*DFL: STOP PANDERING TO THE LOWEST POSSIBLE IQ. YOU'RE ONLY HURTING THE STATE.

 [*DFL: Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party...aka Minnesota Democrats]

I like Esme Murphy of WCCO. Because I want to know what the opposition believes, I watched her interview with Scott Jensen, the GOP candidate for governor live from the State Fair on the Sunday morning show. Murphy tends to ask blunt questions then not back down from pushing for an answer. And when she asked Dr. Jensen about his position on abortion, I stopped. I wanted to hear what he had to say because the ads made him out to be as regressive as a Mississippi legislator. I wanted to hear him tell Minnesota he was so "pro-life" that he would push to outlaw abortion completely.

Boy, was I surprised at his answer. So surprised I went to his website to see what it said there. And that matched exactly what he told Murphy. The following is the Dr. Scott Jensen for Governor  website's section on women:

Acknowledge Circumstances [when abortion is requested]
Acknowledge that any arbitrary list of exceptions to abortion restrictions in the future would include, but not be limited to, allegations of rape or incest, or circumstances endangering mental or physical health of the pregnant woman. As a physician, Dr. Scott Jensen has consistently talked about life being fundamentally threatened by such events. The life of the mother extends beyond the process of childbirth.

Going forward, the highlights are mine.

Endangering mental or physical health of the pregnant woman. The life of the mother extends beyond the process of childbirth. I found nothing objectionable in his statement on abortion. Sure, it's carefully worded, but what he says on his website is, indeed, vastly different from what he said in early interviews before back-peddling. So I went to check the interviews cited in the WRONG FOR MINNESOTA ads. 

Whoa, Nellie! There are some major discrepancies between his statements and his website.

In a "meet the candidates" interview with MPR's Mike Mulcahy and Maja Beckstrom back on March 18th, 2022, the following exchange occurred:

The U.S. Supreme Court may well overturn Roe vs. Wade this summer. If that happened, abortion would still be legal in Minnesota. If you were governor, would you try to impose new restrictions on abortion? Or would you try to ban it outright?

I would try to ban abortion, I think that we're we're basically in a situation where we should be governed by … there is no reason for us to be having abortions going out. We have tremendous opportunities and availability of birth control. We don't need to be snuffing out lives that if left alone will produce a viable newborn, that may go on to be the next Albert Einstein. We can be so much better than we've been. We do not need to be having Hillary Clinton casually discuss the value and the reasonableness of late third trimester abortions, when you've got literally, you've got a life that's a few inches away from passing through a birth canal and being the source of tremendous love. And we're saying no, if mom changes your mind, she can go ahead and slice and dice it and be done with it. I don’t think that’s where we want to be.

But on the other hand, you say people should have freedom over their medical decisions. Many women would just hear what you had to say and say, you're taking away my freedom to decide my medical care.

I think it gets down to, so and I understand your, your situation, Mike. You're basically saying, OK, Scott, you're for choice when it comes to health, freedom and taking a vaccination. But then when it comes on the issue of abortion, you're not for choice. And I understand exactly what you're saying. And I would say that my position is based on the fact that I think that that's a life in utero. And if left alone, spontaneously, it will grow. It will get to a point where that will come up. You don't have to have any doctors around, don't have to have any hospitals around. That baby will grow. And that baby will come up, and you then have a life. That is a life. And I think you and I may have a fundamental difference between what you think a life is and what I think a life is. And I think we have we can still honor each other's perspective and talk about so many other issues. But on that one, we sharply disagree.

In a second interview with Mulcahy on August 10th, 2022, Jensen said something quite different.

A few months ago, before the Supreme Court ruled you and I were talking and you told me you would try to ban abortion outright if Roe v. Wade were struck down. Lately, you've said you would not seek to overturn the State Supreme Court ruling that found a right to abortion in the Minnesota Constitution and that you do support some exemptions to an outright ban. Can you just clarify for us now, what your position is?

Yeah, I do remember our conversation. First and foremost, abortion is not on the ballot in November. There's no question about that Doe v. Gomez in 1995 assures Minnesota women access to abortion. So from that perspective, it is not on the ballot. The conversation you and I had, seems almost like eons ago, it was prior to the Roe v. Wade overturning by the Supreme Court. It was in the process of an endorsement. And I didn't think that it was necessary to articulate what specific types of exceptions or exemptions would take place. Because I've always felt that if a pregnancy is jeopardizing a woman's mental or physical health, that that would always be a situation where you're not dealing with the legal matter, you're dealing with a private health care matter.

But in the conversation that we had after the courts overturned Roe v. Wade, at the end of June, I think both Matt Birk and I, together, arrived at a place of consensus that yes, we need to articulate very clearly that rape and incest would absolutely be exceptions. But we also say clearly, that it has to at the end of the day, if a pregnant woman's mental or physical health is endangered, then this is no longer any kind of a situation for the legal system. This is a private matter between patient and doctor and we have to do everything we can to preserve the health and the life of the pregnant woman. So that would be my position.

Those are diametrically opposed ideas. Granted, this is Minnesota where two-face is an art form. it's conceivable that Dr. Jensen believes one thing on Monday and something else on Thursday. Near as I can tell, that slides right into line with some of his more controversial medical opinions... like vaccinations should be optional.

And  if all that isn't scary enough, we can't exclude his running mate. Cretin-Derham Hall and Harvard grad, and former NFL center who has clearly had a few too many concussions, Birk made the following comments at an anti-abortion event in Georgia (not even Minnesota) back in July. The guy's a Neanderthal who thinks rape shouldn't be an exception. You gotta listen if you dare. 

Our culture loudly but also stealthily promotes abortion. They’re telling women they should look a certain way. They should have careers, all these things... 

....One of the arguments I probably saw 20 times online today was about rape. And obviously they always want to go to the rape card...Rape is obviously a horrible thing. But an abortion is not gonna, it’s not gonna heal the wounds of that. And, and two wrongs is not gonna, is not gonna make it right... 

A lot of things have been legal before that we’ve changed, right? I mean, we always hear about the — I know I’m talking to a bunch of pro-life warriors here — slavery used to be legal, right?  Which is an interesting comparison to make, because, really, the way that the other side treats an unborn child is the unborn child is the property of the mother.

Excuse me? Is that jackass implying women shouldn't have careers? What century is this dweeb from? 

There is no response to that level of stupidity other than to say what was once the proud Independent Republican party of Minnesota is anything but. These two clowns are Kool-Aid imbibing disgraces to the IR. 

But there's a punch line here. I still think the ads being run by DFL-type operatives are low class, low bar, low everything insults to the people of Minnesota who are already fed up with election bullshit and it's the first week in September. What's pissing me off is that instead of addressing how to handle an issue, they are already relying on scare tactics. Come on, party-goers, you know better than that. 

Sometimes, I listen to these guys and I wonder how America has lasted this long when this is the caliber of our candidates. Unless someone actually begins to take the high road and starts talking to the constituency like we have a brain, and pays attention to the total dislike of shrill in this state, the DFL is doomed. 

I cannot begin to tell you how nauseating this campaign is already. And ya know what the worst part is? It's playing right into Feckless Loser's strategy. He is playing a very cagey long game and the Dems don't even know it. 

I am gonna try like hell NOT to write about politics in the next few weeks. I'll try to save it up for closer to the election because right now, every time I think about it my hair spontaneously combusts.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day

I'm really excited that THE POMEGRANATE has been selected for Amazon Prime Reading. Already it's in the top 100 list for Historical Fiction on Kindle. 

That might not seem like a big deal to you, but it's huge for me.

As Sally Field once said, "They like me! They really like me!"