Friday, October 05, 2007

T.O.: Bruning's Hatchet Man


"I don't want to come across as being critical of Mike Johanns leaving , but..."
Thus began Tom Osborne's role in the 2008 Senate campaign: Wearing the black helmet for Jon Bruning.

And isn't it a little sad? Here's the guy who stood by Lawrence Phillips. Here's the guy who stuck to his guns on the immigration question against Dave Heineman. Heck, here's the guy who went for two against Miami!

And now he's relegated to taking pot shots on behalf of Bruning? Geez Tom, what's next? MoveOn.org ads?

Of course, it's curious how this all came about. Osborne confirmed, "when asked" that he was considered for the Ag Secretary position before Johanns. Hmm, we wonder who prompted that reporter's question. Wait, here we see later in the article that T.O. won't "publicly" endorse a primary candidate, but will "personally" stand by Bruning. Love that distinction.

We see that T.O. wants to stress the importance of his "loyalty" to Bruning who stood by him during the Governor's race (hey, did Jon support Osborne's immigration position?). We guess that's what payback's all about. In any case, we hope we've seen the last of T.O. going negative.

(Now Tom, about that two-point conversion play call...)

***

Stop the presses! Mike Johanns is going to run for Senate? What the? Well, we're not going to get excited about this until it's actually confirmed next week.

***

And speaking of "next week", we see that Cosmic Bob hasn't gained ANY insight as to whether or not to run.
None? Really Bob?
Here's a suggestion for you Bob: flip a coin, and save us the introspection.

("Now do I use a New York state quarter, or a Nebraska state quarter...")

***

So, Marianne Means thinks because Ben Nelson is conservative he'll be Hillary's VP, huh? Well, if she says that's the way to go in balancing out the ticket, that's good enough for us.

But here are a few other conservatives that Mrs. Clinton is more likely to pick than Brunette Bennie:

Hal Daub; Dan Welch; David Kramer; Rush Limbaugh; Monica...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Ben Nelson is Conservative" - really? Or did he just play one until the Dems took control of the U.S. Congress? I know where my bet is. step right up ladies and gentlemen and watch the sitting Senator from the state of Nebraska turn Liberal! Right before your very eyes...

Street Sweeper said...

Btw, we're just quoting Means on the "conservative" part.
-SS

Anonymous said...

Oh to the non-believers, I can see the headlines the day after the primary.

FLYNN DOES WIN!!

Anonymous said...

Seems to be two divergent groups within the Nebraska Rep. Party...and obviously some bad blood between them.

I figure Bruning...Smith...Osborn and Osborne are on one side...and Heineman...Hagel...??? on the other. Is there a Who's Who List or program we can follow that readily identifies the players?

Anonymous said...

Robbie the Intern will not officially endorse Jon Bruning, however, he will, along with TO, stand by him even though he will have to do his standing while flat on his back after being run over by the bus that Jon threw him under.

Street Sweeper said...

I like the idea of listing supporters, and we'll try to do that soon. In the mean time, we broke down the Bruning and HAGEL teams not long ago. It still works for Bruning, and many of the Hagel peeps are now Johanns, but we'll update:

http://leavenworthstreet.blogspot.com/2007/04/power-behind-bruning-and-hagel.html

-SS

Anonymous said...

One thing that no one has commented on is the fact that after serving 2 years as Sec Ag. the President still didn't know how to pronounce Johanns name?

yohans?

Anonymous said...

To anony:
Well, that just proves how influential Mike Yohanns was to the President's cabinet. Yohans was sooooo important and sooooo brilliant that his mere presence intimidates President Bush to the point that he simply can't properly pronounce his name.

Anonymous said...

Hey SS,

So if Yohann's wins the primary. Could the general election be called. J (Yohanns) vs. Silent Bob?

Anonymous said...

Hey SS,

So if Yohann's wins the primary. Could the general election be called. J (Yohanns) vs. Silent Bob?

Anonymous said...

Hey George Norris....

Heard you the first time, winner to the king 500 dollars.


Good take though!

Anonymous said...

someone should ask TO if he was approached about the Lt. Governor post before Heineman as well....

Anonymous said...

Got an error on the first post try. I didn't realize it would post twice. My apologies to the Honorable Street Sweeper and Leavenworth community.

Anonymous said...

Osborne loves the "I won't endorse but will personally support" line.

He used it last year when he "personally supported" Kate Witek for Auditor.

To "the j is silent": Are you really going to draw any conclusions based on a Bush "misprounciationism"?

Anonymous said...

Well, strictly speaking, "Yohanns" is the proper pronunciation. "Joe-hanns" is an Americanization of the name.

Anonymous said...

Has Mike or Stephanie ever introduced themself as Yo-hans?

I have never heard them or anyone else in Nebraska pronounce it with anything but a hard J.

Eliot Ness said...

TO's is nobody's Hatchet Man. He is a man of duty, who steps up to the plate when no one has the cajones to do it. I like the Secretary, but it is a fact that he has the tendency to quit a job to move on to "bigger and better" things. One can understand why a man of duty like TO might feel uneasy about this. Anyone arguying that TO doesn't have guts, just watch the Miami game. If he wants to say - I am for Bruning, he'll say that.

Eliot Ness said...

By the way, when it comes to Jon Bruning - he is a pimp. Sometimes pimps do a decent job when it comes to recruitment of personnel and providing good customer service. But i was utterly disappointed by the AG for hanging Robbie the intern out to dry. Bruning, don't you mentor and supervise your interns. I mean, if an opinion carries your name, i don't care if your former high school sweetheart wrote it - the buck stops with you. Apologize to Robbie the Intern and maybe I'll think about voting for you...