‘Weenie’ talk not tied to Kennedy
"MN Governor"08/09/2006
Eric Black, Star Tribune
Last update: August 09, 2006 – 9:55 AM
“Pawlenty to Mark Kennedy: ‘You’re a Weenie,’ “ runs the headline on a news release Tuesday from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
Trouble is, Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn’t call Kennedy a weenie or say anything else disparaging about the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota.
Pawlenty did talk about “weenie” behavior, a term he has used on several occasions. But “it was not a reference to Kennedy or any other specific candidate,” according to Mike Krueger, Pawlenty’s campaign manager.
Phil Singer of the DSCC stands by his press release, on the grounds that the behavior Pawlenty was describing fits Kennedy’s conduct in distancing himself from President Bush.
The DSCC has every right to quote Pawlenty and to criticize Kennedy. Where its statement crossed the line was in explicitly stating that Pawlenty was talking about Kennedy when Pawlenty and the reporter who quoted him both say that Kennedy was not under discussion when the remark was made.
The background
Talking last week to NBC reporters about Republican candidates who are distancing themselves from Bush this campaign season, Pawlenty called it a “weenie” maneuver to “bail out on your friends just because they have a tough go.”
Pawlenty has said similar things before, even to the use of the word “weenie.” Krueger said that in all such cases “the context was about being personally loyal to a friend.”
Krueger spoke after consulting Pawlenty about the DSCC press release. Pawlenty did not make himself available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Elizabeth Wilner, the political director of NBC News, said that Kennedy’s name was not part of the conversation when Pawlenty made his “weenie” remark. She understood the remark to be a general characterization of Republicans who abandon Bush to boost their reelection chances.
Singer said Kennedy is a prime example of a candidate who was a Bush Republican when the president was riding high politically and who is running away from Bush this year.
So, Singer claims, although Pawlenty didn’t mention any names when he made his “weenie” remark, “he was talking about Republicans who are doing the exact thing that Mark Kennedy is doing.”
Democrats have made political hay all year arguing that Kennedy is distancing himself from Bush. Singer made the case strenuously during a Tuesday interview about the press release, liberally sprinkled with references to Kennedy’s pro-Bush voting record and to “Makeover Mark,” the moniker Democrats have tried to hang on Kennedy this year.
Singer also asserted that the language of the press release doesn’t claim that Pawlenty was talking explicitly about Kennedy.
The press release in one instance says that “Pawlenty said efforts like the one being made by Kennedy to gloss over his partisan ties to the increasingly unpopular Bush were ‘weenie’ moves.”
There’s no explicit claim there that Pawlenty’s remark was about Kennedy, and this edition of “Is That a Fact?” would not appear if the entire press release had been as precise.
But at least four times in the press release, the DSCC crossed the line and characterized Pawlenty’s remarks as specific to Kennedy. There’s the headline: “Pawlenty to Mark Kennedy: ‘You’re a Weenie.’ “
Then the subhead: “MN’s GOP Governor Slams Makeover Mark for Superficially Distancing Himself From Bush.”
Then the quotes that Singer attributed to himself in the press release: “Mark’s makeover is so outrageous even his Republican friends can’t stand it anymore,” and “Pawlenty is right to call Kennedy out.”