Attorney General Lori Swanson (D-MN), who will leave office in January after 12 years in the position, published one last op-ed in The Star Tribune recently to thank her colleagues for helping her along the way. Among those she thanked are Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN), former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), and disgraced former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned from his seat in early January after facing multiple sexual harassment allegations. “Against this backdrop, I’d like to relate some of what I learned over the last 12 years,” Swanson writes, taking a subtle jab at “political correctness.” “I learned from Sen. Al Franken. In 2012, I was being attacked by several former White House chiefs of staff for my lawsuit against the politically connected Accretive Health. Yet, Al Franken held a U.S. Senate hearing so that patients could testify about the atrocities committed by the company, which had embedded bill collectors in the emergency rooms of Minnesota hospitals,” Swanson recalls. The hearing “blunted the political mischief,” Swanson continues, thanking Franken “for showing others that you can succeed when standing up to powerful special interests.” In November, Swanson convened a task force to discuss potential changes to Minnesota law surrounding alcohol…
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