The Money Mustache Community
Other => Off Topic => Topic started by: Glenstache on November 03, 2016, 06:50:55 PM
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Tell us about an honest politician that you feel has done a good job. The election season this year has been fuel for cynicism and nastiness. How about instead of "drain the swamp", "all politicians are corrupt", "feeding at the trough", etc we talk about people (yes, politicians are people) who are fighting the good fight in an honest way. This is not partisan and I don't think we should be looking for perfection.
For simplicity, let's leave the current crop of presidential candidates out of it: all of them.
For starters, Paul Wellstone of MNseems to have fit that bill:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/10/25/paul-wellstone-memorialized-on-14th-anniversary-of-death/
(edited for state reference brainfart, which is well preserved in Kris's post, below)
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Tell us about an honest politician that you feel has done a good job. The election season this year has been fuel for cynicism and nastiness. How about instead of "drain the swamp", "all politicians are corrupt", "feeding at the trough", etc we talk about people (yes, politicians are people) who are fighting the good fight in an honest way. This is not partisan and I don't think we should be looking for perfection.
For simplicity, let's leave the current crop of presidential candidates out of it: all of them.
For starters, Paul Wellstone of WI seems to have fit that bill:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/10/25/paul-wellstone-memorialized-on-14th-anniversary-of-death/
Of MN,you mean.
He was one of the rare ones.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
Umm Ryan is a climate change denier.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
Umm Ryan is a climate change denier.
Yes. But I thought the point of this thread was to call out folks you think are decent humans. I also don't agree with his views abortion, he's religious, etc. BUT I think the fact that he was conscripted into the speaker job rather than seeking it out and goes home every week to be with his family are traits of someone who is basically good.
I would never vote for Paul Ryan.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
Umm Ryan is a climate change denier.
Yes. But I thought the point of this thread was to call out folks you think are decent humans. I also don't agree with his views abortion, he's religious, etc. BUT I think the fact that he was conscripted into the speaker job rather than seeking it out and goes home every week to be with his family are traits of someone who is basically good.
I would never vote for Paul Ryan.
I understand what you are saying. I think you could find good traits with just about anyone in that aspect. But as a politician I believe it is your duty to be honest about things you don't know much about. I don't think there is much honesty in claiming the collective scientific community has it all wrong.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
Umm Ryan is a climate change denier.
Yes. But I thought the point of this thread was to call out folks you think are decent humans. I also don't agree with his views abortion, he's religious, etc. BUT I think the fact that he was conscripted into the speaker job rather than seeking it out and goes home every week to be with his family are traits of someone who is basically good.
I would never vote for Paul Ryan.
We cannot know this, of course, but I believe Paul Ryan to be one of the (probably many) Republicans who actually believe the science, but deny it because it serves them better politically. Which makes him a dishonest politician in my book.
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While I don't agree with a lot of his policies, Paul Ryan seems to be a decent dude.
Umm Ryan is a climate change denier.
And here we go :rolleyes:
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Lois Capps. Her husband was a locally famous university professor who was elected but then died of a heart attack in '97. Lois, who was a school nurse and teacher, ran to take her late husband's seat. Then held it successfully despite numerous Republican challenges until this year when she decided to retire. She was the first Democrat to hold the 22nd District seat for more than one term in 50 years.
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
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I actually really like Louie Gohmert from Texas who chairs the Natural Resources Subcommittee. He is consistent and straightfoward who will tell you exactly what he believes or thinks and whose votes consistently line up with those beliefs, even when a portion of his constituency disagrees.
http://gohmert.house.gov/ (http://gohmert.house.gov/)
http://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/list.aspx (http://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/list.aspx)
It is nice to see the names of the ethical and committed people on each side of the isle- they never seem to be the ones that make it as high as we might like (too much integrity to survive at the top).
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I don't agree with him on everything, but Angus King (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_King) is the real deal. He's a straight shooter and I've never doubted his commitment to making Maine better. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the lovely governor...
That guy sounds awesome. :)
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Good elected politicians reflect the electorate. Y'all in MN have very good BS filters.
