News Cut: November 14, 2008 Archive

'Prove it'

Posted at 10:16 AM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins

It doesn't take much to create fact from myth in today's media environment; just repeat an allegation often enough and hope nobody ever says "prove it." Chances are, nobody will. A glance at the letters to the editors in the past week shows that many people have already bought into the notion that Minnesota -- which 10 days ago was collectively patting itself on the back for having the most engaged voters in America -- is actually -- if you follow the narrative that's been designed -- a state inhabited by crooks, liars, and low-lifes, run by crooks, liars, and low-lifes, destined to be represented in Congress by crooks, liars, and low-lifes.

The phone rang the other night at the airport while I was picking up my in-laws for their annual visit. It was my sister in Vermont, wondering what the latest was on the Senate recount. She didn't actually laugh, but I could hear the tone. A few minutes later, after getting my in-laws' baggage and extending pleasantries, I got the question, "Is your election over yet?" followed by the usual disbelief that Minnesota had somehow screwed things up good.

How did our national esteem drop so far in 10 days? Here's an easy example:Yesterday, Al Franken's hired gun held a news conference to claim a woman -- and not just any woman, a woman who'd had a stroke -- had her absentee ballot disqualified.

"So despite her efforts to get a ballot on time, consider the candidates, submit that ballot on time, her ballot didn't count, because there was a mismatch in the signature that was on file with the county," Marc Elias continued. "There are stories like this throughout Minnesota."

Wrong. Because nobody put two important words together -- "prove it" -- the story raced around for hours before someone called the Beltrami County auditor and found out the story wasn't true.

A few days ago, the Coleman campaign whipped up a frenzy by noting that 32 absentee ballots were found in an election official's car. Later, an election official said the story wasn't true, but that didn't stop Gov. Tim Pawlenty from going on national TV -- twice -- to repeat it.

"We don't have any evidence of wrongdoing," Pawlenty noted, shortly before dropping enough innuendo to suggest he did.

Yesterday, Republican National Committee Chair Mike Duncan sent out a fundraising letter saying...

"The Obama-Biden Democrats and their liberal special interest allies are trying to steal these election victories from Republicans."

On CNN this morning, anchor John Roberts conducted a clinic for reporters covering the story when he invoked the two most needed words in this mess: "prove it."

"Well, we've got to make sure there's not a thumb on the scale, particularly in Minnesota, where the system is being regulated by a secretary of state who is partisan, and we gotta make sure we have our people in the rooms, making sure there isn't a stray count," Duncan responded.

Roberts recognizes a non-answer when he hears one. "This fundraising letter clearly states they're trying to steal this election," he noted.

"Well, we have to be careful," Duncan responded. "There's lots of reported irregularities in this election, going back to ACORN when they tried to register people illegally....."

"Is it accurate to say they're trying to steal this election?" Roberts insisted on asking. "Does that language go to far?"

After a nervous laugh, Duncan said, "John, I've not got that in front of me right now, but I want to be sure we are vigilant and do not allow anyone to influence the outcome of these elections and we have every resource to do that."

Roberts didn't give up. "'They're trying to steal these election victories' is pretty charged language."

"Do you want anyone to steal an election?" Duncan said.

"I don't want anyone to steal an election, but there's no evidence anyone is and it's hard to reconcile how you put that language into a fundraising letter," Roberts said before turning to another subject, while letting Duncan wallow in his deserved national embarrassment. We know how he feels.

Roberts was right. And Mike Duncan proved it.

Delta has Minnesota over a hub

Posted at 9:00 AM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Though we don't technically have a hometown airline anymore now that Delta has absorbed Northwest, the Atlanta-based airline still provides a fair amount of economic activity for Minnesota. And doesn't it know it. Less than a month after Delta officials pledged to keep its Twin Cities hub, the company has made it clear there's a significant maybe involved.

Thursday's hearing at the Capitol was an exercise in veiled threats, centered around state-backed debt for Northwest, given years ago in exchange for a promise to keep the headquarters here.

