Sometimes you catch a story in your newsfeed that has you asking “what is this bullshit?” This morning for me, it was this ridiculous love letter penned to Rick Weiland:
Weiland is the ultimate prairie populist. His views come from experience, rather than from focus groups or consultants. His ç in 2014 when he personally sang his platform to the tune of Roger Miller’s King of the Road:
and…
As any populist ought to be, Weiland was ahead of his time in 2014. He took on his party’s establishment because he wasn’t then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s choice to run in that race: Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was. Weiland, in turn, let Reid know he wasn’t Weiland’s choice for majority leader if he won the seat.
In the end, Herseth Sandlin decided not to run, and Weiland won the primary.
and…
In the general election, the press got excited. Many D.C.-based journalists flew here to cover the race, reporting it was going be a close one. In the end, it wasn’t, in part because the belief took hold that Weiland was more liberal than populist. “I don’t think I was,” he says. “I think I got tagged being liberal because I didn’t support the Keystone Pipeline.”
Read the entire pile of it here.
Was someone promised a free meal in exchange for this ridiculous and slobbering story over one of the most insincere people to ever try their hand at statewide office in South Dakota?
It lacks basic fact checking in favor of trying to rewrite history. If by the fact there was no primary election for Democrats in 2014 for US Senate, you could say Weiland “won the primary.” In reality, it just didn’t happen. Not to mention that the prospect that Weiland’s “authenticity was apparent in his iconic campaign video in 2014 when he personally sang his platform” is laughable.
And local media certainly weren’t buying the line that Weiland was some middle of the road populist back during the election, with even the Argus admitting he was as liberal as Minnesota’s Paul Wellstone at the time.
By Bonica’s method, Paul Wellstone closed out his career at a -1.42 on a scale where most mainstream candidates fall between -2 to +2, with negative numbers being more liberal.
Weiland in 2014 is a -1.25 on that same scale — less liberal than Wellstone, though in the same general neighborhood.
Time blurs many lenses. But trying to claim that Rick Weiland was some sort of “prairie populist” instead of a crass and liberal political opportunist is not an assertion that anyone in South Dakota can take seriously.
He’s the worst of the sf democratic bunch. Seriously. Take it back. Go back to your 600k appointed political position. You can’t fool anyone here.
Ps- how much have you made lately running ballot committees ginning out of state liberal dollars
Pss- he’s a sanctimonious pric*, but only if you’ve met him
He and Tapio are one and the same. Career political candidates. Weiland ran a handful of times and Tapio is looking at running for a 3rd time.
The last time I heard such glowing commentary about liberal slick Rick was when Stace Nelson was talking about him at their joint press conference.
The Washington Examiner is conservative in outlook, so it’s confusing to see such an article. Still, can’t get worked up about it.
Mr. Weiland ran a great campaign and I enjoyed his music. If I can someday catch a ride back to South Dakota I would like to dine at Parkers.
Harris – Sanders 2020 or Bust!
At the time, Weiland’s candidacy was seen as the left wing of the party reasserting itself after the failure of Heidepriem and Herseth Sandlin’s loss.
Then, after Weiland’s defeat, they swung back the other way, going for a moderate slate of Sutton and Bjorkman in 2018.
Is Weiland trying to reinvent himself so he can run again? This is just bizarre.
Slick Rick runs the biggest ripoff restaurant in the state. He is the most liberal man in South Dakota.
Apparently, Rick Weiland is the only person Zito talked to in the state.
I’m disappointed, as I’ve considered her to be a pretty insightful journalist, up until reading this.