Thune at Center of Emerging Scandal ?

[sarahlee]

It is a bit of a long and complicated story re Thune and Dan Nelson Automotive, so here are the links - just go and read.

http://www.cleancutkid.com/2005/06/30/john-thune-dan-nelson-automotive-and-metabank/

http://www.thunewatch.com/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=257&Itemid=2


Oh, wouldn't it be loverly.....

[unhappycamper]

1. A question for you.

Are folks out your way paying attention to any of this? It's not a blue dress, there's no sex involved, and the name isn't Clinton. I'm starting to get the impression that scandal fatigue doesn't arouse folks anymore.

[sarahlee]

3. Well obviously, I am paying attention

or at least trying to.

My Lakota neighbors probably don't care alot because they are pretty much used to all politicians being liars and cheats.

But hey, we still gave the Dems the most votes.

[stitz58]

2. thune

great post sarahlee.
I'vew forward the story to a newspaper publisher I know here is south dakota. Even though he's a consrvative let's see if he does anything with it.

[Broke Dad]

4. Great post

I hope the mainstream press covers this breaking story. Maybe Janklow can give Thune tips on how to make your bed in jail.:-)

[existentialist]

5. center of scandal

Given the coverage of the car dealership bankruptcy in the Rapid City Journal, it appears that the center of the scandal is in Iowa rather than South Dakota.

Still, Thune is at least peripherally involved, perhaps and perhaps not more than a little involved, and it cannot help him. Whether it hurts him significantly or not is unclear when any possible attempt at re-election is 5 years away.

What is hurting his popularity at the present--more than the car dealership bankruptcy--scandal, is the prospect of Elsworth Air Force base closing after he campaigned in large part on his ability (as a member of the majority party and a friend of the Bush Administration) to keep it open.

Just today the story in the Rapid City Journal is that Bush says he will veto the defense spending bill if Thune's proposed amendment to postpone any base closings until after the war is adopted as part of the bill.

What I have been saying when I have had a chance is that after Bush rejected Thune's plea for drought assistance to Bush (at Mount Rushmore when Thune was running against Johnson in 2002) that anyone who still thought that Thune had any pull with Bush wasn't paying attention,

and also anybody that still thought Bush gave a damn about South Dakota wasn't paying attention either.

[liberalhistorian]

6. That's what gets me the most.

Having just moved to Rapid City from Ohio, I'm amazed at how people here still think Bush and the repubs even give a damn about them. Their sole purpose in paying attention to SD and Thune was to get rid of Daschle. Now that they've done that, they couldn't care less about SD, and it's becoming quite obvious.

I sense that people are finally beginning to wake up to that; they're especially bitter at what they believe to be both Bush's and Thune's betrayal. Thune is a total idiot, thinking he could have any pull at all with the WH and national repubs. He's learning that showing loyalty to the party means nothing to those in charge of it. Unfortunately, SD has to pay for it, too. I think that once Ellsworth closes, if, indeed, it does since there's still a chance it might be kept open, RC will become far less repub. That would be a welcome change.