Without Fear Or Favor?

I heard the 'Without Fear or Favor' Klobuchar commercial this evening on my over to Cub Foods East and it just sounded hollow in light of the current scandal. Yes, I know that Tara McGuinness has resigned a split-second before she got fired but that's the thing that's bothering me. Here's Ben Goldfarb's press release announcing the termination of Tara McGuinness:
"On Saturday, September 16, 2006, our campaign was contacted by a local blogger. He called Tara McGuinness, Communications Director of our campaign, and then sent her a link to what appeared to be an unreleased advertisement of the Kennedy campaign. Neither Amy Klobuchar nor I have personally seen this advertisement and no campaign strategy or decisions will be changed because of it.

"The blogger indicated to Ms. McGuinness that he had gained access to the advertisement by use of passwords. Exercising poor judgment, Ms. McGuinness opened the link, watched the advertisement and asked others on our campaign to watch it. When we learned of this occurrence, Ms. Klobuchar directed that I take immediate action. I instructed the blogger that sending information like this to the campaign was wrong and not to send us any further advertisements. I then asked for and received Ms. McGuinness' resignation. Ms. Klobuchar also directed that the incident be reported to federal law enforcement for their review. That report has been made and the Klobuchar campaign will cooperate fully with law enforcement."
Are we to infer that the unidentified campaign workers didn't view the unreleased Kennedy commercial or should we assume that Ms. Klobuchar won't be disciplining those workers? It's important that Ms. Klobuchar treats her own employees without fear or favor. It's one thing for her office to prosecute a crooked judge who happens to be a Democrat. The real test of whether she's a tough law enforcement agent that acts "without fear or favor" is still to be determined by whether she disciplines her campaign workers.

If Ms. Klobuchar doesn't discipline these workers, people won't trust her. If Ms. Klobuchar doesn't offer a full explanation of what happened last Saturday in the Klobuchar campaign office and who did and didn't watch the commercial, then we'll wonder if she's letting the others off the hook.

When witnesses take the stand at trial, they're asked if they'll "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." I think that's what we should expect from Ms. Klobuchar. After all, the FBI told her it was ok to talk about this incident:
"Following my conversation with the FBI agent, it was made clear to us that Amy Klobuchar's campaign could, without interfering with the investigation, answer many of the serious questions we asked yesterday, such as why did they wait five days to notify us. "
With that FBI clearance, there isn't a legal reason not to answer questions. I'm sure that there's a political reason not to answer questions or appear in public but that can't last much longer. Minnesota might be a left-leaning state but it's also a state that demands that its politicians play by the rules. The longer the Klobuchar campaign doesn't answer questions, the more people will assume that they've got something to hide. I'm told by lawyers that it's a 'consciousness of guilt' issue. The more people perceive that that's the case, the more erosion there will be from her support.


Posted Friday, September 22, 2006 11:14 PM

August 2006 Posts

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