Rep. Collin Peterson cowering in face of red staters

Rep. Collin Peterson (minnpost image)

The cheese stands alone, maybe not in the most commendable way. The cheese is Collin Peterson, who CW has it is dangling by a thread to keep his elected position in a district seen increasingly as "red state." Maybe we're an extension of North Dakota.
We had a newspaper owner in this community from Fargo for some time. Fargo-based Forum Communications has bailed. There is nothing new I could write about that, that would come across as revelatory.
I could tell you today that Forum had intentions of closing the Morris paper. I doubt that suggestion is eyebrow-raising. It does happen to be true.
Morris came close to losing its print media, though we'd still cling to the feature-oriented Senior Perspective. We are blessed to have Senior Perspective. I am blessed to be able to read the larger than usual type. But the true community paper is in theory a bulwark for staying attuned to local civic affairs. Forum turned out to be a disappointment, obviously.
Today I could quote from well-placed sources affirming that the Morris paper was close to being shuttered, that it was a fact. I'm not going to bother sharing the quotes because I don't think any of this comes across as surprising now. And once again, younger folks are likely rolling their eyes over the concern of their elders about the "community paper." Young people live in an electronic world.
I look at the newspaper with its building, its delivery truck and its several paid staffers, and it's obvious the challenges it faces. So much overhead! In a past era such overhead was small potatoes. Today the reality is much to the contrary, so I don't envy anyone today who continues owning and operating a "newspaper." We do wish the new owners good luck. (They'll need it?)
So, the shackles of Fargo-based ownership are gone - PTL - but I'm left to wonder if we're in a North Dakota type zone with our political inclinations. To ask that question is to ask a rhetorical question, I guess.
Often I'll dine at a restaurant early in the morning where the older white guys gather and talk in predictable tones about politics: hostile to Democrats, more than anything. Collin Peterson is a Democrat. He seems rather a fossil in terms of length of service. He looks old now.
Not long ago when Mike McFeely still had his morning show on WDAY Radio, it was frustrating listening to Peterson. I remember vividly because I got frustrated listening, to the point where I switched away. McFeely can no longer be heard in the morning. I think the obvious explanation is that he was left of center politically. It is very hard for such people to survive in talk radio.
So right now McFeely has a podcast. The new guy in his time slot makes a token comment now and then about how "I'm not a liberal," but I can easily sense that he has reasonable inclinations, i.e. that he's receptive to fact-based arguments of the type used by liberals. I just wish he'd admit his reasonable inclinations a little more openly. Mike Kapel?
 
Whiff on a radio show
Rep. Peterson was on McFeely's morning program and he seemed incoherent. My theory is not that the man was showing any mental instability, just that he is forced to defend various parts of the Democratic Party agenda in a region that increasingly tips to the other end. So Mr. Peterson speaks in broken sentences, there were many pauses and he'd say "ahhh" etc., to the point where I just didn't want to listen. It was bad radio. I suspect Mr. McFeely was squirming a little.
 

Sue Dieter (radaris image)

Sue Dieter re-surfaces
And now we hear that the former manager of the Morris paper - I won't use the word "publisher" - has become communications director for Peterson. This individual is Sue Dieter. So now Dieter will walk the tightrope, in my estimation, of having to appeal to a Republican-oriented constituency while speaking for a Democrat. A Democrat! The old guys at our main street cafes are non plussed.
So many among us want to "make America great again." They'll have to explain how Trump's agenda really helps accomplish that.
There is only one Democrat in the Minnesota congressional delegation who has come out against impeachment of Donald Trump. "The cheese stands alone" with Collin Peterson.
I hate to quote Peterson because it's obvious he's just playing rope-a-dope or something like that. He decries the impeachment process as "partisan." He might have added "What do you think I am, a politician?" Partisanship in Washington D.C. Horrors! Of course, Trump and his people aren't partisan-motivated, right?
Rep. Peterson decries impeachment as a process that will "polarize the country further." Polarize? You mean disagreements? Are disagreements somehow inappropriate in politics? What are you suggesting, Rep. Peterson? Does the Trump crowd shy away from disagreements, indeed are they virtuous people who always push for a cozy consensus? Rhetorical question.
Peterson says of impeachment, "I believe it will be a failed process." What a disappointing representative.
So, he thinks it will fail just like Forum Communications (Fargo) ownership of the Morris newspaper. Oh, Dieter was the manager of that.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com