The Norm Coleman - Nasser Kazeminy - oil patch thing, Shortridge's Enron background, and via that, Bush-Cheney-energy cartel ties with reporting having been that it was Shortridge then acting as Enron's key lobbyist who consulted with Bush White House personnel well before Bush admitted ever hearing of Enron troubles? More than a morality play? More purge than morality? A horse opera ambush?
Try this flavor: Strib draws attention to an interesting timeliness focus:
Article by: By BAIRD HELGESON, JIM RAGSDALE a nd MIKE KASZUBA
Updated: December 21, 2011 - 10:47 PM
An ex-aide to the former Senate majority leader revealed that he had reported the relationship to the Senate's leadership on Sept. 21.
[...] New timeline emerges
On Wednesday, fresh details emerged about Koch's relationship with the staffer.
Koch's former chief of staff, Cullen Sheehan, said that on Sept. 21 he became aware of "an inappropriate relationship" between the staffer and Koch.
He would neither characterize the nature of the relationship nor identify the staffer.
"At that time, I met with the staff person in question," Sheehan said. "He confirmed that there was a relationship. We both met with Senator Koch that same day. She confirmed the relationship."
The next day, Sheehan said, he notified Deputy Majority Leader Geoff Michel, R-Edina.
In November, Sheehan left the Senate office and took a job as a lobbyist. He would not say whether the incident prompted him to leave.
Michel, now interim majority leader, said Wednesday he and other party leaders were intentionally vague about the timeline to protect Sheehan and the other staffer who reported the relationship.
"Being specific would expose specific staff. It could reveal their identities," he said. In another conversation he said, "These whistleblowers were scared."
Michel now says he regrets not just simply refusing to disclose a timeline to reporters.
"What Cullen brought to me was stunning and unbelievable and something I didn't want to believe," said Michel, who was Koch's handpicked deputy. "Coming from Cullen, as complete as it was, I recognized, we had to take some action."
He said that at that time he consulted the Senate's human resources professionals, legal advisers, Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman and a group of Senate Republican leaders.
Michel said they slowly began to reach a consensus on what needed to be done.
"In order to stop a manager-employee relationship that was inappropriate, we had to act," he said. "This group put together a plan, which included what you saw last week -- a direct conversation with Senator Koch, the majority leader."
Even though Sheehan confronted Koch in September, Michel said they were concerned she took no action until senators surprised her last Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club.
"Based on Cullen's conversation [with Koch], I'd expected a different reaction from Senator Koch," Michel said. He said he hoped she would step down as majority leader but "over time, it became apparent that was not going to happen, and we would have to continue going down the road we were going down."
What's next?
Some senators have said Koch still needs to resign from the Senate, but her statement gave no hint of her plans.
Koch served as majority leader for 11 months, garnering a reputation as a thoughtful and talented leader during one of the most challenging budget deficits in recent history. A relative newcomer, Koch stunned some Senate watchers when she won the leadership post. But she had proven herself to be a gifted fundraiser and recruiter, helping ensure historic wins to give the GOP control of the Senate for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Despite Koch's assertions she didn't violate Senate rules or use taxpayer money to facilitate the relationship, the next stepis unclear. [...]
No peons, GOP, DFL or independent, were at the table when Sheehan talked with Senate Republican muck-a-mucks, who curiously waited months to muck their stable.
We are left with only an opportunity to speculate.
Mr. Sheehan left the Senate staff to lobby? Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Screenshot time - click a thumbnail to enlarge and read - or follow the links:
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Are these dots to be connected? Or miscellaneous coincidences? Coleman and PAC dollars, calling changes with the recently gone chair having run the party into hock? Indian gambling money?
Follow the money, not the sanctimonious morality-of-it crying towel? How? Leading where?
The GOP is in flux; and I'd bet more on money changers at play than any real worry over who's fluxing who, when, and how all that fluxing around beeps the sanctity of marriage horn.
Is Wilfare a part of the goings-on? A ton of questions. A cupful of facts.
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Headline note - for those needing a road map, here, and here, and do the two merge, into an overlapping Heart of Darkness?
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Coincidences never fail to amaze me. Cullen Sheehan's leaving his Senate position to become a lobbyist - something he did after contacting Sen. Michel in September about the Koch-staffer affair - was announced 9 November, 2011, which means the decision probably was reached the day before or earlier.
And that's the 88th Anniversary of the November 9, 1923 defeat of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (which itself started the evening before, Nov. 8).
The Germans in 1923 appeared to have an immediate sense of urgency in reaction to events triggered earlier, that September, and did not wait and plan until Christmas season. Their Putsch was, however, unsuccessful.
History has funny twists.
MPR, here, has a story parallel to that of Strib; TwoPuttTommy editorializes over the "I lie when I have to, or when I think it best," theme, here.