itshappening
04-13-2013, 10:31 AM
It's amazing that POLITICO - a known establishment and propaganda rag - are using the Progress Kentucky debacle to suggest that they were amateurs and that such people have no business running political organizations.
No sir, if you're not a political consultant with a fancy degree don't bother getting involved in politics! We can't have that! Who do you think you are? Shut up and leave it to the professionals who whisper in our ears and control much of what goes on in Washington.
In a way they're trying to use the downfall of Progress Kentucky to smear grassroots activists and organizations they don't approve of. According to POLITICO's theory the problem with Washington is there are too many of these uppity groups ran by people who don't have the traditional consultant background and this is a very dangerous thing. Their takeaway from this is : 'Chalk one up for the establishment'!
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Amateur hour in politics
The political establishment has some advice for anyone out there thinking of forming a super PAC: leave it to the pros.
The two men being investigated for secretly recording Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were enthusiastic activists, but definitely not professional operatives — far from it.
Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison were active bloggers. Reilly was a delegate to August’s Democratic National Convention, but he made his living as a financial planner. Morrison sold real estate.
They started Progress Kentucky hoping to help Democrats take down their top target, but in three months, all they’ve done is turn a veteran senator with low approval ratings into a sympathetic figure and spur an FBI investigation.
Call it the de-professionalization of politics. Barack Obama’s presidential runs and the tea party movement show the power of the grassroots, but the 2012 election also showed how politicians can avoid responsibility for attacks by laundering them through allegedly independent super PACs, or secretive nonprofit organizations.
The establishment — rightly or wrongly — has to deal with the consequences.
“Anybody can say anything they want and be treated as if they were part of a 200 year old political party,” said Paul Begala, a longtime Democratic Party hand who blasted the group for its activities.
All it takes to start super PAC is filing papers with the Federal Election Commission and opening a bank account, said Jimmy Cauley, a longtime Democratic political operative in Kentucky. “It’s almost like this phantom organization,” he said.
Progress Kentucky first achieved national notoriety for attacking McConnell’s wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, over her ethnicity. And on Tuesday, the liberal magazine Mother Jones posted the tape in which McConnell staffers discussed attacking Ashley Judd’s mental health if the actress ran for Senate.
The group’s brain trust sought the limelight when they launched, spurring stories — including in POLITICO — about this new super PAC going after McConnell.
Now, they’re not talking.
Morrison didn’t respond to a phone call requesting comment. Another man identified as working for Progress Kentucky, field organizer Keith Rouda, didn’t return calls. Another man affiliated with the group, Treasurer Douglas L. Davis, resigned from the organization on Thursday, the same day a local Democrat fingered Reilly and Morrison as the source of the McConnell campaign tape.
Reilly also hasn’t responded to phone calls, but a POLITICO reporter on Friday received a three-minute voicemail from Reilly’s phone number.
Two males can be heard talking and laughing in the message, but they did not appear to be speaking into the phone. The call cuts off with a string of expletives.
h xxp://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/amateur-super-pacs-progress-kentucky-90021.html?hp=t1
No sir, if you're not a political consultant with a fancy degree don't bother getting involved in politics! We can't have that! Who do you think you are? Shut up and leave it to the professionals who whisper in our ears and control much of what goes on in Washington.
In a way they're trying to use the downfall of Progress Kentucky to smear grassroots activists and organizations they don't approve of. According to POLITICO's theory the problem with Washington is there are too many of these uppity groups ran by people who don't have the traditional consultant background and this is a very dangerous thing. Their takeaway from this is : 'Chalk one up for the establishment'!
-
Amateur hour in politics
The political establishment has some advice for anyone out there thinking of forming a super PAC: leave it to the pros.
The two men being investigated for secretly recording Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were enthusiastic activists, but definitely not professional operatives — far from it.
Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison were active bloggers. Reilly was a delegate to August’s Democratic National Convention, but he made his living as a financial planner. Morrison sold real estate.
They started Progress Kentucky hoping to help Democrats take down their top target, but in three months, all they’ve done is turn a veteran senator with low approval ratings into a sympathetic figure and spur an FBI investigation.
Call it the de-professionalization of politics. Barack Obama’s presidential runs and the tea party movement show the power of the grassroots, but the 2012 election also showed how politicians can avoid responsibility for attacks by laundering them through allegedly independent super PACs, or secretive nonprofit organizations.
The establishment — rightly or wrongly — has to deal with the consequences.
“Anybody can say anything they want and be treated as if they were part of a 200 year old political party,” said Paul Begala, a longtime Democratic Party hand who blasted the group for its activities.
All it takes to start super PAC is filing papers with the Federal Election Commission and opening a bank account, said Jimmy Cauley, a longtime Democratic political operative in Kentucky. “It’s almost like this phantom organization,” he said.
Progress Kentucky first achieved national notoriety for attacking McConnell’s wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, over her ethnicity. And on Tuesday, the liberal magazine Mother Jones posted the tape in which McConnell staffers discussed attacking Ashley Judd’s mental health if the actress ran for Senate.
The group’s brain trust sought the limelight when they launched, spurring stories — including in POLITICO — about this new super PAC going after McConnell.
Now, they’re not talking.
Morrison didn’t respond to a phone call requesting comment. Another man identified as working for Progress Kentucky, field organizer Keith Rouda, didn’t return calls. Another man affiliated with the group, Treasurer Douglas L. Davis, resigned from the organization on Thursday, the same day a local Democrat fingered Reilly and Morrison as the source of the McConnell campaign tape.
Reilly also hasn’t responded to phone calls, but a POLITICO reporter on Friday received a three-minute voicemail from Reilly’s phone number.
Two males can be heard talking and laughing in the message, but they did not appear to be speaking into the phone. The call cuts off with a string of expletives.
h xxp://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/amateur-super-pacs-progress-kentucky-90021.html?hp=t1