By Kevin Woster

Wandering around the Black Hills foothills yesterday in search of open water and mallard drakes, I was alternating between a Robbie Fulks CD, NPR and the AM screamers.

Talk about tri-polar, huh?

But as I munched a delightful mushroom-and-swiss-burger special picked up at the State Line station at Beulah, where - the clerk says - they still sell 600 cartons of cigarettes a week to tax-disaffected South Dakota smokers, I sat in the truck on a ridge overlooking some awfully nice landscape and listened to a Rush Limbaugh stand-in.

He was making fun of Caroline Kennedy’s “uhs” and “ums” and “ahs” in typically unkind and accessive (and, uh, excessive) ways.

But I have to say, I’ve been underwhelming by JFK’s daughter when I’ve heard her speak and, especially, when she has tried to answer questions from reporters.

She just doesn’t seem to have much to say. And what she does have to say she doesn’t say very well.

Not that you can’t be a fine U.S. senator without being interesting and articulate. But I’m surprised that somebody with those genes, that family history and that education isn’t more impressive.

By Kevin Woster

I’ve been asked lately why I so often ponder the chances of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin running for governor in 2010, yet never mention her as a possible Senate candidate.

That’s the U.S. Senate, as in the seat now held by John Thune, who comes up for reelection in 2010.

I guess you could call that an oversight, my not mentioning that as a possible star-struck political bout. Except that I can’t imagine it will happen.

I’d guess Herseth Sandlin would be the underdog in that campaign, if not by much. Not that she couldn’t win. I wouldn’t rule that out. But it would be a tough, expensive run for her.

Why would she take such a chance?

I can’t imagine she would.

By Kevin Woster

At this point, Stephanie would have to be the favorite.

If she runs.

For governor, that is.

But Democrats who believe that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin would be a lock - if she decides to run - to put a candidate from their party back in the governor’s chair for the first time in 30 years are forgetting some things:

* It’s a Republican state. And while some far-left Democrats consider Herseth Sandlin to be an “R” in “D” clothing, she’s still a minority party member in South Dakota.

* Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard has $400,000 in the campaign bank. Wait, scratch that. He HAD $400,000 in the bank at the end of last year. He’s surely well above that now. That’s not bad for a guy who’s just getting warmed up.

* Senate Republican leader Dave Knudson is in, and seems to think he can raise the million or so it takes to get competive. Brookings Mayor Scott Munsterman and Buffalo Gap rancher Ken Knuppe have filed papers as well. In fact, I was snooping around on Munsterman’s Web site. He seems serious.

* And Heidepriem? Heidepriem? Heidepriem? My guess is he’s waiting to see what Herseth Sandlin does. Which isn’t a bad idea.

* Then there’s always Schoenbeck, who got out before he got in. He’s finishing up the pheasant season, and already getting charged up about the 2009 Mount Blogmore-Take It Outside Invitational Pheasant Hunt.

But then, who isn’t?

By Kevin Woster

I’ve checked around.

With Wiken.

With Anton.

With Fleming.

With Aldo.

They and a thousand other full- or part-time residents of Mount Blogmore have authorized me to say:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

By Randall Rasmussen

President-elect Barack Obama and two of his aides answered questions last week from federal investigators looking into possible corruption charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Obama’s lawyer released a report Tuesday that cleared him and his staff of any wrongdoing in Blagojevich’s apparent effort to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

Well, glad we cleared that up.

If you can’t trust a lawyer when he says his client is innocent, then what’s the world coming to?

Releasing the internal report late in the afternoon on the day before Christmas Eve shows just how quickly Obama is adjusting to how things are done in Washington, D.C.

Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is the only one to discuss the Senate seat with Blagojevich, and according to the report, “nothing inappropriate” took place.

Well, that’s a relief.

Chicago politician Barack Obama’s chief of staff Chicago politician Emanuel talks to Chicago politician Blagojevich about who to replace Obama in the Senate, and it’s all above board.

That’s good to know.

By Kevin Woster

OK, here’s a couple of Tuesday afternoon political questions:

Is Caroline Kennedy any more or less qualified to be a U.S. senator than Sarah Palin is to be a U.S. vice president?

Why?

By Kevin Woster

OK, how about this one:

Ken Knuppe for governor.

