The McConnell Tapes: Dems Feel Heat, Shed Light

Scratch my butt-dial theory; a Kentucky Democrat is backing away from a foul smell:

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.

...

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.

The head of Progress Kentucky has resigned and is in discussions with the FBI. Ooops.

PAGING TONY ORLANDO. OR DAWN:

David Corn of Mother Jones proudly raked more self-invented muck with this sidebar to the McConnell taping:

(CNN) – One of the questions to emerge from that secret recording of a Mitch McConnell campaign strategy session is whether it proves the Senate Minority Leader is caught on tape misusing his congressional staff.

The DC-based watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington has asked the FBI to investigate.

CREW officials said the audio recording obtained by Mother Jones magazine raises questions "whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), violated federal law and Senate rules by misusing Senate staff or resources to conduct opposition research on potential campaign opponents."

...

In the Mother Jones transcript, a campaign strategist at the McConnell meeting in February is quoted as thanking "LAs" or legislative assistants (legislative assistant being a title for a specific congressional staff position) for their work in developing opposition research on potential opponents, including actress Ashley Judd, who has since decided against a run for the Kentucky seat.

"So I'll just preface my comments that this reflects the work of a lot of folks: Josh, Jesse, Phil Maxson, a lot of LAs, thank them three times, so this is a compilation of work, all the way through," the unidentified strategist is quoted as saying in the liberal magazine's transcript.

Thank them three times? Is McConnell leading a breakaway Muslim sect? Critical listeners have an alternative theory:

But listen closely, and it's also possible that same adviser may have said "thank them for their free time." It's a bit garbled and all in the ear of the beholder. Listen for yourself here.

Congressional staffers are permitted to volunteer their personal time to political activities.

I think you have to figure the speaker was channeling his inner Tony Orlando.

That alternative view seems to be finding traction, since (per NRO) Mother Jones has noted the controversy in their transcript. Lawyers can mull over this:

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan tells National Review Online her organization listened to the tape “quite closely,” and concedes that the relevant quote is “not conclusive,” but adds: “I don’t actually think it matters.” Sloan argues that the “core question” — which cannot be answered by the tape alone – remains whether or not Senate staffers were paid to conduct campaign research, which is precisely why CREW has asked the FBI and Senate ethics committee to investigate.

And the probable cause for opening an investigation is an ambiguous, illegally obtained tape? Maybe we should open investigations all over Congress. Oh, wait - having the Executive Branch investigate its opponents in the Legislative Branch based on nothing is sort of Nixonian, isn't it?

Comments

[hit and run]

Oh no he di'int...

Scratch my butt . . . foul smell

Oh yes he did.

[Thomas Collins]

Time out from ProgKen Gate for a shout out to Jane. We miss you!

[narciso]

'what difference does it make' have they made such a fuss, defending the inquiry into Sen. Menendez, shocking!!!

[maryrose]

CH and Narciso:
Thanks for your support in the previous thread.
I will not engage trolls in the future.
Dems are scrambling now,wrt illegally taping McConnell and GETTING CAUGHT! The chief sin here according to the felons, is the getting caught at it. They just pray they won't be prosecuted and hope to deflect blame onto the staffers. It won't work, but it is good to see someone has resigned. He gets a new job in 5,4,3 ,2...

[narciso]

You're welcome, maryrose,

[NK]

Paid research-- why would they pay these guys to to read the Judd autobio, or read Cosmo Mag, or watch Oprah or whatever for this public info-- uh-- scratch that-- you'd have to pay someone big time to read any of that carp. In any event-- the Left is shown to be lawless gansters once again-- scratch a Lefty just a little bit, and you find a raving fascist.

[Janet]

whether or not Senate staffers were paid to conduct campaign research, which is precisely why CREW has asked the FBI and Senate ethics committee to investigate.

Who cares? Is CREW gonna ask the FBI & the Senate ethics committee to investigate phony Cherokee Warren?

RULING-CLASS HYPOCRISY: Elizabeth Warren advocates a $22 minimum wage, but pays her own interns zero.

[hit and run]

It's time for congressional staffers to form a union.

Campaign workers, too.

Poor kids just trying to make a difference, and The Man is exploiting them.

[NK]

Speaking of fascists-- OK a pathetic moronic one: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/04/connecticut-sen-pleads-with-murdoch-dont-air-nra-161502.html

[Gus]

Do you think Obama had conversations with his campaign staff about Jack Ryan's divorce records being unsealed. Tacky!!!!

[narciso]

Honestly, to read Ashley's book, should demand
'combat pay' for the needless death of braincells.

[Captain Hate]

Just doing what I thought was right, maryrose.

[peter]

I always got Tony Orlando and Freddie Prinz mixed up. Orlando is half Greek and half Puerto Rican. Prinze was half Hungarian and half PR. Tony Orlando is apparently still alive. They were friends, and one committed suicide and the other had a breakdown.

[Gus]

There is another difference Peter. Tony Orlando woke up at the CRACK of DAWN.

