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#25: Franken's Saipan Sneak

    In his chapter dealing with Congressman Tom DeLay and his connection to the Saipan garment industry, Franken writes on page 180 of Truth (emphasis mine),

"It's also worth mentioning that DeLay blocked an actual fact-finding trip to Saipan that had been planned by Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, by threatening Hoektra with the loss of his subcommittee chairmanship. A former aide told the National Journal, '... Hoekstra was told to lay off the Marianas.' Hoekstra was 'absolutely beside himself,' the aide added. 'He was livid'."

    Sadly, Al Franken did not even bother to question one very important figure in all of this: Congressman Hoekstra himself! Research, anyone?

    In the very same National Journal article that Franken cites, the author Peter H. Stone wrote (emphasis mine),

"In a series of telephone interviews, Hoekstra, now chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, disputed key aspects of the accounts of his former staffers. 'I don't remember a dustup with DeLay or [the] leadership on a CODEL,' Hoekstra told National Journal, using the term for a congressional delegation trip. Hoekstra added that the Marianas 'may have been important to them (his former staffers), but it wasn't that important to me. I never got that fully engaged.'

"Hoekstra stressed that his 1998 probe was much broader in nature and focused only partly on sweatshops that were operated in New York and other U.S. cities. Hoekstra said that he made two trips to New York to look into sweatshop conditions.

"But the congressman acknowledged that there 'might have been some discussion about going to the Marianas.' Hoekstra said that his former aides 'may have a better recollection than I have. If it ever happened, it didn't have much of an impact on me.'

"Dan Allen, a spokesman for DeLay, told National Journal, 'This is the first time Congressman DeLay is hearing of this, and it's not something that he was involved with'."¹

    Needless to say, Franken's claim that "Delay blocked an actual fact-finding trip" is questionable - at best - as the account is clearly contradicted by the episode's two principle characters, Congressman Hoekstra and Congressman DeLay. It also appears that Franken didn't even take the time to pursue these men to question them. Instead, Franken selectively and misleadingly pulled the remarks of unnamed ex-employees from a single journal article and asserted it as fact.

    What ever happened to Franken's "impossibly high standard"?
 

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Notes:

1  Peter H. Stone, "Former House Staffers Say DeLay's Office Derailed Northern Marianas Investigation," National Journal, May 6, 2005.  http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/0506nj2.htm.