GOP leaders take heat for misleading public on Koch affair [View all]

http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2011/12/22/34044/gop_leaders_take_heat_for_misleading_public_on_koch_affair

AFTERNOON EDITION

GOP leaders take heat for misleading public on Koch affair

By Brian Lambert | Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011

Suffice to say the Amy Koch scandal/saga continues to replenish each news cycle (a tough thing to do when “cycles” disappeared a decade ago). At MPR, Bob Collins wades into the peripheral controversy over the GOP’s “council of elders” intentionally misleading reporters (and the public) over when they first learned of Koch’s “inappropriate relationship.”: “{T}he proper answer is ‘no comment,’ something the senators had no trouble saying in response to a number of other questions that were asked at that news conference. Instead, Michel intended to mislead the reporters — he refers to it as being ‘intentionally vague’ — and, by extension, the people of Minnesota. Ironically, he cited ‘ethical responsibilities’ in announcing the Koch affair in the first place. ‘We want to be as open as we can be with you,’ Sen. Geoff Michel told WCCO's Pat Kessler, a few minutes before misleading the assembled questioners. ‘There were a number of stories that were being circulated that we were aware of that were absolutely not true,’ Sen. David Hann told the Star Tribune this week about why the leaders held last Friday's news conference. ‘Things being said needed to be corrected.’ Steering the public down a path with falsehoods wasn't a very logical way to do it.” Is “ethical” interchangeable with “logical”?