DC Dems grow a spine. Will MN be next?

This morning I got an email from the ever-flaccid Minnesota Democratic party on Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. It's headline, a politically cautious, emotion-free paean to lukewarmity:

Potentially Divisive Second-Choice Nominee Raises Questions

How disappointing to have a party that can't have the nuts to say Alito is, as his emerging record suggests, a far-right nomination far out of the mainstream of modern jurisprudence. Could they get a few more qualifiers in there: Potentially divisive? Raises questions?

Then the afternoon came, and of that, all I can say is: Thank you, Harry Reid! Any Democrat who can make crooks like Bill Frist whimper like a baby and can force the GOP to stop dinkin' around with the panel on pre-war intelligence has got my admiration. Maybe the DFL can learn something here...

A local lesson for the nation: In 2004, St. Paul, Minnesota, mayor Randy Kelly, a Democrat, actively campaigned for George W. Bush. "[I]t made no sense for an urban mayor to support a federal administration that did so little for cities," wrote the Minneapolis Star Tribune of its endorsement of challenger Chris Coleman. In the September primaries, Coleman drubbed Kelly by a two-to-one margin, and, now, two weeks before the election, a Minnesota Public Radio poll shows that 61% of respondents plan on voting for Coleman, the majority citing Kelly's Bush-lovin'.