Was That Wrong?

As the Elder reported earlier today, the Minnesota DFL party has been caught with their hands in the liquor cabinet. Democratic legislators, their staffs, other government employees, and lobbyists, having a rip snorting bender, all while on the clock during the last day of the Legislative session (a session which ended without accomplishing any of its major responsibilities).

The life of the Democratic party appears to the distinguished Rep. from Maplewood, Scott Wasiluk.

According to the Star Tribune:

Rep. Scott Wasiluk, DFL-Maplewood, came over to [another legislator's] office while the House was in a late-night session. "I came to raid your whisky," Wasiluk said.

The station showed Wasiluk back on the House floor for a vote on a health care issue, looking sleepy. It also showed him at another point misunderstanding what was taking place on the floor as he monitored the session on TV from Metzen's office.

According to unconfirmed reports, the misunderstanding centered around his confusion over why Steve Sviggum was now hosting "Wild on Spring Break" on E!

But with the morning after, it looks like Wasiluk has come back to his senses and his reflexes are back in peak condition. Especially those reflexes associated with the jerking of the knee. When confronted with the video evidence of his antics, Wasiluk responded as any good, sober Democrat would. By proposing a new law:

Wasiluk issued a statement to the station saying: "I sincerely apologize for my recent behavior. If the public feels additional laws should be passed to improve public confidence in the work of legislators, I would vote for it."

Please pass a state law, prevent me from drinking on the job again!

Actually it might not be such a bad idea to outlaw legislating under the influence. It seems only fair since the government has already outlawed the citizens from voting while drunk. Seems to me if we can't ease the pain of Minnesota government by drinking ourselves numb, they shouldn't be able to either.

Getting back to Wasiluk's laughable reaction to the allegations, the parallels are striking with the Seinfeld episode where George gets confronted by his boss about having sex with the cleaning woman at his office. (Yes, there is a direct reference to all significant human endeavors in either the Simpsons or Seinfeld).

From the episode, "The Red Dot" (originally airing December 11, 1991):

Boss: I'm going to get right to the point. It has come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?

George: Who said that?

Boss: She did.

George: Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.

Lord knows the DFL won't take any substantive remedial action on Wasiluk. But here's hoping the folks in his district in Maplewood have the same good sense as George's boss, who responded to ridiculous excuses in the only appropriate manner:

Boss: You're fired.