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Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

I think the attempts to whitewash this (no pun intended) after the fact, after she confessed to essentially staging an act which could have affected the election is lame at best. Even if she was acting alone (and I'm going to assume she was) the prosecutor in PA needs to take a serious hard look at her actions and what charges will be filed. Simply saying she filed a fake police report is not enough. Personally I have no idea about election laws in PA, but if there are applicable laws that she violated then she should be charged with those as well. If her little plot had not unraveled, it is likely there would have been some severe consequences, more then just interfering in the election and filing a police report.

Some want to write it off as a liberal hysteria, the question is what would it have been labeled if it HAD been true? No joke, think about that.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Well we know who pushed the "B" is for Barack" part of the story.

McCain Communications Director Gave Reporters Incendiary Version Of "Carved B" Story Before Facts Were Known

By Greg Sargent - October 24, 2008, 5:12PM

John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge.

The McCain spokesperson's claims -- which came in the midst of extraordinary and heated conversations late yesterday between the McCain campaign, local TV stations, and the Obama camp, as the early version of the story rocketed around the political world -- is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time.

The claims to KDKA from the McCain campaign were included in an early story that ran late yesterday on KDKA's Web site. The paragraphs containing these assertions were quickly removed from the story after the Obama campaign privately complained that KDKA was letting the McCain campaign spin a racially-charged version of the story before the facts had been established, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

The story with the removed grafs is still right here. We preserved the three missing grafs from yesterday:

(note: graph is on the TPM website and can't be added here)

A source familiar with what happened yesterday confirmed that the unnamed spokesperson was communications director Peter Feldman. Feldman was also quoted yesterday making virtually identical assertions on the Web site of another local TV station, WPXI. But those quotes, which we also preserved here, are also no longer available on WPXI's site, for reasons that are unclear.

This is problematic because the McCain campaign doesn't want to have been perceived as pushing an incendiary story that not only turned out to be a hoax but which police officials said today risked blowing up into a "national incident" and has local police preparing to file charges against the hoaxster.

There's no evidence that anyone from McCain national headquarters put out a version of events like this.

After the story appeared on KDKA's site and this and other pieces in the local press started flying around the political world, an Obama spokesperson in the state angrily insisted to KDKA that it was irresponsible for the station to air the McCain spokesperson's incendiary version of events before the facts were fully known, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

After that, KDKA went back to McCain's Pennsylvania spokesperson, Feldman, and asked if he stood by the story as he'd earlier told it, but he started backing off the story, a source familiar with the talks says. That prompted KDKA to remove the grafs.

Feldman couldn't immediately be reached, and a McCain HQ spokesperson declined to comment.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_aide_gave_reporters_inc.php

caniff · Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map

peppermint · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:03 am Post subject:

RE the punishment angle

I read something yesterday about how she claimed not only to be beaten, but sexually assaulted (groping, not rape) For making a false claim on that alone, I'd think most people would support throwing the book at her. That sort of thing not only wastes police resources, it makes actual victims less likely to believed, men out to be more of a threat, and life a little harder for everyone around her.

I'd think she needs immediate psychological intervention, harsh punishment or both.

The Lemon · Joined: 11 Jan 2003

This was the greatest October Surprise, ever. It ran like a parable.

Condemn me for feeling some joy out of this if you want. But pity has been in short supply all around. 48 hours ago, the right-wing blogosphere showed very little concern for the victim, only glee that the woman's "assault" would help their "side".

Go on Fox News's comments and try to find someone expressing any sort of relief that a human being wasn't, in fact, maimed. You won't find it. Quite the opposite - there's only disappointment that it wasn't true.

Thousands of McCain supporters desperately wanted to believe that the woman got beaten up and robbed by a black man.

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

From the articles I've read, it looks to me like the police and the general media acted very responsibly in this matter. When mises started posting stuff about it, I thought it was strange the story wasn't splashed all over the place. It took some time to find out the reason.

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee · Joined: 25 May 2003

Before supporting John McCain she was supporting Ron Paul.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Nice. She calls herself "Italian Pajamas," too.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

More whitewashing Gopher, it's nice to see you take something that nearly turned into a severely racial incident so casually. And before you accuse me of turning it into a racial issue, let me again point out that Todd herself is the one that did that by claiming a black man mugged and sexually assulted her.

As to your claim that only the fringe media picked this up, not true. It turns out that the story was reported by at least three news outlets (only two major ones: Fox and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and was picked up by Newsday, Drudge and several conservative radio show hosts as well.

It's also funny that the Republicans have claimed that Todd is nothing but a phone banker, again minimizing her role. The truth is she was a College Republican and a field recruiter for them. Nope, not a lowly volunteer, a paid staffer. The problem is her blog on that site has been deleted. I wonder why?

Here is a report from CNN:

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=IszjevYoS6A