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To Attorney General Mike Hatch for putting politics into the serious issue of identity theft.

The Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force recently discovered that hundreds of identity theft cases were probably aided by the legal sale of the state driver’s license database.

Hatch immediately blamed the Pawlenty Administration for the release of the information and the rise in identity theft crime. Hatch may as well blame the DFL Senate and other DFL governors and legislators who’ve been in office as long as that information has been made publicly available for sale — which is years.

The data has been classified as public for years. It’s political hacksmanship to say Pawlenty’s at fault for the identity theft cases.

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To former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich for giving a tough love talk to his colleagues in the Republican Party and admonishing them to clean up the mess they’re involved with in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

He called for the party to remove embattled House Majority Leader Tom Delay and immediately begin to reform the lobbying system that created incentives for political corruption.

DeLay has stepped down from his leadership post while he fights a campaign-fundraising indictment in Texas. But Gingrich, who helped orchestrate the 1994 takeover of the House of Representatives by Republicans, said the party needs a leader who can address the important issues.

He also cut no slack for those Republicans connected to the lobbying scandal.

Says Gingrich: “You can't have a corrupt lobbyist without a corrupt member or corrupt staff.”

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To the Florida Supreme Court for striking down the state’s landmark school voucher law. The court said the program violates a constitutional mandate that the state provide for a “uniform, effective, safe, secure and high quality system of public schools” because it siphons public dollars to benefit private schools.

The rejection of the law is a victory for public education and its attempt to educate everyone equally. A voucher system allows public funding of private schools where no accountability exists to provide special needs or underachieving students an education.

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