Locked and Loaded in 48A

According to a recent edition of the StarTribune, itinerant pistol-packing stalker and Minnesota Republican legislator, Tom Hackbarth is now chairman of a newly created energy subcommittee.  Apparently Hackbarth has been determined by House Republican Pooh-Bahs to have lost sufficient PR radioactivity to be let back into the leadership fold.

'Less radioactive', in Hackbarth's case, can include an incoherent stream of consciousness email rant to a constituent who dared request support for a tax increase aimed at the state's wealthiest 2% in lieu of inflicting "severe pain on the middle-class and vulnerable Minnesotans"-the kind of response, it would seem, completely acceptable for and even expected from a Republican legislative chairman.

Back in 2010, Hackbarth's psychotic episode at a Highland Park Planned Parenthood parking lot could not be countenanced-even by the wing-nuts in the legislature.  And, thus, he had to be on his best Republican behavior for a year or so before assuming a position where he occasionally chairs the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources committee-a position which he was disqualified from holding after his much reported armed melt-down.  Nice to see accommodations can eventually be made for the truly deserving.

It should surprise no one that Hackbarth hails from house district 48A-a subset of the 6th congressional district-longtime and now former (as a result of redistricting) home of Hall of Fame crack-pot Michele Bachmann.

Hackbarth began his storied legislative career with such initiatives as: HR2065-"Used motor oil and filter collection law effective date delayed"...no sense rushing into responsible drain oil and used filter collection!

But, things weren't always retrograde in the district.  Back in the day-during 1993-94 and 1997-98, to be exact, the area was represented by a smart, energetic and dedicated educator.

Hackbarth first won the seat in 1994, but lost it in 1996-a presidential election year.  But, as conservative as the district was then, it is much more polarized now with the advent of Tea Party dogma and intransigence.  So, even though Hackbarth has managed to prove, beyond question, that he is profoundly unfit to hold office, the likelihood of his re-election will probably not be diminished by that reality.