Kevin Woster has some a few more choice words for the Johnson Press team
As David Newquist gives his endorsement to the Johnson team lying to the media (and by extension, the electorate), Kevin Woster at the Rapid City Journal has a few more words for a Johnson Media staff that has a problem telling the truth:
It’s a well-deserved celebration. Like other South Dakotans, I’m happy the senator is doing so well.
There’s just one thing: That pesky lie.
See, Johnson wasn’t doing any interviews during the months Woodruff was interviewing him in secret. At least, that’s what his staff told me and other reporters.
And trust me, we asked, often. We thought it was important to know and tell South Dakotans how one of our three votes in Congress was doing in his recovery and when he might be back at work. We even hoped to ask him a few select news questions from time to time, as his energy and stamina allowed.
and…
We asked, and asked again. And we were assured by people we believed we could trust that we would be informed when the interview door was open.
Meanwhile, Woodruff was strolling in and out of that door all the time, getting intimate and regular contacts, all while Johnson staffers continued the lie.
and…If they care enough to try, the Johnson staff will have some work to do in recovering that respect, just as their boss continues on his own road to physical recovery.
Both could take quite a while.
Read it all here. This criticism comes in the face of Johnson news the campaign team would rather be talking about, such as what USA Today is reporting today, where it looks as if this “thank you” event and subsequent Nightline Interview is going to morph into a campaign kickoff (complete with dignitaries on stage, expected to clap at this announcement):
The newsflash: Johnson, a Democrat whose seat is key to his party’s tenuous hold on the Senate, does not intend to retire next year.
“Throughout, Senator Johnson talks candidly with Mr. Woodruff about his daily struggles and his determination not only to return to the Senate next week, but to seek re-election in 2008,” the network said in a release.
Read that here (and hat tip to SouthDakotaMAC). And let’s not forget the latest at the Argus leader, in an article entitled “Johnson’s return being used to campaign”:
A national political consulting firm working to get Sen. Barbara Boxer and other prominent Democrats reelected is now aligned with Sen. Tim Johnson, a strong signal that he will run for reelection.
Blackrock Associates of Berkeley, Calif., recently registered a Web site, WelcomeBackTim.com, which is tied to Johnson’s appearance in Sioux Falls this afternoon.
The site promises live streaming video of Johnson’s planned appearance this afternoon at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
and..
It’s the latest example of how today’s ceremony is a highly orchestrated political event.
As we can see from all the signs, the Johnson team is setting the stage for a well deserved, but well orchestrated welcome home for Senator Tim Johnson this afternoon.
But it might also be set for a long hard campaign besieged by a hostile press, somewhat unforgiving of being so blatantly lied to.
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Comments
Telling the truth has never been a Democrat
party characteristic. Now we have our own only senator practicing what Hillary is known as a professional at doing. Perhaps it is time for a change as Tim apparently has fallen into the
lying game too. The press will try their best to
cover it all up. South Dakota should not forget!!
Are any prominent South Dakota Republicans going to be in attendance? ( John Thune, Mike Rounds, etc.) If it really does turn into a political rally, it will be interesting to see if they get the same reaction that Republicans got at the Paul Wellstone “Memorial Service” in 2002.
It was a well orchastrated deception as Johnson put South Dakota second to DC interests.
Thanks for taking the early heat PP as the root of this story was getting dug out.
To think I initially felt sorry for the guy.
The three SF public high school bands (of which my child is part of) are scheduled to play at the “homecoming”. I was initially okay with this, but now that it looks like it’s going to be a campaign rally, I’m furious about it. The indoctrination our public school students get from the left has no boundries.
I have been among many who said that Senator Johnson should have picked a friendly reporter and granted an interview months ago. He did, and it appears that the reporter is someone who can report with authority on the Senator’s conditon. That’s good. The problem is that Fisher kept telling reporters that Senator Johnson was not giving interviews. That’s not good. It was a lie, pure and simple. And about #6’s post…that is interesting. I wonder if the Argus will be writing about that.
I remember during his last campaign, a friend’s father passed away. I headed home for the funeral and was surprised to see the the Senate Majority Leader (Daschle) was to speak. Apparently, and I didn’t know it, the deceased knew Daschle personally. What I didn’t like about it was that Johnson showed up at the funeral and Daschle took the opportunity to tout his fellow Dem more than euligize my friend’s dad. That’s when I ended all thoughts of being a Dem (I had been a registered Dem at the time). To think, politicize a funeral. Johnson had never even met my friend’s father. He just wanted to be seen with Daschle any way he could. This event sounds a little too familiar.
6. Three high school bands huh! That’s a lot of families also being counted as Johnson supporters. Cherry picking school age students is an easy way to increase a crowd. Looks family friendly too!
