Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Disclosure kills department:
I had forgotten this story from a couple of years ago.
Jeff Smith ran in the democratic primary against russ carnahan.
Carnahan filed an fec complaint about a postcard with no disclaimer,
illegally coordinated with the smith campaign.
Smith and some staffers perjured themselves denying involvement.
Smith went to jail, one staffer killed himself, another wore the wire.
The coordination was a civil tort,and the perjury was a felony.
But the postcard without a disclaimer was free speech protected by the first amendment under Talley and McIntyre, and Carnahan violated civil rights in filing the complaint.
Whether the civil rights violation resulted in the killing is too speculative for me to decide.
A documentary was made of the smith campaign. Now there's a New Republic article about the whole controversy. Jason Zengerle is the author. Probably no direct relation to Peter Zenger, who printed anonymous political pamphlets, was tried and acquitted, resulting in the First and Seventh Amendments.
I haven't been able to find Zengerle's email. He doesn't seem to be aware of the Talley angle.
Disclaimer: I don't know Russ Carnahan. I think I shook his hand once, or was at a meeting he was at; he knows Roy Temple. But his bother Tom, mentioned in the article, was a good friend of mine when I lived in Missouri. These days he has a windmill company which controversially received $100 million in stimulus funds.
I had forgotten this story from a couple of years ago.
Jeff Smith ran in the democratic primary against russ carnahan.
Carnahan filed an fec complaint about a postcard with no disclaimer,
illegally coordinated with the smith campaign.
Smith and some staffers perjured themselves denying involvement.
Smith went to jail, one staffer killed himself, another wore the wire.
The coordination was a civil tort,and the perjury was a felony.
But the postcard without a disclaimer was free speech protected by the first amendment under Talley and McIntyre, and Carnahan violated civil rights in filing the complaint.
Whether the civil rights violation resulted in the killing is too speculative for me to decide.
A documentary was made of the smith campaign. Now there's a New Republic article about the whole controversy. Jason Zengerle is the author. Probably no direct relation to Peter Zenger, who printed anonymous political pamphlets, was tried and acquitted, resulting in the First and Seventh Amendments.
I haven't been able to find Zengerle's email. He doesn't seem to be aware of the Talley angle.
Disclaimer: I don't know Russ Carnahan. I think I shook his hand once, or was at a meeting he was at; he knows Roy Temple. But his bother Tom, mentioned in the article, was a good friend of mine when I lived in Missouri. These days he has a windmill company which controversially received $100 million in stimulus funds.
Comments:
Post a Comment