I don't think we have a single honest politician in FL.
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Good elected politicians reflect the electorate. Y'all in MN have very good BS filters.
I don't think we have a single honest politician in FL.
We are the state that gave you Michele Bachmann, though -- albeit in a heavily gerrymandered district.
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Arlen Specter, perhaps?
I'm probably biased as a center-left native Pennsylvanian, but even when I disagreed with him on issues, I never got the impression he was pushing a policy that he didn't genuinely believe was ideal. He was definitely a litigator at heart and was brilliant but not mean to watch when he was asking questions in Senate hearings. His questioning of Alberto Gonzalez in 2007 is awesome to watch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/us/politics/arlen-specter-senator-dies-at-82.html for obituary
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Good elected politicians reflect the electorate. Y'all in MN have very good BS filters.
I don't think we have a single honest politician in FL.
I'm moving to Minnesota soon! Hopefully it's true what you're saying about the electorate.
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I know you wanted to leave out the current crop of presidential candidates.
But I wanted to throw in a word for John Kasich.
He showed some integrity by refusing to join the trump bandwagon and casted his ballot for McCain. Weird, but honest.
Some politicians that I respect.. Obama, Jerry Brown and Elizabeth Warren.
this is a web-site that gives politicians truth scores based on fact checking their statements.
Fun to see the scores for obama, trump, clinton, etc.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/elections/2016/president-united-states/
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Thread title gave me a laugh, thanks!
Politician get a bad rap. 1% of them get a bad name from the other 99%
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I liked Bernard Lord in New Brunswick. I'll give one example about him. Unlike in the USA, whomever controls the legislative assembly is the ruling party. Bernard Lord had 50%+1 seats versus his opposition. An MLA died and a by-election had to be held. So basically, one county was going to decide who was going to be the premier of the province on an off-election year. He found this morally repugnant so he asked the Queen's representative to call an election so the whole province could have a say.
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Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota is about as honest as they get. As for suggesting Al Franken of Minnesota?.... give me a break.......
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Good elected politicians reflect the electorate. Y'all in MN have very good BS filters.
I don't think we have a single honest politician in FL.
I'm moving to Minnesota soon! Hopefully it's true what you're saying about the electorate.
I'm also in MN. I think we do have a good electorate.
This American Life recently had a story about the effects of a couple guys traveling through rural MN fanning the flames of fear of Muslims. One of the takeaways is that the conservatives outside the cities here are good people at heart and many of them are simple to the point of being naive. I've encountered it many times where they are warning me about Obama's death panels or how Muslims are going to start a Caliphate here. The traveling fear mongers said point blank they have more success outside the city because people outside the city haven't been exposed to Muslims and Muslim culture.
As far as honest politicians here go, I don't think Al Franken is a great example. Compared conservatives to 4 year olds and decided he knew better than MN Bernie voters. Doesn't exactly fall into the category of dishonest, but there are too many words you can describe with before honest. To me he's a pretty standard party hack.
Bachman has probably spewed more falsehoods than any other MN politician. Mark Dayton seems like a straight shooter.
Paul Ryan I give credit for publicly acknowledging his Ayn Rand-influenced worldview of makers and takers was wrong. Seems like he genuinely wanted to learn more about how to fight poverty when he did his inner city tour. Probably has the most uncomfortable job in politics right now.
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Paul Ryan I give credit for publicly acknowledging his Ayn Rand-influenced worldview of makers and takers was wrong. Seems like he genuinely wanted to learn more about how to fight poverty when he did his inner city tour. Probably has the most uncomfortable job in politics right now.
Count me as another who disagrees with Paul Ryan on political philosophy, but has a certain degree of respect for him personally. He's in a tough spot and I think he's handled it as well as could be expected. I don't know that I would call him an "honest politician", but I do think he is a decent man.
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Paul Ryan I give credit for publicly acknowledging his Ayn Rand-influenced worldview of makers and takers was wrong. Seems like he genuinely wanted to learn more about how to fight poverty when he did his inner city tour. Probably has the most uncomfortable job in politics right now.