Numbers will be important and used to establish success. ABC will do the same if rating are favorable then declare nationwide support for Johnson.
Johnson did not show up for the first thirty five minutes and was then rolled in via a wheel chair. He made his speech of approximately nine minutes standing up.
Some portions of his speech were indecipherable, however most of what he said could be understood. His wife Barbara was standing beside him and gave an indication of how difficult this speech was to make. Several times she mouthed the words that Johnson was speaking. This shows that this speech was rehearsed over and over again. So much so, that she knew the speech better than Johnson did. He had to read the speech from several printed pages and some of the words were mumbled.
When he finished, he lowered himself into his wheelchair using his left arm and was rolled back through the curtains. He did not take any questions.
Senator Johnson may wish to continue to be a Senator from South Dakota, however it is apparent that it is time for him to retire. He is simply not up to the give and take that the senate requires.
Please retire Senator Johnson. It is obvious that you need a long rest.
The fact that you can’t put politics aside for a single day — the day we welcome our Senator home — says a lot. Rounds showed a ton of class. So did Dave Munson. You sir, have yet to show any class throughout this entire ordeal…
Mr Powers and his lovely collection of readers,
God forbid that anyone of you ever have anything happen to your body which incapacitates it as much as Tim’s body has been through. Hopefully people will show you the same amount of empathy and understanding you have shown (snark).
Other than the mayors long-winded comments, I didn’t time it but think he was longer than the Gov, Senator Thune, Rep S-H, and even the Native American educator combined, I thought the event went well.
Yes his speech was hard to understand at times, but that is what I expected. What I heard was self-inflicted humor along with words of thanks.
I left before he finished his comments, but didn’t hear anything from him about his re-election or retirement, nothing political from him.
He should retire and live on full pay plus yearly increases as voted by the Congress. Social Security is only for the regular people. The Congress is presently seen as doing a good job by 18 percent of the people. This is not surprising.
No apologies for his lying about interviews requested by the SD media while welcoming the national Bob W.
Why does Tim’s wife mouth many of his words, just as he’s saying them, as if she’s some sort of grinning ventrilloquist?
I can’t wait to read the local reactions in the paper tomorrow so that you (Ray, et al) can see how completely out of touch you are with the 99% of South Dakotans with compassion in their hearts. Of course, you’ll just blame the liberal media and use PP’s site to make outrageous statements…
Rounds gets it. He acted with a tremendous amount of class. It’s too bad more of PP’s friends can’t do the same…
“Why does Tim’s wife mouth many of his words, just as he’s saying them, as if she’s some sort of grinning ventrilloquist?”
Let’s hope that if you have a debelitating injury your wife won’t leave you. Although if I were her, I’d already be packing my bags…
He is doing great for someone that has been through so much. You all are such experts on rehabilitation it seems. He appears to have an expressive aphasia which says nothing of his intellect. It only means that expressing yourself can be difficult. I have seen hundreds of patients over my years of working with similar debilitating conditions and he has made significant and remarkable progress.
It stands to reason that if he was working for a Fortune 500 company they would make every accomodation for him to be able to return to work. What makes you think that he should not be able to return- big deal if he is in a wheelchair or scooter big deal if he ends up doing some communicating by computer, this man has not given up to improve himself over the past difficult months.
I say that anyone of either party that criticizes him too much will flounder big time…
I am waiting for those who are cruel and critical to come forward (and they will) and they will not be doing themselves any favors.
I thought he looked better than I expected, but sounded worse than I expected. The main talking point they seemed to be trying to make is that he is mentally sound. I guess the best way to determine that is to watch him in a Q&A setting, a farm bill, DakotaFest kind of forum or live interview, which I doubt we will for some time.
I was glad to see him back visiting the state, but I don’t see how at this point he can be an effective communicator and advocate for South Dakota when you can’t understand what he says and we are forced to take his staff/family opinion on his mental faculties. And given their recent track record for honesty, well …
Pat Powers has provided a wonderful little forum here for some of the most pathetic assholes in this state to attack God-Fearing Christians — because make no mistake, Tim and Barb Johnson are just that.
Nice work, Pat. Keep up the good work.
kevin woster in a snit? so what?
kevin, park your bruised ego in a winnebago parking spot, and give it a rest. Johnson has been thru hell….let him deal with it how he wants. He did some interviews on the side, which will show the world how seriously ill he was? and youre mad about that? Would you prefer no coverage of his health at that time?
no doubt about it, if johnson runs he will be held to the same standards every other candidate faces. as it should be.
meanwhile, get over it. Put yourself in tims shoes and then tell me you could have better dealt with this life threatening injury.
I love the fact that Rounds and others are asked and expected to come to support our Senator and his coming home, only to be on stage for his first campaign rally, as the Democratic candidate. That’s pretty slimy, if that indeed happens.