Gutknecht tries to edit history
August 17th, 2006 – 9:12 AM by Eric BlackEsteemed colleague Kevin Diaz has a piece in today’s Strib revealing that someone on Rep. Gil Gutknecht’s staff repeatedly tried to change the wikipedia article on the congressman to delete the fact that when first seeking his seat 12 years ago he had promised to term-limit himself to six terms. (Coincidentally, Gutknecht is now seeking a seventh term.)
Here’s the funniest paragraph.
“A spokesman for Gutknecht did not dispute that his office tried to change his Wikipedia entry. But he called into question the reliability of the service, which was created in 2001 and claims to be the largest reference website on the Internet.”
Translation: I don’t deny that you found me with my hand in your safe, but I really think you should have a better lock on that thing.
29 Responses to "Gutknecht tries to edit history"
What would be ironic, in an entertaining way, is if someone could dig up a Gutnecht quote about Wellstone breaking his term-limit promise. I don’t know if one exists, but would be interested to find out!
The title of this entry is a bit misleading. There was no “history” to be edited. Wikipedia does not work as a historical document. It is a site for fans of a subject to create an archive of the subject. Politics will always be full of innacuracies on Wikipedia.
How crappy. Why can’t politicians just take responsibilty for something they say or do? Let’s just erase something as opposed to addressing it. Anyone who does that kind of thing, Democrat, Republican or Independent, should have their integrity seriously questioned. And then on top of it, once caught, fail to address it.
The link to the Wiki article is broken above so here it is )for those that have a hard time spelling Gutknecht): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Gutknecht
There is aldo a link in that Wiki article to the USAToday article about the term limits. USAToday here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-12-term-limits_x.htm
I do find it interesting that many of the term limit promises came about in ’94 during the ‘Contract with America’ election cycle. Those promises were the result of Republicans pushing for term limits because they could never gain a majority. However, now that they have has the majority for 12 years, term limits are not only unimportant, but previous promises regarding them should be erased. Hypocrisy reigns on BOTH sides. but this is defeinitely a glaring example of it.
sdram, what did you mean by innacuracies in the article? It seemed fact based to me.
The Onion had a headline that went something like this: “Wikipedia celebrates the 450th anniversary of American Independence: Honors Washington, Jefferson, Mr. T”
Embarrasing. Has Gutknecht given a reason for breaking his pledge?
How about a follow-up Q&A with Gil…to pin down the specifics of his recent 180 on Iraq. Thanks Eric
Rewriting history? Trying to change your perspective for political gain? Constantly redefining who you are? Isn’t that what Orwell warned us about?
What else can you say, that’s politics.
Peder asks: “Embarrasing. Has Gutknecht given a reason for breaking his pledge?”
Surely someone will now ask him. I can’t help but wonder whether anyone would have thought to, had this attempt to edit history not been made.
Though, you know what really piques my curiosity – that this was discovered by a 15 year old kid in Tennessee. Huh?
I was the DFLer who ran against Gil in 1994. His three issues were 1)term limits of 12 years, 2) balance the federal budget, and 3)no foreign military actions without a clear exit plan. He’s 3 for 3 in flip-flops, or disastrous results, whichever you prefer.
Question for the DFLer’s here: Does this change your opinion of Gutknecht more than it did your opinion of Wellstone when he did the same thing?
Gutknecht’s reasons:
1) I love my job (insert your own joke here)
2) term limits hadn’t been universally applied (its been tough with those Dems having such a grip on Washington) and
3) voters should be the ones making the decision (we promise to hold him to it in Nov)
Well, Gil Gutknecht can’t hold a candle to John Kline in the “can’t take responsibility” contest.
I saw the StarTrib article a few days ago with him “apologizing” to the Marines at Haditha — just so they would drop their lawsuit against him for the remarks he made. In it, he said that the reporters who used his comments didn’t give the whole context — what could have been left out to change how this sounds:
“There is no question that the Marines involved, those doing the shooting, they were busy in lying about it and covering it up  there is no question about it,” Kline said. – Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2006 and
Representative John Kline, a Republican and a former marine, said: “This was a small number of marines who fired directly on civilians and killed them. This is going to be an ugly story … There is no doubt that the marines allegedly involved in doing this lied about it. They certainly tried to cover it up.â€? – The Sunday Herald (Scotland), June 4, 2006
So why wasn’t he man enough to either stand by his statements — or simply say he was wrong, without trying to shift the blame to the media?
And now he’s running hard campaigning against a volunteer in his opponent’s campaign — yes, you read that right, he’s not campaigning against former FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley, he’s sending flyers throughout our district beating on one on her volunteers.
No wonder the Congress is in such sorry shape, with guys like Gutknecht and Kline.
“Why can’t politicians just take responsibilty for something they say or do? Let’s just erase something as opposed to addressing it. Anyone who does that kind of thing, Democrat, Republican or Independent, should have their integrity seriously questioned. And then on top of it, once caught, fail to address it. ”
It is important for politicians to take responsibility for their actions and past statements, but involvement is a learning process. If his position changed, and he wanted to revise he statements, I think that would have been legitimate. Again, you’re right that the key is addressing the change in their position.
But I think the whole question is mute. The Republican candidate in that district was previously a Green and an Independence candidate, I think.
Our newly partisan judicial elections are about to be interesting politics. The paper has been good about not hastening the transition, but with a US Rep to be stricken from the ballot by our State Supreme court, the SoS is the defendant and the Atny Gens Office as state’s counsil, this is going to be like bush v gore, only more inbred.
I’m not a lawyer, but my common sense reading of chapters 211 a and b (with the footnoots on judicial rulings) suggests strongly that the congressman will not be on the ballot this November.
What I don’t like is Kiffmeyer saying there are two sets of rules — one for major party candidates and one for everybody else. That’s not the Minnesota I grew up in.
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[...] When perusing the comments on a recent Eric Black post, I came across this little gem posted by none other that State Senator John Hottinger: I was the DFLer who ran against Gil in 1994. His three issues were 1) term limits of 12 years, 2) balance the federal budget, and 3)no foreign military actions without a clear exit plan. He’s 3 for 3 in flip-flops, or disastrous results, whichever you prefer. [...]
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