A television ad by the National Organization for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council (MFC) in support of GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was called “highly misleading, but it’s not completely false” by WCCO’s Reality Check with Pat Kessler on Tuesday. But the Minnesota Family Council shot back at Kessler on Wednesday calling him “misleading.”

Kessler took issue with the MFC’s assertion that DFLer Mark Dayton and Independence party candidate Tom Horner don’t want voters to vote on gay marriage.

“The ad accurately describes which candidates for governor support gay marriage. But it’s beside the point. The governor has no role,” he said. “When a constitutional amendment is approved by the legislature, it bypasses the governor and goes directly to voters.”

Kessler calls the ad misleading for that reason. Kessler also notes that MFC inappropriately invokes the image of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to support its case, a fact that MFC does not dispute.

But MFC said on Wednesday that Kessler is misleading.

“In fact, the governor play a huge ‘role’ as he/she has the power to veto any bill that would legalize same-sex marriage – and there are five bills to legalize same-sex marriage waiting to be passed in the 2011 session,” the group says.

Here’s MFC’s “fact-check” of Kessler’s fact-check.

But the ad in question doesn’t mention legislative action on same-sex marriage. It only discusses allowing voters to vote on gay marriage and uses the example of Massachusetts which allowed gay marriage through the courts not by action or inaction by then-Gov. Mitt Romney or the Massachusetts Legislature. That Dayton and Horner support gay marriage in general doesn’t have a bearing on whether Minnesotans will vote on the issue. It would appear that Kessler was correct in calling the ad misleading.

Here’s the ad:

WCCO’s Pat Kessler said, “Bachmann’s ad starts with a kettle corn kernel of truth, but like a carnival mirror at the fair, it stretches and distorts what’s really true.”

The ad accuses Clark of voting for tax increases on fair staples like corndogs, beer and deep-fried bacon. Kessler says Clark did vote for a tax on beer, but did not vote for a tax on corn dogs and bacon.

“Bachmann says correctly that Clark voted in favor of putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to raise the sales tax for arts and the environment. Minnesotans approved it,” said Kessler. “But voting to put it on the ballot isn’t the same as voting for a sales tax hike, so that’s not accurate.”

Running for re-election in 2010 would be a risky proposition for Pawlenty. He’s twice won office with less than 50 percent of the vote, and in 2008 he benefited from the implosion of Democrat Mike Hatch’s campaign in the final week before election day.

Furthermore, it’s unknown what kind of political blowback Pawlenty will receive once the dust has settled on the state’s ongoing budget problems. Early polling by SurveyUSA suggested that the Republican governor came out of the session with reasonably good prospects for re-election. But that’s before he unilaterally cuts roughly $1 billion from the budget. Losing a re-election bid would almost certainly derail Pawlenty’s national political ambitions.

Speculation will now turn to who will fill the gubernatorial void for the GOP. It’s likely to be a crowded field. Some names expected to be in the mix: former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, former Pawlenty chief of staff Charlie Weaver, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, former House Speaker Steve Sviggum, state Rep. Laura Brod and state Sen. Julie Rosen.

Pawlenty’s decision will also undoubtedly ramp up speculation that he’s going to run for president in 2012.

• WCCO’s Pat Kessler raised the “who’s a journalist question” Monday night, noting that the access battle is a bipartisan issue. He interviews The UpTake’s Jason Barnett and Minnesota Democrats Exposed’s Michael Brodkorb about their disappointment that the DFL majority seems opposed to “more transparency, more bloggers in, more access to the process,” as Brodkorb put it.

• WCCO’s Esme Murphy strikes the same chord, then posts the Society of Professional Journalists’ statement on yesterday’s proceedings:

“It’s our understanding the first three of the proposed rules are already tossed out, which is a good thing since they triggered the strongest response. However, SPJ is concerned about the rules that continue to try to narrow the definition of what a journalist is and who should be allowed to document the workings of state government.

The Minnesota Legislature does the people’s work during committee meetings and formal House and Senate floor sessions. Minnesota SPJ understands the difficulty in maintaining decorum and a productive environment in such open, public forums. However, this is precisely the job legislators were elected to do. Public scrutiny comes with the office. SPJ takes the position that transparency is the only way elected representatives can maintain credibility with their constituents. As such, the best approach is one that adheres to the most noble aspects of the First Amendment that recognizes the need for openness and accountability from government.

It’s difficult to understand why the proposed rules place conditions on what should be a simple process of access. SPJ prefers to define ‘journalist’ in the broadest of terms and we believe it’s time for the legislature to do the same. The public loses whenever elected officials choose to exclude people who wish to document what happens in a public meeting, working on public policy in a public space. If there is an issue of decorum, safety or logistical space, elected leaders have appropriate methods in place. Rather than create additional rules that imply a person’s credentials will be issued based on where a person works or how long a person will be reporting at the Capitol, SPJ would encourage legislative leaders to lessen the rules to allow more people to report in new and innovative ways to reach more of the public. The Legislature should establish equitable rules for all media, with no bias awarded anyone based on medium, method or viewpoint. If this proposal reflects the Legislature’s attempt to do that, they have missed the mark.”

• TPT’s Mary Lahammer expresssed “great outrage” over the House rules that limit “where, when and what [the media] could record in a public building involving publically elected people.” She writes, “True the media landscape is changing and that makes a lot of us fearful too, but fear never leads to good decision making.”

• MPR’s Bob Collins writes of the “big chill at the Capitol,” noting that there’s “virtually no reasonable case to be made that inviting a few bloggers in to inspect the workings of elected officials would cause an undue burden on the lawmakers who, for the record, asked for the job.”

Pat Kessler, WCCO’s political reporter, says he’s been approached countless times by the Franken crew over the months of the campaign with hot angles regarding some supposedly untoward Coleman activity or another, (that’s SOP, of course), but got nothing from Team Franken on this one. “Not a thing. I think they were surprised by it,” says Kessler.

And given the general clumsiness of the Franken campaign to date does Kessler think they are capable of playing something with this kind of Ted Stevens-style payola with a championship poker face? “Uh, no, I don’t.”

He emphasizes that any bombshell that drops in the final days of a campaign has [to] be viewed “with extreme skepticism”, which is not at all the same thing as dismissing it. If not a byzantine move by the DNC, someone, for example, could be using the glare and pressure of the final hours of the campaign to squeeze Coleman’s pals for a quick settlement on a wholly bogus claim.

Kessler says credit for coaxing the Comedy Central show and its 100-member staff and crew to Minnesota is due to another Kessler, Howard. Any relation? Seems like Pat would have said so, but it’d also be understandable if he simply lost track. According to his ‘CCO bio, Pat Kessler has eight brothers and four sisters.

Update: Word from Jason DeRusha at WCCO: “No relation!”