Lawmakers don't have a lot of clout in preventing Delta from closing Northwest's Eagan headquarters, and former-Northwest-now-Delta official Ben Hirst got that point across pretty clearly without exactly saying so.

The legislators stressed that a deal is a deal.

Hirst's response:

"To the extent that the Minneapolis airport has higher costs per enplanement than Cincinnati or Detroit or other competing airports in the Delta system, then all that happens there is that Delta has an incentive to locate flights through those airports rather than here."

Translation: Push us, and we'll close your hub.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom said Delta can't just say they're not going to honor the deal. To which Hirst replied the company would, if pushed, just write a check for what's owed, adding:

"In uncertain times, liquidity means security for our company and for our people, so we would prefer to leave the bonds in place," Hirst said.

Translation: If you push us to early repayment, we'd have less cash and we may have to close your hub.

That sent Rep. Ann Lenczewski on a new tack: repealing tax breaks Delta-Northwest gets.

Hirst's response as quoted by Session Weekly:

Such actions could result in increased employment costs at the airport, which could force Delta to scale back its operations even further.

Translation: Fine. We'll close your hub.

Oh, and about those taxes. Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Pat Hogan sent an e-mail today noting that the airlines pay them:

Airlines and other businesses at MSP DO pay property taxes. (I believe a look at the Hennepin County tax rolls will show that NWA pays millions in property taxes for its airport facilities.) What MSP tenants do not pay is the Statewide Commercial/Industrial tax. That tax was established to fund education. MSP is not in any city nor does it contain any residences that might use area schools, so the Legislature determined airport tenants should not be subject to that particular tax. Utilities, fire and polic protection are provided by the MAC, and airport tenants cover those costs through rent payments and other charges.

(I'm looking for Northwest employees who are in "limbo," who don't know whether they'll be in Minnesota or Georgia. Please contact me.)

(2 Comments)

RNC: Who was in charge?

Posted at 1:46 PM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Last summer, I covered an event outside the Xcel Energy Center in which the top brass of area law enforcement announced they had a deal for enough cops for the Republican National Convention.

Here's the image I took of the event.

You'll have to take my word for it that Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher wasn't there and it wasn't until I heard MPR reporter Laura Yuen's story on Thursday that I took notice of that.

Chief John Harrington and Fletcher, according to Laura's story, were clashing around the time over how many cops would be needed and what form of presence they'd assume.

He said while the public may have been surprised by the intensity of police presence downtown, it's probably because residents paid attention to early assurances from the department that anarchists would not be causing safety problems -- assurances that, as it turned out, were based on faulty intelligence.

Still unclear, however, is who was in charge during the Republican National Convention?

In the second part of Yuen's series this afternoon, Fletcher says he had nothing to do with the most controversial aspects of the RNC police actions, Harrington will say it was Fletcher's department who took the lead in investigations that led to the pre-RNC raids.

(1 Comments)

On vacation

Posted at 4:10 PM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

News Cut is going on vacation. Nothing serious, I'm just burning up vacation time so I can accumulate more. Walking away from a new blog while trying to develop an audience for it is risky business in these economic times and up until recently I tended not to do it. But News Cut has been warmly received and for that I thank you for your very insightful contributions.

I almost dropped my vacation plans (Note: There are none, I'll be working on the airplane and resting a sore shoulder ravaged by a year of non-stop blogging.) when I heard the Senate recount would start next Wednesday. I thought it would give me an opportunity to live-blog at a recount center:

9:00:05 That's one for Franken
9:00:30 That's one for Coleman
9:00:45 That's one for Franken
9:01 00 That's one for Coleman

But some people may not have seen the humor in eight hours worth of that.

MPR's Than Tibbetts and Steve Mullis will be occasionally posting while I'm away. Steve also has a pretty neat personal blog here. I'll be around on Twitter.

Please let me return to an inbox full of e-mails with interesting people you know that you think should be "News Cutted."

(2 Comments)