Polinaut: May 29, 2009 Archive

The Daily Digest: 5-29-09

Posted at 7:24 AM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

The Minnesota public provided input on fixing the state's deficit.

The PUC pulls the plug on the coal gasification plant.

A GOP leaning group sues Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat. The Star Tribune, AP and the Pi Press have stories.

The Legislative Auditor says he still has concerns with the bookkeeping and accountability at Metro Gang Strike Force.

D.C.

President Obama says it's now or never to fix health care.

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants to expand Minnesota food safety nationwide.

Federal stimulus money will help St. Paul Housing.

DFL Rep. Tim Walz speaks with Syria's president.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison met with Jordan's King in Jordan.

Ellison will be the featured speaker at a banquet in South Carolina on Sunday.

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann hears health care concerns at a forum in Forest Lake.

A new comic book takes aim at Bachmann and the Minnesota media.

The Wall St. Journal examines efforts to better regulate credit default swaps. DFL Rep. Collin Peterson is mentioned.

2010

Gov. Pawlenty pushes back his reelection decision. Listen to his interview here.

Ethics complaint filed against Paul Gardner

Posted at 12:46 PM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck (5 Comments)

GOP Rep. Mark Buesgens and GOP Rep. Tom Emmer have filed an ethics complaint against DFL Rep. Paul Gardner for comments Gardner made on Twitter. Gardner has deleted his twitter account but in his tweets on May 8th he wrote "Emmer seems to belittle his female colleagues (rage, sarcasm) on the floor more than the men? Great face to the GOP?" and "Why is Buesgens wearing sunglasses? Black eye?"

In the complaint, Emmer and Buesgens wrote:

"Representative Gardner's communications were clearly designed to suggest that his colleagues are physically violent and prone to harassment of female members of the House of Representatives." Representative Gardner knew or, at the very least, should have known that his written comments were false and injurious to his ALL (sic) of his legislative colleagues...."

"...There can be NO dispute that Representative Gardner's actions violate his ethical obligation to treat his legislative colleagues with "respect" and "fairness." Nor can he be said to have exercised "sound judgment" by publishing false statements to the public from the House floor."

The complaint asks that Gardner be properly reprimanded and disciplined.

Gardner did write a formal apology to the entire House floor on May 11th. In an interview, he also said he apologized to the two personally and posted a link to his apology on twitter. He added that "I don't understand how many times that you can say you made a mistake and take ownership for actions and seek a remedy that seems to resolve their actions."

Gardner also suggested that he will provide numerous examples where Emmer has disrespected his DFL members on the House floor:

"I'm not going to make any excuses for my actions but I will point out there has been preponderance of disrespectful behavior demonstrated , in particular by Representative Emmer, over many months. My offensive behavior happened one time, on May 8th, and it has ceased. And if you watch the House floor on a regular basis that you will see that disrespectful behavior against some of my colleagues has been chronic."

Gardner said he didn't think Buesgens disrespected any House members.

Buesgens told me he didn't want to comment until Tuesday's Ethics hearing. Emmer could not be reached to comment. DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher also could not be reached to comment. A spokesman for DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher said the Gardner complaint is in the possession of the House Ethics Committee. He said Kelliher wants that process to move forward without any comment from her.

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For your viewing pleasure....

Posted at 2:43 PM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck

Here's a list of who's on the weekend shows.

TPT's Almanac:

Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak returned from China yesterday and we'll visit with him about his international trip.

The American Refugee Committee has a new president, Daniel Wordsworth. He joins us to talk about the current relief efforts in Pakistan.

And we'll end the show with a panel of folks talking about housing issues and all of the news this week about mortgage default rates, sinking home values, etc. Our group includes Jeanne Boeh, head of the Economics Dept at Augsburg; Prentiss Cox from the U of M law school and Brad Fisher, President-Elect of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.

WCCO's Sunday Morning:

-Raleigh Levine-Professor at William and Mitchell Law School-going to be talking about the Senate trial on June 1st.

-R.T. Rybak will talk about his China trip and the future of Minneapolis

-Scott or Katey Taylor, the parents of Abigail Taylor-Going to be talking about their pool safety party, which is happening on June 5th.

-Additionally, we are working on getting someone from Coleman's camp and Sec. of State Mark Ritchie

KSTP's At Issue:

On last week's "At Issue," Governor Pawlenty took at shot at Mayor Wayne Wolden of Wadena, saying the Mayor was complaining about LGA cuts while not tapping into his city's own rainy day fund. On this week's show, Mayor Wolden responds.

ABCs THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS - Topic: Sotomayor, with Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas.

CBS' FACE THE NATION WITH BOB SCHIEFFER - Topics: Sotomayor nomination, with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

CNN's STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING - Topics: Sotomayor, economy, future of GOP, Guantanamo, president's Mideast trip. Guests: Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukry.

FOX NEWS SUNDAY - Topics: Sotomayor and GOP politics, with Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

NBC's MEET THE PRESS - Topics: Sotomayor nomination, with Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; the economy, with CEOs Anne Mulcahy of Xerox Corp., Jim Owens of Caterpillar, and Eric Schmidt of Google.

House and Senate DFL leaders give Pawlenty advice on unallotment

Posted at 4:34 PM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck

DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller wrote a letter to Governor Pawlenty regarding his decision to cut spending on his own. Pawlenty has asked the public, lawmakers and others to give him advice on what programs to cut.

The letter is a bit snarky and urges Pawlenty not to make cuts to core services. They also tell him he'll be "responsible for the repercussions of those actions which we believe will be detrimental to the long-term interests of Minnesota and will continue to keep our state budget in deficit."

Here's the letter.

MPR to air MN Supremes live

Posted at 9:48 PM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck

Minnesota's long-running US Senate Race will take another step forward Monday morning. The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case. You can hear them too. Minnesota Public Radio News will air the hearing live starting at 9 Monday morning. Bob Collins will also live blog the proceedings. Afterwards Kerri Miller will have analysis on Midmorning and Gary Eichten will do the same on Midday.

Pawlenty invited to Southern Republican Leadership Conference

Posted at 10:54 PM on May 29, 2009 by Tom Scheck

Gov. Pawlenty is invited to attend the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. The conference is billed as "the largest and most important Republican gathering until the 2012 Republican National Convention."