Bluestem's no longer surprised at the extent that some go in their willingness to adopt the "settle now" argument in the case of former senate staffer Michael Brodkorb, but the editorial board of the Rochester Post Bulletin has grabbed the gold ring with this malarky in Our View: Taxpayers can't win in Brodkorb battle:
At the time of Brodkorb's dismissal, Senate Republicans maintained he was an "at will" political appointee, meaning he could be let go at any time without cause. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a Democrat from Cook, reiterated that in the past when other majority leaders lost their positions, their aides also had to find other jobs.
One possible problem with that argument is that Koch resigned her leadership position the day after Brodkorb was fired. If he was an at-will employee of Koch and the Senate leadership, why was he fired before Koch's resignation?
This is pure, unadulterated bullshit and the Post Bulletin should apologize for misleading its readership. Senate Majority Leader Bakk is owed an apology as well.
At this level of ill-informed opinionating, it doesn't matter if the board was misled by individuals doing public relations for the Brodkorb lawsuit or that the board is simply as ignorant as a clump of stumps.
Here's the timeline from news reports contemporary to when Koch stepped down and Brodkorb was fired. The Pioneer Press reported on In a surprise move, Amy Koch resigns as Senate majority leader
Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, is resigning her leadership post and will not seek re-election next year.
In a surprise letter made public Thursday, Koch said she made the announcement after thoughtful conversations with family and friends.
She did not cite a reason, but noted that the past year has been "challenging, exciting and exhausting.''
"Sometimes, I think, it's just time," she said when contacted Thursday night.
The story first appeared online at 12:01 a.m Thursday under the same headline. Content now online was updated on December 16 at 2:55 a.m., hence the Thursday night comment in the updated copy. Here's a calendar of December 2011. Yes, Wednesday was December 14 and December 15, when Koch resigned, was a Thursday.
On December 20, the Star Tribune reported in Secret GOP meetings spelled the end for Koch:
Leaving a meeting at the Minneapolis Club last Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch thought she was bound for a social event in St. Paul.
Instead, sources say, Deputy Senate Majority Leader Geoff Michel hustled her into a nearby meeting room. There, he and three other GOP senators confronted her about an alleged affair with a male Senate staffer who reported to Koch. After a meeting that lasted for hours that night and resumed on Thursday morning, the Republican from Buffalo resigned her leadership post and announced she would not seek re-election.
The next afternoon, Michael Brodkorb, the Senate's powerful communications chief, was asked by an old junior high school friend who also worked in the Senate to meet at the Moose Country restaurant in Mendota Heights. Once there, Brodkorb was shocked to see Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman walk in and tell him he was out of a job and barred from Senate offices.
Brodkorb was fired on Friday, December 16, 2011 after Senate leadership first confronted Koch on Wednesday, December 14, and she issued her statement on Thursday, December 15. The Star Tribune article closes with Brodkorb cleaning out his office on late Friday night:
By midnight on Friday, according to a source, Brodkorb met a security officer at a Capitol door. He was escorted to the Senate offices on the second floor of the Capitol, where he packed his belongings.
Brodkorb walked out of the stately marble building, loaded his boxes into his sports-utility vehicle and drove off into the darkness.
What color is the sky in the world of the PB board? Why are they arguing the strength of Brodkorb's case by simply reinventing history?
Screenshot: The text of the PB editorial online. Let's hope that they apologize to Senator Bakk and their readers for this Brodkorb-friendly crapola.
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Posted by: Jay Furst | Jul 02, 2013 at 09:07 AM