The Alcee Hastings Watch

Mickey Kaus speculates on the upcoming Big Media coverage of the election:

ll-Hands-On-Deck MSM Drive for Victory! ABC's The Note has a thorough and knowing outline of "How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election" to try to ensure the GOPs do not regain any initiative. ...All ABC's Halperin & Co. left out, as far as I can see, is Point #13: Bury the news about the Secure Fence Act (if Bush doesn't bury it first!), Point #14: Do not mention the name "Alcee Hastings," and #15: 'Keep Foley Alive!' (though that may no longer be possible, even on NPR). ... 2:58 P.M.

The NY Times is somewhat on board with that, but there is a subtle problem - Jane Harman, the ranking Dem on the House Intelligence Committee who is marked for replacement by Nancy Pelosi, has been in the news herself for being too friendly with AIPAC.  Awkward!  The Times has plenty of readers who take an interest in Israel so it is tough to duck this. 

On the other hand, Alcee Hastings is the candidate of choice of the Congressional Black Caucus, and from time to time it has been clear that there is a bit of tension between blacks and Jews within the Democratic Party; with that in mind, the Times does not want to report on trouble in paradise two weeks before the ascension of Speaker Pelosi.

The result is some of the more passive "reporting" we are likely to see - here is the Times presenting All The News That Fits Their Storyline:

For a Top Democrat, Further Climb Seems Out

By MARK MAZZETTI

Representative Jane Harman has gained national prominence as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, but even her supporters now concede that she is unlikely to become chairman if her party wins control of the House.

Standing in her way is another California lawmaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ speaker-in-waiting, who would have the power to pick the leader of each committee. The relationship between the two has soured in recent years over political rivalries and policy disputes, and Congressional officials on both sides of the divide say Ms. Pelosi would most likely look elsewhere to fill the Intelligence Committee’s top job.

“To say it is unlikely she will get the job is accurate,” said one Democratic Congressional official with knowledge of the party’s post-election plans.

...Ms. Harman, a moderate from Southern California, has been one of the party’s most outspoken voices on national security matters since the Sept. 11 attacks. But she has also drawn sharp criticism from more liberal Democrats, including Ms. Pelosi, who have privately said that she has not sufficiently used her position to attack the Bush administration for its prewar intelligence failures on Iraq and for its use of secret programs like the domestic eavesdropping carried out without warrants by the National Security Agency.

Fine, Ms. Harman is not enough of a Bush-basher, and what Dem could object?  That said, neither Ms. Pelosi nor the Times may want to advertise that moderate Dems are getting Lieberated from their posts.

Here comes the all-holds-barred Hastings coverage:

Two candidates whom Ms. Pelosi is said to be considering for Intelligence Committee chairman are Representatives Alcee L. Hastings of Florida and Silvestre Reyes of Texas, both of whom currently serve on the panel.

The selection of Mr. Hastings, who is black, would help Ms. Pelosi shore up support from the powerful Congressional Black Caucus. But he has a checkered past, having been impeached and removed from a federal judgeship in 1989 on a bribery charge. Some Democrats fear that installing him in so sensitive a position would only invite Republican charges of weak Democratic leadership on national security matters.

The Times was apparently unable or unwilling to get any comment from Nancy Pelosi's office on this - even a simple "Ms. Pelosi was not available for comment" would have provided an extra chuckle.

And why is the support of the Congressional Black Caucus so important to Ms. Pelosi just now?  The Wash Times reported that she may lack the votes to become Speaker - would the Times care to address that?  Please.

Finally, there is the 'Friend of AIPAC' angle:

Ms. Harman’s efforts to claim the post have even attracted the attention of investigators. Federal officials said Monday that she was the focus of a year-old F.B.I. inquiry related to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group. The officials, confirming a Time magazine report, said the bureau had been looking into whether she had made improper promises to the group in exchange for its efforts to lobby Ms. Pelosi on her behalf.

But the officials also said that the accusations had not been proved and that although the inquiry remained open, it was no longer being actively pursued.

“Congresswoman Harman does not know what this is all about,” said her lawyer, Theodore B. Olson. “She has no information from the government that she is under an investigation of any sort, and the idea that she should be investigated for being a supporter of Aipac is frightening.”

TIME had more details and drama, but the underlying case appeared to be ridiculous.  However - is Alcee Hastings also a friend of Israel?  Inquiring minds want to know (but not at the Times).  I have read that he is, but surely the Times' readers would like to see that pinned down.

Comments

[clarice]

Astroturfing with fake blog sites or using them to plant smears appears to be a growing tactic.
http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=6443

[SlimGuy]

This is the likely office of the HRC that the staffer worked at

HRC Detroit Steering Committee: About Us

Under the direction of local board leadership, the HRC Detroit Steering Committee is responsible for the presence and local activities of HRC.

