| Cook has rated NY-20 as "Likely Dem" for many months, and most people following this race know that.
The NRCC claims that upping Gibson two notches to toss-up, in a column promoting Gibson's long-shot campaign, was an "oversight," just one of those wacky mistakes that seasoned political operatives make during campaigns.
Well, I don't believe in wacky coincidences -- Gibson has had trouble raising money, and getting the word out to the various Republican media and blogs that's he's gaining momentum was a conscious NRCC lie to help Gibson raise some money at the end of the second quarter.
Walsh's Townhall column now has a correction for that, but still posts the Big Lie to keep that toss-up lie before potential donors' eyes.
Walsh also has made another correction -- he erroneously wrote that Murphy had voted for the "$787 billion stimulus failure," when that vote occurred before he was elected.
And there's more.
For example, Walsh writes:
Gibson has also picked up cross-party endorsements, including the Columbia County Independence Party, which is vital in New York State as candidates names will appear on multiple party lines.
Walsh lies by omission here - Murphy has the Independence Party endorsement, with the support of eight of 10 county organizations in NY-20.
Gibson has not yet received a Wilson-Pakula, and probably won't, so he would have to primary-challenge Murphy for the Independence line as a write-in.
Walsh also misleads, at best, here:
According to Stu Rothenberg from the Rothenberg Political Report, "Obama is more controversial now, and opposition to his health care initiative, particularly among many seniors, and to heavy federal spending has changed the landscape. Also, Democrats don't have a popular local politician like now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to give cover to their nominee."
Walsh clearly implies that the quote is about NY-20, when it is not.
Click through and you find a Rothenberg column, dated Aug. 17, 2009, about the NY-23 special election, with a few asides about the NY-20 special election earlier that year.
And the bit about Senator Gillibrand, as Walsh tries to relate it to NY-20 this year, is also deceptive.
Gillibrand provided a lot of support (or "cover" as Rothenberg puts it) for Murphy in the special election, including personal appearances and a TV ad.
And would presumably do so again this year, if asked.
Gillibrand remains a NY-20 resident, and very popular there, so the way Walsh twists an 11-month-old column about NY-23 is practically another lie.
Walsh posted four lies/deceptions in his short column, then Gibson's campaign posted a few more in a desperate last-minute fund-raising e-mail.
Like this one:
The NY Post, Times Union, Post Star, and TV and radio stations throughout the district have embraced our message.
I'm sure it's news to the Times Union, the Post-Star, TV stations and most radio stations that reporting on the Gibson campaign equals "embracing" its message.
The NY Post and at least one Republican talk radio station have indeed "embraced" the Gibson campaign, as you would expect from those partisan media.
But their preaching to a choir of a few thousand conservative Republicans in the district will have no effect on the ultimate result - Scott Murphy's first re-election.
And this one:
Our rallies have far greater attendance and far more intensity than those of our opponent.
Murphy has not held any rallies this year, and Gibson's few rallies have featured the same few dozen tea partiers (one of whom is Gibson's campaign manager).
The Republicans are desperate to win this seat back, but the only people excited about Gibson are tea partiers and Republican operatives.
So, a Republican political operative lies/deceives four times at least in a short post to help Gibson's floundering campaign.
And, as of 8 p.m. EST tonight, Gibson's website still links to Walsh's lie-filled piece in a way that promotes the first lie Vielkind caught.
The news part of the website posts the first two sentences of Walsh's article, ending with the Big Lie word "Toss-up."
So Gibson is still trying to deceive people about Cook's view of his prospects, because he's still trying to raise as much money as possible on the last day of the second quarter.
It's really kind of pathetic. |
