When my eager readers caught killer Jason Ravnsborg out scheming with Brookings Republicans to stage an improbable convention coup and cling to the Attorney Generalship, I thought immediately of my hunting and litigating pal Marty Jackley. Marty, I thought, you need to drop the hammer on this Ravnsborg punk.
Instead of a good whack whack whack, the sound we heard today was the smooth slide of silk sheets as the Silver Fox got in bed with the Snow Queen:
In 2018, after Kristi Noem trashed Jackley in the gubernatorial primary, Jackley didn’t endorse Noem until a rather unenthusiastic pride-swallowing on October 24, just a week and a half before her narrow victory over Democratic candidate Billie Sutton. Now, with more than a month left for better options for Governor to present their petitions, Jackley is “honored” to offer his “full support” to the women who’s running the state a lot less attentively and effectively than he would have. But he’s been angling for a couple years to demonstrate his good will. He defended drunk Senators in 2020 to keep her bleary-eyed Lieutenant Governor and the party’s brand out of trouble. Last year he announced his candidacy for Attorney General in early March, making clear to Noem that he would not run for her job.
Kristi’s a little slow to reciprocate: while her team posts much more prolifically to social than Team Marty, Marty’s the only one with this dramatic announcement at the top of his campaign website. As of 5:30 Central this afternoon, Kristi’s Twitter and Facebook are still stuck bleating false economic slogans and exhorting the Canadian Prime Minister to pandemic recklessness.
But hey, Kristi’s a busy lady, and I’m sure her Six (Point Six) Million Dollar campaign team will snap out of Bionic Woman slo-mo and trumpet this great reconciliation, because she has as much to gain from this deal as Jackley.
For his part, Jackley gets a clear message from the top of the ticket to all those potential convention delegates: ignore Ravnsborg and his silly convention scheming. Get behind Jackley; he’s the man we need, and he’s the man who’s got the love of the woman who will do you any favors if you vote right at convention and who will make sure you get nothing but grief if you rally behind Ravnsborg.
For her part, Noem gets a clear message from her last great in-party opponent that the mainstream of the GOP is united behind her. The only challengers to GOP order are fringe radicals and malcontents whose primary noisemaking is to be silenced toute de suite.
Noem also swipes off the table any skullduggerist excuses that lawmakers may have been entertaining to delay or avoid impeaching Jason Ravnsborg. Some inside baseballers may have thought that impeaching Ravnsborg would open the door for Noem to appoint some favored lackey to the Attorney General’s post before the convention, someone who could use that sudden incumbency to support her own bid for the GOP AG nod and box out Marty in a fit of persistent Noemian pique. But in endorsing Jackley for AG, Noem signals to the Legislature that if they heed her advice and remove Ravnsborg from office (and her endorsement note about lacking “the confidence of law enforcement and the legal community” nods most distinctly toward that impeach-Jason advice), she’s bound to appoint Jackley to fill out the term and bolster his chances of winning reëlection in November.
Ravnsborg stands between Jackley and his former job. Ravnsborg stands between Noem and a Republican slate of candidates unsullied by an unrepentant killer and legal oaf. And with Jackley and Noem now arm in arm, no political calculation stands between legislators and swift action on impeachment. Quite the contrary: the sooner legislators yank Ravnsborg from the stage, the sooner they can all rush in to sign kumbaya with their leaders, Marty and Kristi.
I am having trouble distinguishing between the topic lines in your two most recent posts.
In one (https://dakotafreepress.com/2022/02/17/64307/), the title is: “Pandemic Brings More Syphilis to South Dakota.” In the second (https://dakotafreepress.com/2022/02/17/jackley-endorses-noem-noem-endorses-jackley-ravnsborg-is-toast/), the title is “Jackley Endorses Noem! Noem Endorses Jackley! Ravnsborg Is Toast.”
Are these not synonymic subjects?
Does this mean Jackley believes the Big Lie?
Has Marty remarried after his grisly divorce?
Bob, I had a similar thought about how I had just got done writing about the dangers of getting in bed with folks you don’t trust.
If Jason Ravnsborg had any wit, he’d comment, “Clap. Clap. Clap.”
Chris, that’s a good question. Trump acknowledged Ravnsborg at a Texas rally a couple weeks ago; now Trump’s gal in SD says Ravnsborg’s main threat is the right man for the job. I doubt Trump is paying attention, but his base here is. When their gal Kristi goes horseriding with Marty, Jason loses that Trump base and maybe his only hope of rallying delegates to his side.
Seems the love fest may also be a bill barr move to keep any pesky corruption investigations from sullying her national political aspirations. Maybe Jackley guards the door til she gets a national gig and the Gov office is his.
Dumb and dumbher… these two. Mr. Cory, you shouldn’t associate this silver hair fox as your “pal”. Hippicrit you’re not are you?
Inept inbred Republicans see, inept inbred Republicans do.
Where does thar AG fit in that picture? He proves he is inept inbred and the stupidest. A true leader of the party. Killer not political. He might think pillows for his future.
The Ravnsborg supporters in the Legislature exhibit concerns that Kristi demands they act as NoemBots, not as SD Republicans. They don’t care about national politics, but they sure as heck care about controlling state politics to dictate who gets elected so they can support their machine in Pierre. Kristi made a desperate move to spring into bed with Jackley. This is a win for Jackley but a fall back position for the Snow Queen. Why do this now before the session ends? She needs the distraction.
The NoemBots are rebelling!
