The South Dakota Republican Party has started up its smear machine again to try saving Al Novstrup’s cushy seat in the Senate. A postcard addressed to my wife and me arrived in our mailbox today from the SDGOP recycling its negative attack from 2016 on my teaching career and alleging that I am a menace to South Dakota’s children.
“PROTECT KIDS NOW!” shouts the SDGOP postcard. “VOTE NO TO CORY HEIDELBERGER ON NOV. 6.”
Huh. If we’re talking about what legislators actually do or don’t do to protect kids, let me remind you that I helped gather 20,000-plus signatures and rally 257,000 South Dakotans to vote to help thousands of South Dakota keep the pay my opponent Al Novstrup voted to take away from them. Al Novstrup literally tried to take away kids’ lunch money, and college money, yet his party has the gall to paint me as a hazard to children.
In fuller, more direct response to the SDGOP’s bitter, personal, but lazily recycled effort to buy the election for Al with attack mail, let me recycle my personal response from 2016:
…Their claim revolves around an incident in 2000 when I lost a teaching job due to unprofessional conduct.
I’ve taught high school and college classes, coached speech activities, and served as a State Interp and Debate judge since the 1990s. I’ve had countless great experiences helping students gain knowledge and skills and become better people.
I’ve also had a few rotten moments as a teacher. The worst was when I got fired from Madison High School. I intervened in a bullying situation. I read the bully the riot act, telling the bully, “You’re acting like an a——.” When the bully tried walking away mid-scolding, I tried to detain him by grabbing his collar.
That was the end of that interaction, and the end of my job. I handled that situation all wrong. When I found I was not getting through to the bully, instead of trying to play cowboy, I should have called for assistance and escorted the bully to the principal’s office for proper punishment.
I paid for that professional failure with my job, and every principal I have worked for since has asked me about that incident and what I learned from it. I tell them what I’m telling you. Several principals have given me the chance to work for them since Madison. Thanks to those opportunities, I have grown and matured as a professional, and I have had the privilege of making a positive difference in the lives of countless more students [CAH, campaign “Rapid Response” webpage, originally posted October 2016].
I’ve been asked about Madison in most of my important job interviews in the last seventeen years. Running for State Senate is another important job interview, so I’m not surprised that my prospective employers—i.e., the voters of District 3—would ask about it. But Al Novstrup’s party isn’t asking; they’re just shouting their old attack lines in hopes of protecting their own bully status in Pierre, so they can try again to take real money away from kids, and their teachers, and their schools, and all the other public goods in which we should be investing to protect our kids.
But, but . . . I thought Al was nice to everybody? If he was Really Nice To Everybody wouldn’t he call you up and ask you about this incident, rather than spreading distortions across the district?
I mean, really, that’s not very nice. Besides being essentially dishonest.
Now if you had sexually assaulted someone, that would most likely be okay by the SDGOP and Al Novstrup.
BTW, isn’t this the same political party that’s grammatically torn tens of thousands of children from their parents and locked them up in tents in the desert with minimal facilities and zero schooling?
I’m sure, since Al Nice-To-Everybody Novstrup is so concerned about children, he’s complained and protested to Lying Louse’s deministration about that horrendously vile conduct? Or is he only concerned about a few SD white children? Or only a few SD white votes?
Al. Clear this up for us please!
After Jim Coleman gave up his debate coaching position at RC Central in 2001, my daughter was lobbying me, as a RC school board member, to see whether I could get you an interview in Rapid City. She said you were a great debate coach. She was already done with her debate career, as she would soon graduate, so she was lobbying on behalf of the students in the program who could have benefited from your expertise. She told me what she knew of the story, and her conclusion that you got a rotten deal. She admired that you stuck up for someone who was being bullied. I had to tell her that school board members don’t really get involved in the nuts and bolts of hiring. I know they were looking to consolidate and downsize the debate programs at the time, something I opposed, but I left RC before any decisions were made.
Donald! I think I remember your daughter! Went to China, right?
