Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean (R) is using a 2010 speaking fee paid to writer Neil Gaiman last year as a reason for changing the funding mechanism for arts and cultural spending in the state, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Dean called Gaiman (who he said he hated) a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.” 

The amount was a fee paid to Gaiman for an event at a library attended by about 500 people, which was later broadcast on public radio. In a post on his blog at the time, responding to an article in a local newspaper, Gaiman explained that he charges a large amount for his speaking engagements because they’re a distraction from his writing and he wants to keep them to a minimum. He also revealed that he’d donated the speaker fee to two charities, one doing social work, the other library/book based. 

The matter came up again this year in the midst of a political battle over the allocation of funds for arts and culture, with the “hate.” Gaiman responded with a post on his blog mocking the name-calling, but also attacking the charge that he’d stolen the money, saying “I don’t like the idea that a politician is telling people that charging a market wage for their services is stealing.” 

It’s a sign of the times when comics (see “Supes Citizenship Flap Spreads Like Wildfire”) and a comic writer/novelist get pulled into the scrum/knife fight that is American politics.