In all honesty, the Republican challenger (to be clear, likely the Davis campaign) has the greater responsibility. However, MNPublius was a little sloppy (sorry guys) in their original headline which made the lawsuit seem to be current instead of something that happened ten years ago. Also, this site seemed to trump it up big in the morning and then have to deflate the scoop by evening based on the information that came out. I’m not saying that bloggers should be held to journalistic standards, but the original headline and story was misleading.

So, who has the greater responsibility here?

WTF Genius. I’ll give you one guess who the anonymous source is and I’ll bet you it goes directly to the Davis campaign.

Since Demmer didn’t end his campaign for Congresss, the “damaging” information that was threatened to be used against him found a welcomed home on the liberal blog MN Publius, as they published it earlier this morning in an “exclusive” post that was first teased last evening.

Even after being hand-feed the story, MN Publius still got it wrong. In an earlier version of their “exclusive” post, MN Publius claimed that Demmer was currently being sued when in fact, this matter had been resolved over ten years ago.

I’m not taking a side in the GOP battle to replace Congressman Walz. But I will take a stand against liberal bloggers who publish material used to threaten and intimidate people to end their campaigns. The bloggers behind MN Publius should be embarrassed for unknowingly being associated with the threats against a legislator.

You should know better than to take on Ollie Ox!!! Credibility is at play here and the Ox has that!!

Demmer said he suspects the effort originates in Republican circles, because he’s not even the endorsed candidate to oppose Democrat Walz yet. He said he received a call from a Republican in Washington, an apparent ally, who had received a package….

As the MnPublius post above notes, Representative Demmer released his letter yesterday. This morning’s Rochester Post Bulletin provides a good discussion of the way the material was spread.

“A couple weeks ago, state Rep. Randy Demmer received an ominous call. It was a warning, delivered through an intermediary from Washington, D.C.: Drop your candidacy for U.S. Congress or information about a sexual harassment lawsuit settled a decade ago would be dredged up to damage your campaign.”

“On Tuesday, Demmer, a three-term state representative from Hayfield, decided to deal preemptively with the threat by going public, telling his story to the Post-Bulletin. He also has sent out hundreds of letters to the delegates and alternates who will endorse a Republican candidate to run against 1st District Rep. Tim Walz.”

“On Monday, the Post-Bulletin received an anonymous telephone tip with information about the sexual harassment suit filed in U.S. District Court against Demmer, the three NAPA Auto Parts stores he then owned and a store manager in 1995. The paper also received an anonymous e-mail on the subject.”

Sounds like an internal Republican battle. Look closer to home, Mr. Brodkorb.