[Thomas Collins]

I'm shocked. Staffers volunteering to do campaign work in their spare time? That NEVER happens in Massachusetts!

I must congratulate the progs, though. Trying to shift the discussion from prog bugging to GOP staff use is clever.

[maryrose]

TC:
Clever,but not clever enough. Corn brought this to the attention of the Leftwing media . Now it has to be covered and lawyers will determine if Corn illegally used an illegally gotten tape. Now the fun begins. This latest effort doesn't pass the smell test. Everyone now knows how thuggish dem PACS are and will hopefully remain vigilant.
Gus: Yes where was the outrage wrt Ryan's divorce papers?
Hypocrites ,one and all.

[Neo]

For starters, had I known two years ago what I know now, I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would've happily come out of it. "Diversity!" I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. If it were up to me, I would've been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I salute you and your 1/32 Cherokee heritage.

[Janet]

Man Who Stole Obama’s Beloved Teleprompter Sentenced To 7-Year Prison Term…

While Sandy Berger, who stole National Security documents -

"Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was sentenced Thursday to community service and probation and fined $50,000 for illegally removing highly classified documents from the National Archives and intentionally destroying some of them."

There was a media blackout at the front end of that story too. Like 9 months from his being caught until the MFM reported on it.

[Clarice]

So Soros and his pals pay the idiots to illegally tape this and hand it to MoJo's Corn which is probably funded by the same gang of cutthroats and CREW that is also on the same lefty payroll files a claim against McConnell? Time for the FBI to investigate CREW, MoJo and the Ky idiots.

[Rob Crawford]

Wait... how can they start an investigation on illegally obtained evidence?

CREW is just providing cover fire. I can't be the only one who sees this as coordinated.

[maryrose]

RC;
CREW is trying to project guilt on MCConnell,as I believe the original talking points mandated. It has blown up in their faces and they know it. This story has legs and Corn brought it to fruition. Hoisted on his own petard.

[maryrose]

If a guy gets 7 years for stealing TOTUS,these guys should get jail time for illegal taping.

[narciso]

Any statement is considered 'doubleunplusgood'

http://www.rightwingnews.com/conservatives/rep-duncan-likens-gun-registration-to-rwanda-massacre/

[Gus]

Think about how SICK the LIB/MARXIST mind works.
It's okay for 2 DEMOCRAT operatives to physically go to McConnells campaign office on a Saturday with handy tape recorder. Record a private campaign conversation that was about as controversial as oatmeal, give that tape to Mother Jones Ragazine, in an effort to CREATE some sort of scandal or NEW WAR on WOMAN.
But McConnell gets accused of using FEDERAL FUNDS to campaign.
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHO THE LEFT IS. And that is EXACTLY why I have never called myself a Republican. The GOP is not fighting for US.

[narciso]

'How the turns down the rabbithole, lead;

http://predicthistunpredictpast.blogspot.com/2013/04/progress-kentuckys-sean-reilly-was.html

[Thomas Collins]

In Massachusetts, the disgrace would be that the staffers really did the work on their personal time. Any self-respecting staffer working for a Massachusetts pol does the political work during regular office hours.

[Rob Crawford]

'How the turns down the rabbithole, lead,

At this point, "Democrat operative has criminal past" is assumed, isn't it?

[jwest]

I'm certain that is Trayvon screaming in the background of this tape.

Top audio experts will back me up on this.

[Porchlight]

Heh.

Hi jwest! Long time no see.

[DrJ]

OT, but unbelievable:

South Korea and the U.S. both offered to return to negotiations with North Korea, aiming talks at Pyongyang's nuclear program and broader security threats in a bid to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula that American officials said run the risk of a direct military conflict.

Senior South Korean officials who met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Seoul Friday, said their government also was willing to resume sending humanitarian assistance to the North following weeks of escalating threats by North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun to attack U.S. and allied targets in North Asia and the Pacific.

I'd think after all these years it might be time to suggest that unless they do what the US wants that NKorea will be turned into a glass parking lot.

[Clarice]

Jwest, Hi-and heh

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

But Doc, didn't you read this headline at Memorandum;

U.S. will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea: Kerry

In other news, the Vice President says the US will never accept a Spanish Empire equipped with an Armada.
Like a nuclear armed North Korea, that ship has already sailed.

I'm convinced the Norks do this for exactly the same reason Lucy dusts the old pigskin off every once in awhile; for the laughs of seeing how many times whichever Charlie Brown is in the WH will give it another old college try.

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

New thread is up. Guns.

This kid Reilly is your typical progressive bully and liar who was probably kicked off "Buckwild" for being too stupid:)

[narciso]

That doesn't compute, JiB, what is 'too stupid for Buckwild'

[matt]

Janet,

The president was speechless when his teleprompter was stolen.

[Mark Folkestad]

Can someone in or near Kentucky please go to where the campaign planning session took place and "eyeball" it to see if the cover story of the infiltrators is remotely possible? I'd love to see photos, and maybe hear about a re-enactment to see if a discussion behind closed doors could be heard by people simply standing outside, waiting for the elevator. The Progress Kentucky/Dem/Soros cover story sounds as fishy to me as Seattle's Pike Place Market.

