Schultz Report distorts Senate rumors

We have to wonder when we read passages like this in the post The Schultz Report: Some Minnesota Dems said to be eyeing primary run against Franken:

"Tim Walz is sort of the new darling of the Democrats. Normally people wouldn't think a freshman would try to move from the House to the Senate. But the rumors about him running or being interested in running or being pushed to run were strong enough that he had to go on Minnesota Public Radio to deny that he was going to run for the Senate."

Here's the entire text of MPR's Polinaut post, Walz not considering U.S. Senate run,  published within minutes of  a 10 a.m. conference call's conclusion:

DFL Rep. Tim Walz held a conference call this morning. MPR's Sea Stachura says he is not considering a run for the U.S. Senate. His name popped up after Democrat Al Franken said he owed $70,000 in taxes to 17 states.

Poor David Schultz probably wasn't a party to that call, and doesn't seem capable of listening to the radio, googling for more information, or contacting MPR or the Walz press staff in an act of basic due diligence. He simply has invented the circumstances of the conference call.

Unlike Schlutz, we were a part of the media call. Nearly all of the discussion was about the Farm Bill. At one point, MPR's Stachura asked about the Senate bid rumors (a legitimate question), and Walz explained he wasn't interested; in fact, he was focused on representing the First and on getting re-elected so he could continue to serve the people of the First. The conference call is mentioned here in the Political Party blog at the Post Bulletin and we  blogged about it as well in Walz to reporters: Positive on Farm Bill, negative to 2008 Senate bid.

Here's the report on the Farm Bill that Stachura filed based on the conference call with the press: Rep. Tim Walz says farm bill vote could come next week.

Perhaps the Minnesota Monitor can produce a tape of an MPR broadcast in which Walz is declaring he's not running and evidence that Walz went on MPR specifically to quash the rumors. Funny, but we can't seem to locate any, while the conference call we participated in was a weekly, regularly scheduled press call.

If Schultz's commentary is based on the answer to Stachura's press call question, the post at MinMon should be corrected. It's third-hand interpretation, with no documentation--and an inaccurate account. 

The Schultz Report may be the new darling at the Minnesota Monitor, but Dave Schlutz's account of Walz's response and the circumstances that generated it has no particular relationship with reality.