He won’t have to worry about whether there’s an anti-Sioux Falls bias among non-Sioux Falls voters. Knuppe’s about as far from Sioux Falls as it gets.

The Buffalo Gap rancher and past president of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association has his eye on the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

As a Rapid City Journal news weasel, I’d love to cover a Knuppe campaign. I like it when the West River folks get in and mix it up in statewide political ringwars, even though the odds - based on history - are against them.

We don’t pick governors from out this way much. Even former Gov. Walter Dale Miller got the chief executive’s chair in a horrid way - stepping up from his LG position when his good friend Gov. George Mickelson died in that never-to-forget airplane crash in April of 1993.

Miller lost in his reelection bid to that guy from Flandreau. You know, the Chicago Bears fan?

We just don’t seem to pick West River candidates.

Why do you suppose that is?

By Kevin Woster

If I’m not hallucinating, I recall during my early years with the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls that I kept Lyman County or Brule County plates on one of my vehicles.

For hunting purposes.

That was my attempt to stay away from the dreaded “1″ license plate -back when biggest counties were numbered according to their size, rather than lettered - and its negative effects when I pulled into a farmyard to ask permission to hunt.

The anti-city thing is laughable in South Dakota, of course, because the “city” has 150,000 people.

But it seemed real in my immediate peer group growing up. We growled whenever we saw a “1″ license plate parked at one of our favorite public hunting areas or cruising roads near our farm.

And it seems like I used to hear some negative comments about the “Sioux Falls delegation” when I was covering the state Legislature.

So, I wonder if Republican state Sen. Dave Knudson might be hurt by his Sioux Falls residency in his run for the governor’s chair in 2010. He filed the papers this week with the state, and is ready to begin his run in 2009.

Surely, he’ll score big in his hometown, which is a huge hometown by South Dakota standards. Will he be hurt among voters “out state” as they say in states with real cities?

Knudson thinks the notion of an anti-Sioux Falls bias is mostly myth.

How about you?

By Kevin Woster

So, no Lee Schoenbeck in the 2010 governor’s race? It won’t be nearly so much fun.

The Watertown lawyer, erstwhile Republican state senator and current tender of a rollicking herd of caucasian Labradors decided last weekend that 60-below wind chill was a bit too nippy to chase roosters in the snow, even for him and his hearty band of merry mutts. And since he was home with some time for contemplation, he also decided not to shoot for the governor’s chair in 2010.

With four kids on the rise, there are other priorities right now, he said.
And really, who could argue with that?

Unless, of course, he has some inside information that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin will be the Democratic candidate? Would she scare Schoenbeck? I can’t imagine. After all, he’s got the kid advantage, four to one.

So far. (Max, I’m just sayin’…)

A couple of other potential candidates said they were surprised by Schoenbeck’s decision. Republican state Sen. Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls said Schoenbeck would have been a “formidable candidate.”

Knudson also said he’ll decide by the end of the year (which isn’t far away, Dave - tick, tick, tick…), if he’ll run in 2010.

Demoratic Sen. Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls also was caught off guard by Schoenbeck’s decision to put away the political spikes.

“I thought he would not only be in it but would be a very, very strong contender,” Heidepriem said. “But knowing Lee as I do, I’m not surprised that he chose to spend time with his growing family.”

Heidepriem’s two boys are pretty much grown, with one in his last year of high school and the other almost out of college. So….

“Quite honestly, I’m just really focused on getting through this session,” he said.

Which mean, of course, that he’s seriously thinking about 2010.

By Kevin Woster

Seriously, I dare anybody to send a grumpy post on this one.

Double dog dare ya. (I won’t publish it, of course, but go ahead, knock yourself out.)

Because today, on this thread, Mount Blogmore will limit itself only to a celebratory welcome for Zarchary Lars Sandlin.

Or as we say back home in Lyman County: Yeeeeeehaaaaaaaa!

Zachary arrived at 5:16 p.m. Monday and weighed in at the near-perfect 7 pounds, 4 ounces. The little bugger - as my mom liked to say about, well, little buggers - was 19.5 inches long.

Probably still is, unless he had a growth spurt over night. And maybe he did. My guess is if you ask Grandpa Lars, anything’s possible with this kid - this truly amazing kid, Grandpa will surely say.

