Get the popcorn. Because things are heating up in Pennington County.
Frequent Kristi Noem critic and State Representative Taffy Howard was lobbing bombs at the Governor again yesterday for her recent appointments to the Board of Regents.
Rep. Howard penned a missive on Facebook claiming the Governor’s appointments of former Chief of Staff Tony Venhhuizen, SDAHO executive and former Senate Majority Leader Tim Rave, and former Senator and Appropriations Committee member Jeff Partridge did not seat “even one single conservative appointment” in the group.
The notion that there was not “even one single conservative appointment” in this group is a completely goofy notion, as all three would certainly fall on the right side of the political spectrum.
And I’m not the only one who noticed, as Pennington County GOP Committeeman Ed Randazzo took to facebook to call out Representative Howard, claiming that her “victim mentality is a cloak” she “chooses to wear.”
County Committeeman Ed fired off a note telling Taffy “Our Governor is revered nationwide by freedom loving Americans for her commonsense courageous leadership. And yet some continue to deride our state and its leaders. The victim mentality is a cloak you choose to wear. I choose to count the blessings we have here in South Dakota and look forward to helping make our state even better.”
To which she replied back to Ed in part “if you want to be the lobster in the pot and pretend nothing is wrong right up to the point of cultural death, go ahead, but I will not.”
The “Cloak of Victim Mentality” versus “Lobster in the pot.”
Glad to see everyone is getting along as well as usual in Rapid City Republican circles.
Noem builds her team from the middle, which is easy when constitutional values are respected, interestingly.
But let’s not let our Governor off the hook. These appointments need to yield results.
I simply love Ed. He is the strongest supporter the gov has. Why? I have no idea but the fawning adulation is never not on cue. She has done no wrong, EVER! 💥
Ed used to be conservative. Wonder why the change?
“Our governor is revered nation wide by freedom loving Americans for her common sense courageous leadership.” 💥💥💥
It’s because he’s literally on Noem’s payroll.
I also posted this reply to Rep. Howard.
Look folks, I get that many conservative Americans are on edge and even angry at the direction being dictated by the Biden regime. This is not the time to turn that angst on each other.
We do an awful lot of things right here in South Dakota and I’m grateful for the leadership of our state from Governor Noem and our state legislators.
I replied to Rep. Howard’s FB reply as follows in its entirety:
Ed Randazzo
Howard for House, District 33 The issue here is not me. BTW, thanks for the blinders remark.
No one thinks that we don’t have issues to tackle, areas where improvement, correction and refinement are required.
Public policy is hard and no one should expect that we will ever reach the place where nothing needs done. Our state has a diverse constituency. Most issues have opposition, multiple facets and differences in approach. If we can focus less on finger pointing and more on finding acceptable solutions, even if they are not the final ones, we make progress.
I’m glad that there is no other state in which you prefer to reside and that you believe that in many ways that South Dakota is doing well. Many others believe that and are relocating here because of that. Let’s not allow our differences to deter our commitment to make South Dakota even better.
Maybe people wouldn’t snipe at you if you did literally anything besides carry water for the Governor every time you post, Ed.
Haha, well said. There is Mitch’s boy in D.C. and Kristi’s boy here in South Dakota. Freedom to not wear a mask, but that’s where it stops.
Hold these appointments accountable. USD has big issues with the woke culture infecting the learning. Professors feeling so comfortable and protected as to heavily criticize the hand that feeds them is a problem. My property taxes have increased in both value and percentage. The education has had a blank check long enough. I want to see change and actual accountability this time.
None of your property taxes are used for USD or any other higher ed institution. ALL of your property taxes are spent locally by your school district, county, city and other local governments.
Yeah, Ryan Maher there isn’t smart enough to get that.
It was a general statement regarding USD and education in general.
I know the breakdown as I pay a lot.
My points were obvious to most. The need to distinguish between both seemed obvious to most. Look at Sioux Falls levy rates.
Look at what was posted by a educator from USD.
They are separate issues but both deal with education.
Your writing is poor, so your points were not clear and anyone reading should suspect you are clueless about the breakdown of how schools, cities, counties, and higher ed institutions are funded. Some points that deserve clarity: What’s your problem with K-12 other than you don’t like paying for it? Do you not understand the concept of academic freedom and 1st amendment rights?
Not that difficult. Maybe it’s you?
No, they are right. Ymous brought up a completely irrelevant point, so I get the confusion.
I think a lot people mistake “value” for “currency”.
Tax revenues this.
Budget surplus that.
In my view, 99% of the potential value of anything doesn’t get put on the books; intellectual property, security, children, and of course assets.
Also, for your consideration, what rivals the feeling of hooking a very .. big .. fish?
Ed
It’s clear that for the 12% that are on the strange end of politics (and they are only self-proclaimed conservatives, not really ones), when you respond to them, you need to type slower and use smaller words
💥
Lee, you nailed it.
Lee. You win The Internet for today.
That is all.
Is this foreshadowing Howard looking to run in a primary against Noem?
That would be too funny. The Governor wouldn’t even need to unwrap her first roll of nickels on that @battle”
Do not bait the pretty young Ms. Taffy, for she is either planning a run herownself against Governor Noem or setting something up for her teammate in the legislatures, Mr. Nesiba, to us when he runs against Ms. Noem.
Neither of them have literally any statewide name recognition. It’d be over before it started.
Arent these picks really only accountable to Tony?
Ha, no kidding. Hand selected by Tony. I wonder if Tony even asked either of them if they wanted to be appointed. I bet he didn’t.
Governor!! District 33 is shopping hard for Howard’s replacement right now. We are tired of being embarrassed by the ridiculous “Taffy Show.” She has absolutely no credibility outside of her little circle of Moon Howlers. She has only one standard position on all issues, that being she is opposed to everything Gov. Noem supports.
Oh goodness .. this .. a close runner-up for winning The Internet today. Isn’t it psychotic to oppose an individual this way, to be that obsessed that a person would claim the sky is not blue if Trump and Noem said it was?
Amazing.
Trump/Noem 2024?
So many possibilites.
Our team seems to be stacked, but need to keep pushing hard in the off-season workouts.
Side note on platform – if you feel like you don’t quite fit into a party’s platform (Trump was the closest mapping for me, in my lifetime), you’re probably doing it *ahem* right.
Mr. Dale, young Ms. Taffy is simply insaner than most.
oh yeah. nevermind.
Well, it would be nice if she wasn’t crying during the legislatures every day.
Howard is right…neither Rave nor Patridge are in the conservative wing of the party…..and who claims that they are?
Ed Randazzo is a nice guy but will defend Noem’s positions no matter how awful they are, it is way past brown nosing.
I will never vote for Noem again because of her multiple failures of leadership and I was a supporter of hers in all her campaigns but I won’t be again.
Disgruntled Republican should move to Michigan or Illinois to find out what “leadership” feels like.
I just really loathe people that lack the courage (where I grew up we called it cojones) to “sign” what they write about others. It’s cowardly.
Disgruntled Republican, if you grow, buy or even borrow a “set,” call me.
Ed, please get back to talking about how Noem walks on water or feeds a stadium of people with a single loaf of bread.