The DFL and Media were in full dudgeon over the weekend, as Tom Emmer “missed” a gubernatorial candidates forum attended by the three DFL candidates and the Independence Party schlep.
It seemed so clear-cut coming from the Strib:
Emmer was invited but did not show for the event. But former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton and former House leader Matt Entenza, both DFLers, made sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
“I think it’s instructive who’s not here today, the endorsed candidate of the Republican Party,” Dayton said. “Environmental protection should be and used to be in Minnesota a bipartisan or nonpartisan concern, shared by everyone.”
Unexplained in the Strib piece: Emmer had declined to attend because of an even that had been in the works for a very long time; his youngest’s first communion. Emmer had respectfully declined to appear due to this rather important commitment in the life of any committed Catholic family. Reporting this out of context would be like tittering about Keith Ellision’s refusal to eat pork as a slur against the Minnesota Pork Producer’s association, without mentioning that Islam forbids eating pork.
In fact, according to a source close to the party, Emmer respectfully declined the appearance, citing the reason, months ago; “My understanding is that the first communion was on the schedule for months and the campaign simply declined the forum due to the family event” said the source. This was not news, and had nothign to do with whatever views Emmer has on the environment.
But the Strib article, the DFL candidates and the leftybloggers who wrote about the subject portrayed it as if he just blitzed on it, or was afraid. Of Kelliher, Dayton and Entenza.
This portrayal is misleading and based on a mangling of context and selective omission of fact.
The Strib should be ashamed, and would be, if their role as a lackey for the DFL wasn’t pretty clearly set.
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