Walz’s campaign manager Kerry Greeley didn’t dispute that Walz was speeding when he was pulled over that night, but she said Walz was not drunk. She attributed the misunderstanding to Walz’s deafness, a condition resulting from his years of serving as an artillerist in the Army National Guard.

“He couldn’t understand what the officer was saying to him,” Greeley said.

She said deaf people also can have balance issues. The judge eventually threw out the DUI charges against Walz and chastised the officer for not realizing that Walz was deaf, Greeley said.

— MarK (still waiting for Bush to acknowledge that mistakes were made)

Israel can do no wrong, eh, Chris?

Just like Bush’s America.

I heard Bush is actually fighting ecological whistleblower protection in court with the legal basis of “the king can do no wrong”.

Rob Leighten, first term Rep. from Austin, gets knocked out cold in a bar fight in Austin (obviously drunk and crabby). The result, he wins by a record margin in his re-election bid.

Tom Rukavina, Virginia Rep, picked up by cops and convicted of drunk driving. Next election, he wins by a huge margin.

Get real boys and girls, this nes may mean an extra 5 points from the hook and bullet crowd!

Lawlesness? It’s bad if it’s George Bush, but OK if it’s Keith Ellison.

DUI? It’s bad if it’s George Bush, but OK if it’s Tim Walz.

Sexual Harassment? It’s bad if it’s Bob Packwood, but OK if it’s Bill Clinton.

Racism? It’s bad if it’s Trent Lott, but OK if it’s Bob Byrd or Keith Ellison.

Chris is exactly right. After Wellstone pulled the same thing in 2002, there is no honest Democrat who can attack Gutknecht for breaking his pledge. However, those of us without double standards wish they both would have kept their pledges…

Mark – good to hear a sane voice from the Republican side. I knew you all were there somewhere.

Read the PDF: The DUI charges were dropped. The man paid $200 for driving too fast 11 years ago. End of story.

We do know Gutknecht entire campaign this year is a broken promise based on lie.

Does that make Paul Wellstone, the patron saint of the kook-left fringe, a liar too? I think it does.

Going 40 over in the city IS insane. Going 40 over in the country every once in a great while is called getting home on time.

It’s a rural route thing so I guess you just wouldn’t understand. And it does get out of hand now and then — just look at Bill Janklow. (I’m talking about “real” rural routes, btw, not housing developments in the middle of corn fields. In places like Nebraska you can hear cars coming for three miles, and see their headlights for two miles.)

Oh, and “his campaign is silent on the issue”? This post is time-stamped at 11:41 am today. Were you expecting Tim to cancel his scheduled appearances so he could do a tearful press conference and drop out of the race?

When I read the comments in this thread and then I think about all the tough talking macho neocons who blustered about kicking Saddam’s ass, I really do have to wonder if the Republican party is just one big Potemkin village with the tough talkers and gunslingers out front and the worry warts all in back knitting doilies and sipping tea.

I hope I never see the day when Guard members are shamed into apologizing for one-time speeding tickets.

This is not just a speeding incident.

However, this is something that should not preclude a person from running for office or make them unfit for office either. Statistically about one in Six in Minnesota has been arrested for DUI.

lets see, going 40+ MPH over the limit and drunk makes hims a good American?

I don’t think so.

For those of us who don’t drink and drive nor decide to exceed the speed limit by 40+MPH, I guess your definition of a good upstanding citizen deserving to be sent to congress is a bit different.

Now, if Tim would just apologize for it and own up to it and say, “Hey, I did something stupid that likely would have gotten others killed. I am sorry for having done it and I would like to put all of this behind me.”, I would respect him more.

But, his campaign is silent on the issue.

And for the record, my children don’t play soccer. And just what do you have against French Horns?

Sheesh, whadda bunch of pantywaist suburbanites! Tim Walz is alive, all the proof you need that he knows how to drive.

Higher character? Like our go-to-war-on-a-hunch president ? Or impaired like our shoot-ol’-Harry-in-the-face weekend shooter-drinker-veep?

