Hoplin?!? Good God...

As I promised yesterday, if you read mine, I'll read yours. Marty and Aaron took me up on that. Aaron has done a great bit of investigative reporting on the University of Minnesota's most recent efforts to circumvent the Southworth Supreme court case (much, much, MUCH more on this later). It seems their strategy of using the SAO staff to 'suggest' stacking the admin committee with conservatives to reduce their influence backfired this year and forced the big wigs in Morril to have to get their hands dirty and reverse decisons - thus exposing their rubric that the fees process is "student" driven and controlled. As we found out this year, only when the students are in lock step with the admin is the process "student" controlled.

And Marty, he had to hit a raw nerve with me. Eric Hoplin. Hoplin is currently the College Republican National Chairman and is running to be the vice-chair of the MN GOP under Ron Eibensteiner. Hoplin and I go way back. I believe I was a senior when I watched him get elected as MNCR chair. Then I graduated, but I didn't go away.

For the next two years, I saw as he and a couple of my friends butted heads over the UMN CR chapter till the schism occurred. I will admit, I was an instigator of this schism. I thought Hoplin was an overbearing ass trying to impose his will and his people on a chapter that had always been autonomous and independent. I put out a very public letter to that effect.

Anyway, he rose to prominence in the CR's, and I went my way with the whole CFACT thing.

We all know the story of Hoplin using a mail house that berated seniors and used about 90% of raised funds to raise more funds. Something like $7 million was raised with only about $700k actually being used for something other than more fund raising. This stinks to high heaven and I expected to find someone at the CR's getting a big chunk of that change, but my investigative powers (googling) and lack of bank records and subpeona power came up with nothing that could be called evidence. A Bare Naked Ladies song comes to mind...

"If I had subpeona power...
If I had subpeona power!
I'd put your ass on the stand,
ooooh in front of old judge Ito!"

Hoplin is about the hardest worker the CR's have ever had and he built a BIG organization. He is an effective operator who turned things around in Minnesota and sparked a resurgence nation wide with money and organziation and he helped Bush and a big group of GOP senators and congressmen get elected. Thanks to Hoplin the CR's matter.

But he has a fatal flaw. He is willing to use questionable/unethical/borderline legal means to achieve his ends. And this weakness will be exposed and will be terribly embarrasing to him, and determining how high he gets, a lot of Republicans. I thought the fund raising thing would do it. The Strib, the Washington Post, and a slew of other papers ran the story. The CR's were embarrassed. But it appears he has spin-controlled his way out it. Fortunately for Hoplin, he is too small a fish and his name rarely showed up in the stories. It was generally left to the state chairs to answer for the CR's in the paper.

Good for Hoplin for getting away with it, but if you don't get burned - you'll never learn. And I'm speaking from experience. Back in school I played the same fast and loose game with the rules in student government. It eventually had me in front of the group defending myself against impeachment proceedings. I survived impeachment, but my credibility was shot - and with that my effectivness was flushed down the toilet. This ruined the bloc of conservatives in student government that had been steadily gaining power, and I dare say the movement never recovered the footing we once had. The lesson I learned, PLAY BY THE RULES, written AND unwritten.

Fortunately, the loss of MSA was not a crippling blow to the conservative movement. And honestly, the loss of the CR's would not end the Reagan Revolution either.

But has Hoplin learned his lesson? Or will he continue fast and loose? And if he does so as an officer of the MN GOP, this could have an effect such as Bill Luther's ass-holery in 2002 when they openly ran a "No new tax" candidate who was blatantly there just to siphon off conservative votes from Kline. This little piece of LEGAL hoodwinkery cost a long term, EXTREMELY well funded incumbent his seat. In fact he was smoked scoring in the low 40's.

So when Hoplin gets busted doing something similiar between now and '06, what will that cost Republicans? The House? The Gov? A senate seat?

Let's not pooh-pooh this. We all saw how sensitive Minnesotans are to ideas like fair play when they turned out the DFL after the Wellstone funeral/pep rally. Minnesotan's found a funeral... A smurfing FUNERAL of all things... to be grounds for a major GOP tsunami.

Hoplin is a 9.0 under a large body of water waiting to happen. Hopefully the GOP delegates don't volunteer to be the shoreline.