So Stan Adelstein resigns from the South Dakota Senate, and the opposite-of-classy Pat Powers can only gripe that Adelstein played political hardball with Pat's pals, the same kind of war-college hardball that those pals play with everyone else in their party. Whatever.
Stan Adelstein doesn't have to buy an ad on this blog to get me to point out two less grudgeful views of Adelstein's politics.
Republican John Tsitrian calls his friend Stan a Republican's Republican, and a guy the rest of us can stand to be around:
Adelstein is also a Republican's Republican in the sense that he's true to the essential element of Republican philosophy, which is that individual rights and choices must be preserved at all costs. On that score he--and I'm proud to say, I--have been publicly excoriated by members of the South Dakota GOP who believe that personal choices involving sexual orientation and a woman's decisions about her reproductive apparatus should be the government's business. How a party that is built on a foundation of championing and preserving individual rights can come to believe that rights and benefits should be determined according to the way people run their private lives is an abomination. I've always stood with Stan against the forces in our party who are determined to use the government as a cudgel for imposing their personal, moral views on society as a whole [John Tsitrian, "Best of Luck to You, Stan Adelstein -- A Republican's Republican," The Constant Commoner, 2014.01.04].
Bob Mercer deems Adelstein a feminist, a not-so-great legislator, and a smart politician:
You likely heard or read how then-Gov. Bill Janklow called Adelstein in the spring of 2002 and suggested some financial oomph might make the difference for Mike Rounds in the Republican primary for governor.
Rounds won the nomination. He was elected governor, twice.
And you likely remember two years ago when Adelstein demanded state Attorney General Marty Jackley investigate activities of Secretary of State Jason Gant and deputy Pat Powers.
Adelstein introduced legislation in 2013 to make candidates for constitutional offices such as secretary of state subject to primary elections, rather than continue to be nominated at political-party conventions. This was a direct shot at the process that led to Gant’s election.
The bill failed, but the dissent was planted. On Sept. 3, Sen. Shantel Krebs, R-Renner, filed paperwork to run for secretary of state. Gant soon announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2014 [Bob Mercer, "Retiring Legislator Showed Smarts, Courage," Aberdeen American News, 2014.01.03].
Political observer Tom Lawrence suggests we haven't heard the last of Adelstein's politicking. If that's the case, then we won't have heard the last of Pat Powers's rants against Adelstein. Powers uses his GOP spin machine to malign Stan Adelstein, because Adelstein is too rich and too independent to heel to the privilege and patronage through which Powers's friends maintain their rule.