Idaho Sen. Larry Craig: When he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, he included a hand-written note to the prosecutor, thanking him for his “cooperation.” The prosecutor cites that in a memo he filed Monday opposing Craig’s attempt to

withdraw his guilty plea after his bathroom arrest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The prosecutor says that in his pre-plea phone dealings with Craig, the Idaho Republican was “calm and collected” and his “questions intelligent and methodical.” In short, Craig knew what he was doing when he entered his guilty plea, the prosecutor argues. Here’s the Star Tribune story and here’s the Idaho Statesman’s story.

By the way, if you’re to run into Craig at the Lindbergh Terminal — for whatever reason — you’re going to have to make different travel plans. The Washington Post’s Sleuth Mary Ann Akers, who refers to Craig’s party ID as “R-Not Gay,” says Craig is now changing planes in Denver. Here’s her item.

That wacky Wakota Bridge: If you had doubts about the under-construction Wakota Bridge before the I-35W bridge collapsed, then maybe this item is actually good news: The state is considering delaying work on this troubled bridge project to free up funds for the rebuilding of the I-35 bridge. Here’s the latest development on the continuing bridge fallout.

Presidential race: The Washington Post has had a couple of blog items on The Trail about President Bush’s off-the-record and on-the-record comments about the candidates — especially Hillary Rodham Clinton

and Rudy Giuliani — hoping to succeed him. Here’s the first item and here’s the most recent item.

On Wednesday, groups organizing a protest the Republican National Convention will picket St. Paul City Hall. They’re demanding that they be issued their permit now — for the protest they plan at the September 2008 convention.

Today

Sen. Norm Coleman testifies before a Committee on Environment and Public Works oversight hearing on the condition of the nation’s bridges. 9 a.m. (CDT). Webcast available on Coleman’s website: http://coleman.senate.gov/ 

Public hearing on new I-35W bridge, 5:30 p.m.,Thrivent Financial Auditorium, 625 4th Ave. S., Minneapolis 

Democratic presidential candidates debate live in Davenport, Iowa, 7-8:30 p.m., TPT Ch. 17.

Sunday

U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and John Conyers, D-Mich., hold a health care forum at the Historic Heights Theatre, 3951 Central Ave, N.E., Columbia Heights, at 1 p.m. 

The New York Times looks back at Mitt Romney’s role in leading the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the event that launched him onto that national stage. The games certainly were a huge success, but they also remain a point of contention for some critics, including his GOP rival, Sen. John McCain. This in-depth story examines Romney’s role — did you know that the Olympic pins carried Romney’s image, cloaked in a U.S. flag? — and the way his work is being questioned today.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is under scrutiny on a couple of bridge-related fronts. The agency suspended its incomplete inspection of the I-35W bridge, months before it collapsed. And MnDOT hired but then didn’t use a consulting firm to inspect the bridge for flaws. Here’s the story by Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba.

Meanwhile, the state Legislative Auditor now has MnDOT in his sights. The agency failed to notify James Nobles about questionable travel expenses by its official in charge of emergency responses. Nobles learned about the situation after the Star Tribune reported that the official was on an East Coast business trip when the bridge collapsed — and that she took 10 days to return to Minnesota. Here’s the original story and here’s today’s news.

An investigation on a completely different front involves allegations against the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Rachel Paulose. As part of the continuing staff upheaval in her office, a federal office is looking into reports that she carelessly handled classified documents and retaliated against employees in her office. Here’s the story, and here’s the initial report on the probe on former colleague Eric Black’s blog.

Jim Ramstad, just a day after he announced his retirement plans, scored a big victory in the U.S. Senate last night. The Senate passed the mental health parity bill, which Ramstad, R-Minn., and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone had long championed. The bill is awaiting action in the House. Here’s the news report and here’s more information about the legislation on the Wellstone Action! website.

There’s a big vote beginning at 11:30 a.m. today. Ok, it’s not really a political development, but still… The designs for next year’s Winter Carnival button will be unveiled today, and the public will have a chance to vote for their favorites. Here’s more information.

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Minnesota Republicans this morning took aim at Al Franken for raising money for his U.S. Senate campaign at the Washington, D.C., home of Smith Bagley, an heir to the RJ Reynolds tobacco fortune. Franken has inveighed against “big tobacco,” the Republicans point out, calling his fundraiser “big hypocrisy.”

Franken isn’t the first Democratic Senate candidate from Minnesota to visit the Bagley home in search of money. In September 1990, Paul Wellstone knocked on the Bagley’s door looking for help, and he got a cool reception.  

I was covering Wellstone’s campaign that year and I trailed along with him and his aides on their largely unsuccessful fundraising trip. Here’s an excerpt from a story I wrote after the 1990 election about Wellstone’s upset win:

The Georgetown mansion of Elizabeth and Smith Bagley is their first
after-lunch fund-raising call.

     Smith Bagley is an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune
who has split from the family business. Elizabeth Bagley likes to
work for and contribute to the campaigns of progressive candidates.
The couple are friends of former President Jimmy Carter, as
evidenced by a photograph of their infant daughter being bounced on
Carter’s knee. They were also big givers and fund-raisers in the
Dukakis campaign in 1988.

     Wellstone and his aides are greeted at the door by Lilly, a
maid whose salmon-colored uniform matches the marble in the foyer. A
Rembrandt hangs in the library.

