Why Michele Bachmann Doesn't Go Out In St. Cloud, MN At Night--Bernie King & The Guilty Pleasures: Drinking With The Lord.

Slow Ride (Take It Easy...)

A Minnesota widower drove his tricked-out La-Z-Boy into a parked car near Duluth last summer and now his family is selling the ride on eBay.

From the Duluth News Tribune:

The motorized La-Z-Boy lounge chair that Proctor police seized after its owner hit a parked vehicle is going up for auction on eBay today. But the chair was not the only item related to the incident open for bidding.

The family of the chair’s former owner will put an autographed photo of Dennis LeRoy Anderson riding the chair on eBay.

“All proceeds will go to Dennis to help him with his fees,” said Tim Jorgenson, Anderson’s son-in-law.

Jorgenson and his wife, Andrea, have no hard feelings toward the Proctor police for seizing Anderson’s motorized chair.

“I feel they did their job,” Andrea Jorgenson said outside the Proctor Police Department this morning. “He shouldn’t have been drinking and driving.”

Andrea Jorgensen wanted people to know her father is a good person.

“He has had a hard time since Mom died five years ago,” she said.

Proctor Police Chief Walter Wobig said that Anderson is a “super-nice guy.”

Anderson pleaded guilty earlier this month in St. Louis County District Court to DWI in connection with an Aug. 31, 2008, incident in Proctor.

According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle near a Proctor bar. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive. There were no injuries in the incident.

Wobig said that the department had no choice but to seize the motorized chair. “We’ve seized ATVs, snowmobiles, trailers, cars and pickup trucks,” he said. “We want to be fair and equitable to everybody. We can’t show favoritism.”

The chair, which is powered by a lawnmower engine, includes a stereo, cup holder, magazine holder and lights.

Since word of the incident spread earlier this month, the Proctor police have received calls from media outlets around the nation and as far away as Great Britain.

Wobig doesn’t know how much the item may sell for. He said one man contacted him and said he was going to start the bidding off at $500. Wobig said that state statute determines how any money from the auction will be divided, with some going to the state, the court system and the police department.

Wobig plans on using the department’s portion of the money to help equip two new squad cars.

The interest in the chair has taken Wobig by surprise.

“I’ve been in law enforcement 31 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Health Care Reform: How To Win Friends & Influence People By Al Franken.

On The Hook.

From Politico.com:

The legal fight between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is headed to the desk of Gov. Tim Pawlenty — a no-win predicament for a Minnesota Republican with his eye on a White House run in 2012. 
Franken won big Tuesday when a three-judge panel allowed the review of no more than 400 absentee ballots in a race he currently leads by 225 votes. Coleman’s camp says an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is coming; once that’s done, the dispute lands in Pawlenty’s lap. 
If Franken’s ahead at that point, Pawlenty will have a choice: sign the election certificate that will allow Democrats to seat Franken in the Senate or play to the Republicans whose support he’d need in 2012 by withholding the certificate while Coleman challenges the election in the federal court system. 
“The Republican Party nationally and in Minnesota is playing not just with fire, but with dynamite,” said Rep. James L. Oberstar, a Democrat and the dean of Minnesota’s congressional delegation. 
Oberstar — like a lot of Democrats — says November’s election should finally be over as soon as the Minnesota Supreme Court rules. 
If Pawlenty and the Republicans push it further, he says, “this thing is going to blow up in their face.”

If the panel rules in Al Franken's favor, Gov. Pawlenty can either break with Republican dogma and show independent leadership or mount the party stripper pole and dance until 2012. 

Republicans of all stripes despise Franken for three basic reasons: he wrote a book calling GOP Grand Poobah Rush Limbaugh a "big, fat idiot," he has a sense of humor and he's smart. 

More from Politico.com:

Of course, Coleman could spare Pawlenty a difficult decision by dropping his appeal if he is losing after the state’s Supreme Court rules — but his Republican colleagues in Washington are showing no signs of letting this go away quietly. 

“I think if there is a realistic prospect for a complete count that’s fair that would give Sen. Coleman the victory, we should not give up until the last avenue of appeal is over,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). “Everybody on our side believes that.” 
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said he doesn’t see a political downside for Pawlenty if he holds off from signing an election certificate. 
“I think if there are good, strong arguments for continuing to let the process play out ... I don’t think he will risk any backlash in doing that,” said Thune, a member of the GOP leadership. “And I don’t think that Norm would carry on with this unless he thought he had a very good chance of prevailing in the end.”