They are one hard-line crowd, those tea partiers. One misstep and you’re on their [bleep] list. Even Michele Bachmann. Politico has a story about Bachmann, described as “a conservative icon,” taking heat from Tea Party types down in Missouri for endorsing Congressman Roy Blunt, who is no one’s idea of a wild-eyed liberal. But he has offended Tea Party sensibilities: “ ‘Tea Party participants believe the spending in Washington has to STOP. Roy Blunt voted for TARP and Cash for Clunkers,’ Jedediah Smith, a tea party leader in Missouri’s Franklin County, said in a biting statement Wednesday. 'For Michele Bachmann to come to Missouri and give the impression that all the Missouri Tea Parties support Roy Blunt is an abomination of everything we have been standing up for. Most Tea Party supporters I know will be baffled by Michele Bachmann helping someone with a record like Roy Blunt before the primary vote.' That’s right, the guy’s name is “Jedediah” and Blunt is “an abomination.”

The Strib’s Eric Roper, writing on the paper’s Hot Dish Politics blog, follows up on Tarryl Clark’s recent visit to the uber-lefty Netroots Nation Convention in Vegas, where she gave Talking Points Memo a five-minute interview and quibbled over “a lack of cost containment” and the individual mandate aspects of health care reform. Says Roper, “Clark spokeswoman Carrie Lucking said the state senator still would have voted for the health care bill had she been in Congress. ‘Just because you have concerns about parts of the bill doesn't mean that overall you don't think it's a step in the right direction,’ Lucking said, noting that Clark is particularly supportive of the provision barring discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.”

Blowback from Target’s $150,000 contribution, essentially to Tom Emmer’s campaign, via pro-business MN Forward, hasn’t abated quite yet. CBS News does a story on organized boycotts of our biggest retailer: “Groups such as this one — ‘Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics’ — have sprung up on Facebook, where those upset with the donation are encouraged to contact Target to let them know what they think.”

ABC files its story: “[M]embers of the gay community around the country say that Target in particular is ‘trying to have it both ways’ by supporting a candidate like Emmer and still publicizing their efforts to help the gay rights movement. ‘Target has always been a really supportive workplace for GLTB people,’ said Monica Meyer, the interim head of the gay rights group OutFront Minnesota. ‘I think people are feeling a little bit betrayed by the company. [The contribution] seems really contradictory to how they've acted in the past. I do think that people are rethinking their shopping, particularly during election season,’ said Meyer. ‘And I have heard some people saying it's a good thing Costco exists.' "

The D.C. area gay paper, Metro Weekly, is one of many running Uptake video of Randi Reitan returning $200-plus dollars of merchandise to Target and cutting up her Target card. “Reitan, the featured subject of a viral online video that shows her taking on her local Target in Minnesota. She says she will now go to her local grocery store after Target donated money and consulting to a political organization, MN Forward, that is supporting an conservative candidate with views that are not supportive of gay rights.”

Funny bit by City Pages Editor Kevin Hoffman on “Top 8 Gay Target Products,” stuff that he says (we’ll take his word for it, I guess) is currently on the shelves at your local store. A couple of favorites: “#8. The Gay Happening CD series. This is a pretty standard dance collection, except for the man-meat flagrantly on display on the cover. One wonders how many times Gregg Steinhafel has stared into the dark recesses of these six-pack abs while listening to "I want your ******" by Jipsta.” And: “#3. Queer as Folk. Among the top-selling gay products at Target are the five seasons of this revolutionary series. Perhaps it was able to sneak onto Target's shelves because Gregg Steinhafel didn't understand the double entendre in the title?”

