The national election campaign has had its share of twists and turns and coincidences and ironies. The focus has gone from Main Street to Wall Street to Sesame Street.
The Sesame Street angle is both coincidental and ironic. The party that would fire Big Bird and close down Sesame Street is the same party that has many candidates who have signed the Grover pledge.
Of course it is a different Grover than the one on Sesame Street. Yet the whole pledging process smacks of puppetry. The signers are Muppet-like in their being under the control of Grover Norquist, and they include Rick Berg and Kevin Cramer.
With all those tied to Grover, the Republican Party could aptly be called the Muppet Party. They are more beholden to him than to their constituents.
Perhaps the Puppet Party would be the more accurate title since Muppets have no strings, and many Republican candidates, like Berg and Cramer, come attached to Grover's strings.
But a Muppet is a brand-named type of puppet. And however they are manipulated and whatever you call them, Grover pledge signers are like Muppets rather than independent adults free to respond to the needs of their constituents.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is off track in his campaign pledge to fire Big Bird and his fellow Muppets, including Grover. As his party's standard bearer, he could do his party and the country a great service by using his influence right now to fire the other Grover, the one tying up Republican legislators who in turn are tying up and deadlocking Congress.
(James Lein is a community columnist for The Minot Daily News)