Seventh District Rep. Collin Peterson (D) is taking flak from the Dollar Double Cheeseburgers of the state GOP for his joking characterization of constituents who sidetrack his town hall meetings:
"Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the Twin Towers down."
But Peterson is getting support from an unusual quarter — his GOP colleagues from Minnesota, Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline, who are well-known in the state for holding town hall meetings rarely, and then only inviting half the town.
"Otherwise, you just get a bunch of people asking why they can't have socialized medicine," Kline said.
"This has really I think energized activists in the area and is going to lend [itself] to a first-tier candidate coming forward to run against him next year," said Minnesota GOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb, adding that there has been an "absolute explosion" of interest in the seat in the past 24 hours.
Brodkorb acknowledged that it may be tough to find positions that the new candidate can exploit against Peterson, a conservative Democrat with an A+ rating from the NRA.
"But we think Peterson could be vulnerable on the ray gun issue," he said.
