The legal dispute over the termination of former Senate communications director Michael Brodkorb took an odd turn late Wednesday when Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman issued a statement abruptly and publicly refusing Brodkorb’s attempt to mediate.
“Despite Mr. Brodkorb’s efforts to disrupt the work of the Senate in the current legislative session, to distract members of the Senate, to extort a payment from the Senate, and to try his so-called claims in the media, the Senate will not allow that to succeed,” Ludeman said in the statement.
Brodkorb’s attorney, Greg Walsh, challenged the statement with equal force. “He’s either out of the loop or being intentionally dishonest,” Walsh said.
Walsh took specific exception to Ludeman’s statement that the “attorney retained by the Senate has reviewed this matter thoroughly had concluded that his claims are without merit whatsoever.”
Walsh said that as of yesterday that attorney, Dayle Nolan, had agreed to mediate the case after the end of the legislative session in April. “We were working through a confidentiality agreement presented by the Senate,” Walsh said.
“The Senate handled Mr. Brodkorb’s termination properly,” the statement concluded. “When leadership changes occur in the Senate, changes in supporting staff are routine.”
“It’s stunning to see that this would come from Mr. Ludeman,” was Walsh’s response. “Either he has no clue or there’s something coming out of the Senate that he needs to guard against.”
Brodkorb attorney Phil Villaume confirmed yesterday that his client and former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch had an affair. The disclosure was in documents Villaume gave to the state as part of Brodkorb’s potential wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
What????
Cal Ludeman has no clue? He’s intellectually dishonest? STOP THE PRESSES!
More bad news for republicans. How to make a small mess bigger.
When Sen. Koch was booted from her leadership role, I thought, “This isn’t fair.” What about the men who had “inappropriate affairs” with staff? Aren’t they fair game too? Should not our legislative leaders from both parties hunt all elected infidels and purge the place. Then maybe we can get some work done.
And, to be honest, I was so sure there was much more to the Koch/Brodkorb connection than a secret affair of the heart. I was sure was money involved somehow like gaming money. I was sure the republicans couldn’t have done something so silly as to sit in judgment of infidelity while Minnesota is burning. I was wrong.
Now the republicans are betting playing table stakes against themselves. Brodkorb has called and raised, and what happened next, the republicans upped the bet alleging “extortion”? How high is the water mama?