     Elizabeth Bagley enters from the dining room, where candelabra
the size of rose bushes adorn the table. She is deeply tanned and
has recently returned from a vacation on Nantucket Island, off
Massachusetts, where she and her husband socialized with Sen. Ted
Kennedy - and with Boschwitz, a friend of Kennedy’s.

     Wellstone makes a brief presentation, stressing the grass-roots
nature of his campaign and his progressive politics.

     Bagley names a dozen people, asking if Wellstone has contacted
them and if they’ve contributed. Wellstone and Norm Kurz, a
Washington-based fund-raiser, admit that most haven’t been contacted
or won’t return their calls.

     Sensing that Bagley thinks he’s lazy, Wellstone tells about his
three-shirt-a-day primary campaign:

     “I haven’t been in a cafe in Minnesota in a year and a half
where there hasn’t been 30 to 35 people, sometimes 100, not for a
rally, just to talk about issues. Then I come here (Washington) and
it’s always, `I don’t know your name.’ ”

     Bagley says, “It’s a cynical town. And you’re one of many,
too.”

     Indeed, Lilly has greeted many candidates standing at her
employers’ front door with their hands out. When Kurz had asked for
an audience, Bagley says, she thought, “Oh, God, do I really have to
talk to one more person?”

      “I really have never even heard your name,” she says. “Whose
fault is that?” The question goes unanswered.

     Bagley agrees to make fund-raising calls on Wellstone’s behalf,
but she doesn’t say if she’ll write a check herself.

     She leads the group on a house tour. Through the foyer, into an
enclosed courtyard, down a flight of stairs to an underground
swimming pool, enclosed by marble columns and glass. The pool took
two years to build and is patterned after a pool at a Hong Kong
hotel.

     Then it’s through an exercise room with mirrored walls and a
ballet barre and into a casual family room with a large-screen TV.
As they walk back through the exercise room, Wellstone is so deeply
engaged in conversation with Bagley that he walks into one of the
mirrored walls.

     Outside, he laughs about it.

     “I just spent an hour and a half trying to impress this woman
and then I walk into a mirror and I almost break my nose. I’m not
used to being in places like this.”

U.S. Rep Jim Ramstad proved he can keep a secret. There wasn’t a whiff about the possibility of his retiring until his campaign issued an alert shortly before noon, saying that the congressman would be making a major announcement about his future. The release didn’t say what Ramstad would announce, but the Microsoft Word attachment detailing the time and location of the press conference had this name: “retire_advisory.doc”

Here’s the Star Tribune story about his announcement and the mad scramble that’s developing to succeed him.

Plus, The Big Question provides a more detailed look at those who are planning to or thinking about running.

The Star Tribune’s editorial praises Ramstad for his ability to reach across party lines.

Other coverage:

• The Hill points out that Ramstad is the sixth Republican House member to announce a retirement, and calls the Third District a “bona fide swing district.”
• Roll Call described the development as “another swing-seat headache for” Republicans.
• Power Line says that “headache” is probably a fair characterization, given that while Bush carried the district over Kerry, Clinton won it twice.
• MnPublis argues that Ramstad’s departure will mean fewer votes from the Third District for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in his reelection bid next year.
• Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters headlines his post: Should I move to Minnetonka?

Ramstad’s own websites haven’t been updated with the news. But if you want to learn more about him, here’s his congressional site and his campaign site.

And if you want to look back at his voting record, this Washington Post site will keep you busy.

What do you think are the ramifications of Ramstad’s retirement, and who — or at least what kind of candidates — do you think would make the strongest contenders for his seat?

Minneapolis Police have told the Independence Party that it can’t use the Fifth Precinct building’s community room to distribute political materials. Steve Brandt’s story says that the IP has used it many times before. But on Saturday, police told the party to knock it off. What crime were they committing? Turns out they were preparing lawn signs and leaflets calling for the hiring of more cops. See the full story here. Â

In our Pig’s Eye Podcast Monday (Sept. 17), I mentioned the classic fundraising letter U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., has sent out. In it, he makes it sound as if Rove is practically on his way to Mankato to personally knock Walz out of his First Congressional seat. Walz invokes Rove’s name no less than nine times as he explains that Rove, in a briefing, identified Walz’s seat as one of the top 20 targets for congressional Republicans in the 2008 election.

Here are the first five paragraphs of the letter. The boldface and underlining are in the letter itself, no emphasis added:

The American people are breathing a sigh of relief this month after two notorious figures in the Bush administration at long last announced their departure. President Bush’s top political advisor Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have left Washington in a hurry, but they have not gone quietly–and they are not gone for good.

He may be gone, but before Karl Rove left he made it obvious that Minnesota’s First Congressional District is at the top of his target list.

The Washington Post reports that, prior to leaving Washington, Karl Rove presented to America’s European Ambassadors his list of the top 20 vulnerable Democrats across the country—and I am on that list. Karl Rove and the National Republican Party have made it clear they will stop at nothing to win Minnesota’s First Congressional District seat in November 2008.

Their reasoning is simple: National Republican leaders believe Karl Rove’s strategy of personal destruction, distraction and misinformation will divide and mislead voters resulting in a narrow Republican victory next fall.

Together, we must send the National Republican Party and Karl Rove a strong message: The American people care about the change we are bringing to Washington. Support today, already so close to the next election, will show Rove and his cronies in the Republican Leadership that we are serious about keeping Democrats in Congress with a strong Majority.

By the way, Walz threw in Alberto Gonzales’ name four times, for good measure.