The steering committee's mission is to:

* support the mission and goals of HRC;
* provide funding for HRC programmatic goals; and
* provide local leadership and advocacy for HRC objectives.

The steering committee's goals are to:

* support the political and financial goals of HRC;
* create a strong HRC presence in the local community;
* expand the number of volunteers doing HRC activities; and
* improve communication and build relationships among the area's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight community leaders and organizations.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Nuclear Security Administration is launching major investigation after classified documents from Los Alamos were found in a meth. dealers trailer house during a routing domestic violence police call. When the saw drug paraphernalia, the police got a search warrant and discovered the classified documents. These have led to a contractor and another search warrant that turned up more information from the same classified source (disk?).

[Gary Maxwell]

improve communication and build relationships among the area's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight community leaders and organizations.

Whats up with this part of the mission? Seriously, I thought the Human Rights Campaign was about assuring citizens under despotic regimes had a voice crying out for them? Straights get a billing behind transgender? Is there something about HRC that I have missed to this point? Is it really a gay rights campaign? I am stunned, as I thought I was rather well informed. Or is this a stealth campaign?

[Sara (Squiggler)]

NJ Supreme Court decides it is not their role to legalize gay marriage and tosses it to the legislature.

[clarice]

Where did you get that, Sara?
Instapundit says:
"GAY MARRIAGE UPHELD IN NEW JERSEY: The Supreme Court of New Jersey rules: "Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes."

A copy of the opinion can be found here."

[Gary Maxwell]

You are both right. The Supreme Court of New Jersey gave the Legislature 180 days to come up with a structure that provides equal rights. It might be civil unions or it might be marriage can be between same sex.

Do you think that Menendez just reached for the Maalox bottle? I cant think of worse timing for Democrats. Nor can it be good news for opponents of the constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage in Tennessee and therefore Ford.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Fox news, Rich Lowry and Shep Smith just did a report. The bottom line, the legislature has 6 mo. to come up with something.

[hit and run]

Nuclear Security Administration is launching major investigation after classified documents from Los Alamos were found in a meth. dealers trailer house during a routing domestic violence police call.

Aha!!!!! Now we know why the Wilson's are "quitting DC" and moving to New Mexico.

Joe is on the case!!!!

[clarice]

It's so nice when a plan comes together.Gary.

[Gary Maxwell]

ON HRC I am confused. After a trip to HRC its all gays all the time. Maybe I was thinking of Human Rights Watch?

[topsecretk9]

--before remembering it's the Human Rights Campaign.

Posted by: hit and run | October 25, 2006 at 12:09 PM--

Hit

Me too...but then I am way more acronym dyslexic and not as versed in acronymese as the rest here

I don't know what VRWC or whatever it is used here often and when ever I see GOTV the fisrt thing that comes to mind is a GO cable station or something I haven't seem :-'

[SlimGuy]

Gary

HRC is a GLBT organization, we have linked up the dots that have traced the SSP website back to a Michigan staff member being the blog owner who has been terminated by the HRC.

There closest office was Detroit Mi.

[SlimGuy]

Also remember Jeff Trandahl of Foleygate fame is a board member of the HRC

[hit and run]

tops:

I don't know what VRWC or whatever it is used here often

Good job throwing the lefties off our trail.

Otherwise they might know that we know that they don't know that we know that they know that we don't know whether they know or not about the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

HRC is a GLBT organization, we have linked up the dots that have traced the SSP website back to a Michigan staff member being the blog owner who has been terminated by the HRC.

This funny when it follows this:

Me too...but then I am way more acronym dyslexic and not as versed in acronymese as the rest here

Don't feel bad TS, I still have trouble with wrt and IIRC and GOTV throws me everytime.

[SlimGuy]

May be a chance match, but I have been following down stuff linked of the detroit office and one of the people in a photo gallery of their last gala was a member of the Log Cabin Republicans who is from of all places Royal Oak, Mi.

Could be interesting.

[topsecretk9]

VRWC = Vast Right Wing Conp.

DOUBLE DUTCH DUH, ME!

[topsecretk9]

Sara..

I noticed that back to back comment too, and thought the same.

LOL ROTFLOL (or whatever it is)

[Gary Maxwell]

Royal Oak Michigan is in Oakland County. A first tier suburb of Detroit. An older and mostly middle class blue collar area. Perhaps it has gone quite gay, I have not lived in Michigan for many many years. It aint Bloomfield Hills where the swells live.

[clarice]

Steele's closing in. (YEAH).
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015643.php

And just as the WaPo does a hagiographic piece on his opponent, Cardin.

[Rick Ballard]

AFAICT, VFRC was coined by the Beast of Chatauqua WRT those following WFC's Excellent Monica Adventure. I'm a bit concerned that some VRWC members do not follow the RNC's GOTV efforts with closer attention. The final victory of the VRWC depends upon members understanding and participation in GOTV efforts. It is the one thing that the DNC, DCCC and DSCC all fear the most.

