Was the son of a Republican congressman the source of the infamous Austan Goolsbee memo on NAFTA? That is the claim in a pair of articles (here and here) published late last week by the Toronto Star. The existence of the memo, which asserted that Obama’s economic adviser had downplayed the candidate’s public concerns about NAFTA, was reported shortly before the closely contested Democratic primary in Ohio. Frank Sensenbrenner, named in the paper as the source of the leak, offered an odd denial.
“”I categorically deny the thrust of the article. I had never seen the memo in question before reading it in the press. As a result, I was incapable of participating in any leak and am disappointed at the suggestion that I was the conduit for the memo.”
Maybe he deserves some slack, being only 27. But doesn’t categorically denying “the thrust of the article” raise more questions than it answers? (H/T: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel blog.)