Speaking of Lars Herseth, we send him our personal congratulations for providing a worthy middle name for the child. All that lobbying with the congresswoman must have paid off!

And what a glorious Christmas this will be for Zachary’s mom, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, and dad, former Texas Congressman Max Sandlin, who spoke for the couple - the trio, actually - in a news release e-mailed from Herseth Sandlin’s office this morning.

“Stephanie and I have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy this Christmas,” Sandlin said. “Mother and baby are both healthy and happy. Of course, Zachary’s arrival makes our holiday even more special as we are surrounded by the love of family and friends.”

They are also surrounded by the long-distance well wishes of the deeply neurotic, wildly bipolar, often-cantankerous citizens of Mount Blogmore, who today - in a fit of holiday good cheer - send our very best to Stephanie, Max and Zachary.

Oh, and Grandpa Lars, too.

By Randall Rasmussen

The choice of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu to be Energy secretary has won praise from scientists and politicians.

A story this week in the Journal noted that Chu was an early champion of the proposed national underground science lab at Lead.

Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Under Chu’s leadership the Berkeley lab has become a world leader in renewable and alternative energy research.

An editorial in Investor’s Business Daily warns that Chu is also an opponent of coal energy. He has called coal an “obstacle to progress” and his “worst nightmare.”

The Wall Street Journal also comments.

Having a real scientist in charge of the Energy Department is a good idea, but not if the science being advocated is the politically correct kind.

It may be a fine thing to oppose coal energy if you live in Berkeley, Calif., but here in western South Dakota practically every kilowatt of electricity we consume is produced by coal-fired power plants.

Chu may be good news for the prospects of a national lab at Lead, but if the energy policies he pursues is to wean the country from coal by making electricity produced by it prohibitively expensive, we may not be better off. And remember that Barack Obama once pledged to make coal power plants too expensive to build and operate.

Coal energy may produce some pollution but wind, solar and other alternative fuels are never going to produce an equivalent amount of electricity at relatively low cost.

By Kevin Woster

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass gives a fascinating look at Rahm Emanuel, the “guy behind the guy” - or, more officially, chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama - and an intriuging trail of connections to disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

You can find it online, if I can manage to produce one of them there, uh, links right about, uh, here.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that link works and some of you already have been there. Weird trip, huh?

Admittedly, it’s a column. And that means Kass takes some liberties and makes some assumptions. And there’s nothing there to even imply any wrong-doing on the part of Obama, or that he or anyone on his staff was part of the loony Blagojevich bidding business for an appointment to fill Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.

But Kass is pretty good, if national column-writing awards mean anything. And he creates a chain of likely connections that are at the least entertaining and possibly even relevant in light of Obama’s contention that he is “confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deal related to this seat.”

Depends of what you mean by a deal, of course. There’s no hint that anybody in Obama’s camp was talking dollars-for-appointments. But it does seem pretty likely, based on the Kass column, that Emanuel was in contact - perhaps indirectly through an state senator with shadowy Chicago-style connections named Jimmy DeLeo - with the Blago boys to discuss the Senate replacement.

Is that deal making? Maybe. Maybe not.

Obama may clear it up in coming days, since he has asked his staffers to find out more about possible contacts between his staff and the governor’s office.

That’ll be interesting. So will Emanuel’s comments to come.

By Kevin Woster

When it comes to political corruption, South Dakota is bush league.

Oh, sure, we get all steamed up about the “good-old-boy network,” and sweetheart deals and relatives hiring relatives, stuff like that.

And those are important issues.

But we’re playing our corruption game in the minor leagues, compared to places like Illinois.

How do you spell corruption over there? These days, according to the feds, it’s: B-L-A-G-O-J-E-V-I-C-H.

First, the guy is innocent until proven otherwise, of course. And we all know that law dogs can sniff their way into a false flush.

But if half of what is written in a 76-page FBI affidavit is true, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is more than meeting big-league standards for crossing the line, even in the state known for Chicago-style politics.

Selling Senate seats? Strong-arming the Chicago Tribune to dump its anti-Blago editorial board members, with a promise of state assistance in the balance? And comments like “I want to make money”?

It’s all in there, and a lot more.

And the best, or worst, part? Blagojevich came in as a reformer, after his predecessor, former Republican Gov. George Ryan, got sent up the river for a few years on racketeering and fraud charges.