Do your part - learn your acronyms!

PS - TS, you do know that ROTFLOL is different from ROTFLMAO, right? Precision counts!

[clarice]

WJC, not WFC,no?

[SlimGuy]

Latest from SOS blog, and I captured it this time,

HRC responds
Brad Luna said...

“The email exchanges in question between former Congressman Mark Foley and a House page have been in the possession of bloggers and media outlets for some time now. Yesterday, it came to our attention that an HRC employee, hired just last month to work for us in Michigan, was responsible for initially posting these emails on his blog. We investigated the matter, determined that HRC resources had been inappropriately used, and let him go. No one at the Human Rights Campaign, other than this individual, had any knowledge of his activities,” said Brad Luna, Spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.

Brad Luna has confirmed this is indeed his statement.

More as it develops...

[clarice]

SG,I posted that several hours ago upthread.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/10/the_alcee_hasti.html#comment-24368972

[topsecretk9]

Do your part - learn your acronyms!

PS - TS, you do know that ROTFLOL is different from ROTFLMAO, right? Precision counts!

Rick!

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/07/grand_jury_ines.html#comment-20447816

[SlimGuy]

Sorry, been distracted must have missed it. My bad.

[clarice]

No problem, SG. Happens all the time.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Whoops - I always substitute another word for Jefferson when thinking of dear Bill. It slipped through the mental censors...

TS,

Shhh...

[SlimGuy]

Clarice

Would be interesting if it turns out the HRC worker was one of the Michigan ex pages.

[SlimGuy]

From Brad Luna's bio

Luna holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tulsa and furthered his studies while attending the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Wonder if he knows Chris Kataros

[clarice]

Pretty funny slip in context..Rick.

[Gary Maxwell]

Rick

WTF? and TTFN

[Jane]

You are both right. The Supreme Court of New Jersey gave the Legislature 180 days to come up with a structure that provides equal rights. It might be civil unions or it might be marriage can be between same sex.

Frankly I think that is a perfect result. The issue belongs with the legislature, not the Courts.

I don't trust the HRC. As I said before, one of my friends is the ex-president. For her, the only thing that matters is lefty gay politics. Frankly I don't think the HRC would let anything stand in its way to hurt republicans. I'd not be surprised if the employee was hired specifically to facilitate the outing, not the reverse. My impression is that the HRC couldn't care less about fair play and they really deserve to be called to task for the entire Foley scandal.

[SlimGuy]

From an article about Luna over at Washington Blade

HRC Communications Director Steven Fisher said HRC hired Brad Luna, 28, for the media relations post because Luna is a seasoned press spokesperson and skilled election campaign adviser who is openly gay and a “passionate gay rights advocate.”

Fisher said the story behind Luna’s rise as native Oklahoman to become press secretary for former Rep. Brad Carson (D-Okla.) and later chief spokesperson for Carson’s unsuccessful 2004 race for Oklahoma’s U.S. Senate seat would likely convince skeptical observers that Luna is the right person for the HRC job.

But Fisher and Luna himself acknowledge that, at first blush, Luna’s association with Carson would likely raise questions about HRC’s decision to hire Luna.

Also quoting

Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein of D.C. said he recommended Luna for the HRC job. Rosenstein said he met Luna while Luna worked on Carson’s House staff and was impressed with his skills then and during the stint on Carson’s Senate campaign, which Rosenstein supported.

Some info on Rosenstein

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington is honoring him for his quarter of a century of accomplishments. Peter has served as Chair of the Host Committee for Food and Friends’ Chef’s Best dinner, and he was the Co-Founder and Organizer of the PEN Association Network, DC’s GLBT professional association. In addition, Peter has been a member of the Development Committee for Whitman-Walker Clinic, Chair of the Issues Committee for Washington Mayor Williams’ election campaigns, and a Senior Advisor to the Mayor.

Peter has put his background in education to use as Vice-Chair of the Board of the University of the District of Columbia, and is a Founding Board Member of Washington Gaymes, Inc., the organization preparing a bid to bring the Gay Games to DC in 2010.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

In case you missed Clarice's link to the new Google Earth offering of Election Map Data, I have done a post on it. It is really a neat feature and the links are informative too. You can read more about it HERE.

If you already have Google Earth, all you have to do is check the Election Map overlay and enlarge to see the stars. If not, I have a download link available and screen shots.

Have fun. This is really cool!

[Gary Maxwell]

IRT a perfect result, I dont see anything about a directive from the Supreme Court to pass a law as being "perfect" or even desirable.

