Quick Hits: Volume CCXXXV

 - More COVID-19 restrictions in Minnesota appear imminent now that Gov. Tim Walz has extended his peacetime emergency powers another 30 days. 

As positive cases are on the rise, Walz took aim at what he believes are some of the most pervasive "super spreader" events.

“......you gathering with three or four families in your backyard, or worse yet in your garage, for a celebration, would have an equally detrimental effect, and we’ll have to target those, too.”

Translation: The beatings will continue until the morale improves.

- The national political scene now focuses its eyes upon Georgia as both Republican held U.S. Senate seats will be up for grabs in the January 5 runoff election. With the GOP currently having a 50-48 majority in the upper chamber, Dems are still clinging to the idea of attaining all three levers of power in D.C.

Worst case scenario for the GOP would be to lose both Senate seats from Georgia, resulting in a 50-50 split. If that were to happen, a Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote. As such, the Dems' prog utopia of eliminating the legislative filibuster, packing the Supreme court, Medicare for all, etc. still has a glimmer hope, right?

Well......

Let me be clear: I will not vote to pack the courts & I will not vote to end the filibuster. The U.S. Senate is the most deliberative body in the world. It was made so that we work together in a bipartisan way. If you get rid of the filibuster, there's no reason to have a Senate. pic.twitter.com/g0fasdzVmt

— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) November 10, 2020

There you have it. A Democrat Senator from West Virginia of all places could potentially become the most powerful politician in Washington. 

- Speaking of one-party rule, the Minnesota Democrat party needed a net gain of two seats in the MN Senate to control all of state government. Not only did the Dems fall just short in the Senate (GOP has a 34-33 majority) they actually lost five seats in the House, shrinking their edge there to 70-64.

Given Joe Biden handily won the state of Minnesota in the presidential race, how is it that result didn't translate down ballot? Outgoing Sen. Jeff Hayden (DFL-Minneapolis) weighed in. 

“The sloppy way in which the Minneapolis City Council went about (discussing the de-funding of police) did have an effect on legislative races and congressional races as well,” he said.

Hayden, who lost his primary race to a progressive newcomer, Omar Fateh, said that as a Black man he was as committed as anyone to police reform, but he said the incoherent messaging of “defund the police” was rejected by the already skeptical voters of the suburbs and greater Minnesota.

“The inability for us to articulate what police transformation looks like and what we need to do … that was a big concern for people in the suburbs and greater Minnesota,” Hayden said. “That message from Minneapolis became a national issue, and it became something that (Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka) used around the state, which is that Senate Democrats want to defund the police.”

Soooo.....Republicans POUNCED?!?! Hey, whatever it took!

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