GOP Leaders Want Ethics Complaint Resolved Quickly
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The Republican Senate wants to hold a hearing on the ethics complaint against Senator Geoff Michel as soon as it can.
"In fact Senator Geoff Michel wanted to have the hearing as early as yesterday (Monday)," said Steve Sviggum, executive director of the Senate Majority Caucus.
The ethics complaint filed Monday against Sen. Michel said he failed to take appropriate action when he learned of former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch's affair with a subordinate.
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The complaint states Michel "betrayed the public's trust" by making false statements during a December news conference. Michel learned of the affair several months in advance, but told reporters last December the allegations had recently surfaced. He later acknowledged the discrepancy, but said he was trying to protect people involved.
"Senator Michel clearly wasn't honest," said DFL Senate Leader Tom Bakk. "When it actually came out he lied about when he had knowledge of it."
Bakk was a guest on Tuesday of Newsradio 830 WCCO's John Williams, who suggested to Bakk that asking for a public apology from Michel seems like grandstanding.
"In the Senate, decorum and behavior is taken vary seriously," Bakk told Williams. "(Senator Michel) owes the Senate an apology for breaking our own internal rules."
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Republican Senate leaders want to resolve the complaint as soon as possible, but Sviggum believes Democratic committee members are dragging their feet.
"We kind of settled six o'clock tonight (Tuesday) so there would be a 24 hour notice. But unfortunately some of the Democratic members of the committee could not make it or were not available at that time," said Sviggum.
Sviggum said he believes there's some political strategy involved in delaying the hearing.