It is only a matter of time for a case to make it way through the 9th Circuit to the Supreme Court challenging bans on Gay marriages since the Commerce clause requires States to recognize other States duly adopted laws. We need to make sure there are quality judges on the Supreme Court that will not see a backdoor to get what 48 legislatures have never authorized and the other 2 only did so after have a judicial fiat gun held to their head.

[SlimGuy]

Quoting from an OpEd at the Washington Blade it seems Rosenstein has no love lost for Howard Dean

I was not a Howard Dean supporter in the presidential primaries and didn’t support his candidacy for party chair either. I’ve always been suspicious of his pandering to gay voters when he thought he needed us. It is clear now that he thinks we are a burden on the Democratic Party, and he is moving away from us as fast as he thinks he can get away with it.

To do so is wrong strategically and a betrayal of the party’s ideals. People don’t want wishy-washy statements — they want clear position statements from their politicians and their parties. That is what wins supporters and elections.

[Jane]

It is only a matter of time for a case to make it way through the 9th Circuit to the Supreme Court challenging bans on Gay marriages since the Commerce clause requires States to recognize other States duly adopted laws.

I think DOMA took care of that.

[clarice]

So know we have a concession that an HRC employee was involved.
But surely more people are..Will they all be exposed in time?

[SlimGuy]

Hopefully someone has this information going to the tip line about the Foley stuff that Hastert set up, because they might not be aware of all the dots being connected between the pages and the various websites

[Gary Maxwell]

DOMA is an act of the Congress, it can not withstand a challenge based on an right embedded in the Constitution ( should a majority of the court find such a right). Only a constitutional amendment can change the constitution and that requires the ratification of 2/3 of the States or 3/4 (I forget which).

I think the NJ Supremes just reminded a lot of voters about what you get inside the brightly wrapped package labeled "Democrat inside".

[Jane]

Will they all be exposed in time?

My guess is none will be exposed. The left will back off, and of course that includes the media. The story will die, Foley will be branded as a pedophile, gays will be once again hung out to dry by the left, and the beat goes on.

Not much different than Scooter Libby when you think about it.

[SlimGuy]

OK this is interesting

Seems there is a GBLT community that is centered at Rehoboth Beach, Del and they have an association there called Camp Rehoboth.

Two members of that group are Rosenstein, one of the founders and a gent named Mike Rogers our infamous blog operator

[Rick Ballard]

"Will they all be exposed in time?"

Foley's exposure of the homosexual priest's "help" in "discovering his sexual identity" has effectively neutered both the HRC push as well as the Mediacrat strategy. That's where Sullivans "ooh, yucky, yucky" spin came from. That, and focus on the Congressional male brothel keeper who suceeded the boy rapist kind of took the zing out of media interest in the scandal. It's not exactly top notch publicity for the gay rights movement.

The time to complete the disclosure of all the links (and hopefully there will be a nice solid link to CREW) is after the election. Keeping it on the front burner now doesn't make political sense.

[anon]

Sara

NJ Supreme Court decides it is not their role to legalize gay marriage and tosses it to the legislature.

Actually, what they did was announce that they could not legalize gay marriage, then ordered the legislature to do it for them.

[MayBee]

I have a hard time believing one of the IM pages is from SW Michigan, and the HRC guy is from SW Michigan, and they aren't connected in some way. They must be.

My suspicious blog - the one where Zack the page friend of Edmunds blogs- hasn't posted since Oct 8, even though the Tigers are in the world series.

[Gary Maxwell]

I just read but have not independently confirmed that Constitutional amendments to define marriage as between a woman and a man are on the ballot in:

AZ, CO, ID, SC, SD, VA, TN, WI

See any State where it will not pass? See any State where it might be the dagger to the heart of a challenger for a Senate seat. How about some Governor who is not all that popular?

Gays have just returned the favor to the Democrats. They have in their own unique way been outing each other. Kinda poetic really.

[SlimGuy]

Rick

There was another news story today that an additional alter boy was talking about the same priest

[Gary Maxwell]

Where are you getting SW Michigan? Royal Oak is a Detroit suburb. Very much SE Michigan. SW would be Kalamazoo or St Joseph. Did I miss something again or did you?

[SlimGuy]

Maybee

That's exactly who I had in mind, especially since both sites use the same design theme

[SlimGuy]

In a Washington Blade oped Peter Rosenstein said the following which is pretty close to the philosophy of Mike Rogers who caries it one step farther to outing

Quoting

With that support often comes understandable antipathy toward specific Republican politicians and the GOP as a whole. Some gay advocates go so far as to suggest we should turn a cold shoulder to all Republicans, no matter what their individual views and records.

This opinion was recently voiced by Peter Rosenstein, who argued in this paper that the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign, should not work with or contribute to Republican candidates.

[anon]

According to Luna -

“The email exchanges in question between former Congressman Mark Foley and a House page have been in the possession of bloggers and media outlets for some time now."

