Throwing the book at politicians

Posted at 12:00 PM on June 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

Within the last week, Minnesota legislators began receiving copies of the book, "48 Liberal Lies About American History," written by a University of Dayton professor, and sent to them by the chairman of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Republican Party. They weren't the only ones, however. Over 7,000 politicians across the country are getting the book.

"It's been very fun, the responses that I've gotten," according to Attorney Greg Gantt, the party chairman in the Ohio county. "The speaker of the Ohio House actually returned a bunch of the books and said that the suggested $25.95 cover price exceeded the amount the gift could be. But it only cost us $7. But they took the time and money to send them back," he said. "That sparked some lively debate around town." (Note: The gift ban in Minnesota is $50).

Twenty volunteers worked for two weeks in Gantt's law firm to get the books out. The effort was bankrolled by Harlan Crow, the Texas real estate mogul and Republican benefactor and frequent contributor to Minnesota Republican pols.

"I just loved it, just from someone taking an event in history," Gantt said. "Many times, as a party chairman, I'll be a part of something and the story comes out and everybody (who knows) realizes that's not exactly how it happened."

Gantt says he hasn't heard anything back from Minnesota politicians, yet. "I got a thank-you note from Sarah Palin yesterday," he said.

Palin and Dayton, Ohio are well linked. It was the city chosen by Sen. John McCain to announce her as his vice presidential running mate. Gantt says Montgomery County is representative of Ohio as a whole. "We've got all the different socio-economic subsets in our county here," Gantt said.

So I had to ask whether Gov. Tim Pawlenty's rumored entrance into the presidential race has got people stirred up in Montgomery County? "Not really, yet," he said. "I think everybody just needed a break from presidential politics."

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Comments (2)

The MN gift ban remains at $0, not $50. The Campaign Finance Board has ruled that trinkets and such up to a value of $5 (or "insignificant) are okay. I believe Gov Ventura wanted it to be changed to $50 or $100, but that was never enacted.

http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/lobby/GIFTPRIM.pdf

The Campaign Finance Board has an advisory document, which I have attached. There are sections related to educational materials, plaques, etc.

Posted by Linda | June 16, 2009 12:41 PM

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Of interest then would be:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: everything your American history textbook got wrong
Apparently the same principle (look at the stupidity espoused in popular high school textbooks), coming out with results which appear to be rather antithetical to this man's ("appear" is since I've read Lies My Teacher Told Me, and not Liberal Lies).

One can argue than any stupidity is due to a person's political leanings, rather than her individual, inherent ignorance. Blaming it on some nebulous "Liberal" entity is fairly stupid. Why is it in your textbooks? Because the publisher isn't willing to spend the money to get quality. And, afterall, history is one of the academic topics of stupendous argument. "Why" is much easier for a chemist to answer than an historian.

Posted by Elizabeth T | June 16, 2009 1:56 PM

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