Kahn dings Pawlenty on Daily Show ‘bong water’
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 2:01 pm
- 7 Comments
Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s interview on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show included a segment on “bong water,” an issue that sprang up at the Minnesota Legislature this spring after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that bong water could be considered a drug for prosecution purposes. Rep. Phyllis Kahn said she hadn’t heard a logical reason for the veto of the bill, which passed the legislature almost unanimously.
Pawlenty vetoed the bill, authored by Kahn, which would have altered state statute so that people couldn’t be prosecuted for possession of bong water the same as they would for actual controlled substances. Pawlenty defended his veto saying law enforcement supported the use of bong water in prosecution. Kahn says that line of reasoning “doesn’t hold water.”
Here’s the Daily Show segment where host John Stewart mocked the Pawlenty’s veto of the bill:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive – Tim Pawlenty Unedited Interview Pt. 3 | ||||
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“Jon Stewart gets it and I am sure most reasonable Minnesotans get it,” Kahn said in a statement on Friday. “We shouldn’t be penalizing the unkempt housewife who left something out on the counter top with a felony offense reserved for dangerous drug dealers.”
She continued, “We worked hand in hand with law enforcement and the criminal justice system to craft a bill that they supported and we succeeded. It was a common sense bill aimed at reducing unnecessary costs on our court systems. I still haven’t heard a logical reason for the veto.”
Kahn said she’ll be looking to pass the same bill in the next legislative session.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter7 Comments
Comment posted June 11, 2010 @ 6:55 pm
Hey, who took that pile of GOP election literature from my front stoop?
Comment posted June 11, 2010 @ 9:45 pm
Phyllis Kahn defending bong water explains a lot about Phyllis Kahn.
Comment posted June 13, 2010 @ 3:01 pm
Here in GA, it was recently revealed that it costs the state court/prison system over $1 billion/year to maintain. Many of the people in prison are there because of convictions for drug possessions, not because they were drug kingpins, yet the “conservatives” here are determined to prosecute and imprison anyone with a bit of weed in their possession while they complain about the costs of keeping the same locked up behind prison bars. I’m not supporting the use of drugs, just pointing out the rampant insanity of some of our laws. I think prison should be reserved for those who commit serious crimes.
Comment posted June 14, 2010 @ 2:11 am
Nice to see someone call Pawlenty on his BS.
I never even heard of bong water until now. After all the debate about crack cocaine VS powder cocaine, this seems royally stupid – and petty.
No wonder the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.
Comment posted June 14, 2010 @ 5:26 pm
The absolute absurd part is how this Supreme Court ruling created a new “illegal drug” that has virtually no market- dirty water! Good luck selling bong water on a street corner as an illegal substance! The only “expert” used to testify for the Supreme Court to come to their conclusion was a state trooper! It doesn’t pass any test of logic, but neither does the drug war. Of course, Pawlenty had to back his S.C. appointees with a veto.
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