Now we are told that "bloggers" as well as "media outlets" had these emails. If true its interesting that nobody published them until the precise moment it could pay off for the Democrats. But I'm inclined to think Luna is just making this up.

[Extraneus]

My guess is none will be exposed. The left will back off, and of course that includes the media. The story will die, Foley will be branded as a pedophile, gays will be once again hung out to dry by the left, and the beat goes on.

And at this point, this is Foley's fault entirely. He could have gone on offense and wiped the floor with all of these scumbags, including Brian Ross and ABC, but continues to hide like he's guilty of something besides being gay. Mind-boggling.

[clarice]

We knew about the media outlets from the first. Like the FBI they determined there was nothing to go on--

[clarice]

In Missouri, the right is putting on an effective response to the MJ Fox ad. Once again, Rove's October surprise is that his opponents are Dems.

[topsecretk9]

--My suspicious blog - the one where Zack the page friend of Edmunds blogs- hasn't posted since Oct 8, even though the Tigers are in the world series.

Posted by: MayBee | October 25, 2006 at 03:03 PM--

Maybee...on that note...on the SSP
On of the in post fake emails

FIRST EMAIL From: congress intern Signed-By: yahoo.com Mailed-By: yahoo.com To: stopsexpredators@gmail.com Date: Sep 12, 2006 12:34 PM Reply Reply to all Forward Print Add sender to Contacts list Delete this message Report phishing Show original Message text garbled?

I saw your article’s about Congressional sex scandals with interns. Let me share what happened to me.I was near the end of my internship for Congressman Foley’s office he asked me for my email. I was not sure why he wanted but I gave it to him anyway. A few days later I got an email from him in the middle of the night asking me for pictures. I sent him a few pictures of me and other interns at work. A few days later he emailed me asking for more pictures of me but not from work. He was looking for personal pictures of me. I ignored the email he started emailing me telling me that he was going to be visiting my area. H e said he wanted to get together with me. he wanted me to come up to his hotel romm. I think that he was looking to have sex with me. After\n that email I block him from my email address

Congressintern01

These were on 9-20, before the LA paper images emails,...doesn't it sound like a conflation of the LA emails and the same information contained in Jordan Edmonds IM's - meet for dinner in his home town, trip to the hotel room?

[topsecretk9]

Equally weird SOS has this

Update: I know who this employee is, and have for some time, but I cannot prove that he has been fired. I will let others go after that for now. There is more to this story, that much I know. It seems to me that the HRC has more work to do in this matter, and I communicated that message to Brad Luna. I feel strongly that they should be given ample consideration to come 100% clean.

Several MSM types have contacted me and perhaps I will talk. Right now I've communicated only the background to two in particular.

More as it develops...
posted by gtl at 10:59 AM 3 comments

...up now

[SlimGuy]

TS9

Those received emails at the SSP blog had their headers edited to be replace by the different interns (not pages) and could be just fabrications by the SSP operator to build the storyline before the post of the LaPage mail transcriptions which have known errors from other copies.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Sara

NJ Supreme Court decides it is not their role to legalize gay marriage and tosses it to the legislature.

Actually, what they did was announce that they could not legalize gay marriage, then ordered the legislature to do it for them.

Posted by: anon | October 25, 2006 at 03:02 PM

Is there an echo in here?

[MayBee]

Oh, Sorry Gary. I had my Easts and Wests mixed up. It's early here in the East.

[anon]

I believe the only blogger in possession of these emails was the SSP individual. If multiple bloggers had them for a long period of time, one would have published for fear of being scooped.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Foley's priest named by 2nd individual:

MIAMI — Another former altar boy says he was sexually abused in the 1970s by the same retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was a teenager, the man's attorney said Wednesday.

The new allegations against the Rev. Anthony Mercieca were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church, where Mercieca worked, attorney Jeffrey Herman said.

Herman said he planned to file a lawsuit Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Miami. His client, now 40 and identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No. 26, says Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 years old.

"He had been thinking about it before Foley came forward, and then when Foley came out and the church encouraged other victims to come forward, he decided to come forward," Herman said.

Mercieca, 69, now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean. No one answered the phone at his home Wednesday. His lawyer, Alfred Grech, did not return calls to his cell phone.

Archdiocese of Miami spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta, asked about the latest allegations, said: "Any of this type of behavior by Father Mercieca was unknown to the archdiocese and we had absolutely no information to indicate that the father did or would engage in any type of inappropriate or abusive behavior."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,224882,00.html

[anon]

SOSup

Update: I know who this employee is, and have for some time, but I cannot prove that he has been fired. I will let others go after that for now. There is more to this story... It seems to me that the HRC has more work to do in this matter, and I communicated that message to Brad Luna.

Several MSM types have contacted me and perhaps I will talk. Right now I've communicated only the background to two in particular.

Cryptic bastard.