I did interview at RCC. Didn’t get that job; got Montrose instead, where I got to coach interp, debate, and one-act play. And while I don’t deal in Fate, I will note that, had I landed the Rapid City job instead of the Montrose job, I wouldn’t have been in East River at the end of that summer to re-meet and get to know the woman who would become my wife just a couple weeks before the end of my first year at Montrose.
And while we explore the divergent streams of the multiverse, it occurs to me to muse that, had I been in Rapid instead of Madison, I might never have started a blog called Madville Times… and I might not have swum into the vortex of political commentary, which might not have inclined me to run for office. (Everything connects. Everything!)
I would have enjoyed Rapid City in 2001. Ten years later, I got hired to come to Spearfish, and found that West River sojourn immensely enjoyable.
Whoa, wait a minute. If we can knock people out of contention for public positions because of their “credibility” then cory is out permanently. RE: Kavanaugh. Since he did what he did as a public teacher to a minor then you’ve removed yourself for credibility in public office now and forever….at least 37 years.
Good for the Goose, good for the gander.
Steve, apples and oranges. But if you’re willing to honestly withdraw your support for Kavanaugh, then we’re making progress.
By the way, Kavanaugh knocked himself out of contention last week with his own angry, disrespectful, partisan, and dishonest testimony, entirely unfitting of a Supreme Court Justice.
Steve, also, if grabbing a kid by the collar disqualifies one from public office, how about grabbing an unwilling woman by her genitalia?
If you are such a great debate coach, why do you lose debates to me?
Let’s debate Ford’s testimony and all of the holes in it?
I assume you read the report by Rachel MItchell. If not, then your statement above tells the voters of district 3 the type of politician you would be.
Btw, I don’t agree with you being fired for that.
I would think we would all want a teacher standing up for a bullied student’s rights to go to school and be safe. If I was that bullied student’s parents I would have thanked Cory.
Some bullies just don’t deserve to be in school.
Oldsters like me remember how misbehavior in school was regularly met with much worse than Cory dished out. A teacher grabbing someone by the collar was considered pretty mild in my day. Mr. Simons at Mark Twain (Sioux Falls) was generally a nice guy, but he had this habit of grabbing your ear and pulling you down to his office. Man, that hurt. I got that treatment several times.
Times change, and the way discipline is done in schools changes. Here’s the deal, Steve, Cory admitted what happened and says he should have handled the situation better. If Kavanaugh had Cory’s morals he would own up to his misdeeds and tell us what he learned from them. That was not what I heard from Kavanaugh.
My own feeling is that bullying has come more to the forefront as a toxic issue in schools since Cory’s incident. Stopping bullying whenever and wherever a teacher sees it has become much more important to school discipline and school safety. Bullied kids are in danger of hurting themselves and of wanting to take revenge. Today Cory may have gotten a dressing down and made to go to some class on how to better handle such situations, but not been fired.
Donald Pay,
There is nothing for Kavanaugh to own up to.
A couple points for Jason.
First, I have yet to read a debate on DFP where Cory has “lost” to Jason. Perhaps Jason is referencing debates in or on some other forum.
Second, it should be clear that Mitchell’s “memo” is an advocacy piece rather than an objective analysis of the evidence presented. Lawyers often face tests in law school that ask for three memos: (1) an advocate’s memo supporting an argument or position; (2) an advocate’s memo opposing an argument or position; and (3) a judge’s objective analysis deciding which argument or position is legally and factually most accurate. Mitchell’s memo advocates, but does not establish, the republican argument, indeed, it does not address the arguments supporting the probable cause standards and procedures necessary to obtain a grand jury indictment.
In more recent other posts I have tried to provide an objective analysis of whether the evidence would have presented sufficient probable cause to support a criminal indictment – it would have. My objective analysis is based on undisputed evidence and the current status of the law and comes down contrary to the position Mitchell advocates.
Had Mitchell argued that no indictment could issue because of the running of the statute of limitations, however, she would have been correct (as Rorshach pointed out in prior posts). But she did not base her memo’s argument on the SL, rather, she based it primarily on facts she argued contradicted Ford’s credibility.
I agree, Donald. Schools in MN take bullying much more seriously since a stricter state law was voted in several years ago. The public schools here that I have sent my daughter to here have good policies in place and the teachers, counselors and principals take it very seriously, which I am pleased with.
