Notable Absence
By Mitch Berg
So I read Lori Sturdevant’s column yesterday, about AFSCME endorsing a Democrat yadda yadda.
Sturdevant – the DFL’s unofficial PR flak masquerading as a Strib columnist, and whose writing style verges on Socialist Realism when writing about DFLers – was in full flak mode:
But brave faces — many of them battle-scarred…”AFSCME doesn’t always pick a winner,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, a former gubernatorial candidate, with a touch of defiance…But the Tuesday-morning crowd knows something else — several, from first-hand experience. They know what a big-bucks, take-no-prisoners statewide campaign looks and feels like. They can envision what Coleman and his allies will be throwing at Franken next fall…A DFL recapture of the late Paul Wellstone’s seat…
[Note to the DFL Flak: It’s “the people of Minnesota’s” seat. It’s not “Wellstone’s seat” any more than it was “Rudy Boschwitz’ seat”, or “the seat of…” any of the 20-odd other people who’ve sat in it. Wellstone was just elected to it. Please quit making this mistake. Thanks – Ed.]
Brave, deviant, scarred faces; plucky underdogs in the face of the Coleman onslaught. Reminds you of a Russian documentary on Stalingrad, no?
So what’s missing?
An impassioned defense of Mark Ritchie.
It’s possible I’m reading too much into this. But normally, when a DFLer is under fire (and Ritchie most certainly is), the Strib’s columnists circle the wagons and cover their guy’s six. And it could certainly still happen; this scandal is a young one, and since Sturdevant delivers one whole column a week, it could very well be that her deadline fell before Ritchie’s scandal broke.
Let me be clear on this; not saying something is no admission of guilt or complicity, especially on someone else’s part, and I’d be a cheap hack yellowblogger if I said or implied any such thing. I’m remarking on the absence, not drawing inferences.
I never thought I’d say this – but I’m looking forward to the next Lori Sturdevant column.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:22 am
I ALWAYS look forward to the next Lori S column. She might have taken the “Mark Ritchie” button off of her cheerleading outfit, yo know, the one that has the big “DFL” logo on the front.
I tell my Democratic friends and people in the media who think they are “unbiased” when I see a scandel a brewing for a Dem, “How would this be reported on if this were to happen to a Republican?”.
It will be interesting to see how Almanac and the folks at MPR cover this one too.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
A DFL recapture of the late Paul Wellstone’s seat…
Historically 17 of the 26 occupants of that “seat” were Republican so it would be more accurate to refer to it as a “traditionally Republican seat”
November 27th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Lori’s next column will make no mention of Ritchie.
February 9th, 2015 at 12:01 pm
[…] extremist. And some say Henco prosecutor Mike Freeman is, too (although he’s made a few good calls in his […]