Dean Johnson Apologizes

The Strib's Pat Doyle has the story on Minnesota Majority Leader Dean Johnson's public apology for lying about a conversation he had with Minnesota Supreme Court justices, a conversation he now admits didn't happen.
Majority Leader Dean Johnson stood on the Minnesota Senate floor Monday and apologized for an "inaccurate statement" he gave to pastors in January about having received assurances from state Supreme Court justices that they wouldn't overturn a state law on marriage. While the apology halted an inquiry by a Senate ethics panel into Johnson's conduct, it didn't answer questions about what, if anything, justices said to him about the law. "I have at no time received any commitments regarding potential judicial decisions from any member of the Minnesota Supreme Court," Johnson told fellow senators.
Forgive the Strib for attempting to make it sound like this conversation took place. It didn't. In fact, last week's press coference by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Russell Anderson pretty much ended that possibility.

In fact, the growing consensus is that that press conference pretty much ended Dean Johnson's political career. The last time Johnson ran, he won with only 51 percent of the vote, finishing about 2 points ahead of his challenger.

That happened when this scandal wasn't on the screen. Willmar, the biggest city in his Senate district, is a conservative town that doesn't take kindly to being lied to.

Here's what makes the thing so bizarre:
Attorney Ellen Sampson said if the special subcommittee on ethical conduct pressed on, Johnson was prepared to call witnesses who would testify to discussions he had with justices. "If the committee tells us to name them, we will name them and we will call the witnesses who were in those meetings and heard those conversations," Sampson said during a closed portion of a hearing held by the panel.
It doesn't appear that that will happen. I wasn't convinced that it ever could happen.


Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2006 2:49 AM

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