‘Bully’ students being expelled is what is done with the serious ones. The important thing is to tell your kid to stand up for themselves (my daughter has my permission to fight physically if she has to) and to always tell an adult.
It’s a tough world out there, girls especially have to learn to stand up for themselves.
Bear,
You read the report and tell us what is false in it.
I will gladly debate anything in that report with you and Cory.
The last debate Cory lost to me was about Medicaid expansion.
Jason, you misunderstand. I did not suggest any factual statement in Mitchell’s report was “false.” Rather, her report identifies facts that she contends would preclude a criminal prosecution (without regard to the SL). That argument (i.e her conclusion) is simply incorrect because it overlooks the actual requirements necessary to establish probable cause for an indictment as I have previously explained in posts more related to the topic.
Any further discussion questioning my analysis should probably take place on these prior threads, as such a discussion seems to be off topic here. That thread is titled “Graham Incorrectly Compares Sotomayor and Kagan to Kavanaugh” – see my post at: 2018-09-28 at 14:10
https://dakotafreepress.com/2018/09/28/graham-incorrectly-compares-sotomayor-and-kagan-to-kavanaugh/#comment-115472
If you would like to debate or further discuss the matter I would be happy to respond to your comments on that thread.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/fbi-not-allowed-investigate-whether-brett-kavanaugh-committed-perjury-report/
This is one fairly obvious criminal act that wingnuts can say didn’t happen if it isn’t investigated.Right wing nut jobs are totally desperate to seat this thug on the highest court in the land for the next 30 plus years.
He didn’t misunderstand you, bcb, he just ignores what other people have to say and bulls ahead with ridiculous assertions that he can and will win any debate with anybody about anything.
You’d get further banging your head against a rock. The troll is incapable of being wrong, according to the troll.
Are you saying you understand the law better than a prosecutor? She said there weren’t enough facts to even get a search warrant. That doesn’t sound like probable cause has been established if you can’t get a search warrant?
Steve Pearson,
Kavanaugh lied to Congress in his angry, disrespectful testimony last week. He claimed that the first he knew about the allegations against him by Deborah Ramirez was in a New Yorker story from September 23rd. It appears now that Kavanaugh knew about this allegation much earlier and was part of an effort to rally witnesses to his side to combat Ramirez’s allegations way before the New Yorker story was published. His testimony that Ramirez’s allegations were a surprise to him was part of his self-serving efforts to portray himself as a victim of ambush. In truth, he knew these allegations could come forward at any time and he tried to suppress them as all good liars are want to do.
Kavanaugh also lied when he claimed 4 witnesses refuted Dr. Ford’s testimony. This was a ridiculous statement for a guy like him to make who deals in the fine print of the law and detailed facts in his courtroom. The witnesses in question said that they did not remember the assault recounted by Ford. Not remembering an event is entirely different than saying an event never happened. The only witnesses that could conclusively say the event never happened were Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. Kavanaugh thus had one witness–an admitted drunk and alcoholic–that could refute Dr. Ford’s testimony and Senate Judiciary committee Republicans thought so much of Judge’s testimony that they did not even subpoena him to appear before the committee. A man with a mind as keen as Kavanaugh for the facts of cases and details of the law should be able to keep track of the statements by 4 witnesses. Instead of telling the truth, he sought to bolster his word with facts not in evidence.
Kavanaugh also lied when he testified about his high school yearbook. His claims that “Beach Week Ralph Club” contributor was not alcohol related and instead were because of his weak stomach were incredible. The claim that the “Devil’s Triangle” was a drinking game and not a reference to a three-some also is not very believable. The explanation of “Renate Alumnius” as a tribute to a girl that was “one of us” was so far-fetched and turned truth on it’s head. When Renate Schroeder, the girl that is mentioned in the yearbook, heard about the reference, she instantly knew what a demeaning bit of tripe Kavanaugh had trafficked in with his prep school friends. She had been a supporter of Kavanaugh, but withdrew her support in disgust.
