Last updated on 2023-10-05
Why listen to this liberal blog complain about Governor Kristi Noem’s underexperienced, ineffective, and churning out-of-state staff? Listen to the critique from the staunchest of Republicans, Senate President Pro Tempore and fellow Watertown Hy-Vee shopper Lee Schoenbeck:
Last week on The Dakota Scout podcast, Schoenbeck laid into the Noem administration, going on to call her the most ineffective governor he had ever worked with.
”She can’t keep staff. She’s got these people from Ohio and Florida who have no clue about what they’re doing. So it’s the people you surround yourself with that will define your talent and ability. She has no talent to pull on,” Schoenbeck said [Austin Goss, “Threatening Vetoes, Noem Spars with Legislative Leadership,” KSFY, 2023.03.15].
Now if I’m a leader in the public sector and a fellow public servant rips my staff in public, when the press asks me to respond, I go to bat for my people: Look, great people have come to work for me and for this state. They’re here with me in Pierre with me all day, all year, busting their chops to do good for South Dakota. Their hard work and results speak for themselves.
But since Noem is all about herself and can’t point to any great results, she goes all cattily Trumpist on Schoenbeck:
Noem was asked to respond to those comments Wednesday.
“That’s the thing with this guy, he can be your biggest fan one day, then the next day he is 180 degrees the opposite, ripping your face off. If you guys could see some of the text messages that he has sent me over the years, I don’t think that he would ever get elected again” [Goss, 2023.03.15].
How many ways can Noem misfire?
- Lee didn’t rip anyone’s face off. Is that even a thing we say about criticism?
- We could see some of those text messages; just open that phone, Kristi, and start forwarding!
- If Noem paid attention, she wouldn’t have to invoke unspecified private (imaginary?) text messages to prove Schoenbeck’s a meanie; she could cite his record of calling opponents within his own party whackadoodles, clowns, pond scum, and chickens***.
- Lee’s Watertown neighbors have heard his blunt talk (not to mention found ripped faces washed ashore around Lake Kampeska?) for years and have elected him every time he runs.
- Unlike Noem, Schoenbeck isn’t worried about winning another election.
- Lee’s results speak for themselves: while Noem, with her enormous staff and power and statewide mandate, struggles to pass her top Legislative priorities, Schoenbeck, who has no chief of staff or communications chief or any other staff, has been able to use his District 5 Senate seat to do big things like save the historic 2016 sales tax hike for teacher pay. Results like that are why Schoenbeck came into the 2023 Session with this endorsement from the National Conference of State Legislatures as “The South Dakota Senate’s Top Problem-Solver.”
- And most importantly: not one word of Noem’s response rebuts what Schoenbeck actually said: Noem can’t keep staff, the people she brings from out of state are clueless, and that weak staff hamstrings her administration’s overall effectiveness.
Gee, if Noem had good staff, they’d have caught Schoenbeck’s comments and briefed out a response for the boss before she went to the mic. Her snarky, personal, and insubstantive response reflects the qualities of the Governor’s staff and the Governor herself.
It’s not like Mr. Schoenbeck is wrong. Recall he contracted the Trump Virus for the holidays in 2020.
In my home state of South Dakota the Republican governor chose to infect thousands (some reports say millions) with the Trump Virus putting its entire population at risk. Kristi Noem’s biological war on her own constituents created dire circumstances sending nurses out of state, forcing people over 65 into the workplace and driving the closure of nursing homes.
https://www.brookingsradio.com/ten-covid-19-deaths-reported-this-week-in-south-dakota/
Weak mind + Weak staff + Weak Principles = Weak Sauce. If Trump needs a nickname for Noem, let me suggest “Weak Sauce.” Weak Sauce would be the perfect VP candidate for Trump. Pence turned out to be too principled. Weak Sauce’s principles, if she has any, are weak sauce.
Pence is a limp cold dishrag but at least on January 6 he did the right and law abiding thing. Noem would have been all too happy to assist in the overthrow of US democracy.
Schoenbeck for Governor?
Come on the Florida girl is as pretty as a peach.
I wished Noem’s staff were true South Dakotans. I get having one or two, but man…
Im over her
With Mike Rounds not running for re-election and whichever Earth hater chooses Mrs. Noem as his presidential running mate nothing means she could even win nomination for any statewide office in South Dakota.
