Strib's Soundbite Transcription

Strib's Soundbite Transcription The Klobuchar campaign took a couple of shots to the chin during Mark Kennedy's speech:

The GOP Congressman drew laughs when he said Klobuchar criticized Washington for being run by lobbyists, when she was once a registered lobbyist herself. He also said his campaign hasn't found any cases she prosecuted personally, even though he says she calls herself a prosecutor.

Here's how the 'unbiased' Strib wrote this up:

Kennedy lashed out at his Democratic opponent, Amy Klobuchar, telling his audience that he's running against "another liberal lawyer."

No mention of the specifics. Just a mention of a soundbite. That isn't reporting. That's soundbite transcription. Of course, they had to include a quote from A-Klo's spokeswoman that's more distraction than anything else:

Reached later for comment, Klobuchar spokeswoman Tara McGuinness said, "Congressman Kennedy has nothing to offer Minnesotans faced with rising gas prices, health care costs and college tuition. So he's resorted to his classic desperate, negative attacks."

Talk about chutzpah. Part of Ms. Klobuchar's 'solution' to high gas prices is a windfalls profits tax on oil companies, though she doesn't call it that on her website:

I will fight to stop price gouging by oil companies. In early September, I called for a "gas gouging penalty" against oil companies that were gouging American consumers at the gas pump even before Hurricane Katrina. Oil companies were already enjoying record profits, with double-digit increases each quarter. Exxon Mobil is the richest company in America. It violates our basic principle of fair play when major oil companies can gouge consumers, not only hurting ordinary families, but also harming other businesses that see their own costs go up dramatically.

Calling it a "gas gouging penalty" instead of a windfalls profits tax is spinning it so they don't get clobbered on that issue. It's a policy that would just add to the cost of a gallon of gas.

This shows how out to lunch Ms. Klobuchar is. Does anyone think that oil companies are going to not recoup the profits they're currently making? Furthermore, Ms. Klobuchar's windfalls profits tax is going to be unpopular with the pension funds that are invested in these 'evil' oil companies.

I also notice that Ms. Klobuchar wants to make tuition affordable but says nothing about how to keep costs down. What her website does say is this:

I introduced new initiatives to keep schools safe and to help keep kids in school and out of trouble, because prevention and early intervention are a lot cheaper than prosecution and incarceration.

Let's hope that this initiative is more successful in keeping kids safe than she's been in keeping Minneapolis safe.

It's also obvious that she isn't serious about budgeting reform for education. She can't be because she'd be knee-capped by the education lobby. True to form, she'll offer subsidies for tuition, which treats the symptoms, rather than advocating spending sanity, which is the heart of the problem.

By the way, did you notice how Ms. McGuinness didn't say anything about her boss being a lobbyist before she ran for the Hennepin County Attorney's office? I'll bet that Ms. McGuinness is hoping that you wouldn't.

It's time that Ms. Klobuchar got serious about the issues rather than spewing nice-sounding, focus-grouped spin.

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Posted Saturday, August 5, 2006 10:34 AM

July 2006 Posts

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