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REALITY CHECK ON KLINE’S TOWN HALL MEETING
By Michael Brodkorb | March 26, 2007
If you read Minnesota political blogs on a regular basis you should know that Congressman John Kline is having a town hall meeting on April 3, 2007 at Lakeville South High School.
Contrary to inaccurate blog posts, Congressman John Kline is not having a town hall meeting on April 3 only "to discuss the Iraq War" like some liberal blogs have posted. The reality is that Congressman John Kline is having a town hall meeting on April 3 to "hear from the constituents of Minnesota's Second District on a wide variety of issues."
What's the difference? The difference is that certain liberal blogs and political opponents of Congressman Kline want this town hall meeting to be about Iraq and only Iraq. While I'm sure the war in Iraq will be discussed, other issues important to the citizens of Minnesota's Second District will likely be discussed.
As previously noted, the town hall meeting will be "on a wide variety of issues", but that hasn't stopped certain liberal blogs from reporting the town hall meeting is only on Iraq.
Based on my research, the main culprit in posting this inaccurate information is liberal blogger Jeff Fecke.
From a Jeff Fecke post on Minnesota Monitor:
"U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., will host a town hall meeting to discuss the Iraq War on Tuesday, April 3." Source: Minnesota Monitor, March 19, 2007
In my opinion, this is inaccurate as Kline is having a town hall meeting on April 3 to "hear from the constituents of Minnesota's Second District on a wide variety of issues."
The headline of this post on Minnesota Monitor was "Kline to Hold Town Hall on Iraq War" – which is also inaccurate.
From a Jeff Fecke post on Blog of the Moderate Left:
"We'll be talking with Sue Skog about John Kline's capitulation to demands that he hold a town hall meeting on Iraq…" Source: Blog of the Moderate Left, March 20, 2007
Again, in my opinion, this is inaccurate as Kline is having a town hall meeting on April 3 to "hear from the constituents of Minnesota's Second District on a wide variety of issues."
I emailed Robin Marty and Jeff Fecke of Minnesota Monitor for the source of Fecke's post from March 19th, that Kline "will host a town hall meeting to discuss the Iraq War."
Only Robin responded:
"I think both Jeff and I were working from this piece by Inside Minnesota Politics"
The problem is that the post Robin cited as their source was written three days AFTER their post of March 19th. Before I could send a reply email asking Robin how her and Jeff could have use a post published three days after their original post was published as a source, I received another email.
"whoops, here's the source – it was a press release I believe"
But the press release Robin "believe[d]" was the source for the post specifically said "other issues" would be discussed at the town hall meeting:
"Representative [Kline] will hold an open town hall meeting with constituents to discuss, among other issues, the escalation of Iraq hostilities."
Robin never directly answered my question as to why Minnesota Monitor reported that the town hall meeting was about Iraq, when the press release cited as the source for their post said it was about other issues including Iraq. Robin did write: "[t]he Iraq War was specifically and copiously mentioned in the Skog release."
Is this sloppy and inaccurate blog reporting? Your damn right it is. Is everybody doing it? Nope.
The Minnesota DFL correctly characterized the meeting:
"The public forum on Iraq and other topics is Tuesday, April 3, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lakeville South High School." Source: DFL Press Release, March 19, 2007
Inside Minnesota Politics correctly characterized the meeting:
"The agenda of the meeting is wide open…" Source: Inside Minnesota Politics, March 22, 2007
Eva Young at Dump Michele Bachmann correctly characterized the meeting:
"As I understand it, the town meeting will allow questions on any topic." Source Dump Michele Bachmann, March 20, 2007
I can't speak to the motives of the bloggers behind Minnesota Monitor who inaccurately reported on Congressman John Kline's town hall meeting. Based on information provided by Robin Marty, it appears she and Jeff Fecke knew that Congressman Kline's town hall meeting was about a wide variety of issues, but for some reason they still chose to portray the meeting as being only about Iraq.
I'll have more posts in the next few days about Congressman Kline's town hall meeting and the reaction from the liberal blogosphere.
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17 Responses to “REALITY CHECK ON KLINE’S TOWN HALL MEETING”
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March 26th, 2007 at 9:27 PM
All this kerfuffle about what a town meeting is or isn’t? Geez, somebody must really think he’s in trouble for being in lock step with the President’s policy to invade a country which it turns out could not attack us, had nothing to do with 9-11, and was not in bed with al-qaeda. Distract, distract, distract. My guess is that after the town meeting, some here will be shocked (Shocked!) at the tone of some of the questions.
March 26th, 2007 at 9:31 PM
otter,
You’re right that Iraq didn’t attack us on 9/11. But you’re wrong about the al Qaeda part. Al Qaeda was in Iraq prior to our invasion and is there today.
As for the rest of your argument, talk to Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards among other Democrats who voted for the war in Iraq. And no, you can’t say that Bush cooked the intelligence because it was the same intelligence that led Bill Clinton to bomb Iraq and adopt a policy of regime change.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:33 PM
thanks for the link, Michael.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:26 PM
Am I missing something? Is Kline not going to talk about Iraq?