The guy who held the U.S. Senate seat that Blogojevich wanted to auction off, President-elect Barack Obama, apparently was not in any way connected to the governor’s alleged misconduct.

But the timing still caused one of my Obama-loving buddies to breathe a near-miss sigh of relief: “Obama is lucky it didn’t hit before Election Day.”

Probably so.

What if the economic melt-down had been delayed for six months, and the Blagojevich scandal had erupted six weeks earlier?

By Kevin Woster

Federal bank fraud indictments last month against bankrupt car dealer Dan Nelson brought a new round of potentially debilitating legal trouble to the Rapid City native.

What they could mean to Sen. John Thune is a question that could be played out in the 2010 campaign.

Nelson faces a 28-count indictment in U.S. District Court in Iowa. So does his former business partner, Chris Tapken. It goes back to questionable business practices Nelson and Tapken were involved in at car dealerships in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Des Moines, Sioux City and Council Bluffs.

The Iowa attorney general and his Division of Consumer Protection went after the Dan Nelson Automotive Group over those practices. That accelerated a downward spiral that led or at least sped Nelson into bankruptcy.

It was big news across South Dakotaq back in 2005, the year after Thune upset Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle - with help from Nelson.

The Nelson Auto spillover in 2005 splashed a bit of bad publicity on the new Republican senator, since Nelson was a close friend and political ally and contributor. Because Thune sat for most of 2003 and 2004 on the board and of a bank - Metabank - that granted millions of dollars of loans to Nelson, critics (many with obvious political agendas) hammered on Thune for explanations.

He offered them, saying he wasn’t directly involved in granting Nelson loans, didn’t know of his friend’s mounting financial problems and didn’t do anything special to keep the Metabank bucks flowing.

It was a cold front of bad publicity in what was otherwise a balmy beginning to Thune’s Senate term. But it wasn’t a major political storm.Maybe it won’t be even with these new charges against Nelson.

But the charges before were civil. These new federal charges are criminal. Looking at financial failure is one thing. Jail time is something else. People who know the law expect Nelson to be pretty aggressive about defending himself on the charges that, among other things, he submitted fraudulent financial statements to Metabank.

It’ll take, what, a year or so for this to come to trial? About that time, Thune’s 2010 reelection campaign will be getting geared up.

Makes you wonder if would-be Democratic challengers will already be sprinkling the name “Dan Nelson” throughout campaign materials.

And what impact that might have on the race.

By Randall Rasmussen

Health and Human Services secretary-designate Tom Daschle talked about the Obama administration’s strategy on health care reform at a health care summit in Colorado.

Daschle said people around the nation are being encouraged to share their experiences and concerns about health care on a Web site: http://change.gov.

One of the problems encountered when President Clinton tried health care reform 15 years ago was the secrecy surrounding the health care reform task force that Hillary Clinton headed. When the details finally emerged about what was being proposed, some people were surprised and others were scared off from supporting the effort or opposing it entirely.

This time, the process will be more inclusive and public, Daschle said.

He also said the administration would concentrate on getting health care reform principles through Congress while avoiding getting bogged down in details.

“Details kill,” Daschle said. “If we get too far into the weeds, if we produce a 1,500- or 1,600-page bill, we’re going to get hung up on all the details and we’re never going to get to the principles.”

I don’t know what’s worse: A detailed health care plan created behind closed doors, or a broad health care proposal whose details will be filled in later by government bureaucrats.

Government can get into all sorts of mischief if it’s given broad powers to bring about “change.”

How much is all this going to cost? Daschle didn’t say. But as P.J. O’Rourke once said: “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.”

By Kevin Woster

George McGovern a “bad man”?

Were they serious?

Who in his right mind could say that? Whether you agree with his politics or not, the former South Dakota senator is about as far from a bad man as we males ever get.

Rather, he’s a good man who surely ranks among American heroes.

Yet in the most recent release of recordings from the Nixon White House, aide Chuck Colson calls McGovern “a bad man” who spoke with “preposterous arrogance” in his concession speech.

“Arrogance,” too, is not something typically mentioned in the same sentence with “McGovern.”

Both Colson and Nixon celebrated the fact that they’d “buried” McGovern and had him “put away for good.”

Interesting how things really turned out, huh?

