Posted on 11/23/2007 4:18:10 AM PST by rhema
The feds have yet to cut any checks for the authorities in St. Paul to negotiate security contracts for the Republican National Convention, set for Sept. 1-4 at Xcel Energy Center. We're looking for $50 million or so. It's our money. It's all our money, which means the delay is either politics as usual - we will get the money sooner or later - or it is a sign of belt-tightening in Washington, which seems unlikely. The last belt a politician tightens is a politician's.
Denver is in the same boat. Denver gets the Democrats in 2008, and it is looking for its $50 million, too.
Can we back out of this thing and just have our Labor Day wienie roasts in peace?
Put another way, what possible gain can come from hosting the Republicans in a city that has announced it intends to be hospitable only to the protesters? Those have been the two main stories since word got out that St. Paul got the convention. Our elected worthies have pre-emptively sided with protesters for whom they have expressed sympathy and concern, and for whom they have vowed to control pigeons and expedite protest permits.
That, and where's the money to pay for security? It doesn't sound like much of a party when you need $50 million to hire people to control the guests you have invited.
There is a third story. St. Paul needs to come up with a matching $50 million of its own. Don't ask me, I'm on the hook for three new outdoor, refrigerated ice rinks.
Normally, I would be cheering St. Paul's ascendancy to the national stage of anything. We need to kick-start this place. It feels lately like our powder is damp and the fuse won't light. But that's the problem. We could get a fuse lit, all right, but the fireworks aren't necessarily fated to be the kind of motherhood, apple pie and flag-waving attraction that big political conventions promise, or still feature as a popular public relations image. We know better. We know better or we wouldn't be fretting about $100 million for cops and nightsticks. I've got a bad vibe.
The Democrats maybe, on such home turf, could pull off a happy rousing time in St. Paul, although by the time the Democrats get to the convention, they will be slugging each other with brass knuckles and attacking each other like backstage figure skaters with aluminum baseball bats.
"Be careful what you wish for" has never sounded so wise. St. Paul is small, both in population and geography. We bounced a mayor because he had the audacity to shake the hand of the president of the United States in the same Xcel Energy Center. The city's legislative representation is decidedly left leaning. The City Council is decidedly left leaning. It is not plausible that we have in place, except for the governor, the kinds of elected officials who are capable of the adulthood required for this undertaking - that they be gracious and accommodating to Republicans.
It is entirely plausible, though, that we have in place the kind of elected officials who will encourage giving the Republicans more than a cold shoulder. If it comes to that, if we become a sprawling tent city of protesters under acrid smoke, then $50 million or $100 million isn't going to accomplish much in the way of security. Professionals know an easy little town for pickings when they see one on the map.
Maybe only big cities should host political conventions. I know it sounds charming to bring one of these festivals to the hinterlands, but big cities can absorb a political convention and life goes on. It's kind of like when there is a Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Unless you have a ticket to the game, you don't even know it's happening.
In St. Paul, the convention will be overwhelming. We will know it's happening, and there's where we need the good luck for all of us.
Ping
this is an entertaining writer. What’s his general politics?
There is already a slew of radical, leftist groups planning chaos for the RNConvention in Minneapolis... and I bet they're getting the red-carpet treatment by Dem operatives in city government.
I'd describe Joe as a kind of live-and-let-live populist conservative. On his radio talk show, he seldom gets into earnest moral topics like religion, abortion, or the like, but he does opine frequently about intrusive government and sundry liberal lunacies.
Check out his bio and his talk show, which you can catch online.
thanks
I hate to say this the the Republican Party is the Stupid Party and this is yet another example. Why in the world have the convention here?
Personally I don’t understand why the taxpayers must subsidize political parties.
I say let each and every party raise their own funds for security.
That’s a pretty good assessment of Joe and “Garage Logic”. When I’m ready to listen to less intense, good humor talk radio, this show is it.
One thing, though, you may want to avoid driving when you’re listening to his show. Sometimes I can’t see where I’m driving because I’m laughing so hard at some of their discussions. The time their sports announcer called in from the hospital right after having his gall bladder removed was hilarious!
Sometimes Joe's laugh alone can provoke a full-fledged laugh attack among his listeners.
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