Date: March 1, 2004
Subject: Strange bedfellows

History was made yesterday on KSTP-TV Channel 5's "At Issue" public affairs program with Tom Hauser. Dave Thompson, KSTP AM 1500 talk show host, wowed Hauser and across-the-ideological-table mate Ember Reichgott Junge with his natty bow tie. But more than that, Thompson stayed intellectually and ideologically honest by agreeing with Junge — and disagreeing with President Bush, Governor Pawlenty, and Commissioner Yecke — about how "broken" the No Child Left Behind Act is. Hauser remarked that he never wants to see Thompson and Junge agree like that again!

Thompson was unapologetic. He took Junge's objections further, saying that while Junge thinks the federal role can be fixed, he believes that the federal government has no place in education at all, that it's a state responsibility. A self-styled "recovering attorney," Thompson knows his constitutions, U.S. and state. His conservative "bona fides" are bona fide.