So it turns out the Rick Santorum won all three contests yesterday. What does it all mean? I don't know, but I have a few guesses:

• Social issues aren't necessarily going to be the prime mover in this election, but two things have happened in recent days that help Santorum. First, the decision that Obama and his minions have made in dictating to the Catholic church concerning insurance mandates has raised a lot of eyebrows. There are a lot of people who are only nominally Catholic in this country, but those who are committed churchgoers are getting an earful right now. And Santorum, as a committed churchgoing Catholic, has likely received some benefit.

Last night when discussing the trends in the three non-binding Republican contests, I tweeted that Rick Santorum’s win in Missouri was only surprising in gaining a majority, but that a win in Minnesota would be surprising — and a win in Colorado would be shocking.  As it happens, National Journal agrees with that assessment. Santorum shocked the Republican race with a clean sweep of Tuesday’s caucuses and primary, and may have pushed himself into serious consideration as the long-aought conservative consolidation alternative to Mitt Romney:

First, Congressman Phil Gingrey from Georgia tells us why he's supporting Newt Gingrich. Second, Chris Fields explains why he's running to take on Rep. Keith Ellison in the Fifth Congressional District. Also, another Bachmann departure, mining the Moon, betting on candidates, and predictions about Minnesota's caucuses.

You can hear the Late Debate every Sunday to Thursday from 10pm to Midnight on 95.9FM in the North Metro. You can also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.

There really hasn't been a lot of news on the Vikings stadium front these days, despite the kabuki going on in various locales:

Appealing for City Council support for a new Vikings stadium, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak surrounded himself with construction workers on Monday and said the project would create more jobs than any "single action that you can take."

Rybak and Barb Johnson, the City Council president, did little to disguise that the press briefing was an overt attempt to apply political pressure for the project, which does not appear to have the backing of a council majority. Rybak did not directly answer when asked whether he had majority support for a city subsidy package and chose instead to remain optimistic about the project's political chances.

Bush Derangement Syndrome was (and still is) the tendency of those who dislike President Bush to blame everything on him, regardless of logic.  That's how some liberals came by the notion that not only did Bush cause hurricane Katrina, but he delayed help to the affected because he hates black people.

Today some conservative pundits are coming close to Obama derangement syndrome by attacking President Obama for 'cutting hazard pay for soldiers'.  This is flat out wrong, and here's why.

During Gov. Dayton’s ill-tempered diatribe, he said that Republicans were “unfit to govern” because they didn’t confirm the appointment of Ellen Anderson, a longtime DFL/environmental activist, to be the Commissioner of the Public Utilities Commission. The reality is that Gov. Dayton isn’t fit to govern.

His bombastic diatribe sounded more like a spoiled 3-year-old brat who didn’t get his way than it sounded like something a governor of a state.

Despite Gov. Dayton’s childish accusations, Sen. Julie Rosen’s explanation of why she voted against Sen. Anderson’s confirmation as PUC Commissioner is perfectly reasonable:

A few weeks ago, I did an article about the tense-to-nonexistant relationship between conservatives and the media.  Any media.  Even media that strives in its own way for detachment.

Conservatives just don’t trust the media.

The context, of course, was a conversation I had with Melody Ng, who works for the “Public Insight Network” at American Public Media, the national/syndicated programming arm of Minnesota Public Radio.   She’s found the attempt to engage conservatives – one of her job goals – for feedback and as sources is frustrating.

This just in from James O'Keefe and Project Veritas by way of Roger Simon at PJ Media:

On the day of the Minnesota Caucus, shocking video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas – broken here first at PJ Media – shows how easy it is to register NFL stars Tim Tebow, Tom Brady and practically anybody else to vote in that state.

Tony Cornish’s “Stand Your Ground” bill – which would make legal self-defense a more tenable option for law-abiding Minnesotans – is coming up for another hearing in the Senate Thursday.

The bill – which got side-tracked in the last session, amid a mass of inaccurate and dishonest reporting on the issue – is a must-pass for this session.  And I think it’s fair to say if the GOP allows it to die this time, a lot of gun-owning Minnesotans are going to wonder when they’ll get some payback for all their commitment.

I’m going to urge all you Second-Amendment supporting Minnesotans to get on the phone.  These Senators are all pretty much in line to support HF1467/SF1357:

Recently, Rep. Drazkowski joined Sen. Thompson in introducing legislation that would put a right to work constitutional amendment on November’s ballot. The thought of giving workers the opportunity to say no to unionization is initially appealing. After additional thought, though, it’s apparent that first impressions aren’t right impressions.

First, adding a right to work constitutional amendment to the ballot will attract alot of special interest money to Minnesota. Why would we want to add another lightning rod to the ballot to drive DFL turnout?

I am a Catholic-- A fallen-away Catholic, but a Catholic, to be sure. I believe in the infallible tenets of the Trinity, the Immaculate Conception, Transubstantiation, and other Church doctrine; but I could no longer abide the turn for the worse in these past four decades in how the middle-heirarchy of the Church, mainly Bishops (and errant Priests) led the Flock astray, by promoting a godless, unattainable socialist utopia on earth via the "social justice" movement. They would get in bed with anyone to make it happen, including the most pro-abortion President in the history of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. They were more than willing to walk over the corpses of dead babies if it were to achieve their godless, earthly dream--

And then I saw this article, on Red State this morning, and I said AMEN!!! Someone gets it and isn't afraid to excoriate the Bishops who have led their flock astray--

In three different and very significant ways, the Dayton administration has admitted that their ultimate aim is to have the state control the curriculum standards first for those governing all preschool and childcare programs in the state that "volunteer" to become involved in the Parent Aware Quality Rating System (the QRS), the Race to the Top preschool grant program, or the early childhood scholarship program regardless of whether these programs are public, private or religious. This seems to be the foundation for then controlling ALL preschool curriculum. (More on that in future alerts).

From Our Local Ag Supplier:

ONE OF OUR CUSTOMERS GAVE ME AN EXPLANATION OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT IN SIMPLE ENGLISH.

• United States Tax Revenue ----------------------------------------- $ 2,170,000,000,000 
• Federal Budget ------------------------------------------------------- 3,820,000,000,000 
• New Debt Added This Year- ------------------------------------------ 1,650,000,000,000 
• National Debt -------------------------------------------------------- 16,271,000,000,000 
• Recent Budget Cut ------------------------------------------------------ 38,500,000,000 

NOW REMOVE THE 8 ZEROS AND LET'S PRETEND IT'S A HOUSEHOLD BUDGET