Kavanaugh almost certainly lied about aspects of his drinking, but I’m not even going to get into that as “blackout drunk” is apparently in the eye of the beholder.
Another Kavanaugh doozy was the contention that he got into Yale undergrad and law school solely on his own merits of hard work and smarts because he had no connections to Yale. He didn’t mention that his grandfather went to Yale, however, so that Kavanaugh was actually a legacy student.
Then there was Kavanaugh’s statement that he had “never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford describes in her allegation.” That was a false statement because Kavanaugh’s own calendar shows he did attend a gathering just like Ford had described.
Kavanaugh next says “None of those gatherings included the group of people that Dr. Ford has identified.” Kavanaugh’s calendar once again serves as his own petard as it contradicts this statement entirely, minus the mention of Dr. Ford and her friend. I guess we are to believe that after Kavanaugh allegedly assaults someone, he always writes their name down on his calendar.
Kavanaugh claimed the drinking age was 18 in Maryland at the time of the alleged assault. Ignoring the fact that Kavanaugh was only 17 in any event, the drinking age had been changed to 21 at the time of Ford’s assault.
The gist of all of Kavanaugh’s lies and untruths and distortions simply boil down to him painting a distorted picture of who he really was and is. If Kavanaugh is willing to lie about relatively minor details of his life and distort the truth in Trumpian fashion, how should we evaluate the larger questions of whether he assaulted Dr. Ford, whether he exposed himself to Deborah Ramirez, whether he has the judicial temperament necessary for a justice of the Supreme Court, and whether he can be a neutral arbiter of the law.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-lies_us_5bb26190e4b027da00d61fcd
You knew if even Trump thought keganaugh mentioned that he liked beer too many times, Then it came across bad.
If Keg wasdry at this hearing I can only imagine what hes like when he’s had a few.
Keganaugh Was questioned by police in 1985 after having been in a bar fight.
Fidgety, nervous, anxious, obnoxious and rude Would be some of his affect I would describe at his hearing. Not proffesional at all. He acted like he needed a hit or drink bad.
Couldn’t answer yes or no questions. Belligerent the guy is anxious about his drinking history.
Darin, you need to read somethng else because your opinions sure look a lot like nothing more than the leftist in the MSM. . . No facts just their interpretation of how they want stupid people to believe.
Jenny, have you never spoken to a police officer? But lets go with him talking to the police officer. Do you know how many people the police officer spoke too? NINE. In addition Don Cozzdina (the man accosted) never said Brett was in a fight with him. He did say someone else hit him i(An Unknown Male) in the ear with a glass. Not Brett. Brett threw a pice of ice at him. It doesn’t even say he was hit with the pice of ice. Not a cup, not a drink. A piece of ice. Read the report so you don’t sound so stupid: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/politics/police-report-kavanaugh-bar/index.html
You guys do not think for yourselves. I’m thinking you no longer even have “free thought”. Each time I come on here I think to myself “What would possess these people to be so mentally screwed up?” and I think it is coming to me now. None of you have any sense or morals or respect in your lives. You guys are failures and this gives you a place where others, that are as mentally screwed up as you are, can all agree on things you are wrong about because in your real lives people think you freaks. . . Had to be said. You folks should consider an exorcism or a large mallet. Your choice.
Looks like it was old Keg that was the screwed up one mentally at the hearing.
Couldn’t even answer basic yes or no questions Without getting paranoid over it.
Psychologically, this guy is spazzing over something. Most professional psychologists would agree there is something that is making normal job interview questions cause great anxiety for him.
Of course you wouldn’t get upset if you had been accused of attempted rapes, drugging people and gang bangs would you jenny. . . but your a woman. It’s different for women.
As a man I’d say he did a pretty good job staying as calm as he did being what he was accused of. I couldn’t have been as nice as he was. I would have had about ten neckties in my left hand.
As a man I’d say he acted like he got caught and was going to use crying, intimidation and manipulation to try to bully his way out of it. Truly, he deployed an astounding number of manipulation tactics in his performance. I, for one, didn’t buy any of it.
