| Got off the phone with Franken campaign staffer Andy Barr a little while ago. The campaign office is busy, obviously, but not doing what one might think they'd be doing at a time like this. According to Barr, their goal was to call every single DFL State Convention delegate so the delegates "could hear what really happened from us tonight before they got it wrong from someone else tomorrow."
It's damage control mode, no doubt about it, but there's a good way to do that and there's a bad way, and Franken's team appears to be doing it the good way. Barr told me a few of the details about the incorrect tax filings that led to this mishap. Here's my honest take on it: it made sense, but I'm no corporate tax expert. The main takeaways I got are as follows: - "While Al and Franni always paid state and federal taxes on every cent their income, their accountant didn't always pay it to the correct state." (direct quote from Team Franken)
- The Frankens received an extremely small (i.e., not about to get an IRS audit for it) benefit from these errors -- IF I understood the details correctly.
- The Frankens are disclosing this error, not the Republican Party, not the IRS, not the relevant state tax agencies, because they know it's the right thing to do.
Naturally the Republican Party and its assorted tools in the public sphere smell blood in the water, but let's all keep in mind that this is the Minnesota Republican Party that's clutching its pearls over the issue, and they're not exactly paragons of financial wherewithal when it comes to making their tax payments. Caveat lector. Is this an issue? Maybe. Does it have any more importance than a party and its standard-bearer trying to beat up their opponent before a general election? My guess is probably not. |