[anon]

Sara

Ordering the legislature to legalize gay marriage is no better than doing it themselves. They have no right to do either.

[MayBee]

Aravosis already admitted to having the emails, and he's a blogger.

Tops- that's what I've been thinking. Those fake stories were put up to lead into the emails, and the stories sound like a conflation of the emails and Jordan Edmunds. It reads almost as if the blog person didn't know specifically who the emails were from, and used them to get the IM story out there.

[Rick Ballard]

The Dark Lord backhands NPR

Rove: I see several things; first, unlike the general public, I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races and after all this does come down to individual contests between individual candidates. Second of all, I see the individual spending reports and contribution reports. For example at the end of August in 30 of the most competitive races in the country, the house races, the Republicans had 33 million cash on hand and Democrats had just over 14 million.
Siegel: We are in the home stretch though and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about.

Rove: Not that you would exhibit a bias, you're just making a comment.

Siegel: I'm looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

Rove: No, you are not. I'm looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally........I'm looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I'm entitled to THE math.

It doesn't exactly sound as if Karl Rove is throwing in the towel, does it?

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee filed a paper report (rather than an electronic one) that showed up today, although the money was spent seven days ago. They dropped $12 million on the 17th and have seen their RCP Senate change go from +6 to +4 with leads narrowing in two other races. If they would just spend another $50 million or so the Reps could pick up a couple seats.

Democratic candidates gain when they stay in the attic. Coming onstage just isn't a winning proposition. Ask Ford.

[SlimGuy]

Anon

From all the dots, a lot of people had the knowledge but the SSP blog was a red herring to give Ross at ABC a source point and it seems like the SSP blog owner who worked at HRC coordinated with Rogers at blogactive to all break the story the day after Foleys name was by law frozen on the ballot in florida.

It all ties together as a likely political dirty trick if you grasp all the pieces of the puzzle put together so far. At least that is my take, others may differ.

[topsecretk9]

---

Slim...I know those copy paste emails are fake BS. I am sure if we looked at the site meter we'd find scant 2 hits prior to ABC.

---

Maybee...yeah, that's what I think too...

---

[SlimGuy]

The HRC Board of Governors has three member from Michigan

Michelle Brown - Detroit, MI
Kenn Bing - Harrison Township, MI
Michael Hemmingsen - Madison Heights, MI

[SlimGuy]

TS9

Plus you add the fact that Roger's got his story mixed up a little, he said he had prior knowledge of the SSP blog on one of his posts about Foleygate on his blog, but when the fakes were posted at SSP he was a commenter there leaving his email to be contacted by the blog owner. A little oops there.

[Extraneus]

Interesting, Rick, as always. I've been looking for some data to support my vague contention that manipulated polls during the campaign are the ones most likely to show significant surges for Republicans at the very end -- done, I believe, in order to maintain credibility via accuracy assessments which are based on their last results and not their earlier ones -- but have so far been unsuccessful. Rove, unlike the rest of us, has polls which aren't touted by the MSM.

[SlimGuy]

The comment left by Rogers and the Miami columnist who later interviewed Rogers both left email address for the SSP owner to get in touch, which is stupid, since they could have just email the gmail address of the blog owner.

So it seems both those were just head fakes in my opinion.

[Jane]

Here are the Foley related questions being asked over at Gay Patriot: Maybe we can help him out.

So my questions now are the following:

* When did the HRC employee come into possession of the Mark Foley emails?
* Why did he hold them until October, instead of going to the proper authorities immediately if he truly wanted to expose a potential sex predator?
* What did the officials at HRC know about the Foley matter before today?
* Who is this former HRC employee? What connections might he have with the two-year old outing campaign targeting gay Congressional staff?
* Were other HRC employees involved in this conspiracy?
* Does this former HRC employee have any connections to Democrat Party officials?

Finally, it is worth noting that one of the central figures in the Foley affair is also a Board of Directors member of the Human Rights Campaign — Jeff Trandahl, the former Clerk of the House.

[clarice]

Markos gets outing fever (Hugh Hewitt):
Well, there’s been another alleged outing today. This time it’s Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate for Governor in Florida. The rumors worked their way from the true Democratic fever swamps all the way to Markos Moulitsas’ front page in the past week. They are of course completely unsubstantiated but that doesn’t seem to hinder Markos from bringing it to the attention of his 19 million readers.

And let’s be clear – for Republicans this is a good thing. It simultaneously shows the intellectual bankruptcy and reckless cruelty that distinguishes modern day liberalism. For Crist, the attack comes just in the nick of time. His once robust lead had shrunken to single digits, but he should benefit from this pathetic offensive which I predict will make the front page of the Palm Beach Post tomorrow

[topsecretk9]

North Dallas Thirty...