If you locked away everyone who has driven over ninety, we’d have no police, no army, no marines, no navy, no air force, no EMTs or just about anyone else who actually tried living when they were young instead of parking their butts in front of the tube for more Fox propaganda.

Republicans used to instinctively know these things. I don’t know who you people are, but I wish we had the party of Barry Goldwater back instead of this bunch of prissy MADD moms. The only embarrassment for Dems here is the fact that Walz wasn’t drunk (and it was Saturday night — what was the problem?).

Seriously, do your kids play soccer when they’re not at French horn practice? I’m getting that impression….

96 in a 55 is not like going 65 in 55. I’m going to guess the average person- even in the DFL- hasn’t been busted going 41 mph over the speed limit, much less doing it while impaired. Doing this may be a deep character flaw that may portend their future decision making capabilities as a lawmaker.

As far as I can tell, there are a lot of scumbags who have offenses at this level or greater that represent us in many levels of elected government in all parties. It’s too bad that a job as important as governing doesn’t appeal to more people of a higher character.

tCA

If speeding convictions are going to disqualify people from public office, then shut ‘er down.

I have 7 close relatives who are current public school teachers, 2 more who are retired, and many more who are now deceased. So this “scumbag” has no problem with teachers. I’d like to address the veteran comment buy I have no idea what the f*ck you are talking about so I can’t even debate you.

It was the same year Gil Gutknecht promised to serve 6 terms (until 2006) in the House and then retire. While I don’t think Walz ever lied about this, we do know Gutknecht entire campaign this year is a broken promise based on lies. He’s running again because the Republicans booted him from conderation of the Senate (a decision many regret now).

I wouldn’t go after Tim’s teaching ability, he’s was good enough to be teacher of the year. I forget that you Republican scumbags never met a teacher or veteran (except Bush) that you liked.

Cheney also has 2 DWI’s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney

06 GOP senate hopeful in Washington Mike McGavrick has one. http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/washington-gop-candidate-reveals-1993/n20060825140909990006?cid=1946

The 04 GOP senate nomine in Colorado Pete Coors has one. http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=2356488

I do not buy into the “I can do badly, because the other side does too” garbage. DWI is a very common charge. I heard 1 in 9 Minnesota drivers have made that mistake.

It bears no merit on if someone should be in elected office. Also if it got dropped down to careless that means it was a trace amount of alcohol or very close to the limit.

Shortly before the 2000 election, some fellow traveller/useful idiot dropped the news that Goerge Bush had been convicted of a DWI back in the 70′s.

There were the usual inane comments abut whether George Bush was capable of assuming the office because of a past conviction or whether he had credibvility issues because of it.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and the fellow traveller/useful idiot types aren’t liking it so much.

You know what? Tough sh*t!

Live by thr sword – die by the sword.

A relative link for the libs with selective memory on the dangers of speeding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Janklow

Weak sauce man.

http://www.mnpublius.com/2006/09/mde_continues_contextfree_atta.php

You’re so easily debunked nowadays, you have to wonder how effective you’ll be going forward in your sweet spot as Democratic-attack-clearinghouse?

11 years ago Tim Walz WAS NOT charged and DID NOT plead guilty to DUI – see the amended complaint [which you helpfully posted] – he pled guilty to reckless driving, paid his fine, and hasn’t done it since.

Hugs!

Jon-David

I’d be willing to give him a pass on the DWI (and one only). Unfortunately that is a common violation amongst people on both sides. But couple that with going 96 mph….

I have cousin who is permanetly partially disabled because of being hit by a speeder (and I don’t mean someone going 8 mph over). Going 96 mph in a 55 zone does show a selfish disregard for others out that day.

It shows that there was the possibility of enhanced penalties, which I believe usually means that it was nearing or upwards of .02. But in the court counts all it tells us is that his BAC was over the legal limit of .01.

This is strange given that they actually list the speed limit, but refrain from listing whatever BAC he may have had that could have been cause for “enhanced penalties.” Perhaps it was the excessive speed and not the BAC which could have resulted in the enhanced penalties.

Interesting also that he didn’t have a valid registration.

This will certainly give the people of the 1st something to talk about. But I don’t think it will have a monumental effect on the outcome of the race.