Check out David Strom's latest letter (forthcoming in the STrib, subject to Boydulent editing), regarding his tongue-in-cheek suggestion to rename a highway to honor Ronald Reagan rather than Floyd Olson.

Nobody with even the most passing knowledge of the Farmer-Labor movement would deny that Floyd B Olson was a socialist by almost any definition. Governor
Olson famously promoted the state ownership of industry and the forcible redistribution of wealth. And for those of you in need of a history lesson, remember that Hubert H Humphrey made his name by driving the communists out of the Farmer-Labor Party when it merged with the Democrat party in 1944.

Governor Olson would never have hidden or shaded his political views the way his modern defenders have. He proudly called himself a �radical,� and staked his claim to political office on his willingness to be a radical. �I do not mind being called a 'red' . . . I would prefer it to the term 'yellow',� said Floyd.

And as for Reagan? Apparently it galls aging leftists to even admit the Ronald Reagan was Minnesota�s President too, no less a truly great one. In Eastern Europe Reagan is known as the Great Liberator for his willingness to face down Communist tyranny, and for his contribution to ending the Cold War. According to Nick Coleman, ace historian, Reagan was nothing more than a �thespian.� Coleman couldn�t even choke out the fact that Reagan served as President, no less was a truly great statesman.

Coleman of course is a bobo who married into his boboism but the point here really is that Coleman and the rest of the pained criers have no sense of proportion between historical figures. They cannot rank a president acknolewdged by most as one of the our ten presidents ahead of a leftist icon of Minnesota. They can name schools after Wellstone, but nothing for Reagan.