Sen. John Thune does the senatorial chit-chat during a visit to Bully Blends in downtown Rapid City Thursday with proprietress Aida Compton.

By Kevin Woster

There’s no such thing as a simple cup of coffee for a U.S. senator.

At least, not in public.

So John Thune mixed in some handshakes with a stout cup of Joe and a bran muffin late this afternoon, during a break between an appearance at the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association in Huron for lunch and a dinner stop at the Rapid City Chamber ag appreciation banquet.

Thune and staffers Qusi Al-Haj and Jon Lauck grabbed a sip and a bite, too, before they trio raced off to the next event.

They liked BB, though, and plan to return. Maybe next time the senator will have time to finish his coffee.

Tim Rangitsch and Michael Haeder of Rapid City try to interest the senator in the upcoming Buzzard’s Roost Trail DIRT DUATHALON coming up this Sunday. (If you’re interested in a ride, check it out on acmebicycles.com.) Thune had the same reaction as the Mount Blogmore photographer: “Uh, aren’t the Viking’s on TV that day?” Or something like that.

The only Ph.D at the “meeting” (the Mount Blogmore scribe always packs the power of his G.E.D. wherever he goes…), Lauck does the Blackberry shuffle from the cushy comfort of a Bully Blends love seat as the boss works the room.

By Kevin Woster

I come to this discussion as one who does not smoke pot.

I don’t want to smoke pot. I don’t intend to smoke pot.

Whether it’s legal or not.

I’ve smoked it, three or four times, way back when. Got no desire to smoke it again. (Yes, Newland, I might change my mind if I had a medical condition it made better.)

Mostly, I think pot does more harm than good. But mostly, I also think alcohol does more harm than good. All told, I think we’d be better off if more people smoked pot and fewer people drank alcohol. But I think we’d be a lot better off if more people didn’t do much of either.

I have no desire to “feel better,” as Newland puts it. I like feeling the way I feel.

But that’s just me. I don’t care if somebody else smokes it, as long as they don’t do something while feeling its effects - such as driving a car, most likely well under the speed limit, and threatening my safety.

But I think your average stoned motorist would probably be less of a threat than your average distracted - by cell-phone chatter and even, amazingly enough, texting - motorist.

Or your average fixing-her-lipstick motorist. Or your average reading-his-newspaper motorist. Or your average yelling-at-the-kids-in-the-backseat motorist.

Or the average charged-up-on-caffeine-and-nicotine motorist.

And as one who has spent a good share of time - sober, or straight - with friends and acquaintances who were either drunk or stoned, I’ll tell you I’ll take stoned every time. No contest.

Beyond all that, how does it benefit anyone in South Dakota to bust those goofy “mules” from the West Coast driving across South Dakota to deliver a load of pot someplace else? Most appear to be poor, and desperate for dollars.

Why should we celebrate throwing them in prison for many years, especially when state taxpayers pay for their keep?

Isn’t it counterproductive to clog our courts and criminal system for pot offenses?

Isn’t it a waste of resources? Does it have any real effect on how many people smoke pot?

Are we winning “the war on drugs”? If so, please tell me how?

By Kevin Woster

It’ll be a tough year to get help from state government.

If that help involves money, at least.

Gov. Mike Rounds will deliver the bad news tomorrow in his budget message to the South Dakota Legislature. Playing the role of the bad news budget bear, Rounds outlined the ongoing revenue slides and cost rises Monday afternoon during a meeting with reporters - who attended in person and listened in by teleconference.

Most of the details are embargoed until tomorrow. And I’m still trying to figure what a number of them mean. (I thought there was no math with this job…)

But, in summary, things are so tough now and will be for the next, oh, year and a half or so, that the governor wants to dip into the state’s property tax relief fund for more than $32 million, just to make ends meet during the fiscal year that begins next July 1.

That would leave $4 million or so in the fund that not so long ago held more than $100 million.

And it would also be a sign that there won’t be any new spending of significance year, and some things are likely to be cut.

State legislators will nod and clap and shake their heads tomorrow as the governor proposes an austere spending plan with few increases and some cuts. Then they’ll go home and hear from district constituents before returning in January for the 2008 session and their chance to fiddle with the Rounds plan and offer a few of their own.

Given the economic times, you have to wonder how much budget wiggle room they will find.