The NoemBots theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wop47G2qeY
Great link 96Tears, Booyah
Jackley sure is easier on the eyes so I’m sure he can capture some votes. I have a hard time listening to Ravnsborg while looking at his double, going on triple chin. My advise to Jason is to let up on the Bud Light during retirement, maybe smoke a doobie to relax, put the phone down, and take a nice long walk to anywhere.
Tucker, I openly advocate immediately replacing Jason Ravnsborg with Marty Jackley.
Larry, I have no knowledge of Jackley’s current marital status. Has anyone seen any engagement announcements in the Pierre paper?
Enough said. Openly out from this blog. Be safe all.
No, not enough said. Tucker, do you believe Jason is a better attorney general than Marty? Do you believe Jason better serve the interests of South Dakota as the state’s chief prosecutor than Marty dead or would if he resumed that post?
Mark raises the political angle that I’ve been thinking about since Marty’s earliest signals of reconciliation toward Kristi, that he might be angling to put himself in the best position to someday become governor. But remember, Kristi‘s national gig depends on her winning the presidency, which is extremely unlikely, winning nomination to the vice presidency, which is only a little more likely, or getting hired by Fox News as a commentator, which may be the most likely scenario, but still depends on Fox being willing to employ her despite her complete boringness as a speaker.
The short game here explains almost everything: Marty wants to be Attorney General again. As for Marty becoming governor, getting that job again put him in a good position to run for governor in 2026, his most likely route to the governor’s mansion.
Ravnsborg could always open up the death of Benda and lay the blame of Joop and EB5 Rounds getaway from that killing cover-up by Marty and the rest of the cabal. It would be an interesting and dreadful day if that were to happen.
Clap, clap, clap was covered in yesterday’s post on syphilis. Every account of Jackley’s personal life has him living in a cave with his two children. Could be he is so in love with himself he doesn’t need anyone else. I trust he spent the past several years boning up on the constitution and South Duhkota codified law. He didn’t seem to have a firm grasp of either last time around as AG.
I agree with you and Mark, Cory, that this is what a political deal looks like. My question involves the timing.
Obviously, paying a phone bank to pressure the House select committee “investigating” the Ravnsborg crimes and abuse of office backfired badly on Noem. The NoemBots aren’t buying her denials, as well they should not. There is no other likely suspect than Noem.
Now this. More pressure on the House select committee? Is it because Noem doesn’t want to face the music on her violations of the state airplane law, her coercion of Sharon Bren, and her misuse of the Highway Patrol and other state resources to attend GOP donor events and campaign for President for the last two years? And those NoemBots want answers about those slam calls from Grand Solutions, Inc., of Ohio and more about how a big Ohio operative named Jonathan Petrea is involved in twisting the screws on a South Dakota House committee.
Lots for Noem to worry about. If Ravnsborg escapes impeachment, it won’t matter if he’ll run again. He’ll want to remove his pound of flesh from Noem.
The timing of Noem and Jackley jumping into bed is the most interesting part of it. There’s not much for Jackley to gain to have this announcement occur around Valentine’s Day. March or April, when there’s not so much competing in the news, would have been more advantageous.
But for Noem, she’s got a lot to lose when the ethics committee meets. Ravnsborg hopes to be there to play the role of Grand Inquisitor.
Despite Ravnsborg status as a slug, a thug and a crook, Noem has much to learn about ripping away at someone who thinks he has nothing more to lose and has everything to gain when it’s his turn to return her favors.
96Tears
“If Ravnsborg escapes impeachment, it won’t matter if he’ll run again. He’ll want to remove his pound of flesh from Noem.”
Sounds like it may indeed matter.
Appreciate reading your comments.
Uffda! With cultural diversity sometimes we need to learn from other cultures and this time we non Norwegians need to use the word, Uffda. When Jackley ran against Noem last time, she pointed out that he had not paid the policewoman employee of his the court settlement of $1.3 million when he was supposed too. She had been sexually harrassed by a deputy and he had just told her if she had a good work ethic and a good attitude that that would not be a problem and placed her on an assignment 140 miles from home hoping she would just quit.
At the beginning of the campaign Noem was ahead by fifteen points and Jackley continually ran an add saying that all but five sheriffs were on his side. Jackley pulled within a dead heat with her ten days before the election..A couple of days after Noem had her press announcement about Jackley not delivering the check for at least six weeks after it was written and the court had set the day she was supposed to be paid, I put a letter in the Sioux Falls paper asking why the sheriffs were for him. Two years before Jackley had put a bill through the legislature to give the sheriffs more money to process the backlog of testing of rape kits because the average rape kit did not get processed for four years. So I asked if the sheriffs were for him because he taught them to prosecute rape or because he had gotten them more money. Within a day or two that add was off of the air. And in the next ten days till the election Noem got all fifteen points back.
Is South Dakota still conservative? Whether I talk to rich people with a position or talk to the homeless, I say, the only way to become an excellent person is to be able to fix your own mistakes. The modern day Republican legislature in South Dakota does not seem to be able to impeach Ravnsborg or to get a heartbeat bill into a committee in the legislature. Noem seems to still be conservative, but she started out against Trump and Jackley and then makes deals with the devil to gain position. That is not a good thing either.
The sheriffs turned against Jackley and now against Ravnsborg, and for good reason both times. Both the sheriffs and the people of South Dakota need legislators who do not just put an R behind their name on the ballot, the voters deserve to have honest people representing them. People that people know who they are. If Republicans are for either Ravnsborg or Jackley, is it because there is no honest Republican lawyer in the whole State of South Dakota?