The Savage Republican

So says (among others) the Annandale Advocate in this op-ed from January 10. The article recounts the AG's failed attempt to get former GOP chair Ron Eibensteiner on campaign finance violations.

So let’s review the facts: Attorney General Hatch takes a thank you letter from a friend – claiming it’s evidence of a crime – then leaks it to a metropolitan newspaper. The former Republican Party chairman who signed a poorly worded form letter is forced to spend thousands of dollars to clear his name because the top Democrat in the state wants to use it as leverage in order to become your new governor. And finally, once it’s discovered that the corporate contributions were made legally to both the National Democratic and Republican Committees, the assault by the Attorney General’s Office against the Republicans continues, while no similar investigation is made into the Democratic donation.

It is nice to see that the Advocate is saying something that a lot of Republican activists have been saying for months! But wait...there's more.

Clearly, this is different than normal political partisanship. What you have here is a constitutional officer abusing his office by wasting taxpayer dollars to promote his gubernatorial run. Hatch orchestrated all of this, intending to use it in his run for governor. If the prosecution had been successful, he would have used it in his race against Gov. Pawlenty. However, the Eibensteiner case is one where a jury, not politicians, heard the facts and made a decision. The jury did not believe Hatch’s version of the events.

But the fun doesn’t end here. Hatch is now going after current Republican Party Chair Ron Carey for alleged wrongdoings. Carey, who is also vice-chairman of the Minnesota Autism Center board of directors, has an autistic son who receives treatment through the center. The organization receives funding from public sources. Hatch now has the idea that the center may have misspent state money, and is conducting an investigation. Attorney General Hatch is again abusing the power of the attorney general’s office and its investigative authority for personal political purposes! This has Witch Hunt, Round 2, written all over it.

With this course of conduct in mind, why would anyone – regardless of political affiliation – want Mike Hatch as their chief executive officer of the state of Minnesota?

The thing is, Mike Hatch has a history of doing this. We should not be surprised that he is doing this. What we (the people of Minnesota) need to do is figure out if we want a person with a history of Nixonian persecution of his perceived enemies in the Governor's mansion?