by Tony Petrangelo

Aug 12, 2012, 7:00 AM

The Weekly Wrap 8-12

Right off the bat I want to send my condolences to the Minnesota media. They must be brokenhearted after getting teased with the possibility of yet another big national story with Minnesota ties that everyone in the country comes to them for info on.

This is the third time that Tim Pawlenty has left them at the alter too (although two of those times were entirely out of his control). But they should take solice in the fact that come 2016, Amy Klobuchar is all but certain to get the same treatment.

If she doesn’t run for President herself she is likely to get serious consideration for Vice-President and there’s always the possibility that she goes the T-Paw route and runs for President and then gets consideration for the second spot as well.

Either way, there is still hope that a Minnesota politician can come through for them and get on a Presidential ticket, but they’ll just have to wait another four years.

And now onto the Wrap:

♣ So Mike Parry came unhinged this week and in quite a theatrical way as well, fitting for the Fringe festival wrapping up this weekend. So here, in three parts, The Meltdown of The Commodore.

Act One: The Speech – Mike Parry gets things rolling on Monday with a speech to the Brown County GOP recounting a tale of heated negotiations where he stood up to the out-of-control Governor’s pill induced frenzied delusions.

Act Two: The Aftermath – Virtually everyone in the entire state has the same response to Mike Parry’s speech to the Brown County GOP, which is something along the lines of, “umm, aren’t you the same guy who’s been running around telling anyone who will listen about your primary opponents past controversial remarks?”

Mike Parry needs to change the subject and fast.

Act Three: The Chairman – As chairman of the Subcommittee on Employee Relations, Mike Parry held a hearing Friday about the new government employee contracts. If he thought that this would be a chance for him to grandstand and help distract people from his pill-popping comment, well, let’s just say that would be a ridiculous thought.

Instead the whole thing devolved into a circus as Aaron recounts.

Clearly this little play is a tragedy, as it’s hero, Mike Parry, seems bound to lose on Tuesday. But you know, Shakespeare did pretty well with tragedies.

♣ Jeff Anderson got the endorsement of the Duluth News Tribune, which, it should be said, endorsed Chip Cravaack last cycle.

♣ Tarryl Clark got the endorsement of the StarTribune, which, it should be said, is a Minneapolis paper.

♣ Rick Nolan got the endorsement of Walter Mondale, who, it should be said, is a former Vice-President of these very United States and a Democratic nominee for the Presidency of these very United States.

♣ All three Candidates in the eighth congressional district race debated in Brainard on Monday. Here’s the Uptakes video of the event.

♣ Joel in Duluth, a regular MN Progressive Project commentor, contributed a good post on Friday, running down the eighth district primary.

♣ I cross-posted the Minnesota Primary Previews as one diary on Daily Kos Elections and got this great comment from OGGoldy, a longtime SSPer:

I give Nolan about a 90% chance of winning the primary. 9% for Anderson, and a combined 1% chance of Clark winning/zombie Apocalypse/real Apocalypse/rapture occurring between now and Tuesday.

So what he’s saying is… Clark has a chance!

♣ Also, this happened.

♣ Connie Doepke sent out a mailer with a seeming endorsement from third district congressman, Eric Paulson. Paulsen though, is actually backing Doepke’s opponent David Osmek. Awkward.

♣ Kurt Bills wants to debate Amy Klobuchar a bunch, and why not, he’s got nothing to lose. Amy Klobuchar though, is not at all out of line to limit it to two debates.

I mean, when was the last time John Kline debated an opponent?

♣ Jim Graves was added to the DCCC’s emerging races list, not the real DCCC Red to Blue list where they actually do stuff, you know, like give you money and make ad buys.

That’s not what you’d think from the email from the Graves campaign though, which rather breathlessly states:

I just got off the phone with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and they let us know that they have officially placed us on their list of top-targeted campaigns.

Actually, they placed you on the, “we’re watching this race to see if the Democratic candidate can actually pull together a decent campaign before we do anything like you know, spend money” list.

♣ The Minnesota Senate is trying to get the Michael Brodkorb gender discrimination case moved to Federal Court, where presumably, they will have an easier time of it. Presumably because, I don’t know for sure, but why else would they ask to get it moved?

♣ I was a little upset with Jon Stewart for his completely hypocritical attacks on Harry Reid last week. Then this week he goes and gets back in my good graces, not that I could ever really stay mad at Jon.

♣ And because it fits so well right here, Keith Ellison was on the Colbert Report on Thursday night, for Stephen’s Better Know a District segment. From a humor point of view it’s just okay, but it’s fun to see Ellison in this segment either way.

Update by Steve: And imagine the temerity of a Minneapolis newspaper sticking its nose into outstate races.