My Reply to Marsh
So
Marshall Stenersen, the AFSCME (Public Employee Union) "Staff
Representative/Organizer," who's union has
opposed
me before and which has endorsed my General Election foe, objects to my latest
column. Marsh thinks I treated Brad Bennett unfairly while using the Reader to
promote myself. Hmmm. I can see why Marsh would want me muzzled since he's
campaigning for my foe. But I sure don't follow his objection to my treatment of
Brad Bennett.
Perhaps Mr. Stenersen hasn't noticed that, though a Republican myself, I've
bitten the Republican hand far more than the Democrat hand. Brad Bennett is
simply the latest Republican I've sunk my teeth into along with Darrel McKigney
and Pat Robertson. If I am using the Reader to promote my political future I've
certainly been ham handed about it. Indeed, my column probably cost me the
Republican endorsement for the state legislature.
I wonder if Mr. Stenersen, who is aghast that I should be given space in the
alternative print media, minds that Mr. Bennett has his own forum - on the
Radio. A more charitable person might have noted that my column on Brad Bennett
appeared only after Brad called me "Madman Welty" on air while
demanding my defeat in the Republican Primary. Tantrum schmantrum, Marsh! I just
did what I'd expect you to do. I grieved it.
I warned the Reader and my readers from the outset to take everything I
wrote with a grain of salt because of my political ambitions. That warning still
stands. Any time the Reader wants to end my column they are free to do so. If
Mr. Stenersen wants the alternative press to imitate the cool objectivity of big
city newspapers he ought to talk to the editors of his own Duluth Labor World.
The Labor World keeps treating me as though I were Brad Bennett.
Harry Welty
not Eudora