Count me as another who disagrees with Paul Ryan on political philosophy, but has a certain degree of respect for him personally. He's in a tough spot and I think he's handled it as well as could be expected. I don't know that I would call him an "honest politician", but I do think he is a decent man.
Off topic, but I checked out your woodworking blog. Pretty sweet. Nice windsor chairs. You on instagram? I'd recommend it, great woodworking community there.
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As far as honest politicians here go, I don't think Al Franken is a great example. Compared conservatives to 4 year olds and decided he knew better than MN Bernie voters. Doesn't exactly fall into the category of dishonest, but there are too many words you can describe with before honest. To me he's a pretty standard party hack.
The thread is about honesty, not whether one agrees with him or whether he's a party-line guy. I stand by what I said.
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Kathie Gannon (http://www.kathiegannon.com/): IIRC, she's the only sitting Dekalb County Commissioner at the moment who does not have a pending ethics complaint against her!
Mary Norwood (http://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/14.htm) and Felicia Moore (http://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/9.htm): the Atlanta City Council members most likely to stand up to the Mayor (who shows off his corruption with lights and sirens, literally! (http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/watch-out-for-the-blue-lights-its-hizzoner-in-a-hu/ns2kY/)), and who are currently trying to force the city to be more fiscally transparent.
I think "honest politicians" are incredibly rare above the city/county level.
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As far as honest politicians here go, I don't think Al Franken is a great example. Compared conservatives to 4 year olds and decided he knew better than MN Bernie voters. Doesn't exactly fall into the category of dishonest, but there are too many words you can describe with before honest. To me he's a pretty standard party hack.
The thread is about honesty, not whether one agrees with him or whether he's a party-line guy. I stand by what I said.
Yeah.... I have to admit he is pretty honest
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I have a lot of respect for John McCain. I don't know all of his record, but from what I do know, he seems to both have and follow his principles.
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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is one of the very few politicians willing to challenge the status quo on a lot of issues. Whether it's trying to get Congress to actually have a debate about declaring war and authorizations for the use of military force, or reforming civil asset forfeiture which is essentially government sponsored armed robbery. I agree with him and most things and I think for the most part he's been very consistent in pushing for things he believes in, even if it sometimes seems that he's tilting at windmills.
Though I disagree with him on a lot of other issues, I also have respect for Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) who has fought back against a lot of government intrusion from the NSA and other entities using the PATRIOT Act and similar legislation to shit all over the 4th amendment. I believe he's also been working on civil asset forfeiture reform as well as criminal justice/sentencing reform.
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Another vote for Jerry Brown. It bums me out a little bit that he's probably too old for another presidential run, because I think he would be a great president.
While I wasn't alive for his time in office, Pat Brown (Jerry's dad) was also a great governor.
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Another vote for Jerry Brown. It bums me out a little bit that he's probably too old for another presidential run, because I think he would be a great president.
While I wasn't alive for his time in office, Pat Brown (Jerry's dad) was also a great governor.
This country desperately needs Jerry Brown for president. He has the energy, he has the knowledge, he has the support.
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Id vote for Jimmy Carter in a heartbeat. He can still run ya know!
Another vote for Mr Brown. He was kind of a joke the last time he tried to become president. 2nd time is a charm.
Ralph Nader too. I was one of only 1500 in Orange County, Ca who voted for him and it he ultimately handed the presidencies to George Jr.
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I wouldn't vote for Jimmy Carter, but he strikes me as the most morally upstanding and honest politician in living memory.
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Wasn't Jimmy Carter the president with the second worst approval rating of all time?
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JC had the lowest average polling rating of any post-war President (which Trump will probably beat), but his single LOWEST is not the worst...just Top 5!
http://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx
Nixon, Dubya, and Truman all beat JC for low approvals. Nixon for Watergate, Dubya for the financial crisis, Truman for Korea and Communism and the Steel strike.
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I know you wanted to leave out the current crop of presidential candidates.
But I wanted to throw in a word for John Kasich.
He showed some integrity by refusing to join the trump bandwagon and casted his ballot for McCain. Weird, but honest.