[Mark Folkestad]

Heh, great line, Matt!

[Mark Folkestad]

Breaking news. Jonathan Winters has died. When I was a teen, I was called a younger and skinnier version of Winters. Time has taken care of those two qualifiers. Rest in peace, king of improv comedy.

[Brian]

Maryrose is so slimy and slippery that. to save face, and without a twinge of conscience, guilt, shame or remorse, she has rationalized that she didn't say or do anything wrong. Wow, folks, genuine, authentic, dumb white trash.

[NK]

Jonathan Winters, RIP-- genuinely funny man.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Brian is a poopy pants.

Is this how this game works? Red Rover....

[maryrose]

Mel:
I am at the library and people around me are wondering why I am laughing over your last comment.I used to love playing Red Rover.
I always loved Jonathan Winters and he was my dad's favorite comedian. I remember Johnny Carson just letting him go on while on the Tonight Show. He was the best ad-libber around. Robin Williams learned loads from him.

[gmax]

Is it just me or is David Corn the smarmiest little weasel in at least 7 states? Don't you love that Corn not only did not get the smear on a Republican that he so desperately wanted, but he has started a forest fire amonst the prog faithful in Kentucky. NOW that might actually call for a beer ( to celebrate a two fer )!

[maryrose]

gmax:
Smarmy is too good a word for Corn.I prefer reptilian and slimy git. He has forced the dem party in Kentucky to fess up. I love it! McConnell is a shoo-in now and the progs know it. Anyone they could possibly run will be tainted by this scandal.

[Cecil Turner]

The DC-based watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington has asked the FBI to investigate.

Heh, heh, heh . . . this just keeps getting better. Somehow I don't think this is the investigation they're looking for.

[Porchlight]

Mayhap some of these angry KY progs will start looking into Corn's role in Plame, 47%, etc. and start getting some of their other prog journoweenie friends involved, just to wreak revenge.

Hot blue on blue action.

[Mark Folkestad]

I posted this a short while ago at Power Line: Okay, why did the Democrat/Progressive operatives come to the campaign headquarters AFTER the open house, to which they would not have been invited in any event. And why did the one have to hold the elevator? Perhaps they could ascertain that no one on that floor was outside of the conference room to discover their skullduggery, and they were holding the elevator to reduce the chance of anyone else coming up and catching them? I don't care if there was a vent in the door, and a gap at the bottom. That cell phone must have been held right against one of those openings to get the recording. Reports also have said the recording was practically the entire conference, so I doubt that the leftist operatives just innocently caught what they described as outrages until they could stand it no longer, and only then began the recording.

[narciso]

Well we knoe Corn's M.O. of course that wasn't the whole conference, just like the American Bridge didn't take all of Akin's comments, just
the most inflammatory, same for the 47%

[cindyk]

Jonathan Winters was my maternal father's first cousin growing up in Dayton, OH. Always hoped I had inherited a bit of his wit. Wonderful man.

[sbwaters]

Corn means news isn't news; sensational is news. That makes him an entertainer, not a journalist.

Not that he would be embarrassed by that. He apparently isn't educated enough to be embarrassed by that.

[Clarice]

e teaches journalist at Brooklyn College, I'm told.

[Clarice]

cindy, he was. There was an Ohio Congressman who lived near here who had gone to school with winter and had remained close friends with him. He told me some marvelous stories. Unfortunately tonight i cannot recall a single one.

[Brian]

Maryrose @ 5:27, where do you get off saying that?
You've shown that you're even slimier than Corn is.

Maryrose is an embarrassment to Republicans.
She is in the dumb white trash wing of the GOP.
Dense, shallow, ditzy and clueless, but very opinionated.

[narciso]

Well he went to Brown, sbw, I recall, his book on Ted Shackley, wasn't as bad as I feared, his followup were less impressive.

[hit and run]

[maryrose] made that comment hours ago, and now she is long gone. Why are you addressing it now? Weird. Crazy even. LOL

[narciso]

He/she it approaching full nazgul status, hit,

[Clarice]

brain imagines his every word is so avidly looked for that we each sit here frozen at our computers waiting instantly to respond to his every post.

[narciso]

So, what angle for this week's sojourn through Wonderland, clarice.

[hit and run]

Brian isn't a he, unless Anne is a he.

Either way, BriAnne is worth a good laugh. I like to laugh. I like BriAnne.

[narciso]

He's more like Pinky then the Brain though,

[Clarice]

Colleges and universities and why alums should keep their wallets closed when they come begging for more money.

[Brian]

Brian imagines his every word is so avidly looked for that we each sit here frozen at our computers waiting instantly to respond to his every post.

Posted by: Clarice | April 12, 2013 at 09:49 PM

LOL And yet you in person or as one of your suck puppets do respond instantly to most of my comments. Go figure.

Open mouth, insert foot while talking out of your ass again, dumbass?

Psssst, you can be sure that she has been back here every hour on the hour, anxiously awaiting my reply.