Notes:

...In my opinion, the question was never if HRC was supporting Rogers and Aravosis -- but when, how often, and how much.

highlight this little bit of info from The Blade, 2004

Both Aravosis and Rogers said they continue to collect information from their network of sources, which include employees of the Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans, and plan on outing more staffers and members.

Also...

...Aravosis said he obtained the latest information about the five-term congressman from Foley’s former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham.

Fordham, who is gay, headed up fund-raising efforts for Foley’s aborted Senate campaign and is now the finance director for one of the remaining GOP primary candidates in that race: Mel Martinez, George W. Bush’s former Housing & Urban Development secretary. Martinez has come out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Fordham denied ever speaking with Aravosis and told the Blade, “I just don’t discuss Congressman Foley’s personal life with reporters, but I’m not sure what their motive is in outing him, other than to draw attention to themselves. Foley has a good track record with gay issues and opposes the FMA.”

[jack]

Now you guys are back to your old games of gay bashing and wedge issues. It seems like only last week the neocons were trying their hardest to portray the Dems as anti-gay for insisting that Foley's despicable behavior be investigated. Oh wait ... it was last week!.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Glenn Reynolds just posted this:

A HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN STAFFER turns out to be behind the Foley affair website, according to this report. GayPatriot is unhappy: "I think the HRC needs to come clean and fully explain to those of you who give them money exactly what the hell they are up to. This entire matter has put every gay American into a bad light by equating child predators with being gay. The HRC has a responsibility to tell us what they know and when they knew it. They are now directly responsible for the anti-gay atmosphere that has emerged from the scandal that one of their own employees helped launch."

[Jane]

The HRC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the democrat party. If getting a democrat elected means outing a republican gay, that's fine with them. It's not about the gays, it's about the dems.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Jack seems to be very confused. It is democrats and gay democrats who are doing the gay bashing.

[Jane]

BTW the NJ decision does not mandate that the legislature approve gay marriage. It gives the legislature 6 months to come up with a plan to equalize benefits, which is an arrangement even President Bush agrees with.

[Jane]

Jack, you are utterly clueless on this issue.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Jane what else is new? Repubs bash Dems for their gay bashing and Dems conveniently drop themselves out of the equation and turn it into Repubs bash gays.

Same going on with embryonic stem cell research. There is no ban on embryonic stem cell research. Private companies are free to pursue this line of research to their heart's content. It is only tax payer dollars for embryonic stemm cell research that is disallowed. Adult stem cell research is alive and well at government labs. But the story is always that Repubs want to ban stem cell research.

[anon]

BTW the NJ decision does not mandate that the legislature approve gay marriage. It gives the legislature 6 months to come up with a plan to equalize benefits

First, the constitutional authority by which the court "gives the legislature 6 months to come up with a plan to equalize benefits" is a complete mystery. It has no more power to give such orders than it does to legalize gay marriage itself.

Second, this is what the court said.

The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.

The only power the court left to the legislature was the power to name the scheme.

In this 90 page ruling there is no mention of how the legislature might provide for "full rights and benefits" or what these are.

This is another power grab by the courts, I'm afraid.

[SlimGuy]

Jane

This is just a theory so far but lets see how it fits

Assume the whole Foley mess was a well planed mess from the start.

If the LaPage is not innocent in this he could have coordinated with the HRC staffer who may possibly be Zack Stanton and ex page in Jason Edmunds class.

In any event the custody of the emails is not clear but it could also have been from a staffer at Alexander's office or if they consulted with the staffers who were fired when Alexander changed parties for advice that is another path.

All the pages of the 2001 class knew Trandahl and probably had figured out that he was having repeat issues with Foley.

So if they worked with the HRC , Rogers of blogactive and all the other players there are lots of possibilities.

HRC has all sort of dem connections, members of their organization have testified many times before congress.

Rogers brags of his connections to the DCCC.

The timing totally looks like it was held by all for release the day after Foley's name was frozen on the Fla ballot.

We also have page class ties to a follow on class member named Chris Kataros who is openly gay and was appointed by Nancy Pelosi.

This guy also went to the same college as the Brad Luna of HRC so they may know each other.

Looks like one big social network.

[Rick Ballard]

Extraneous,

The outfit that will fit the bill you describe will be RT Strategies with their Majority Watch game. If you want an example of the game playing, MN-06 is very good. Go to the SUSA 10/9 crosstabs and read the timing synopsis, then go to the SUSA 10/24 crosstabs to get a further take on the situation. Note that SUSA is using a purchased registration list as the population from which they derive their LV sample. Their response rate is still too high in my view (turnout of the VAP in a midterm averages 40% and only 80% of the VAP bothers to register - if you have a response rate above 50% for registered voters, you aren't pushing the "likely" aspect hard enough). The way that I read the results of all three SUSA polls of MN-06 is that Foley cost 6 points within 8 days and that 3 points have been recovered since the 9th. RT Strategies polled once on the 10th and their poll, mirabile dictu, showed Wetterling up 5. Someone was definitely blowing some heavy smoke (the Strib's +8 Wetterling result should be interpreted by substituting Bachman for Wetterling's name).

