For Jasper Schneider It Must Be Now Or Never

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 22, 2011
11:33am

Since being appointed to the USDA’s North Dakota Office of Rural Development, a job which entails handing out big checks of other people’s money and smiling for the adoring reporters, Jasper Schneider has kept a fairly low profile in the state. Until just recently.

From appearing on liberal talk radio attacking Republican leadership in the state (hardly an ethical move for a federal employee) to featherbedding his office with Democrat operatives, Schneider has made a remarkably partisan turn.

Now the dogmatic liberals at the Fargo Forum have stars in their eyes about the rising Democrat star.

It seems as though Mr. Schneider is on a bit of a charm offensive, talking about all the good the federal deficit spending he’s responsible for has done North Dakota. And the only reason, really, for him to be talking about that is to build up his reputation in advance of a campaign.

Which would make sense for Schneider. It’s looking to be an ugly campaign cycle for North Dakota Democrats, especially with the increasingly unpopular Barack Obama at the top of a ticket in a state that was never going to vote for him in the first place. But for Schneider, Obama is his boss. If Obama loses, Schneider loses his job and the new President appoints someone else.

So for Schneider, who comes from a political family and is destined to run for some sort of higher office again (he lost in a previous statewide campaign for insurance commissioner), it’s now or never. Or, at least, now or else he has to find himself a real job to sustain until the political climate is better.