Hot Dish 9.27.24
Emmer mocks Walz’s appearance in Fox interview in advance of VP debate
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 27, 2024 at 2:34PM
By Rochelle Olson
If it’s Friday, it’s time for Politics Friday on MPR with Brian Bakst. ‘Tis I among his esteemed guests this week. Tune in at noon to hear Bakst and I settle old scores stretching back to our time together at The Associated Press before the turn of the century.
So all of you remember the Wellstone bus, I’m sure. I rode on that thing during the 1996 campaign. Not terribly comfortable but relatively entertaining and the feisty senator excelled at working a crowd. Wellstone also ran the tightest ship with the best advance crews I’ve seen to date. So Dave Wellstone, Paul and Sheila’s elder of two surviving sons, pulled the bus out of open-air storage on his friend’s Kenyon farm. Wellstone has some ideas about how to use the bus and it’s already got a date to roll in the Harding Days parade next July 5. You’ll have to read my story to learn more. Fair to say every onlooker all but stood at attention when the driver hitched his pickup to the flatbed and backed it out hundreds of yards down a gravel road.
Wellstone was uncharacteristically emotional at the bus déménagement. (According to him, he doesn’t cry much.) It was an oddly solemn moment for all involved because the world has moved on since October 2002. We’ve all endured losses, reckonings, passages and fundamental changes in the directions of our lives. And those of us who knew Paul and Sheila Wellstone surfed our own memories, older still at nearly three decades for me.
I also wrote about the strategy behind the tightly controlled access to Gov. Tim Walz. If Harris-Walz lose, he’ll return to Minnesota and a press corps that is not happy about having been denied interviews and access from August through November. That first news conference back at the Capitol will be a doozy as reporters release the hounds that have been kenneled for months. In the meantime, Walz will have plenty to handle in a debate Tuesday with Sen. JD Vance. Remember that Saturday Night Live is back this week. Will they or won’t they do political skits? Will someone play Walz? I’m still betting on Mikey Day. But he could do Vance as well.
SCHOOL LUNCH: D.C. colleague Sydney Kashiwagi reports that Minnesota Democrats, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tina Smith, reintroduced a bill to prevent schools from taking action against students with unpaid lunch debts called the No Shame in School Act.
EMMER on WALZ: U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer shared his highly critical thoughts about Walz with Fox News. Among his comments: “I didn’t realize that Tim Walz and I are around the same age. He looks so much older,” the 63-year-old Emmer said about the 60-year-old Walz. In related news, everyone tells me I don’t look a day over 23. Does this mean Emmer is prepping Sen. JD Vance of Ohio to mock Walz’s appearance in their debate Tuesday? Trump’s done it to opponents. Maybe I’ll add that to my bingo card right between “dystopian hellscape” and “eating cats and dogs.”
DEENA DEBUT: As promised, Deena Winter is a staff reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. Read her story about former City Council Member Lisa Goodman’s return to Minneapolis City Hall. Goodman is now the director of strategic initiatives for the Office of Public Service. During her 26-year tenure on the council, Goodman was a love-her-or-hate-her character and, of course, Winter asked her about that reputation. “In my real life, outside of my public persona that people want to give me, I am this really kind, loving normal person,” Goodman said in an interview. She’ll work with deputy city Public Works director Brett Hjelle, who got his start as a super savvy aide to Council Member Sandra Colvin Roy. Goodman will be paid $165,538.
COURT WATCH: New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrived to court Friday morning in advance of his first appearance on his federal indictment. The indictment unsealed Thursday accused the Democrat of taking improper gifts from Turkish officials and businesspeople, including free hotel stays and deeply discounted international airline tickets. In return, prosecutors said, Adams helped Turkey get fire department approvals to open a new diplomatic tower in Manhattan, despite concerns about its fire safety system. Adams says he is innocent and his lawyer has said it was neither unusual nor improper for a government official to accept some travel perks. Sure, whatever you say.
WHERE’S WALZ:
Nothing official, but we all know he’s in Ann Arbor early Saturday for a campaign stop. Oh and Vice President Kamala Harris is going to the border in Arizona, which is a big deal because immigration.
READING LIST
- Columnist Evan Ramstad informs that Delta CEO Ed Bastien declared business travel is fully back from the pandemic nadir at the “State of the Airport” lunch in downtown Minneapolis. (Maybe this means downtown Minneapolis is back as well? Can we get Dayton’s back? 800 Under the Mall? The Sky Room? Pretty please?) Colleague Reid Forgrave writes that downtown Fergus Falls is back as well with riverfront development and a coming $10.8 million aquatic center. Well, hello there, outdoor swimming pools.
- Columnist Laura Yuen says it’s important for men, including Walz, to speak up about fertility struggles. Speaking of babies, our colleague Briana Bierschbach gave birth to her first daughter on Tuesday. Her name is Nora June Mannix. Briana will be back at work on Monday or more likely in January.
- Colleague Erica Pearson looks at why Minnesotans pay to buy pieces of paper that they then rip apart, otherwise known as a Curious Minnesota column on how pulltabs became so popular here.
- Former FLOTUS Melania Trump gave her first interview in two years to Fox News and it’s enlightening to her world view. She blames the media for creating a toxic atmosphere that led to the assassination attempts. “Is it really shocking that all this egregious violence goes against my husband? Especially that we hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as a threat to democracy, calling him vile names?’’
- I am smitten with the new loon in St. Paul outside Allianz Field. It reminds me of Frank Gehry’s fish in Barcelona. Sure, the fish is near the waterfront but Gehry didn’t have the Spruce Tree Center as a backdrop to his art like Andy Scott did for the loon.
- This was the most fascinating story I read last week. (Gift link) How the lives of Kamala Harris and Kimberly Guilfoyle intersected in San Francisco 20-plus years ago (along with current California Gov. Gavin Newsom, of course.)
- Every week, I read this New York Times feature “The Hunt” as soon as it drops. And this week, it’s a househunter in the Twin Cities. Even though the lede referred to “suburban Lilydale, Minn., outside the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.” Well, yeah, I guess Lilydale is technically outside the Twin Cities, but I can see it from my yard in St. Paul. SPOILER ALERT, this was my favorite quote: “We’re looking around and just being disappointed by everything we’re finding in Minneapolis,” he recalled. “And finally, I did start looking at St. Paul listings.” In case you’re wondering WHY this is in a politics newsletter, check out the view from his new home.
- Our colleague Chris Vondracek toured the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake on Thursday as part of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Climate Week. He came away with this quote from the tour driver: ”Chardonnay and smoked Gouda and Honey Gold [apples] and there’s your whole evening.” Sounds like a weekend goal to me if you throw in the new Kate DiCamillo book, which Chris Hewitt says may be her best yet. I’m seeing a trip to Surdyk’s cheese shop in my near future. (Regrettably, Vondracek failed to provide us the name of this sage. Do better, Chris.)
- Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.
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