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Heading into last weekend, I was on vacation across the international date line in Sydney, Australia, which wasn’t far enough to shield me from our grim political discourse.
I was fixated and outraged — yes, even on vacation — at how Gov. Tim Walz was treated in his appearance before Congress along with fellow Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and JB Pritzker of Illinois.
The hearing before a House oversight committee on Thursday was a disgusting spectacle. Two days later, we saw horror beyond our worst nightmares that left former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, dead in what should have been the haven of their home. Their dog, Gilbert, was seriously injured and later put down.
Shortly after the deaths and what charges say was the attempted murder of Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, and his wife, Yvette, Minnesota’s congressional delegation issued a rare unified statement.
“Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants,” the statement read. “There is no place in our democracy for politically motivated violence.”
That’s too little, too late, and the rock-bottom minimum of what we should expect from our so-called leaders.