The Honorable Mike Hatch is presently the Attorney General of the State of Minnesota. I have lived in Minnesota nearly all my life. Circumstance has found me confined within a radius of about 30 miles. Working seven days a week at two jobs can be confining. Vacations and the things I used to enjoy, fishing, ball games, the State Fair etc. are not any longer considerations. What does this have to do with the Honorable Mike Hatch?

Mr. Hatch wants to be our next Governor. He has wanted this very much for a very long time. Some call him ambitious for this. I call him "hollow". He is one of the "hollow men" I encountered on my journey of discovery.

I only considered approaching him when the Star Tribune wrote a story about "Casey who died from bedsores". The article claimed that the Attorney General had brought a lawsuit against the health care provider responsible for this travesty. I went to see Mike. I thought I might help him with this action. I know something about bedsores.

Entering the State Capitol is a big deal to me. The place is awesome. The Attorney General's office is equally impressive. After announcing the purpose of my visit I sat waiting for someone to respond. Next to my chair was a table with a very interesting brochure. It described anecdotal evidence of little people that had found a champion in the Attorney General. Its theme was that the little guy was best served by this man and his staff. I was encouraged. Certainly Casey was a little guy and this office was going to do justice by him.

A staff person gave me the name of the staff attorney who was handling the case. I called her and we talked for more than 30 minutes about my finding and its relevance to the case she was working on. She asked me to call her back, that she needed some time to process the material I had offered. I did. She was no longer available.

Many calls later she actually picked up the phone and was not cordial at all. There was nothing to be done, no relevance whatsoever in my offering. What had happened? The Honorable Mike Hatch intervened. So I tried again to see him. Many calls and a few letters finally forced a response, a letter on his private stationary with a terse comment of no thanks, I should try the new administration about to enter office. Maybe Republicans would be more open to my offering. A remarkable letter. A subsequent visit to his office found the brochure about the little guy gone. I failed to notice what happened in the State's case on behalf of Casey. I was now broken and scrambling to save myself from oblivion.

Mike Hatch cares nothing for the little guy. He puffs himself up daily but he is an empty suit, hollow at the core.