Hotdish Wednesday – All About Dean

For a man who will be without an office in a few months, and with no definite plan for running in 2008, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson is making more headlines and blog hits than nearly any other state politician.

But is all press good press?

more insideOnce again, the story is about Johnson’s conversations about the Gay Marriage Ban, and the he said/she said fight over whether or not judges told Johnson that the Supreme Court would not strike down Minnesota’s existing Defense of Marriage Law.

Resurrecting a controversy that helped end his 28-year legislative career, state Sen. Dean Johnson now says that Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Russell Anderson told “an outright fabrication” in March when he denied that any justices had talked to Johnson about the state’s legal ban on same-sex marriage.

For the first time, the outgoing Senate majority leader also singled out Justice Paul Anderson, a “longtime friend,” as the other justice with whom he had informally discussed the ban, known as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Lutefisk Liberal thinks that the end of Johnson’s non-existant Senate run is already nigh:

Say you’re Mr. or Ms. Average Minnesotan, opening up the newspaper today. You know there’s this guy named Dean Johnson who was a DFL leader. You know he wasn’t reelected because of something having to do with judges and maybe lying or something.

Say you’re Dean Johnson, considering a 2008 Senate run. You know judges said something about DOMA and whatnot, even if they can’t or won’t admit it. If no one cares about it anymore, why do want to keep fighting this battle?

Is this the image you want keep putting in the paper? It’s time for the PR handlers to restrain Mr. Johnson before Mr. Franken starts to look like a more sensible DFL choice for 2008.

David Strom of the Taxpayers League is crying for a full investigation of the incident.

This is not a minor issue. Johnson is accusing Supreme Court Justices of perjury, and suggesting that there is a conspiracy to suppress the truth about what exactly happened.

What conspiracy? Well, Johnson claims that there are depositions that corroborate his story. The Board of Judicial Standards denies this, and stated in their investigative conclusions that there is no evidence to back up Johnson’s story, and that he himself backed off that story.

If that is not the case, then the Board itself participated in a cover-up. If these depositions do indeed exist, then the process itself–not just the individuals involved–is corrupt.

These are explosive allegations, and can’t just be swept under the rug. There simply must be an investigation, and the depositions in question must be made public.

Ironically, while DOMA still seems to be in no danger, the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting marriage, as married couples have more money than singles with kids.

An awful lot of money to promote something you won’t allow everyone to have, if you ask me…