Digging in the Drek

Suppose you were told that a candidate for congress, while serving as the county DA some years earlier, had gone to New York City for a conference. While there, records show that he made a call to a phone sex number. The DA, in response, does not deny that the call was made but asserts he didn't make it, but rather an aide did, and besides, it was a wrong number. Who would you believe? What if the source of the information to begin with was the National Republican Congressional Committee? Well, if you had already seen this article, you might just reflexively ignore the NRCC.

What? Ignore it? Doesn't the "wrong number dialed by an aide" defense sound weak? Well, what if the DA produced phone records showing that the "phone sex call" lasted one minute, was immediately followed by a call to the New York State Department of Justice Services, and that the final seven digits of the two phone numbers are identical? Not so crazy after all. Of course, this would not prevent an NRCC spokesman from claiming that the ad is "totally true". Hitting a new low in the tight race for New York's 24th congressional district, the NRCC ad prompted the DA to call it libelous and threaten a lawsuit, prompted his opponent to say it was "way over the line", and prompted at least seven TV stations in the district to refuse to run it.

More like this

Hotline reports: Tomorrow, Pres. Bush visits the Topeka-based district of Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS). As of early this week, an NRCC poll showed Ryun down 2 points to Dem Nancy Boyda.
TPM and TPM Muckraker have been following the story of illegal calls being made by the NRCC to try to smear Democratic candidates.
The Hill reports that the NRCC is making Republican representatives kick in more money than last year. But Kansas' Jim Ryun won't make his target:
On All Hallows' Eve, the NRCC has decided it's time to scare Kansans with TV ads about… TAXES! Boo.

The question isn't "why do republicans lie" It is "why are people such idiots to fall for it"

By oldhippie (not verified) on 01 Nov 2006 #permalink