Glass Houses

There is an old saying admonishing people who live in glass houses not to throw stones. MNGOP Chairman Ron Carey should have remembered that prior to beating the Al Franken tax story into the ground. You see, in his zeal to encourage Al Franken to "come clean" on his tax problems, the MNGOP (under Ron Carey's leadership) still has not come clean on their finances, as several papers reminded readers yesterday. The FEC, you see, had issues with how certain expendatures were reported and Chairman Carey promised an immediate and speedy audit. The results of that audit, that Chairman Carey promised was forthcoming, is still - one year later - yet to be released.

Many party activists, myself included, have had problems with Chairman Carey, especially when it comes to things like party messege and credibility in the face of leadership "issues". Some expressed their frustrations in public forums, I did not. Oh I voiced my concerns. When he was running for re-election last June, Chairman Carey called me and when we finished over an hour later I had gotten the last of my concerns out. I know that I was not the only one to voice concerns to the Chairman....concerns that he said he would address and for the large part has not.

Now I fully comprehend that Chairman Carey is not running for Senate and AL Franken is, however the average voter is not going to make that distinction. The average voter is going to see these stories and they are going to say that the MNGOP is just as guilty as Franken...thus negating any messege inroads we activists might have made!

The ball is in Carey's court. If he were smart, he would release the audit PUBLICALLY and immediately and he would drop the tax issue and move on to talking about why voters need to vote for Norm Coleman (as opposed to against Al Franken). Senator Coleman has a record that Republicans can be proud of...a record that has frustrated Conservatives for sure, but for the large part has been a good representation of ALL MINNESOTANS. Rather than leaving that important story just to bloggers (like Gary Gross and myself) he needs to be talking about that and leaving the attack pieces to the blogosphere - where it can be done without damaging the candidate or the party. Right now, Chairman Carey, your actions are damaging the entire Republican ticket! For the Senator's sake, until you get the MNGOP's house in order, please stop trying to help us.