Does an inaccurate biography presage any other problems with the Vikings prospective buyer? It certainly raises questions about what the PR firm handling Reggie Fowler's first meeting with the Minnesota media must have been thinking. This is, after all, the state that saw Tom Clancy first emerge then fade away as a possible Vikings owner a few years ago. Jay Weiner of the Star Tribune has the story of Fowler's shifting bio:
He had played in the Little League World Series, studied business at the University of Wyoming and played for the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL, among other things.
Upon closer examination, however, those claims and others in his official biography are not exactly true.
Wednesday, in two brief interviews before he declined further comment, Fowler said he'd never been to the world-famous Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., that his college degree is in social work, not business, and that he merely tried out for the Bengals, but didn't play in a game for them.
He also said early in the day that he had not seen the biography.
The information was distributed Monday. It was written by people in his Spiral Inc., office in Chandler, Ariz.
By day's end Wednesday, in a written statement, Fowler called the biography "a draft copy."
But that "draft copy" was distributed to all the NFL owners, including the 10 members of the league's powerful Finance Committee, which will meet March 9-10 to determine whether Fowler's $625 million offer to McCombs is in order.
"I really do not know anything about him except what I've read in that prepared press release and in the newspaper," said Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, a member of the Finance Committee. "I don't have any firsthand knowledge about him, but he certainly sounds like an accomplished person and a success story."
Asked if his opinion of Fowler's candidacy would be affected by an inaccurate biography, Hunt said: "I wouldn't speculate on that at all. I don't know whether it's accurate or not. I'm going to rely on whatever the NFL comes up with."
The key question is whether Fowler and his partners can come up with the money they say they have to actually buy the team. Tom Clancy couldn't.
No matter what you think of Gov. Tim Pawlenty you have to acknowledge he knows how to make news. In Washington, D.C. Wednesday the governor said he would look to Indian tribes to help sell discount prescription drugs. MPR's Tom Scheck had this item:
Pawlenty says he's been speaking with officials from the state's northern Indian tribes about working with them if the Food and Drug Administration shuts down the state run site. Pawlenty called it an option of last resort.
He says the tribes would use their sovereign status to buy drugs from Canada and then sell the drugs to Minnesotans. He said no deal has been reached and called the discussions preliminary.
"This would be kind of a doomsday scenario where the FDA or others try to legally shut us down and these tribal communities may be beyond the reach of the FDA and others with respect to regulatory concerns."
Pawlenty wouldn't say which tribes he's spoken with. He was in Washington D.C. urging Congress to expand Minnesota's website on a national scale.
And while the governor was away, more cooperation broke out at the Capitol. This time it was on the House version of the bonding bill. MPR's Laura McCallum had the story:
The bill sailed out of the House Capital Investment committee on a unanimous voice vote. It would authorize the state to sell bonds to borrow $781 million for construction projects across the state. The remaining $35 million would be financed by colleges and universities.
Higher education is the bill's biggest beneficiary, with nearly $90 million for the University of Minnesota and nearly $155 million for MnSCU projects. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, says the bill focuses on the state's infrastructure needs.
"Whether it's the waste improvement fund, roads and bridges, redevelopment grants, things of that nature, a lot of that in there, and of course, higher education. Our higher ed... we have every project that was on the governor's list plus we're significantly higher in many MnSCU areas," according to Dorman...
House DFL leaders say they wish the House bill was larger, but consider it a good start. The bill will need DFL votes to pass the House. State law requires a three-fifths majority for bills that authorize state borrowing, and Republicans have only a one-vote margin.
The lead Democrat on the Capital Investment Committee, Alice Hausman of St. Paul, says she thinks most DFLers will vote for the bill.
And finally, what goes around comes around. Remember the GOP Contract With America? Well, the Democrats do, and according to the Star Tribune's Greg Gordon they want Gil Gutknecht to remember it too:
In campaigning for his House seat in 1994, Minnesota Rep. Gil Gutknecht trumpeted his support for term limits in Congress and promised to serve no more than 12 years.
Now, at the start of his sixth two-year term, DFL leaders are calling on Gutknecht to honor his pledge and announce plans to retire. The controversy recalls the criticism Republicans directed at the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, when he repudiated a pledge to serve only 12 years in the Senate.
Gutknecht "still supports the idea of term limits, but you can't unilaterally enact them or it negatively impacts the district," his spokesman, Bryan Anderson, said Wednesday. If Gutknecht retired, he said, the southern Minnesota district would lose the political clout that comes with seniority -- including his chairmanship of an agriculture subcommittee.
"The reality is that in a time when agricultural districts are getting fewer in number, it's important that they have a strong voice," Anderson said.
Hmmm...I don't remember that agricultural district escape clause in the contract. On the other hand if Gutknecht were to be elected to the Senate, the term limit promise would be kept. Maybe the Dems should be careful what they wish for.
