Bar Buzz: Missed it by that much.

Byline: Minnesota Lawyer

We're all guilty of substituting the occasional wrong word for whatever word we actually intended to say. There is the story, for instance, of the old country preacher, sweating away on a steamy August Sunday, who he spies a newcomer wearing unseasonable tweed.

"Remove your heavy coat, my friend," the parson booms. "The agnostics in here are terrible!"

Something like that happened to Rep. Brian Johnson, R-Cambridge, the former House Public Safety committee chair, during a Feb. 7 House Judiciary hearing. The panel had just heard harrowing witness testimony from a young restaurant server who said she endured a year of sexual harassment on the job.

The underlying topic was a bill to change to the "severe or pervasive" judicial review standard, which keeps many sexual harassment claims from being heard in court. Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, the Judiciary committee's chair, was a little reluctant to agree to Johnson's request, given the long line of witnesses waiting to take their turn.

But in the end, he assented. "If it's really important, go ahead," Lesch told Johnson. Thus was killed any chance for avoiding the coming verbal train wreck.

"I'm just wondering what the definition of severe and persuasive is that the judges are using?" Johnson said. "Any reasonable person would think...