McCain campaign heads into tailspin

With a now widely noted blow-out between the McCain and Palin camps, the Republican presidential campaign is heading into what very much appears to be an unrecoverable tail spin... and the cold, hard ground is coming up fast.

Campaign insiders are pointing to an increasingly off-message and undisciplined Sarah Palin "going rogue" as one source called it -- although elements in the Palin camp defended the VP candidate saying that inappropriate answers to questions from supporters at some events were because the questions were "process questions" -- and the candidate is simply not good at "process questions."

Situation explained. Eh?

Politico, on the other hand, points to word from other Palin insiders that the candidate is, indeed, disregarding instructions from the campaign, particularly the former Bush aides the McCain campaign had assigned to keep her on message and out of trouble.

According to the first source, a senior Republican who is in touch with the Alaskan, "I think she'd like to go more rogue."

According to Politico, a faction of the Republican Party is emerging that sees the largely inarticulate, unread and painfully ignorant former beauty pageant winner turned small town mayor turned Alaska state governor as the future of the party.

More evidence, to be sure, that there is a large and undigestible core of know-nothing crazies forming a lump to the far right side of the party, seeming to ensure a long and painful recovery for the GOP in the aftermath of the neoconservative meltdown.

CNN: Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says

Politico: Palin allies report rising campaign tension

McCain Penn communications director pushed "incendiary" version of ATM attack hoax story

According to published reports, the communications director of John McCain's campaign in Pennsylvania, Peter Feldman, was pushing what has been called an "incendiary" version of the ATM attack hoax story (see two earlier stories below), supplying volatile -- and false -- details to local media outlets even before police had released any but the sketchiest of information.

According to the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, John Verrilli, McCain campaign official Feldman gave a reporter a detailed description of the attack, complete with the assertion that the "B" in the would in the supposed victim's face stood for "Barack" and that the fictitious assailant had said to the young campaign worker, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Claims made by state campaign official Feldman were featured in early versions of KDKA's reporting of the story. The following paragraphs have since been removed from the original story:

The McCain camp tells KDKA-TV that the victim is a 20-year-old Republican from Texas.

According to a campaign spokesperson, after seeing her bumper sticker supporting McCain, the suspect said, "Oh you're with McCain, you're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

After beating the woman, the McCain camp says the suspect carved a "B" in her cheek for "Barack" Obama.

Police, however, have not confirmed that.

It's important to note that there are no reports of similar story seeding or involvement in the incident by the national McCain campaign.

Talking Points Memo Election Central has considerable detail on the story behind the story.

McCain volunteer admits fabricating ATM attack story -- will face charges

Talk about a fast-changing story, according to CBS News, Pittsburgh police are saying the 20 year old McCain campaign volunteer who claimed to have been attacked by a mugger who became enraged when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on her car has now admitted making up the attack story:

Police sources tell CBS station KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.

Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and "the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction."

This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

The commander added that Todd will face charges; but police have not commented on what those charges will be.

One young woman's October Surprise? A shocking story unravels...

No one is eager to call into the question the tearful story of the victim of an apparent brutal attack.

But the 20 year old McCain campaign volunteer who originally claimed to have been beaten in an ATM robbery by a robber who she said was "enraged" by a McCain bumper sticker on her car. The young woman claimed the assailant not only gave her a black eye but carved a "B" on her face. [Police now describe the wound as a "scratch" or "scrape."]

But inconsistencies in her story soon appeared.

According to reports, she declined medical attention and declined to let police photograph her injuries -- yet within several hours, a photo of her with what appeared to be a red abrasion in the shape of a backward "B" on her face appeared on the net.

Some folks speculated that the photo was reversed [Macintosh computers snap pictures in "mirror image" mode by default] or that the assailant had stood above her while she lay on the ground. Others wondered why a 20 year old woman would lie still while an assailant used his only weapon to carefully mark the B into her face. Others remarked that the abrasion was uniformly superficial -- suggesting that an enraged attacker would have cut or gouged the skin, particularly if the victim was struggling -- or even trembling in fear.

For a time, more details emerged: the young claimed the attacker, a 6' 4" black man with a dark complexion, after knocking her to the ground and marking her face, then put his hand under her shirt and fondled her breast.


But now Philadelphia police say that the woman has changed her story after taking a lie detector test and being confronted by police with photographic evidence (from the ATM's security camera) that shows her story of being attacked at the ATM is false.

Recanting her previous story, she now says that she was actually knocked unconscious and does not remember anything...

TMZ: Pittsburgh PD Smells a Rat
AP: Police: McCain volunteer changes ATM attack story [updated and expanded]

GOP Figure Had History of Voter Fraud Complaints in Two States

Looks like, when I suggested in my last post that the California Republican Party presumably didn't know that Mark Anthony Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, a company specializing in Republican and conservative oriented voter registration was involved in fraudulent signature gathering, I was apparently being somewhat premature.

Turns out the California GOP had a few reasons to suspect that Jacoby was trouble.

According to the San Jose Mercury News:

Mark Anthony Jacoby, who owns the firm Young Political Majors, is accused of registering himself to vote twice— in 2006 and in 2007— using the address of a childhood home in Los Angeles where he no longer lived.

The Secretary of State's Office said Jacoby used the address to meet a state requirement that signature-gatherers sign a declaration stating that they are either registered to vote in California or are eligible to do so.

But Jacoby had already been the subject of investigations in California and Massachusetts for "bait and switch" signature gathering:

This is not the first time that Jacoby has been embroiled in voter controversy.

Earlier this year, dozens of voters accused YPM, which had been hired by the California Republican Party, of tricking them into registering as Republicans. The voters said they thought they were signing a petition calling for stiffer penalties for child molesters.

In 2005, Massachusetts voters made a similar complaint.

They said a signature-gathering firm that acoby was working for as a subcontractor—Arno Political Consultants— duped them into signing an anti-gay marriage petition when they were told they were signing a ballot question about the sale of wine in grocery stores.

One signature-gatherer told a state hearing that Jacoby had personally trained her in the bait-and-switch tactic.

Arrest in California Voter Fraud Case -- It's a Republican!

What goes around, comes around?

The California Republican Party (presumably) unknowingly hired the voter registration firm owned by a man who illegally registered at a childhood address where he no longer lives in order to appear to comply with state law governing professional signature gatherers.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

But wait -- it definitely gets better:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

Several agencies had launched investigations into Jacoby's activities, including the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.

Growing up in Orange County, California, and still residing within a mile or so of the country border, this writer has watched over the decades as the local Republican Party apparatus (and this writer had been a Republican for years himself) has, over and over, become involved with one voting registration, campaign, or voter suppression scandal after another. It's what my fellow former brothers in the Young Americans for Freedom seem to be drawn to like bankrobbers to a bank...