Some politicians that I respect.. Obama, Jerry Brown and Elizabeth Warren.
this is a web-site that gives politicians truth scores based on fact checking their statements.
Fun to see the scores for obama, trump, clinton, etc.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/elections/2016/president-united-states/
As an Ohioan I'm going to disagree on Kasich. He loves to crow about "balancing the state budget" and his awesome "surplus." All he did was not pay for things and keep the money. It's put a tremendous amount of stress on local governments and public school districts. Don't get me started on our charter school situation.
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I wouldn't vote for Jimmy Carter, but he strikes me as the most morally upstanding and honest politician in living memory.
Interestingly, I've read in several variously sourced places that he is actually a pretty mean, petty person...a fair number of early supporters and staff on his presidential campaign bailed out because of what they saw as his totally hypocritical behavior. He is apparently not particularly well liked by the current "President's Club" either. Bush Sn, W, and Bill Clinton all get along famously, and W/Obama, Clinton/Obama relationships are also solid if occasionally prickly (no knowledge of Obama/Snr dynamic). But none of them apparently like Carter much at all. On the other hand, maybe it's Carter who is the nice one and all the other presidents are assholes? Hard to know from the outside.
However, personally, I would have totally said Jimmy Carter if I didn't know that info. My sense is perhaps he's fairly honest in his public dealings, but just not very personally likeable.
Also people can be upstanding and honest in some areas but not others. I know lots of people who strive to be honest in their professional lives...indeed, who pride themselves on that, but then blithely cheat on their spouses and feel justified in doing so
Perhaps we should separate public and private behavior? It's hard to say. Al Franken is another who seemed honest, but with recent events, I'm really wondering. Paul Ryan strikes me as honest and probably fairly tolerable personally (though he's reported to be total brown noser). However, he has some seriously sociopathic policy beliefs IMO, which I view as actively evil. So would I think of him as a good person, or not?
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Wasn't Jimmy Carter the president with the second worst approval rating of all time?
Yes, one of the worst. Its Ironic because he told the American public to grow the fuck up and stop being a bunch of selfish assholes. He asked we revaluate ourselves and start living the kind of life that is preached on this blog ....the public didn't like that one bit....especially right in the middle of the "ME" generation. It was a famous speech on prime time TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakFDUeoJKM
He made the mistake of firing his entire cabinet a week later and lost the public confidence from that point on.
However, he installed solar in the white house. Has done more than anyone in the world for peace between the Arabs and Isreal.
He could be a dick, who knows? But the bottom line is that he had it right and warned us almost 40 years ago.
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Wasn't Jimmy Carter the president with the second worst approval rating of all time?
Yes, one of the worst. Its Ironic because he told the American public to grow the fuck up and stop being a bunch of selfish assholes. He asked we revaluate ourselves and start living the kind of life that is preached on this blog ....the public didn't like that one bit....especially right in the middle of the "ME" generation. It was a famous speech on prime time TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakFDUeoJKM
He made the mistake of firing his entire cabinet a week later and lost the public confidence from that point on.
However, he installed solar in the white house. Has done more than anyone in the world for peace between the Arabs and Isreal.
He could be a dick, who knows? But the bottom line is that he had it right and warned us almost 40 years ago.
. . . and was reviled for it. So maybe you get the politicians you deserve?
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Wasn't Jimmy Carter the president with the second worst approval rating of all time?
Yes, one of the worst. Its Ironic because he told the American public to grow the fuck up and stop being a bunch of selfish assholes. He asked we revaluate ourselves and start living the kind of life that is preached on this blog ....the public didn't like that one bit....especially right in the middle of the "ME" generation. It was a famous speech on prime time TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakFDUeoJKM
He made the mistake of firing his entire cabinet a week later and lost the public confidence from that point on.
However, he installed solar in the white house. Has done more than anyone in the world for peace between the Arabs and Isreal.
He could be a dick, who knows? But the bottom line is that he had it right and warned us almost 40 years ago.
. . . and was reviled for it. So maybe you get the politicians you deserve?