“This is how Lee operates,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. He has not told the truth on a lot of subjects. He knows clearly that over a year ago I came to him and said I want to repeal the sales tax on groceries. He’s just been opposed to it the entire time and will use whatever tactic he has to try to stop me.”
That’s from the Dakota Scout article on the podcast. Queen of Snowflakes calls Lee Schoenbeck a liar. What a wimp. I like the way Lee dishes that crap back in her Botox-laden face.
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During his appearance, Schoenbeck was asked to compare Noem with Govs. Bill Janklow, Mike Rounds and Dennis Daugaard. Schoenbeck was first elected to the Legislature in 1994.
“She’s the weakest by a long shot, and I wouldn’t have said this two years ago,” he said.
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And …
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He also accused her of supporting legislation to curry favor with national conservative media.
“They shake their fist at her, and she runs like the biggest chicken you ever saw,” he said.
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Lee and many Republican leaders are sick and tired of being used as cheap props for Noem’s silly presidential aspirations. Why can’t the voters of South Dakota get it that Noem is a weak, narcissistic, naive, cowardly, spoiled rotten pretender. A one-trick pony that has relied only on her looks to push forward because, sadly, she lacks the talent needed to compete outside sleepy, rural, red South Dakota and its three electoral votes.
Senator Schoenbeck has stated the obvious. I believe Mrs. Noem does not want South Dakotans on her staff as she fears that they would know more about South Dakota than she does. Since she knows next to nothing about the State, that just about eliminates everyone. The folks from Hillsdale are just so pleasingly vacant. And available.
Our governor reminds me of that old standard: all hat and no cattle.
Lee Strubinger quoted Lee Schoenbeck in March of 2022:
Pat Powers wrote in July of 2022:
Austin Goss quotes Governor Noem this week:
*(comma splice)
Cory posts today:
Lee Schoenbeck has never been Governor Noem’s “biggest fan” any more than he’s been “generous” to Pat Powers. He’s a kiss-up-and-kick-down narcissist who flatters people and sends them money when he’s trying to manipulate them and bullies them when he can’t.
It does occur to me that despite all the Senators belly aching, he manages to support about 90% of what the Governor introduces. Maybe he’s just playing both sides against the middle. After all the sound and fury, he does need to have standing with the “somewhat sane”members to join them in a few libations after the session and enjoy their fellowship.
Maybe the error in Governor Noem’s assessment of Senator Schoenbeck is the focus on his support of the person — when the issue is that the Senator tends to be more of a support the idea politician. When one’s political ideals seem to flutter in the ever-changing whims of the national winds, I would guess that Senator Schoenbeck’s support is not ride-or-die with the person trying to clutch every attention grabbing shiny object in sight. If one would dedicate one’s political attention to a more single-focus to the ACTUAL issues of SD, one would find his support more stable. I’d be willing to bet it was no surprise when and on what issues Senator Schoenbeck “ripped a face off,” and I would also bet that most would agree with him in those criticisms. Want consistent support? Have consistent politics.
The problem isn’t that Senator Schoenbeck IS this way; the problem is that the rest of SD GOP voters are NOT!
The cat is out of the bag and the SDGOP sh!t has hit the fan. Both Mr. Schoenbeck and Mrs. Noem claim to be pretty good sharpshooters so the duel at High Noon will be a great contest!
grudznick suggests they solve this with a contest of Indian Leg-Wrestle.
Two out of three falls.
Do it live on SDPB.
King Schoenbeck voted to eradicate transgenders. Enough said.
Careful Grudznick, Lee was a high school wrestler. Might go far in that competition. I don’t for see Noem doing well considering she would have to first grow a back bone…
Cory writes of Lee Schoenbeck:
Jenny writes:
That would have been ironic.
Well, if we would have kept Stephanie Herseth in Congress instead of trading her in for novice Kristi Noem, she would have eventually run for Governor. Stephanie would have been a first-class governor who actually served the people of South Dakota. Stephanie didn’t rely on her looks, she served with distinction and intelligence. But, too late now.
Mr. Schoenbeck, the younger, who seems like a swell enough fellow, types:
grudznick replies:
I don’t like picturing the writhing spider freak you forced me to conjure, Mr. G. I druther lean on my own horn beings how I was the disputed Indian wrestling champ of Wasta, once upon such n such a time. Never did wear a singlet, though.
grudznick never underestimate skinny wiry guys, they are tougher than they look. My money is on Sen. Schoenbeck. I can help arrange a neutral venue for this Indian leg wrestling match if assistance is needed.
