Continued: Party lines can blur when cleaning up any ugly mess

Everyone talks about the need for bipartisan action. But in Bloomington, they do something about it.

How else are you going to clean eggs off a house?

It was just after midnight on Sept. 20 -- a week ago Saturday -- when a dozen eggs splattered across the front of Ron and Donna Marien's house in the Normandale Hills neighborhood of west Bloomington. The Mariens didn't hear the eggs break against their home, the sticky yolks running down the siding and into the cracks between boards and bricks: They had the air conditioning on. But some of their neighbors were wakened by the noise of young jerks standing in the street, screaming racial epithets and hurling F-bombs, along with the eggs, at the Marien house.

It appears that someone really didn't like Ron Marien's candidate for president.

Marien, 63, is a former president of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce who started out in life as a Republican (he voted for Richard Nixon in 1968, and, as a member of the Old Guard, the Third Infantry Division, took part in Nixon's 1969 inauguration). These days, however, he is a Democratic activist who serves as the DFL precinct chair for Bloomington's Precinct 22.

Marien's wife, Donna, however, has not converted and clings firmly to an independent label. The result is a mixed Marien marriage: Coming up on their 25th anniversary, the Mariens try to avoid detailed political discussions.

"I'm still trying to influence her, but we treat the subject gingerly," Ron says. "She's never told me how she voted in 2004, but I don't think it was for my side. It's a sticky situation."

So was their house.

When the Mariens woke up on Sept. 20, their home, which had just been repainted, was covered with eggs. Donna sized up the situation and surmised that Ron's Obama sign had provoked the attack.

Because it had been his decision to put the sign in their yard, she announced, it would be Ron who would be in charge of the cleanup. Ron accepted his fate. He didn't argue.

After all, Donna's suspicions were supported by the neighbors who had seen a four-door sedan speeding away after they heard the shouted curses and racial slurs aimed at Obama. The sad truth is that if you choose to put up a campaign sign in this season of contention and high stakes, you may be asking for a dozen X-Large huevos, over hard.

But bad eggs don't just hit Obama houses. Minnesota Republicans say that about 20 John McCain signs disappeared on Friday night -- during the Obama-McCain debate -- from St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Stupid tricks happen on both sides of the political divide. What's far less common is when you see both sides pitch in, to cooperate, not compete.

We did not see that kind of partnership in Washington on Monday: The plan to save Wall Street's bacon was rejected by the House of Representatives, leaving us still wondering how to clean up the mess we're in.

Maybe we should try to follow Bloomington's example.

The cleanup took about eight hours: Broken eggs discolored the house siding, stuck like glue to the bricks, even littered the roof with cracked shells and stains. Ron Marien says he would probably still be working on the problem, if he hadn't had help.

He got that in spades: From neighbors up and down the block who showed up with ladders, brought over hoses and power washers and brushes, and lent their experience, their tips on egg scrubbing, and their moral support. Some even applied elbow grease.

"There were eggs everywhere," Ron says. "I'd still be out there, on a ladder, if my neighbors hadn't helped."

Some of his neighbors also have Obama signs in their yard. Others, without signs, told the Mariens they are still making up their minds who to vote for on Nov. 4. And a few, Ron suspects, may vote for McCain. But none of those partisan concerns interfered with the efforts of the Egg Removal Crew. This was a bipartisan cleanup.

"Some of the people who helped us are Republicans," Ron says. "We didn't talk politics, but they were appalled that we got egged. I believe our country can do a lot better than we have the last seven or eight years, and that most people believe we need to change direction. But we didn't talk about that stuff.

"You can only ask so many questions of people who help you clean up. You're just glad for the help. Whether we were 'blue' or 'red' didn't matter as much to our neighbors as it did to the people who delivered the eggs."

They got away: A car load of high school-age kids, maybe older, that stopped in front of the Mariens' home after (maybe) leaving a party elsewhere in Normandale Hills that night. The morons left behind an empty egg carton, some anger and some anxiety. They also left behind a block full of ticked-off citizens who -- whether Democrat or Republican -- may agree strongly on one thing, for sure:

They'd like to find the numbskulls who threw the eggs and put the jerks to work, all day, cleaning up some of the fine mess that we're still in.

ncoleman@startribune.com • 612-673-4400