The Minnesota Legislature: Still the Nation's Booziest
In 2004, Minneapolis' KMSP aired one of the most entertaining news stories we've ever had the pleasure to see: a hidden-camera expose ofalcoholat the Minnesota State Capitol. Towards the end of the session, in the middle of a lovely May, they recorded the tail end of a great party:
And what those cameras recorded was booze -- booze on the tables, booze on the desks, booze in the hand, in the air, on the breath. While the voting went on during that three-day lost weekend, KMSP cameras caught legislators, lobbyists, and staff aides drinking, for example, at six different times in the office of the president of the Senate.
The outcry this provoked led to a ban on alcohol in the capitol (don't these people know how drunk our Founding Fathers were as they hashed out the Constitution?).
One of those legislators "caught" was James Metzen, Democrat, now President of the Minnesota State Senate. On early Tuesday, he was arrested for drunk driving, after goingoutwith staffers and fellow legislators to celebrate the end of the session.
THE MAN CAN'T WIN.
Sen. Metzen is Arrested on Suspicion of DWI [Strib]
Darts & Laurels [CJR]