Letter to the Editor

03/28/2006

To the Editor:

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by watching how they go about doing something.  The means used can speak louder than the ends achieved.  For example, the actions of Brent Waldemarsen, the minister who secretly taped the conversations of fellow ministers to catch the Reverend Senator Dean Johnson saying something inopportune, said a great deal about the ethics of the political far right. 

Senator Johnson has twice publicly apologized for the rashness of his comments. 

Reverend Waldemarsen maintains that taping conversations without the participant’s knowledge and then giving the tapes to a political organization gives him nothing to apologize for. 

Senator Johnson’s statements showed a rare lapse of judgment.  Reverend Waldermarsen’s behavior shows a premeditated malice that must discomfort all courteous Minnesotans. 

A few years ago, Gover Norquist, a member of the Republican far-right wing, famously remarked,

“We are trying to change the tones in the state capitols—and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.”

Norquist’s vision was helped along by Rev. Waldemarsen.  But the poison can only take hold in Minnesota if we let it and it can be stopped by rejecting politicians who, whatever their goals, use unethical and corrupt means to achieve them.

Debra Hogenson
Brewster, Minnesota