It seems we have at least settled on singlets, and singlets only, for the contest’s garb. Athletic supporters and sports bras are allowed, of course. Perhaps required.
Mr. Schoenbeck is sporting quite a paunch these days but whether he really wants to be stuck in a food and media desert like Pierre for four years as governor seems awfully far-fetched.
Kurt’s comment that Schoenbeck bullies people doesn’t seem to apply in this case. It’s hard to say that a Senator is bullying the Governor, because a Senator, even the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, is technically far less powerful than the Governor. It’s kind of like saying Dusty Johnson is bullying Joe Biden, or Ukraine is bullying Russia, or any of us here are bullying Noem or Schoenbeck with our public comments.
I’m hearing more misuse of the term “bullying”. Schoenbeck isn’t bullying Noem; he’s offering an explanation of why she did such a poor job of pushing her policy priorities through the Legislature this year. His explanation appears to be accurate, and Noem’s distracting, personal, and petty response supports his explanation.
I wouldn’t get hung up on the term “bullying.” I know it’s tempting to argue terminology with Kurt, but let’s not drag this thread out with terminology arguments. Both Weak Sauce and Schoenbeck can be bullies at the same time. We tend to think that Weak Sauce, as the Governor, has the superior position, but in our system of government which separates power into co-equal branches, Schoenbeck, when he harnesses the power of the Legislature behind him, is nearly a co-equal to Weak Sauce. Legislators can, at times, command greater power than the Governor.
I grant no points to Schoenbeckfor his little tiffs since it was he and his party that created this overinflated political.gasbag of a governor. They picked this person lacking in discernable merits and no education to speak of, nor a single accomplishment outside of hair and makeup to run against a sitting senator that had earned reputable positions on critical committees, had a double major including JD from an incredibly reputable top tier college, had sat as the Director of the Farmers Union in the state, and as a Board member to a bank. The GOP gathered zero ingredients, whipped up a nothing burger of a candidate, served it without so much as a slice of fake cheese or even condiments….and now have the nerve to bitch that their creation is weak as water??? Oh, that is rich. Don’t talk with your mouth full, Schoenbeck. Even if it is stuffed with nothing burger drenched in weak sauce.
Kurt is a self appointed expert on comma splices and accident reconstruction. It is impossible to have a rational debate with him on any subject, ignoring his ramblings is by far the best policy.
Nick Nemec writes of me:
*(comma splice)
It’s not impossible to have a rational debate with me, Nick, but it’s apparently impossible for you.
Lee Schoenbeck wrote publicly on March 10:
Cory writes:
Senator Schoenbeck directly implies that Governor Noem has “no talent” because her talent is defined by staff members who have “no clue” about what they’re doing. I’ve been critical of Governor Noem and her staff, but Senator Schoenbeck’s claims appear to be intentionally offensive and insulting.
Mr Halverson, you have a golden pen:
“…he and his party…created this overinflated political gasbag of a governor…lacking in discernable merits and no education to speak of, nor a single accomplishment outside of hair and makeup…”
*YUP. Republican elections are idealogical, with NO regard to competence.*
“…to run against a sitting senator that had earned reputable positions on critical committees, a double major including JD from an incredibly reputable top tier college, had sat as the Director of the Farmers Union in the state, and as a Board member to a bank.”*
Our governor is really no different than Rep. Margorie Green.
Republican Billionaire Rupert Murdoch and Republican “Burn it all down” Bob Mercer essentially kept Trump-the-violent idiot afloat, and Putin pushed him over the edge to win 2016 in the electoral college. Republicans voters are too stupid to be thoughtful about who they elect.
The same know-nothing political party’s tactics have elected Noem and the Republican majority.
Good job Republicans. We’ll see what you’ll bring to the rest of the world if what’s his name gets arrested. He certainly wants another Jan 6 debacle on his part.
Noem is not far behind. Her flaunting improper state property use, nepotism, voter obstruction, riot buster that she is, and generally developing that sweet Trump personality that we all of good conscience cringe to, daily, still, is the matk of a political fool.
Comparing Marjorie Taylor Green with the likes of Kristi Noem, leslie??? This aggression will not stand!