Years-old blog posts in which Republican congressional hopeful Jim Hagedorn lambasted women, American Indians, gays and national political figures have recently resurfaced and are now dogging the candidate's campaign.
Hagedorn, the surprise primary victor in the First Congressional District, told the Star Tribune on Friday that he stood by his extensive writings. Hagedorn is running against four-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat.
In a 2002 "masterpiece analysis," he called two female senators from Washington "bimbos in tennis shoes." In his posts, Hagedorn offered up his candid assessments of state and national races, peppering descriptions of elected officials with disparaging remarks. His missives, however, were not all negative.
In a 2008 "masterpiece analysis," he thanked Sen. John McCain for picking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on the Republican ticket.
"On behalf of all red-blooded American men: THANK YOU SENATOR McCAIN, SARAH'S HOT!" he wrote. In his many commentaries, he also railed against gay marriage and accused Democrats in South Dakota of using deceased American Indians' names on absentee ballots.
"Leave it to liberals to ruin John Wayne's wisdom of the only good Indian being a dead Indian," he wrote in 2002.
A businessman, Hagedorn defended his off-the-cuff opinions as humorous and satirical in nature, saying he criticized politicians of all stripes, not just Democrats. The posts were written between 2002 and 2008 on a now-defunct blog titled "Mr. Conservative." The writings were first reported by politics blog Bluestem Prairie and later picked up by Mother Jones, a liberal news site.
"Over the years, I wrote political commentary … and poked fun at national politicians," Hagedorn said. "This is old stuff that's been out there" for years, he said.
