As regular readers of both FDL and Mercury Rising know, I’ve been following the ups and downs of Minnesota Republican Party chair Tony Sutton , and his money-handling difficulties, for some time now. And guess what? He’s in the news again — and as always, it’s about money, or the difficulties pertaining thereto. Bluestem Prairie’s Sally Jo Sorensen has the deets concerning possible Republican dissatisfaction with Sutton’s ham-fisted leadership and subpar money-handling.

Hey, lookee here! Guess who just realized he has no freaking chance of becoming President? Tim Pawlenty, that’s who.

In the first few days after the election, the Republican Party of Minnesota, or RPM for short, had a little “good cop, bad cop” game going. Tony Sutton took for himself the role of Bad Cop, whereas gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was cast as the Good Cop. But lately the Good Cop’s hood has fallen back to reveal a not-so-good face.

Being the Good Cop meant promising not to sue or contest the election further if he lost the recount, and letting Tony Sutton be the one to rant and rave and attack elections officials. But in the past week, the Emmer team has pulled back the hood a touch:

There seems to have been twin outbreaks of bullshittery and dipshittery in the North Star State last week. The first involves a dumbass James O’Keefe wannabee named Pierre “Pete” Arnold III, also known as “The Pete” and “Zeeboid”. The second involves a dumbass faux-Mexican restaurant mogul wannabee and Republican Party of Minnesota Chair named Tony Sutton and a dumbass Republican consultant named Diana Bratlie, the person Sutton thought would make a good witness for his latest nuisance lawsuit in the Dayton-Emmer governor’s race recount.

I have a special guest today — Jay Weiner of MinnPost, who will be hanging out in the comments section waiting to take your questions about what’s happening in the recount of the Minnesota governor’s race.

The Republican group Taco Tony and the Tommies seem to be losing their electoral mojo to this Democratic guy named Mark Dayton, whose plans to have the wealthiest Minnesotans pay a touch more in taxes are quite popular with the populace.

A very good Minnesota blog called The Cucking Stool has writers who have been documenting how Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer’s been sending out all sorts of coded signals to the folks who wished that the South had won and slavery was still legal. These posts have struck a nerve — and comedy gold — by engendering a hilariously disjointed set of desperately handwaving Tweets from local Republican functionary David “Thurmond” Strom, who apparently wants The Cucking Stool to stop pointing out this new wrinkle in the GOP’s Southern Strategy. Heh. Fat chance of that, buddy.

No, it really isn’t my birthday. It just feels that way, because Tony Sutton, the current chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota and its former treasurer, has pretty much begged the media to look into his financial dealings. By trying to get the local media to bite on the Most Pathetic Smear Attempt Ever, he’s made himself fair game. Oh, goody!

Remember how it became a running joke that the surest way to see if George W. Bush was going to cut a group’s funding was if he’d done a recent photo-op with it? I mean, it happened again and again.

Well now, today we see Tom Emmer, a tax cut fanatic in the mold of George W. Bush and outgoing governor Tim Pawlenty, had a photo-op at a company that, if Emmer had had his way, would likely have gone under.

Tonight is one of the biggest nights remaining on the primary calendar, with primaries in Colorado, Connecticut, and Minnesota. There also is a primary runoff in Georgia. All four states feature important contests at the top spots on their ballots.