Marty Seifert: we're not all Democrats now

All of this talk of bipartisanship and "governing from the middle" from the Democrats nationally and the DFL in this state is very interesting. Back in 2002, when the Republicans swept the elections from Congress to the state legislatures, the Dems were screaming about stolen elections and "disenfranchisement." About Sen. Norm Coleman's election to the U.S. Senate, Garrison Keillor said, "I'm ashamed of Minnesota for electing this cheap fraud." How you rabble were all duped by the Republican exploitation of 9/11.

This time around, the shoe is on the other foot for both parties. The Dems are "reaching out" to the Republicans who managed to win their races, inviting them to raise taxes, increase the size of government, and restage the fall of Saigon in Baghdad. Unfortunately, before even receiving their election certificates, too many Republicans have assumed the position of permanent minority party, going along to get along.

Marty Seifert (R-Marshall), newly elected House minority leader, is not one of those Republicans. In a recent newspaper accounts reported by Minnesota Democrats Exposed, Seifert showed that he may have the right stuff to help Minnesota see red in 2008:

[Seifert] also said the GOP will try to work with the DFL on major issues that are good for the whole state. But he said Republicans won't abandon core party principles of fiscal responsibility, keeping government out of private lives/personal responsibility, avoiding tax increases, protecting public safety and education.

'I think people are going to see a new face of the Republican party, something to complement the governor,' Seifert said.

If anyone in the House Republican caucus can live up to these words, it's Seifert. That's a good thing, because after 2006, liberals won't vote for a Democrat lite candidate, and neither will conservatives.

Ronald Reagan said, when you're behind in the polls, change the polls. Republicans at all levels of government need leaders who have read the party platform, believe in it, and can sell it with conviction and vision. Minnesota Republicans will be searching from the precinct caucuses to the national convention for leadership like that.

MINNESOTA POLITICS | POLITICS | MNPOLITICS | MN06