Say Anything Blog

Brian Duggan at the Bismarck Tribune has a column today (his last one for the Tribune, in fact) detailing the civil war among the ranks of North Dakota liberals pitting Kent Conrad and his supporters against the small contingent of out-of-the-mainstream leftists in the state who are demanding Conrad drop his call for health care co-ops in favor of the public option.

I posted about the feud a few days ago, pointing out that Senator Conrad is far more pragmatic than these liberal noisemakers among his party’s rank-and-file and that ultimately he wouldn’t be swayed.  Because being swayed would likely mean fatal damage to his base of support in this relatively conservative state.

What’s a bit funny is that the executive director of the North Dakota Democrat Party actually admitted as much recently in an off-the-cuff comment to the media (picked up by Clint over on the Reader Blog):

“At the end of the day I think that the Senators are going to do what they feel is best for North Dakota and sometimes that doesn`t jive with what folks in the party want, but you know how it works,” says Joe Aronson, of the Democratic NPL of North Dakota.

Now I’ll not concede that what Senator Conrad wants (co-ops) is any better than the public option these liberals are now demanding (they’re the same thing, really), but it is kind of funny to see a Democrat party official come right out and admit that the public option wouldn’t be what’s best for North Dakota.