The Beatrice Fiddler

People sure do like to talk about that nice Bruning boy

Our neighbors to the north have noticed that Chuck Hagel is facing a strong primary challenge.

Our neighbors to the east--the far, far east--say that Hagel is in a Hell of a Battle.

People are very happy that Bruning attracts mucho cash.

Matt Stoller, who is a very Big Boy in the national Democrat blogs, says that rightwingers are eating moderate Republicans on Iraq. Tasty! So much fun to have the lefty bloggers who came into prominence by taking out (or trying to take out) moderate Democrats and drive their party toward the hard left get all Political Consultant-y when the GOP gets some backbone.

There's a Senate 2008 Guru who repeats a speculation from the Washington Post that Hagel won't run anyway and Bruning's appealing courage will eventually put him in the back seat to former Gov. Mike Johanns. (The "appealing courage" part of that sentence came from me.)

I will say that out on the blogs, there are other references to Attorney General Bruning. These references involve sex crimes and short people. I leave you to your reading.

Dramatic tape of Hagel learning of Bruning's primary challenge

YouTube is starting to play an increasingly important role in politics and political campaigning.

An unknown video-documentarian has now released onto YouTube a very short clip of Chuck Hagel's reaction when he was told that Jon Bruning had decided to challenge him for the GOP nomination to be the next U.S. Senator from Nebraska:

Click here to review this riveting and short clip.

Bruning 4 Senate?

Taking on Chuck Hagel is the title of an e-interview with Jon Bruning posted today at Townhall.

In it, besides taking well-deserved swipes at Hagel, Bruning says:

I'm going to be in favor of the Second Amendment, every time. I'm going to be pro-life, every time. I'm going to be in favor of more efficient smaller government and lower taxes every time.

Not sure I buy the idea that Bruning is "in favor of more efficient smaller government and lower taxes every time." Did he support last year's tax-limitation initiative? I don't remember that he did, but I'm willing to be corrected.

Also, there's a Bruning blog now: Bruning4Senate.

Bruning: out-of-state money.

After writing a post about the implosion of the GOP and what to do about it, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds got an email from a reader with an idea: send money to good candidates regardless of their state. In this case, the recipient of the money was our own Jon Bruning:

Jon Bruning is running against Hagel. I sent him a contribution even though I'm not from Nebraska. I will send a contribution to a Trent Lott primary opponent. The same goes for John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and any of the rest of these guys.

I'm sure Nancy Hicks is preparing an outraged news article for the LJS even as I type.

You love me! You really love me!

"Binnie, how ya doing this morning?"

"Me? Oh, I'm doing just great! I'm feeling validated, acknowledged, honored."

"How come?"

Because the Hagel and Bruning campaigns just got a complete manual from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee on how to deal with me 'n' my blogging friends.

Here's an excerpt.

Here's an outtake:

The non-friendly blogs, i.e. "hostile, liberal blogs," should never be engaged directly by campaigns. "Doing so only legitimizes them," the guide states. Leave that up to surrogates. Instead, monitor the critical sites for inaccuracies that can be "useful down the road to delegitimize these blogs as a source for reliable information to the mainstream media."

Little did they know how phenomenally easy this will be to do in our great state.

HT: Blogger to the stars, Patrick Ruffini.

Redstate says "Bruning"

Redstate is the closest thing that Republicans have to a community of bloggers.

This morning, it is running a post signed by "the directors" (as opposed to just the individual writers) saying that Nebraskans Should Choose Jon Bruning For Senate over Hagel.

I agree with this, although I am not fully enamored of Bruning. I think he tends to roll over for the powerful Nebraska Education Association.

Open Meetings

From a reader I have learned that a batch of complaints about open meeting violations have been handed in to Attorney General Bruning in the last few weeks.

I don't know if the AG's office will provide information about the content of the complaints, but I plan to call and find out.

Go Susan Darst Williams

The first blog focusing on Nebraska I ever read was Go Big Ed, by Susan Darst Williams.

Susan covers Nebraska education and school districts with an eagle but pleasant eye.  She advocates for positive and alternative solutions with a kid-focus.

One of the stories Susan has been keeping on top of is the saga of Alan Jacobsen's efforts to make sure that Nebraska's open meeting law is enforced.

 

The culprit, according to Jacobsen?  The ESU school administrators.  After an eight-month battle, Jacobsen succeeded in wrenching an opinion out of our conflict-averse Attorney General Jon Bruning, Attorney General: Schools group violated meetings law:

Educational Service Unit 6 board member Alan Jacobsen asked the question: Are the administrators of the 18 ESUs meeting in violation of the state’s open meetings law?

It took eight months to get the answer, but Jacobsen got the one he was looking for.

Yes, said an opinion issued Dec. 12 by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning’s office: The Educational Service Unit Administrators Association violated the Nebraska Open Meetings Act, in certain circumstances.

The tale is also told here.

Jacobsen has filed suit again, because the ESU administrators went right out and had another secret meeting:

One month after being admonished for violating the Nebraska Open Meetings Act, the Educational Service Unit Administrators Association has two new complaints of open meetings violations.