Thoughts on The McConnell Tapes (cont'd)

By Michael J.W. Stickings and Mustang Bobby 

MJWS:

For MB's previous post on this matter, see here.

I would just like to say, in agreement with him, that the real story here, the real scandal, isn't what Progress Kentucky did (which wasn't some elaborate bugging operation) but what McConnell was plotting to do, what he and his staff were preparing to do to destroy Ms. Judd's character, for the sake of his own re-election efforts. Yes, we expect politicians to dig up dirt on their opponents and go negative, but this was far beyond what we generally accept as normal, appropriate (if still sordid) behavior.

As MB wrote: "[T]his crowd seems especially energized about being bullies, and they relish finding things about her that will appeal to the paranoia and the prejudices of the 'low-information' voter." In other words, how characteristically Republican of them.

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MB:

A group called Progress Kentucky says they're the ones who made the recordings of Mitch McConnell's re-election team strategizing about how to campaign against Ashley Judd.

A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative.

Mother Jones Magazine released the tape this week. The meeting itself took place on Feb. 2.

Jacob Conway, who is on the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, says that day, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded and volunteered for Progress Kentucky, respectively, bragged to him about how they recorded the meeting.

Apparently the strategy session was held in a room where people walking by could hear what was being said without being in the room itself, so whether or not that qualifies as "eavesdropping" under Kentucky law isn't really clear.

One thing is sure, though: McConnell's defenders will piss and moan about how they're the injured party and that the people at Progress Kentucky are the scum of the earth with no respect for privacy or the rule of law. And those would be the same people who thought James O'Keefe and his ACORN sting was daring and cool.

Progress Kentucky isn't the most astute group; they were the ones who tweeted ethnic comments about Mr. McConnell's wife, and their infighting in this case doesn't raise their maturity quotient.

And of course the attention is now on them and not on the sleazy (and possibly illegal) ratfucking that McConnell and his team were plotting against Ms. Judd.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)