clown-car.JPGSome of you may remember how Tim Walz, a schoolteacher from rural Minnesota, pulled off the Mother of All Upsets back in 2006 when he defeated longtime Congressman Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota’s First District, a CD so historically Republican that, aside from 1893 to the present, Republicans have controlled it for all but sixteen of the one hundred and fifteen years of that time.

Well, the Republican Party of Minnesota has made knocking him off Priority One. (Well, Priority One after helping Norm "Blo-and-Go" Coleman defend his Senate seat, which is a tricky task considering the latest Rasmussen had Norm only up by two points on Al Franken, 47% to 45% – well within the poll’s margin of error.)

There are two major Republican candidates duking it out to earn the right to go up against Walz: Dick Day and Brian Davis. Dick Day is a longtime party stalwart, one of Minnesota’s elder Republican statesmen, as it were. (That is, if you can call someone who hangs out with anti-immigrant wackos a statesman of any sort. But I digress.) Brian Davis is a doctor at the Mayo Clinic and the state party’s apparent favorite; he certainly does stick quite faithfully to the Republican stances on things like drilling in ANWR (even though it’s been shown, repeatedly, to be a stupid move) and eliminating fuel-economy standards (because we apparently need to be more, not less, dependent on fossil fuels, especially from overseas). They’re going to be making their respective cases to the party faithful at this weekend’s Republican Party of Minnesota convention in Rochester.

Now, if you want to know what sort of people are RPM faithful, one needs only look at the person they invited to address their gathering: None other than wingnuttier-than-thou Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the man who tried to keep Schindler’s List off the air in 1997 because it allegedly took television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." The guy who claims that silicone breast implants are good for women. Yeah, that guy.

So you would think that either Day or Davis would find a fairly warm reception amongst this crowd, and you’d probably be right. However, that warm reception has yet to translate into cold, hard cash: Last I’d checked with Ollie Ox over at Bluestem Prairie, the campaign kitties of Day and Davis combined came to less than one-tenth — one-tenth — of Tim Walz’ million-dollar warchest. What’s more, a good chunk of Davis’ take is self-financed. People aren’t giving these guys the time of day, much less the cash needed to go mano-a-mano with Walz.

Of course, even massive cash deficits can be countered by excellent poll numbers. But neither Day nor Davis is doing that well in the polling department, either. Benenson Strategy Group’s got a poll out and the numbers for Day and Davis are absolutely brutal: Walz beats Day 57% to 22%, and beats Davis 60% to 20%. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Walz isn’t facing opponents, he’s facing the Clown Car.

You know what’s really nice about this whole thing? There are dozens of districts like Walz’, districts that the Republicans thought were safe but which aren’t — and the scenario of MN-01 is playing out across the land. November will be a beautiful thing, me hearties.

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  3. Al Punto Versus Fox News Sunday
  4. Franken-Coleman Update: Is Today the Day?
  5. Cage Match: BillO and the Homewrecker versus Alan Grayson!