You bet we do! The Avg American Voter is a know nothing, TV Watching Buffoon
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Id vote for Jimmy Carter in a heartbeat. He can still run ya know!
Another vote for Mr Brown. He was kind of a joke the last time he tried to become president. 2nd time is a charm.
Ralph Nader too. I was one of only 1500 in Orange County, Ca who voted for him and it he ultimately handed the presidencies to George Jr.
I’ve heard some contest he didn’t cause Bush to win the election. In the most hotly contested state, Florida, exit polls of Nader’s voters showed that more of them had Bush as their second choice than Gore.
Also, Nader didn’t stop the Florida recount. And even if the recount would have turned no change in the result, it doesn’t change that Gore lost his home state, Clinton’s home state, and other states he “should have” won. All those Nader was no where near affecting.
Gore handed Bush the election.
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Paul Ryan took his family, broke into a homeless shelter unannounced and caused merry hell "cleaning" a bunch of already clean cooking equipment just to get a nice photo-op of his oh-so-humble self and his oh-so-humble family washing dishes at a homeless shelter. Caused a tremendous mess (because of course they didn't tidy up after themselves), pissed off the people actually running the shelter (because their long-standing charity was abused to make political hay for thirty seconds of news) and to top it off, everything had to be cleaned again because Paul Ryan and his family haven't the faintest idea how industrial-strength cleaners work.
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-wash-dishes-2012-10
And if that's not enough to convince you, he couldn't even help himself from lying about his marathon time.
Seriously, like his politics or not, the guys a shitheel.
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Don't forget that Paul Ryan once pushed an old woman in a wheelchair off of a cliff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGnE83A1Z4U
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That is worst than Ted Cruz’s father killing JFK.
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Don't forget that Paul Ryan once pushed an old woman in a wheelchair off of a cliff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGnE83A1Z4U
But he did save the wheelchair, very fiscally responsible!
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Haha, do people even know what honesty means anymore? Incredible! I mean, if one solid, consistent measure of virtue is giving to charity; quietly, reliably, over years, and never asking anything back, what do you make of the man who calls a parade because he showed up to a homeless shelter once, damaged it, and never looked back?
You call him the most honest, upstanding man alive, pin a medal on him, and murder anyone who disagrees. That's honesty.
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Was just scanning this thread that started last year.
May need a recount on the Franken comment.
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Susan Collins?
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I am hoping Gary Locke might get convinced to run for President. He was excellent as King COunty Executive and later WA governor. And he did a stellar job in a very difficult role as ambassador to China.
No doubt about it. There is no finer individual than Gary Locke for President.
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I personally have a lot of respect for Gov. Snyder of Michigan.
At times he has managed to piss off both Republicans and Democrats. Those that seem to hate him do so because he cut some program that they approved of to save some other program during the Great Recession.
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Mike Honda, former Congressman for San Jose, Ca. Former school teacher and principal. And he was voted out after many years for a person funded by Silcon Valley companies.
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I think we've been reasonably lucky in Minnesota. Keith Ellison, one of our reps, is a stand-up guy, and Amy Klobuchar, one of our senators, is also pretty good. Al Franken, our other senator, is good in my opinion. And our governor, Mark Dayton, is honest and forthright for the most part.
Was just scanning this thread that started last year.
May need a recount on the Franken comment.
Al Franken MUST resign.... MUST PEOPLE!!! Women are under fire!!! And we need an AUTHENTIC voice!!!
Keith Ellison would be the best to fill this position.
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My favorite Minnesotan honest politician...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Penny
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I'm a fan of Tammy Duckworth, IL. Except I get the DuckTales intro song stuck in my head every time I hear about her.
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I like Krysten Sinema and Ruben Gallego from my state of Arizona.
Krysten is already in the House, but is potentially running to be the Dem nominee in the race for current Sen. Flake's seat.
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David Price, representing North Carolina's 4th District. He is quite left-wing, but that is the political viewpoint of the majority of his district (as evidenced by >70% votes for the last several cycles). His best trait is he isn't afraid to tell his constituents they are being unrealistic. Back when Congress compromised on things, he often was part of that negotiation.