When the story about McCain campaign worker Ashley Todd being attacked by an Obama supporter who carved the letter B into her cheek appeared on The Drudge Report, right-wing news media gobbled it up like a kid with an ice cream cone – and none more enthusiastically than the NW Republican blog.
“The dirtbag who attacked her was (or is) a supporter of Barack Obama,” wrote “Hairy Reed.”
“How many McCain supporters do you know of that have robbed someone at knife-point and then carved an ‘M’ in their face?
“This story is disgusting on so many levels. I am certainly not saying that all NObama supporters believe they should carve letters in the faces of McCain supporters, but you get the feeling listening to these moonbats, and the way they revere ‘The One,’ that eventually anyone who doesn’t agree with NObama is going to be persecuted in some way.
“This is a sad, sad day.”
It got even sadder and hairier for Hairy and other right-wingers when it came out that Todd had made the whole story up.
Reasonable people were suspicious from the start. For one thing, there were no witnesses to the alleged attack. The letter B on Ashley’s face looked more like a welt than something inflicted with a knife. And the letter was BACKWARDS, as if Ashley had branded it on her own cheek while looking in a mirror.
Also the story followed a classic racist stereotype: Big Scary Black Man attacks innocent little white woman.
But McCain supporters are desperate to believe anything that might possibly help their man’s floundering campaign, so they seized on this transparently bogus tale.
After the truth came out, NW Republican blogmaster Ted Piccolo (“I Am Coyote”) issued an apology … sort of:
“I am not the author of this post so I don’t want to speak for them. I did however want to post my two cents at the top of this thread, because unlike the liberal blogs or mainstream newspapers, I eat my crow or criticize my own when it is appropriate.
“I have been out of the office all day today so I had no idea this story had developed to the point that this was a McCain supporter making the entire thing up and trying to blame it on Obama supporters.
“She [Todd] is a lying nag and should live the rest of her life shamed for trying to turn this into something it is not. She is no better than the pro-Obama kid who hacked into Gov. Palin’s email in an attempt to find ‘something.’
“It must be noted that this post was created in response to a news story. And the news story was wrong.
“I have also closed down the comments because obviously some of the moonbats have no idea how to carry on a conversation.”
The Eye feels nothing but sympathy for Todd, who reportedly has a history of mental problems. But we have to wonder what goes on in the minds of Republicans who eagerly passed on this crap with no effort to check on its accuracy or reality. What kind of wine would you like with that crow, Coyote?
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2008.
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poke mcCain with a fork hes cooked —-Well Done
At least Ashley Todd didn’t drown her two little boys in a lake (reference to Susan Smith).
This is interesting …
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.
Link: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_aide_gave_reporters_inc.php
At least we can count on the source for something… liberal liberal liberal…
“At least Ashley Todd didn’t drown her two little boys in a lake (reference to Susan Smith).”
True. And the point is … ?
liberal liberal liberal…
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Yes, I am a liberal (although I prefer the term “progressive” — “liberal” has wimpy connotations).
I think Republicans need to wake up to the fact that after eight years of conservative misrule, the “liberal” label is not as terrifying to most people as it used to be.