In 2007 Google decided it wanted a more permanent role in the political game. The company launched its D.C. public policy headquarters the following January. Google and policy makers in D.C. were excited to see this step being taken by the tech giant; the expectation was that Google would take the system by storm.

Over the last three years Google has been highly invested in the public policy process and in many cases they have molded policy to their whims and desires. In 2008 Barack Obama ran as a pro-net neutrality candidate and Google jumped on that bandwagon donating $814,540  to the campaign.  His opponent, John McCain received less than $100,000. Additionally another million  dollars was provided by Google to MoveOn.org. This grand show of support was in hopes that it would ensure Google Federal Communications Commission support for Net Neutrality. For the most part they got it. And that policy looks to stick, for now, after last week’s inaction by Congress, allowing the FCC to start passing law for the United States.

Though recently it appears Google has begun to realize a valuable lesson about the world of D.C. politics, when the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission announced they would be investigating Google for monopoly practices.

Recently, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, spoke with the Washington Post after his first appearance for congressional testimony, and the “take D.C. by storm” expectation certainly appeared to be catching up with Google as Schmidt vocalized his frustration.

“So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. OK? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer,” Mr. Schmidt stated to the Post. “It’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to . . . lower than free? You see what I’m saying?”

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We’re accustomed to strange political phenomena rising out of Minnesota.

We can accept the occasional Jesse Ventura or Al Franken winning statewide office, because the state’s voters obviously like to be different.

But we doubt even the most offbeat citizens of that state would approve of the new K-12 teacher education program that’s been proposed for the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.

While the rest of the nation is trying to force teachers to help our children reach their potential, the university’s College of Education and Human Development wants to make sure future teachers are more anti-American, so they can share that philosophy with their future students.

We couldn’t even begin to make something like this up.

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