonnell and AG Ken Cuckoonuts:

Minnesota GOP picks really wacky guy for governor -- no federal laws?

By Laura Conaway - Mon May 3, 2010 2:36 PM EDT

Holy smokes -- the Minnesota Republican Party has picked a tenther candidate for governor, State Rep. Tom Emmer, who makes Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli look like Eleanor Roosevelt or something. From TPM:

Emmer was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2004. He is a co-author of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would, to borrow the words of Nigel Tufnel, turn the Tenth Amendment all the way up to 11, with Minnesota preemptively nullifying all federal laws unless a state supermajority consents to them. Here is the key quote from the amendment's text: "A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor. Before voting to approve a federal law, each legislator must individually affirm that the legislator has read the federal law and understands it."

The best part? Emmer got the blessing of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who's aiming at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Here's more from Eric Kleefeld's TPM post (which includes video clips!):

State Rep. Tom Emmer picked up the official Republican endorsement at the party's convention this weekend, and he also walked away with the backing of Pawlenty himself. "We don't have any doubt about what Tom Emmer stands for or what his values are," Pawlenty said at the convention. "He is strong. He is steadfast. He is clear. ... He is going to be the next governor of the state of Minnesota." Emmer also has the support of Sarah Palin, who praised him just before the convention got underway as a "hockey dad" who once played for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks -- a move that may have been a tipping point, according to the Star-Tribune.

Emmer was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2004. Just this past March, he was a co-author of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would, to borrow the words of Nigel Tufnel, turn the Tenth Amendment all the way up to 11, with Minnesota preemptively nullifying all federal laws unless a state supermajority consents to them. Here is the key quote from the amendment's text: "A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor. Before voting to approve a federal law, each legislator must individually affirm that the legislator has read the federal law and understands it."

Last September, Emmer proposed another state constitutional amendment that would prohibit any individual or employer mandate to carry health insurance in the state of Minnesota, if one were to eventually pass at the federal or state level (as it did eventually pass at the federal level).

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"There have been some questions about the Tenth Amendment," Emmer acknowledged, "and we all know that states have the rights to assert their Tenth Amendment powers and affirm those rights in the state constitution." As for the skeptics, Emmer said that his amendment would protect Minnesotans from federal encroachment on health care, in the same way that the First and Second Amendments have protected freedom for the last 220 years."

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In another amusing Emmer moment, a year ago he tore into a Democratic state representative for wanting to copy elements of environmental science and regulations from California and Europe, which the Dem in question felt were superior to the status quo in Washington or Minnesota. To Emmer, this was an example of liberals hating America:

"Oh oh, hey by the way, we also apparently have to look at this country and be extremely critical of the United States of America, and start kissing the rear end of the people on the other side of the Atlantic," Emmer said mockingly. "That's ridiculous, and I'm sick and tired of hearing it. I'm hearing it out of Washington, now I'm hearing it here. This is a great country, Rep. Knuth."

Well done, Minnesota GOP! Looks like you've found a winner! And we can just feel the excitement oozing out of Governor Tim's pores! (That's a joke. As far as I know, nothing has ever been known to ooze out of the governor except his unaccountable personal ambition -- unaccountable in that he's such a total nonentity.)

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