Somebody’s pants are on fire!

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Last Monday I did a piece on how the AP has joined the local media in the Twin Cities in enabling a certain paid Republican operative and blogger named Michael Brodkorb, treating him as respectfully as they do Matt Drudge, even though (like Drudge) he’s known for spewing bogosities.

And like the national press, the Twin Cities press isn’t as forelock-tuggingly deferent to non-conservative bloggers; the same media that cites Brodkorb by name as an honest and "independent" source seem to suffer memory lapses where the contributions of lefty bloggers are concerned.

For example: Last week, a local lefty blogger attended a GOP presscon. The presscon was held to hand out the latest Al-Franken-bashing talking points (the first versions of which, mentioned in my earlier post, were being pushed by Brodkorb) to the ever-compliant local media. The blogger tried questioning Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey about the party’s FEC fines and other nasty things. However, the StarTribune did its darnedest not to use the guy’s name, even though his question gave Strib scribes Pat Doyle and Dan Browning a page B1 (and teased on the front page) story in its May 8, 2008 edition:

A left-leaning blogger tried to ask Carey about the party’s FEC reports at a news conference the GOP called last week to highlight Franken’s problems. Carey dismissed him, saying the press briefing “is something for our credentialed media here.”

Carey did not respond this week to Star Tribune requests for an interview about the FEC filings.

“Just like any political entity, the Republican Party of Minnesota continues to work with the FEC to make certain our filings are in compliance,” party spokesman Mark Drake said in an e-mail Tuesday.

For the record, Two-Putt Tommy is the blogger in question. Here’s the question he wanted to ask Ron Carey:

“Mr. Chairman, under your stewardship, the MN GOP has paid fines to the FEC going back to 2001, and there are questions from within your own party whether GOP employee retirement money was misappropriated, not to mention allegations of tax evasion. How do you respond to charges that you are trying to hold Franken’s campaign to standards you can’t keep?”

The lack of name-checking for Two-Putt Tommy wasn’t the only oddity about the Strib’s story. The account of Two-Putt’s interaction with Carey was also not quite right. Here’s Tommy’s version of events:

So, I started off: “Mr. Chairman, under….” and was immediately cut off by republiCon Ron, who essentially said “Tom, this is for traditional media, I’m not answering your question.”

“Mr. Chairman, you’re not taking questions from bloggers?”

“I’ll talk to you afterwards, Tom”.

And, of course, republiCon Ron didn’t. I waited patiently in the back of the room for Ron to work his way there. Alas, he didn’t – he schmoozed some reporters in the front, and out the door he went.

So, I followed! All the way over to the Capital Press Rooms. Ron and Mark Drake were a little surprised to see me there, Mark asked me why I was there. So, I told him – Ron said he’d answer my question later, so I was there to ask it! Mark told me to call him later, and ask him, and he’d get my question answered. Mark wrote down the number for me to call. And after I talked to members of the “traditional media” about the day’s non-event, I did call – but got no answer. I called yesterday, too. This time, I got a gentleman who told me Mark was in, and asked my name. I told him, and in a few moments was told Mark wasn’t available – would I like to leave a voice message?

So, I did. I gave Mark my phone number and e-mail address, and asked Mark to e-mail me – I’d rather put the question in writing so there would be no miscommunication as to the question or the response.

And I am NOT surprised Mark hasn’t gotten back to me.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Two-Putt’s efforts have singlehandedly pivoted the story from the GOP-approved "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" accusations against Franken to the local Republican Party’s horrendous financial shenanigans. Anyone who still thinks after seven years of George W. Bush that the Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility needs to check this out from the Two-Putter:

Here’s what the Star Tribune found:

“The difficulties became apparent early last year when the party amended 52 disclosures to the FEC. The revisions took place in the wake of staff resignations and complaints that the party misused employee retirement money, improperly reported its finances, and retaliated against staff who reported the problems.
Since then, the FEC has repeatedly demanded that the party reconcile conflicting financial reports.”

WOW!!! 52 amended reports??!? Hold on; as they say on TV infomercials “But, wait! That’s not all!!!”

“• The FEC questioned: An amended year-end report in 2006 that disclosed $1.4 million in transfers from a non-federal campaign account to a federal account. The agency suggested that the state GOP violated restrictions on such transfers and on using the non-federal funds to pay interest on a loan owed by the federal account.

• The GOP responded: It said it was involved in a “thorough review” of its finances and expected to file corrections. It also said it corrected the loan problem.”

Holy Smokescreen, Norm!!! Thats 1.4 MILLION smackers, we’re talkin’ ’bout!!! But, did the MN GOP “correct(ed) the loan problem”?!?? Did Ron Carey’s MN GOP file the corrected report?

Stay tuned; we’ll find out!

Personally, I can’t wait. Go get ‘em, Tommy! (Oh, and someone remind Pat Doyle and Dan Browning who he is, OK?)

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