Wetterling is a Moveon/Emily's list darling and a real bitch to boot. It's good to see Bachman recovering nicely.

SUSA is no gold standard - they use 800-900 'adult' samples to dig up 400-500 LV's all the time. It just depends on what the customer will pay - and the results the customer wants are generally delivered.

[SlimGuy]

Clarice

Rogers at blogactive is the source of the outing of course

Charlie Crist has some questions to answer...
Crist Denies Trysts:

A young rising star in the Republican Party has boasted to witnesses of his sexual relationship with Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race who has repeatedly denied that he is gay.

The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.

Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist's long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who also recently worked for Harris in her long-shot Senate bid.

Jordan made headlines recently when the Miami Herald learned that the felon was working as Harris's travel aide. The newspaper noted that Jordan, 42, was reported to be close friends with Charlie Crist, whom he convinced to attend an annual Florida Funeral Directors Association meeting in 2003."

Sorry, Charlie... Looks like you closet door has been busted open.

[Jane]

Anon,

What the Court ruled is that in NJ, pursuant to the NJ constitution, you cannot discriminate against one group of people similarly situated when it comes the receipt of benefits. I think that is in their purview, given their consitution. So I don't think they are legislating.

[MayBee]

According to the HRC statement, SSP blog went up months before the blogger was hired by HRC.

So let me run this past Topper's thinking: The blog was set up for the IMs, the emails via HRC were a windfall. Maybe?

[Extraneus]

Thanks, Rick. Good site! What I'd really like to have is enough data to be able to plot the daily or weekly numbers of the various popular polling services over maybe a two-month period prior to the past few elections. I expect some to show more of an implausible Republican surge at the end than others, and all the ones the MSM touts to be on the higher side of that distribution.

[topsecretk9]

MayBee...

--According to the HRC statement, SSP blog went up months before the blogger was hired by HRC.

So let me run this past Topper's thinking: The blog was set up for the IMs, the emails via HRC were a windfall. Maybe?

Posted by: MayBee | October 25, 2006 at 05:01 PM--

I took that to mean they were just distancing themselves with this person...just hired last month...that is how removed we are...lowly new hire.

because the blog was a joke...what 5 posts in a couple months?...the bog was set up 7 days after Crew sent the emails to FBI...i think Crew and CO thought the FBI really would launch an investigation so when they did their lame stunt...the FBI would have to concur.

I think the FBI punked these knuckleheads.

[Extraneus]

Did MayBee really just end a post with "Maybe?"

[anon]

Does anobody know how to edit Wikipedia entries? Their StopSexPredators entry could do with an update.

[SlimGuy]

It almost sounds like Rogers is trying to be a one man wrecking crew to the Republican party.

Since he so conveniently found all these Crist wittinesses you could almost wonder if it is a whole setup in advance to discredit Crist so close to the election and have the questionable characters both work for the Harris campaign which has been self destructing from the start. Maybe these two gave it more than a little help pushing her campaign over the edge.

[clarice]

You're crediting Rogers with anything, SG?
LOL

[Extraneus]

I think it's smart not to under-estimate these people. They've been scheming over this for a very long time, never once thinking to try the honest approach and tell the people what they're really for. Think about that. They've had a lot of time to come up with schemes to fool voters.

[anon]

Malkin asked Calame to explain his reference to "vicious criticism" from the Bush administration. He replied with the following.

I was referring to criticism of the article which has been amply documented in a wide range of published reports.

In other words, "How dare you presume to question the New York Times!"

[clarice]

Then what? Will everyone on the Hill refuse to hire them ? Will they then scream homophobia?

Jane's right--this is what all the lefty groups do--ruin their own constituencies.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

My best friend is a real estate broker who got rich when she sold her first house to a male gay couple and they in turn passed her business card to all their friends. Over the course of several years, her business was almost entirely from these sources and she made lots of money. About five years ago, these gay couples began to call her to list their homes for sale. The same homes she sold them to begin with. Every one of her customers who have sold out and left California relocated to Florida, and guess what, they are all gay Republicans.

Florida, and especially the Orlando area where my daughter lives, is becoming very gay and most of these are transplants, many from California. I think the gay community that finds nothing in common with the San Francisco gay community has headed to Florida, so is there any wonder that they are beginning to get politically active? Good for them. I just wonder if Floridians are as swayed by these outings as the dems hope they will be? Somehow I doubt it.

[anon]

According to the HRC statement, SSP blog went up months before the blogger was hired by HRC.

Stop October Surprises indicated that he did not buy the story HRC is telling, so I would not put a lot of stock in their statement so far.