Let’s talk about what happens when harm reduction becomes so elastic it loses all meaning. Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and current Democratic Senate candidate, helped funnel $100 million in state grants to organizations supposedly tackling homelessness. Sounds noble enough until you learn one recipient distributes kits specifically designed for taking drugs rectally. Yes, you read that right. Your tax dollars at work.

Southside Harm Reduction Services received funding from the 2024 grant program that Flanagan enthusiastically promoted alongside Governor Tim Walz. The organization hands out what they call Booty Bump kits, complete with syringes, sterile water, lubricant, drug preparation supplies, and an informational booklet. The term booty bumping is exactly what it sounds like. This isn’t some fringe practice we’re talking about here. It’s rectal drug administration, wrapped in the language of public health and stamped with government approval.

Now, the administration’s official announcement didn’t exactly lead with this detail. They mentioned syringe exchange, naloxone distribution, HIV testing, and social service referrals. All defensible components of harm reduction if you squint hard enough and believe the philosophy works. But the Booty Bump kits? Those stayed tucked away from the press release, discovered later by reporters doing the job that apparently no one in state government thought necessary.

Flanagan said at the time that the funding would ensure everyone could access supports for safe and stable housing. The mission was preventing and ending homelessness, she declared. That’s a wonderful sentiment. But somewhere between preventing homelessness and distributing rectal drug kits, the mission got blurry. When did enabling drug use through novel administration methods become indistinguishable from actually helping people escape the streets?

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Flanagan now wants to run for Senate, which means her record gets scrutinized. Minnesota has been rocked by massive fraud scandals under the Walz administration. Tens of millions stolen from programs meant to feed children. Money vanished into a web of corruption that should embarrass everyone involved. Asked whether she takes any ownership over this fraud, Flanagan pointed directly at her boss. The governor has been very clear that the buck stops with him, she said. He had oversight, not her.

This is someone who has served as lieutenant governor for nearly eight years. That’s not a ceremonial role you show up to for ribbon cuttings and state fair appearances. She wants credit for paid family leave, child tax credits, and school meals. Those are the areas where she took the lead, she insists. But accountability for fraud happening under her watch? That’s someone else’s problem.

Her Republican opponent Michele Tafoya didn’t mince words. She was second in charge and demanded to be in the room where everything happened, Tafoya pointed out. But suddenly she has nothing to do with the scandals. It’s a fair criticism. You can’t claim leadership when it’s convenient and plead ignorance when it’s not.

This selective responsibility reveals something deeper about progressive governance in states like Minnesota. The impulse toward harm reduction sounds compassionate on paper. Nobody wants people dying from overdoses or spreading disease. But when harm reduction means government funded kits for rectal drug use while fraud bleeds programs dry, maybe the priorities have gotten scrambled beyond recognition.

Traditional values suggest government should help people get better, not make their addictions more comfortable. Limited government means not spending taxpayer money on every sympathetic cause that crosses a bureaucrat’s desk. Individual liberty includes the freedom to make bad choices, sure, but it doesn’t require the rest of us to subsidize those choices with specialized equipment and instruction manuals.

Flanagan represents a brand of politics where intentions excuse outcomes. Where compassion means never saying no to another program or another dollar spent. Where leadership is whatever gets you good press and responsibility is whatever makes you look bad. Minnesota voters weighing her Senate bid should ask themselves what they’re actually getting. Someone who funded rectal drug kits while the state hemorrhaged money to fraud. Someone who claims credit but deflects blame. That’s not leadership. That’s calculation dressed up as caring.

Related: Virginia Democrat L. Louise Lucas Arrested in Federal Drug and Bribery Case That Started Years Ago