That was one wild ride the lady in the Camry took Wednesday, off I-35 and into a holding pond. Paul Walsh’s Strib story introduces the hero of the piece, Don Machacek, a highway first-responder, who of course takes an “Aw, shucks” attitude to the episode. Writes Walsh: “After hustling down the embankment and climbing over the two fences the car had plowed through, Machacek radioed his supervisor: ‘I'm going in.’ Machacek didn't know if the car was going to slip farther into the water. He just knew, ‘I have to save these people.’ He dropped his cell phone, radio and wallet in the grass and made his way into the pond, sinking into muck up to his knees, water to his neck.” He also notes that the 2003 Camry that the driver said she could not stop was not part of the much-publicized recall.

WCCO’s Pat Kessler does his “Reality Check” number on that latest anti-Tom Emmer ad out from the pro-labor Alliance for a Better Minnesota. “Harsh” but “generally accurate” is Kessler’s assessment. The ad features the mother of a young man killed by a drunk driver saying: "So when I heard that Tom Emmer sponsored a law to reduce penalties for drunk drivers I was outraged," said Everson. This is NOT completely ACCURATE. Emmer did author legislation that included allowing people arrested for drunken driving to keep their licenses until they're convicted. It also made drunken driving records private after 10 years. But neither one became law.” Given how badly bringing up Emmer’s DWI history — something he’s been candid about — played for Marty Seifert earlier this year, the Alliance may regret hitting so low.

Simultaneously, Independence Party candidate Rob Hahn’s domestic violence record — about which he has been candid — gets a re-visit in Baird Helgeson’s Strib story. While his now ex-wife did get a protection order, Hahn has said, “[P]olice were never called and no charges were filed." From the story: "Court records tell a more chilling story. ‘He pushed me against the wall and was screaming in my face,’ Hahn's then-wife wrote when seeking the protection order. ‘He took the phone and broke it and put me in a choke hold.’ " Helgeson notes that Hahn has “not tried to hide the incident and even talked about it at a judicial reform rally last March at the Capitol. The rally video is displayed on his campaign website, but does not include the details.”
 
Great, another infestation. Zebra mussels have turned up in Lake Minnetonka. Dennis Lien’s PiPress story says: “[A] local resident found them earlier this week and contacted the DNR, which confirmed the discovery. It's still unclear how widespread they are in the lake, but agency officials plan to look further this week and to conduct a more detailed survey later this summer when they will be larger and more visible. The DNR said the young age of the zebra mussels suggest a reproducing population likely has been in the lake for a least a year. The discovery came despite efforts in recent years by the agency, the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District and others to inspect boats and inform lake users about the dangers of the striped invaders. Lake Minnetonka has more than two-dozen public and private landings and an estimated 200,000 boats using it each year.”

I mean, why sit on a stool tearing apart little bits of paper when you can ... sit on a stool at a casino, surrounded by lots of sexy, good-looking people just like you, (you’ve seen the ads) and press buttons on a shiny, noisy, colorful slot machine? Jean Hopfensperger’s Strib story this morning says charitable gambling is on the slide in Minnesota: “Donations to charities plunged with receipts. Last year, $43 million was donated to Minnesota charities through the sale of pulltabs and bingo games, down from $78 million in 1999 and $101 million in 1989. That's bad news for charities, as well as folks who enjoy gambling, said King Wilson, executive director of Allied Charities. Wilson attributes part of the problem to young people's lack of interest — or exposure to — low-tech gambling. ‘There's a group of young folks on computers who don't even know what a pulltab is,’ said Wilson.” Never mind they can’t find Wisconsin on a map, these kids ain’t learnin’!

Good God, what a creep! A Wisconsin State Journal story by Ed Treleven tells of a Madison-area guy — who, let’s not rush to judgment here, but sure sounds like a pervert — trying to buy an 8-year-old girl: “According to the complaint: A woman told police that on July 20 she had met a man who asked her about ‘obtaining’ an 8-year-old girl for $50 for sex. The woman said she was ‘creeped out’ but told him she would look into it. An inventory filed in court with a search warrant Wednesday shows that police also recovered two semi-automatic handguns and a stun gun, along with a refrigerator magnet reading ‘unregistered sex offender.’ ” The guy is currently behind bars.