622: 'The greasy pole of politics in the Republican party'

Is Doug Burgum, who is currently serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Donald Trump, a happy man right now?

I posed that question in a recent column occassioned by Burgum's visit to infamous island prison Alcatraz at Trump's behest to assess it for use as a detention facility. Burgum has to know that this is a fantastically stupid idea. His face, during a Fox News interview from the prison, made it pretty clear that he knows that this initiative would be a non-starter for any rational, grounded human being.

And yet, there he was, on national television, carrying the president's fetid water.

We talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk. "If you want to be in Donald Trump's orbit, and if you want to climb the greasy pole of politics in the Republican party right now, you have to be Donald Trump's sock puppet," I argued.

Co-host Chad Oban and I also discussed a possible ballot measure banning the use of public dollars and resources for private schools that North Dakota voters are currently being surveyed about. Also on the agenda was Sen. John Hoeven taking a victory lap after the release of federal funds for North Dakota school programs, and Rep. Julie Fedorchak's husband, Mike Fedorchak, getting a job as a lobbyist.

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