Jason, as I explained earlier, a discussion about topics such as whether a search warrant would issue seems off topic here, but more appropriate in the thread I cited to you earlier. If you are genuinely interested in my comments on the search warrant question please review the following links:
https://dakotafreepress.com/2018/09/28/graham-incorrectly-compares-sotomayor-and-kagan-to-kavanaugh/#comment-115680
https://dakotafreepress.com/2018/09/28/graham-incorrectly-compares-sotomayor-and-kagan-to-kavanaugh/#comment-115684
and feel free to comment or reply to my position on the appropriate thread where I posted these comments.
As for whether I know more than Mitchell about the issue, I have suggested in the above comments that she most likely knows more about it than indicated in her memo arguing, in effect, no probable cause. I suspect she was being a bit disingenuous in her memo.
You’re a man Donald? I thought you said you were a democrat.
Here’s the thing OS and Jason…neither one of you has said “sexual assault is wrong, bottom line.” Regardless of political affiliation, reasonable people would agree that this type of accusation warrants a closer look. Honesty and owning up to one’s mistakes is huge..it appears that Cory has done that. This is why bipartisanship isn’t possible. There are a group of people who listen, who convey empathy and are open minded and then there are those who judge and spew vitriol.
OldSandcrab is a man? I thought he was a stoopid freaking wingnut.
I couldn’t have been as nice as he was. I would have had about ten neckties in my left hand.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. We’re all bigly scared now.
OS, you say I have laid out “no facts” to back my evaluation of Kavanaugh as a liar in his testimony. I thought my eight paragraphs of facts was lengthy enough.
It serves no purpose to respond to you because I lay out facts and you don’t even dispute them–you just ignore them and say they don’t exist.
I thought it was quite strange when Sen Graham started hollering. If you look back at that hearing, I think grahamstarted hollering around To stop the questions. Mitchell was asking particular questions about the night Ford was assaulted and I think graham didn’t like where that was going and how Keg was answering.
After they took a break, Mitchell, the lady that was asking questions wasnot there anymore.
RJ read something. Anything. The vast amount of headlines and sexual assault all concerns the people you vote for a defend. Attacking me doesn’t change the truth.
Darin, you didn’t even write that. You copied it and pasted it. It isn’t your work. You just repasted what others said.
iwacko, you are dangerous to humanity.
mfi, anyone who would bring 10 neckties with him to a Senate hearing must be a quick change artist who aims to impress Senators with his fashion acumen between bathroom breaks, while protecting the impressionable children watching the hearing from psychological damage from constant exposure to overlength bright red ties pointing directly at the underdeveloped male genitalia of adult men. Praise be OS! Save the children!
OldSarg,
What are you talking about? Except for the quoted portions, I wrote it myself. You think I copy and pasted all that I wrote?
OS, your assumption suggests that you have a sharp sense of humor, although you are perceptive to express doubt given my weak and ambiguous delivery. If I was king I would probably not banish you, rather, I would simply decline to post repetitive and/or off topic rants after once calling out any statements that appeared to be untrue or misleading. Otherwise I would encourage you to post away.
That is so freaking funny and probably true, bcb.
OldSauteedscallions, you are seriously full of feces and lies.
Jenny– “Kegenaugh?” I like that. Very good.
From what the smart people here comment, it looks like we’ve got an alcoholic, paranoid, sexually stunted, lying, immature bozo whom Pootiepublicans feel is just the boy they want on SCOTUS. In fact, they’re desperate to do so because they’re counting on him to keep their corrupt, greedy, treasonous asses out of prison for the rest of their pathetic, ineffectual lives.
Thank the powers that be for women and girls, high schoolers, Democrats and males. They’re saving the democratic republic known as the USA!
OS, currently reading a Harlan Coben thriller. I love books. Thank you for your interest in what I’m reading. How about you? What have you enjoyed reading lately?
I would love to see the Kavanaugh debate knock Al’s smear attacks right off the radar.
Jason, you should run against me for office sometime. At least then we’d have debates about good policies like expanding Medicaid, and everyone would see that, no actually, Jason didn’t win that debate.
Are you going to bring actual verifiable State numbers to the debate like I have?
