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POL July 3, 2003 ~~~ ~~~~ Where Nas Stadium debate? °~Page ~C~rinkie Outs The Vi'kes ;pa9e~~: >' • Mesh Frosh ' a9e,3 ~3lts~,&~Peces page Fair grounds-Stadrum RCish >P~9e` E#sewtr~re a# the Legislature Pages Lobby`Changes Page Locals ,under the;Gun page 7` New Baoic ~n Minnesota... Politics- Page`°8 • Volume 21, Number 20 Does Anybody Really Know What Truth Is? Does Anybody Really Care? Thoughts about the old Chicago song flooded into our consciousness last week during a fascinating discussion about truth in politics. The folks we were talking to were convinced in their souls that President Bush deliberately misled the American public to think that Iraq really did have weapons of mass destruction and was hobnobbing with Al gaeda before Gulf War II was revved-up, and then quickly won. Seems to a few of your editors that there is a pretty good case to support that conclusion. The question, of course, is whether it matters at all politically. One of the hard lessons we've learned thinking and writing about politics all these years is that it really doesn t matter much what you said, what matters is what people think you said. A recent poll showed, besides support for Bush's handling of Iraq, a full 20 percent of the people answered affirmatively when asked whether Iraq had used weapons of mass destruction during Gulf War II. That reminded at least one of your editors of an historical precedent. During the Vietnam conflict, Minnesota DFL Senator Geae McCarthy challenged Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary. McCarthy wanted to end the war in Vietnam, and the campaign of "Clean Gene" attracted throngs of young anti-war activists. McCarthy's strong second place finish in New Hampshire caused Johnson to pull out of the race. Fascinating polling done in New Hamp- shire after the primary showed that at least 20% of McCarthy's supporters in that state voted for him because they thought he was going to push the war more aggres- sively than Johnson, rather than his actual plans to get out as soon as possible. Said another way, the people don't always know what's up. They do get to vote, however. So President Bush stretched the truth about Iraq. The conventional wisdom is, "So what?" The people really don't care. They just know they like to win and, so far at least, we have won in Iraq. You'd like to think, however, that a significant hunk of the people, in the end, wouldn't like their president fibbing about why we went to war. Then again, maybe they just don't care. The same truth problem arose surrounding Governor Tim Pawlenty and his rheto- ric about the budget deficit. A recent email from the Taxpayers League urged all to thank the Guv for cutting government by 10 percent, a figure a bit low, but on the right track. Despite that reality, Pawlenty and his troops keep insisting that the budget is really higher this year than last. (A Monday MPR gubernatorial interview talks about the Human Services budget going up 8°~). For a lot of boring reasons, these statements about the budget aren't really true. In this instance the Taxpayers League is right. Governor Tim Pawlenty cut the size of Minnesota's government, he didn't raise it. Again, however, the question remains, does it matter? Will Pawlenty or Bush pay any price for trying to give us some sleight of tongue? Truth continued on page 7