When politicians give big speeches, like today’s State of the State speech, reporters tend to get early and embargoed copies so they can follow along.
House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, said since he became a leader he’s asked the Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office for the same courtesy.
The answer? “A polite no,” said Sertich.
“It’s petty that we can’t get it,” said Sertich, who also added that it’s also petty for him to talk about the pettiness.
I really have nothing to add to this, except to say that its a shockingly petulant move on Pawlenty’s part. If the President can give advance copies of the State of the Union to the opposition party, you’d think Pawlenty could do the same. This is not a promising start to the 2010 session.
Ok, so did the media get an early copy and not Sertich? Or did anybody get an early copy?
The media got a copy, but not Sertich.
Well that is a dick move. If you give it to one group, you can’t withhold it from others.
Not that anything Pawlenty says will matter. I’d like to encourage the DFL legislators to twitter, facebook, and/or begin sexting during his banal, cliche-ridden speech. It would be a far, far more productive use of their time.
Clearly, the president is open to bipartisanship. Clearly, Pawlenty is not. They are different people. Nobody ever accused Pawlenty of operating in good faith.
You’re too kind, loj. Pawlenty and the entire US senate republicans are a bunch of whining, vindictive children in adult bodies.
We need a federal law about this.
I demand certain things from my political leaders. And #8,798 on that list is that they give copies of their speeches in advance to others. State legislators shouldn’t have to wait until the speech, which in some cases could be several hours, to know what is going to be said in the speech. That’s just wrong.
“And #8,798 on that list is that they give copies of their speeches in advance to others”
Same here. However, I would rate “avoid petty snubs at people across the aisle that you really will need to work with” considerably higher.