With Denny Hecker put away and Michele Bachmann off the campaign trail, this column needs Michael Brodkorb more than ever. Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Strib reports: “Brodkorb on Thursday formally warned the Senate majority leader that he plans to sue the Senate for defamation and demand damages of more than $500,000, according to documents provided to the Star Tribune.
Is there anyone in the entire State, Brodkorb included, that seriously believes Michael Brodkorb's reputation is worth half a million dollars?
Beyond that, on lost income for being fired from an at will job, Brodkorb bears the burden of proving his dismissal was for some impermissible purpose or reason. If he was actually fired for being an asshole, with the Koch situation being a formal convenience for some in public discussion, firing an at will employee for such a real reason is both lawfully permissible and frequent.
Where has the guy got a lawsuit worth surviving a Summary Judgment motion, when he is speculating that the motive for his dismissal was banging the boss? He and Sutton at the time of the firing had been eased out of the financially troubled GOP party leadership positions they held, and then Michel and the other long-knives chose to move against Koch first, as easiest, with some speculation even at the time that Brodkorb was the primary target - for being who he is and not for who he was bedding.
Michale Brodkorb, before a jury of his peers contesting that his reputation is worth half a million and that his being fired for being an asshole is implausible beyond a preponderance of evidence, with the evidence we can expect against him that way, poses two interleaved questions of who really is this guy, and if it reaches trial it will be theater; while his threat of who's-banging-who discovery is open to a clear fishing trip objection in going through the motions. I don't see Brodkorb having any traction. It is wheel spinning, entirely, with the noise and smell of extended wheel spinning being something we all know and can recognize.
And DFL legislators want a public airing of Michel explaining himself, against which the GOP legislators are predictably stonewalling. As a State, are these our best and brightest?