It didn’t take long for Austin Goss to recover from the political hit Kristi Noem and Dan Lederman put out on him last month. KSFY and KOTA-TV fired Goss after the state filed a thin case against Goss for spoofing Noem’s phone number in a prank call to Lederman. (No one fired Noem for lying back in January that her phone had been hacked due to information released by the January 6th Committee.) Rather than tangle with Lederman and Noem in court, Goss pled guilty to disorderly conduct, freeing him to get back on the beat with The Dakota Scout.
And now SDGOP spin blogger Pat Powers, whom Noem and Lederman have richly funded and who would have every reason to exploit Goss’s foible to peddle his Republican patron’s desired narrative that we can’t trust the malicious media, is citing the freshly reëmployed Goss as a reliable source to fry a bigger fish, the insurgent election-denier and party disfavorite Secretary of State Monae Johnson.
Goss reports that SOS Johnson plans to keep the initial work of her summer study on post-election audits secret. Johnson touted her study plan last winter to Goss and even used it as an excuse to tell the 2023 Legislature to hold off on new election-audit legislation. But now she’s continuing her failure to follow through on her campaign promise of transparency by claiming that the members of the committee, all of whom appear to be public officials and activists who are used to speaking in public, won’t be able to speak freely if they meet in public.
Powers cites Goss’s reporting without question or asterisk. Instead, he focuses on SOS Johnson’s lack of credibility:
Why? Just why? Who is providing this advice? Because this is an unforced error.
I’m not sure why Monae Johnson is setting herself up for a media pummeling here. Because that’s all that closing a meeting on election integrity is going to get her.
Does anyone assume that everything is going to remain behind closed doors with the election denier crowd, and the opposing party at the meeting table? [Pat Powers, “First Meeting of SOS Study on Election Integrity to Be Conducted Behind Closed Doors,” South Dakota War College, 2023.06.14]
Reporter Goss is off the hook, but election-denier and transparency-denier Monae Johnson remains on the hook. Election integrity group members, I hope you’ll all seek out Goss right after your first meeting and tell him what Secretary Johnson is trying to hide. We count on Goss again to report those important political matters accurately.
Mr. Powers is frothing, foaming and tearing himself asunder as he watches his political party eating his own. It’s a dream come true!
One can be sure that young Mr. Goss is much happier no longer working for The Corporate Man, like grudznick’s good friend Bob does, and he is no doubt pulling down a much bigger salary with a fatter package of perks as well. We should all be glad for Mr. Goss and glad of his nonconformity to life in general.
I’m an activist. Can I go. Plus I write for a newspaper? Can I go?
Which newspaper, Mr. Kingman?
PS: Are you related to Dave Kingman?
It isn’t only the media that is going to lampoon and harpoon the Secretary of State. The people of South Dakota DO NOT BELIEVE in this election conspiracy nonsense. The reason is simple. The local people working at the polls in South Dakota are their friends and neighbors, they have known them for many years. They are people of excellent reputation and have often volunteered at the polls for many years,When Mrs. Johnson spouts her conspiracy crap, she insults these poll workers who are pillars in the community, have often served in many positions of public trust, and are sticklers for the established election rules and statutes. She is obviously wasting the taxpayers dollar.
Mr. Blundt, you are totally on the nose of the base with that blogging. I’d have stood and clapped if you said it in a public forum.
Grudznick–Any compliment from the Man Who Stares Ar Goats is sincerely appreciated. Even the bunkered, blaspheming Grudz has been known to hit the ball into fair territory.
One would think anyone could go to a meeting of public officials discussing election integrity. Monae appears to be looking for a way to talk about her election conspiracy theories in her official capacity without being quoted by the press. I hiope members of the study panel will come out and tell us what they hear and say.
While I am glad to see Austin Goss back at work, I note that his first big report is a critique of an SDGOP black sheep, which Noem, Lederman, and the establishment don’t mind at all. I wonder when we will get Goss’s first new critique of Noem herself.
I bet you could just ask him, Mr. H.
What grud said.
Mr. Goss, we know you read this here blogging place, especially when there is a blogging about you.
Mr. H won’t ask, so grudznick will. What say you about when you’ll write a blogging, perhaps here for Mr. H, about your relationships and interactions with Ms. Noem right up through when that meany Mr. Shrek fired you? What say you?
Blog it here, young sir. And, what is the fellow, Mr. Shrek, going to do to occupy your fancy offices in Pierre? And did you get to keep the company issued car? We all have many questions.
A farmer comes home and finds his wife in bed with a salesman and says, “what are you doing?” Whereas the salesman says, “we’re listening to music” and the farmer says, “I don’t hear no music” and the salesman says, “you’re not plugged in.”
A farmer comes home and finds his wife in bed with a banker and asks, “what are you doing?” and she says, “hedging my assets.”
You guys are drooling on yourselves, but you won’t win big in SD without good ideas that are your own.
The “get that guy” mentality and shady tactics just dig the rut deeper.
“I’m not sure why Monae Johnson is setting herself up for a media pummeling here. Because that’s all that closing a meeting on election integrity is going to get her.”
This is a good start.
You either want to discover and fix the election problems or you don’t.
Any party trying to play both sides of the fiddle like this will never truly win. Other than “loot!” and “eff that guy!” what is the platform? What would you do if you won?
No plan.
The rabble-rousers in the SD GOP have a plan, and we’re taking the best of SD Democrats with us.
Sordid elections are probably the source of most of our cross party issues .. if there was enough money in the economy, people wouldn’t have so much incentive to kill their babies.
Sad and dark age right now.