ST. PAUL -- Attorney General Mike Hatch apologized for comments he made about two people in the Minnesota media and Gov. Tim Pawlenty attacked Hatch's handling of the controversy in the past two days.
However, the final televised governor's debate Friday night was calmer than much of the rhetoric spouted during a controversy that started Wednesday night.
Hatch said he did not remember calling a Forum Communications reporter a "Republican whore," but if he did he said he was sorry. Even if he called him -- and a television station owner -- "Republican hacks," Hatch said that he should not have.
Republican Pawlenty, meanwhile, said Democrat Hatch's handling of pressure now is an issue in the governor's race.
The two, and Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson, appeared on Twin Cities Public Television's "Almanac" for an hour-long debate.
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Much of the discussion was over Hatch calling the male reporter a whore, then hanging up to end a telephone interview, and calling television station owner Stan Hubbard a Republican hack.
"There was some aggressive behavior going on and I regret having said what I said," Hatch said.
Hatch said he did not think he called the reporter a whore, but "you know I could have. And I'm not going to dispute it. I thought I said 'Republican hack,' not that that is any better. It isn't. And I regret what I said."
Hatch said he was trying to defend his running mate, Judi Dutcher, who on Tuesday night told a television reporter she did not know about E-85, which is a fuel blend of 85 percent corn-base ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
Dutcher's comment set off a flap over whether she should have known -- and whether she did know -- about E-85. Hatch's comments about some in the media escalated the rhetoric.
Forum Communications reporter Scott Wente was asking Hatch about Dutcher's comment and trying to allow Hatch to let her comment when the attorney general hung up and ended the interview.
"I wish I wouldn't have said it," Hatch said during the debate.
Pawlenty jumped in to the dispute.
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"The larger issue now is ... the attorney general's handling of the situation," Pawlenty said. "Sadly, he has a long record of this type of behavior and these types of comments and it is just coming through in this campaign."
Hutchinson took on both opponents. He dressed down Pawlenty for criticizing Dutcher's qualifications (which Pawlenty denied) and said Hatch failed to handle the situation well.
"For Mike Hatch to blow up and mislead people about what happened, that's equally wrong," Hutchinson said.
On ethanol itself, Hutchinson warned that further use of corn to make ethanol will take too much water. He suggested -- and Hatch agreed -- that is a major problem that must be tackled.
Hutchinson suggested taking subsidy payments the state makes to farmer-owned ethanol plants and invest in a new form of ethanol that uses other plants than corn.
Hatch said further subsidies should be targeted to locally owned operations, not big corporations.
Pawlenty touted his national efforts to promote ethanol and said that under his leadership the use of ethanol is doubling.
On other issues:
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n All three said they favor a statewide smoking ban.
n Hutchinson said he support selling wine in grocery stores; the other two don't.
n Hatch and Pawlenty agreed on the need to help financially poor northern Minnesota American Indian tribes, but neither would support a Twin Cities casino owned by the tribes as Pawlenty has in the past.
