Fraters Libertas

Frothing Mob Update

Two days ago on this fine Internet site, I speculated that Nick Coleman was probably at the forefront of the frothing media mob condemning Rudy Boschwitz for questioning Paul Wellstone’s religiosity in the 1990 Senate campaign. And I decried my lack of LexisNexis access. For if I had it, I was sure I could prove his complicity in this foul act of democratic subterfuge and thus expose Coleman’s hypocrisy in now questioning the religiosity of Governor Pawlenty.

Yes, regarding that unsubstantiated charge. Never mind.

Local blogger Steve Gigl is embedded in academia and therefore does have LexisNexis access. He was good enough to spend his lunch hour yesterday taking up the cause of finding out just what Coleman was writing about back in early November of 1990. While it ain’t pretty, it also ain’t as damning as I suspected.

... I started searching during my lunch hour, but came up mostly empty. And yes, I was (and am) still shocked.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Coleman was writing about that subject at the time the story broke (11/4/1990, in both papers). His column on the 3rd ripped the Strib editorial board for allowing their publisher to (allegedly, I suppose) make them endorse Perpich even though they preferred Carlson. On the 4th he had a fake Q&A round-up on the elections (his shot at Boschwitz in that column was over an apparent implication that the Vice Lords supported Wellstone). On the 6th, he tried to use smelly hunting boots as a metaphor for dirty campaigns, but without specifics.

So it looks like Coleman may not have been leading the Boschwitz lynch mob back in 1990 after all. At least not from the pages of the Pioneer Press. (What he does in the privacy of his own bedroom is his business - at least when his wife chooses not to publish the accounts in her column). Although his lack of public commentary might be due to pure laziness. The story ‘broke” right before the election, and Nick probably had several columns about smelly hunting boots in the can ready to go for weeks, so why bother to rewrite anything? That’s not his job.

I encourage you to read all of Steve Gigl’s post. It’s a fascinating account of some recent Minnesota political/journalism history. And his journey into the past yielded another interesting post, regarding Rep. Jim Oberstar (who is still entrenched in his Congressional seat) and his comments in 1986 about Libyan terrorism and European inaction:

But [Oberstar] said U.S. patience has worn thin and warned his hosts that nice-sounding resolutions will deter neither Khadafy nor Reagan. If Europe wants a peaceful resolution to terrorism, then it better work jointly with the U.S., he said. Reagan will act with - or without - Europe, he predicted. If he strikes again, Europe will become irrelevant in the fight against terrorism - "And being irrelevant," he said, "Is worse than being wrong."

The names change (except for Oberstar), but the song remains the same (except for Democrats advocating America's interests when speaking in Europe).