Because, you know, that would be pretty big news. I think if you’ve got information like that, Mike, you should run with it.
Oh, and as my editor said, thanks for linking!
March 27th, 2007 at 6:41 AM
Looks to me like some of the liberal blogs’ reporting was incomplete; the town hall meeting was announced by Kline’s office to be about Iraq and other stuff; they reported that it’s going to be about Iraq.
I’m not sure why that’s terribly important, but, sure, it was incomplete. Seems only reasonable to me that if the Congressman is going to hold a town meeting with his constituents, it should be on a wide variety of issues, and he and his staff shouldn’t try to restrict the discussion to Iraq — and if the liberal blogs were complaining about him limiting the discussion, you’d have a serious point.
But they’re not. Some of them are complaining, somewhat bizarrely, about his choice of a moderator for his town meeting, as though it were to be some sort of campaign debate, and you’ve quite reasonably taken them to task for that.
That said, it’s probably a safe prediction that it will end up being mostly about Iraq.
March 27th, 2007 at 6:58 AM
They don’t call him “Feckless Jeff” for nothing.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:26 AM
Jeff: Why did you portray the meeting as being only about Iraq, when it will be about a wide variety of issues. As I wrote, I’m sure Iraq will be discussed, but so will other issues.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:00 AM
I’ll answer that question for Fecke.
He portrayed the meeting as only being about Iraq because that is how it read on the talking points he received that morning.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:03 AM
“Is this sloppying and inaccurate blog reporting? Your damn right it is.”
Now that you’ve run this one into the ground, maybe your intrepid reporting could discover the “other issues” John Kline’s office put above the Iraq War on his meeting agenda.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:03 AM
When I saw the notice, it appeared to be a general town hall meeting on whatever Kline’s constituents feel like they want to talk about.
Members of Congress do these things on occasion so that people in the district can discuss transportation, health care, taxes, or whatever it is on their minds.
I think the larger point here is that there appears to be an attempt by some to make this particular meeting only about the War on Terror. Those people who might be inclined to ask questions about social security might not even show up if they believe the meeting is only on one topic.
It is pretty shoddy reporting when you can’t even get the most basic facts correct.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:16 AM
Capitol Insider: You’re exactly right. These bloggers can’t even report a meeting notice accurately.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:01 AM
No wonder liberals are so confused. They can’t get simple facts straight… and then there are all the damn lies they tell.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:09 AM
The liberal bloggers who have commented here can’t be serious about their unfortunate disregard for the truth. The rational (and well delivered) point of your post Michael is that the left is posturing, or shall we say manufacturing an angle to the Kline THM that is strictly their own.
John Kline supports President Bush in the war effort. He wants to win. He’s opposed to the cut and run cowardice expressed and legislated by congressional democrats. Kline, like many conservatives, has not bought the liberal “Lather. Rinse. Repeat” spin on the war.
The left says the war is illegal. The war is in fact legal and as justified if not more justified than it was under Clinton. The left says the war is unjust. The war is indeed just. The left insists that we are not at war with militant islamic extremists when in fact that is precisely what we are up against. Our national security is directly impacted by the ability of Al Qaeda to rebuild their ranks and attack us. Liberal America refuses to accept the reality that a whole generation of militant islamists have been raised on the mantra of exterminating America.
Make no mistake about my comments. I’m saddened by every loss we have sustained in Iraq. I believe each of our fallen soldiers to be heroes in an epic battle for the future of the free world. We have made a stand for justice in Iraq and the outcome of justice will be peace.
As Keith Ellison said in a very different situation “No justice, no peace”. What ever became of him anyway?
Those who want to hijack John Kline’s townhall meeting are well trained political operatives following a strategy of disruption designed to promote a liberal agenda. All at the expense of the voice of the people in Kline’s district.
Kline won’t even flinch when faced with this type of nincompoopism.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:12 AM
[...] I've established that certain liberal bloggers have misrepresented the agenda of Congressman Kline's upcoming town hall meeting on April 3, 2007 at Lakeville South High School. [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 10:37 AM
“nincompoopism” is now my new favorite word. Thanks Drew!
March 27th, 2007 at 11:08 AM
The answer is simple; Jeff Fecal writes what Goerge hired hom to write.
MiniMoni posts what George Soros wants posted.
Just like MediaMatters does..
Just like MoveOn.org does..
Just like the Center for Independant Journalism does..
It’s all part of George’s “de-Nazification” plan for the United States.
June 17th, 2007 at 2:21 PM
[...] If you visited Minnesota Monitor in the last 24 hours, you would see a post on the front page titled "Bachmann Personal Financial Report Still Not Available." The post, written by the notoriously sloppy and inaccurate blogger Jeff Fecke, makes the claim that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has not filed her legally required Personal Financial Disclosure Report (PFD). "The Personal Financial Report for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., was still unavailable Saturday morning, one day after the House deadline for filing reports. [...]