"News to me," Orlando Sentinelreporter Scott Powers writes about some breathless blogging over the weekend that he had been "kidnapped" by aides to Vice President Joe Biden.
But, Powers says he was indeed told he had to wait in a closet — or a storage room as the Biden staff preferred — until the vice president arrived at the Winter Park, Fla., home of political contributor Alan Ginsburg last Wednesday for a fundraiser for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). He ended up in the room for more than an hour.
Biden's staff didn't want him talking to guests, it seems. But he was allowed to listen to the remarks Biden made and file a "pool" report for other journalists. And he could have left anytime he liked.
Like most anyone, Powers didn't like how he was treated. Reporters sometimes have to cool their heels in "holding rooms" at such events, but not closets. Biden's staff has apologized and promised not to do such a thing again. Ginsburg also apologized.
And now Powers has seen it written not only that he was kidnapped, but that he also tried to cover up the whole thing.
"We have ClosetGate: the latest big Washington scandal, it seems," he writes. "So I shrug tonight, awaiting one more interview I'd agreed to earlier today --ABC's Good Morning America — humbled by the power of the blogosphere, for good or bad."
And here's how GMA played the story (complete with a high-tech "recreation!"):
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