Cut-and-run Kennedy

Mark Kennedy's campaign strategy is to flee from President Bush and the Republican Party. Too bad that nobody is going to let him get away with it. The Star Tribune dissects Kennedy's laughable claims at being "independent."

Co-authoring bills with Democrats, which is what Kennedy seems to think proves his bipartisan bona fides, is ridiculous. That stuff does not matter. If Kennedy introduced a bill making pistachio the official U.S. National Ice Cream Flavor, and got some Democrat to sign on as a co-author, does that make him bipartisan? No, the things that count are little issues like how Kennedy voted for Bush's horrible budget.

Kennedy's responses are bizarre. He says that Klobuchar shouldn't be considered to be a prosecutor, because she only runs the Hennepin County Attorney's office, as if that isn't a big deal. That's like arguing that a doctor who isn't cutting people open isn't a doctor. He says that Klobuchar should "specify how she differs from Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats." Hey Mark, they are called issues; learn to listen to them when they come out of her mouth. He disparages the CQ's partisanship index, the index that all experts say is the best measure of partisanship out there. Finally, he accused the Star Tribune of "cherry-picking" facts to make him look partisan, like the fact that he votes with Republicans more than 90 percent of the time. Yes, those pesky out-of-context facts.

I guess if Kennedy keeps telling us how many pistachio ice cream bills he has co-authored with Democrats, it will be all right.