The numbers will be verifiable the first week of November. Can’t wait!!
Jason-the last time you wanted to debate Cory it was to insert yourself into the radio format he often does as an invited guest. Did you pursue that with the radio station? Did the station find your offer valuable? Now you want to debate him while he is on the campaign trail running for state office in the next 30 days. What else are you doing this month? You need a soapbox man. Get to it. Stand up and get involved. Talk here is cheap on the platform that Cory provides to you.
Sarge, your offensive behavior on the blog towardsh BCB and Don P. is obnoxious and should be banned.
Jenny,
OS is part of the Q in LGBTQ. I take no offense, really. He’s really a sweetie, just a tiny weeny bit confused. He’ll figure it out when Trump screws him enough times.
With OldSelfflagellation one never knows what he is up to. If i had a really dirty mind and knowing the reverence OS shows for Kavanaugh, I could imagine all kinds of things one could do with 10 neck ties and a hairy palm or two.
OS, just curious. Howz yer eyesight?
Look, touching a kid and demeaning kids knocks ANYONE out of being in public service. That’s it. If I were Kavanaugh and went through what he is I’d be a little ticked off too and ALL of you know that is true because you would be too. The issue is that all of you hate him anyway regardless. Just own it. He could be Jesus Christ himself and you would vote/say no. Just own it. And no, I don’t need to read an anti-religion rant.
I would’ve fought Merrick too. So there you go. But quit hiding behind your moral outcry. Puh-lease.
And the Left focusing on drinking now is laughable. If you must ride that board now then I expect you to knock out almost all Americans including ones serving right now because you know most Americans have drank in excess. So keep bringing up stuff to knock EVERYONE out.
And FFS, just admit it for crying out loud. It is not about Kavanaugh. It’s about Kennedy’s seat going to someone you think is (R). That’s it. Just own it.
Steve Pearson,
It’s not about his drinking per se. No one is saying that he can’t be a Supreme Court Justice because he used to drink to excess and he still likes beer now. The problem arises when Kavanaugh denies the effects of his drinking that is the problem. But that’s not even the biggest problem with his testimony in my view. The drinking issue is very subjective. But on other issues in his testimony, he has clearly lied numerous times to try to make himself look better. If he is willing to lie on small things, than why should we trust him with regard to important matters that will affect our country during his lifetime appointment? Is he the best fit for this sacred position?
Just to be clear, a person can both oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination because of his obviously partisan political and judicial views and oppose his nomination because of his lack of judicial temperament and lying under oath. The former reason is why I am not in favor of his nomination and the latter reason is why he should be disqualified from consideration for the position.
Steve,
There is a difference between high school kids drinking, and getting regularly sloshed to the point you can’t remember squat, and therefore can’t really testify that you didn’t attempt to rape someone.
Now, just to be honest, I drank to that extreme twice in my life, once after high school and once in college. The first time I was with friends at The Barrel in Sioux Falls. I remember walking to go relieve myself inside, but got disoriented. I ended up pissing in the snow in someone’s backyard. After that I don’t remember a thing until I was stumbling across 33rd Street. That was pretty close to home, but for some reason I didn’t go that way. The next thing I remember is walking along 42nd Street close to Lincoln High where one of my friends lived. It was about zero outside, and I guess I was pretty cold when my friend showed up just in time. He saved my life, actually, because who knows where I was headed. He took me down to a radio station, where a former classmate worked the overnight shift. He kept me awake and alert for a half hour or so by showing me what he did. Then my friend took me home.
It happened once more, and I guess I puked all over the house. I don’t remember. That was the end of my stumbling drunk drinking life. I had learned my lesson. It took me seven years before I had a beer, and to this day I won’t have more than one beer, White Russian or glass of wine.
The point is I know you can loose track of time and not remember what the hell you did. That doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.
Look, touching a kid and demeaning kids knocks ANYONE out of being in public service.
You are totally full of shhhhh@#. If what you just barfed out was true then the mangled apricot in the Kremlin Annex would have been kicked out of little Moscow on the Potomac long long ago for mocking a disabled reporter, mocking people during the campaign and mocking Dr Ford recently.