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Home | Politically Connected | State Politics

DFLers blushing over e-news blunder

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

Last update: July 31, 2009 - 7:29 PM

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here is another dem blunder

Many of these documents were sought by reporters, who easily acquiesced when Obama said he would not release them Ã¢â¬â though most … read more presidential candidates release them as a perfunctory matter. Among the key documents that Obama continues to shield from the public: Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama released just one brief document detailing his personal health. McCain, on the other hand, released what he said was his complete medical file, totaling more than 1,500 pages. Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama refused to offer his official papers as a state legislator in Illinois. Nor did he produce correspondence, such as his schedules of appointments or letters from lobbyists, from his days in the Illinois state Senate. Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama did not release his client list as an attorney or his billing records. He maintained that he performed only a few hours of legal work for a nonprofit organization with ties to Tony Rezko, the Chicago businessman convicted of fraud in June 2008 but did not release billing records that would prove this assertion. Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama ignored requests for his records from Occidental College, where he studied for two years before transferring to Columbia University. Ã¢â¬Â¢ ObamaÃ¢â¬â¢s campaign refused to give Columbia, where he earned an undergraduate degree in political science, permission to release his transcripts. Former President George W. Bush and presidential contenders Al Gore and John Kerry all released their college transcripts. Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama did not agree to the release of his application to the Illinois State Bar, which would have cleared up intermittent allegations that his application may have been inaccurate. Ã¢â¬Â¢ Obama did not release records from his time at Harvard Law School. Ã¢â¬Â¢ During the presidential campaign, McCainÃ¢â¬â¢s campaign released a full list of all online donors. ObamaÃ¢â¬â¢s campaign still has not released the names of those who donated at least one-third of the $750 million he raised.

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Uh, never mind. Also: Sorry about that.

That essentially was the DFL's red-faced response Thursday when it sent out an electronic news release blasting Gov. Tim Pawlenty that had a profanity-laced video attached to it.

The release was designed to respond to Pawlenty's speech before national Republicans in San Diego, attacking his record on job creation, health care and the state budget deficit.

One small problem: The link that was supposed to direct reporters to a state economic development report actually sent them to a YouTube video titled "Chinese Grandma Learns English." For four minutes, an elderly Chinese woman repeats obscenities, oblivious to their meaning.

The release went out at 4:17 p.m. Four minutes later, the party sent out another e-mail asking if it could "recall" the original. A moment later, it sent out a corrected version, which it followed up with this explanation 10 minutes later:

"The previous version of this release contained an incorrect and inappropriate link. We did not check the links before the release was sent. We apologize for this error."

DFL Executive Director Andrew O'Leary said the link came from an outside researcher who had not checked it and the party did not double-check the link before sending the release. The party "obviously made a mistake," O'Leary said.

State Republicans, obviously tickled about the DFL's screwup, were content to let their opponents stew, merely alerting reporters to the error.

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