SD-AL: GOPers Spread Lie That Herseth Is Pregnant
You can't make this stuff up. A few days ago the Bruce Whalen (R) campaign sent out an email alerting locals about what it thought was a very hot story about his Dem opponent, Rep. Stephanie Herseth: She had gotten impregnated by her chief of staff and as a result had converted to pro-life views.
How did the Whalen campaign find out about this scandalous turn of events? From Wikipedia. We kid you not. It turns out that someone had added this line to the Wikipedia page about Herseth: "She opposes abortion rights, citing her new found change of heart after announcing her pregnancy with fiancee Ajay Bruno's baby." The claim was of course false, and Wikipedia users noted that the line looked "very suspicious." But the fact that the entry was obviously questionable didn't appear to occur to Whelen's campaign manager, Lee Beard. He jumped on the assertion and cheerfully sent out an email about it. Here's the email, courtesy of Mount Blogmore:
Bloggers,
Please read the profile below in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Herseth
It says that she is engaged to her Chief of Staff, Pregnant, and Pro-Life.
This is a big change from being a Home Wrecker with a Texas Congressman two years ago!
I look forward to your thoughts and verification of the claims.
Lee Breard
Campaign Manager
Bruce Whalen for U.S. Congress
Local reporters subsequently told Breard that the story was false. And then Breard turned around and did something even stranger: He said he'd sent around the rumor as a favor -- to Herseth! "I personally don't know a lot about Wikipedia, so I sent it to the blogs to find out if it was legitimate or if it wasn't," he told the Rapid City Journal. He claims he didn't know readers could edit the site.
Breard also tried to claim that he knew the charges were likely bogus and that he was just kidding when he called Herseth a "home wrecker." (Herseth began dating Texas Rep. Max Sandlin after he was divorced, according to the RCJ.) "That was just a follow up to how outlandish the quotes of her being pregnant and changing to pro-life were. I thought it was all ridiculous," Breard said. Of course, that would seem to be plainly at odds with his claim that he sent it out to "find out if it was legitimate," but who are we to quibble?
Suppose I've heard the rumour that Mike Whalen is a pedophile. What would be the best way to disprove this rumour? I know! Run it on the front page of the New York Times and advertise it on TV about 10,000 times. That way, its sure to be proven or disproven...
I dunno. I think the Republican party just hit a new low.
August 7, 2006 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who put the line in Wikipedia? I'm sure it's possible to find that out.
Didn't the bloggers run an effective smear campaign against Daschle a couple years ago?
August 7, 2006 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fasten your seat-belts, folks, it's going to be a long and bumpy ride til November.
August 7, 2006 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know what this line in Beard's email means:
"This is a big change from being a Home Wrecker with a Texas Congressman two years ago!"
But it sounds like even in his email spreading scurrilous rumors, he may have managed to insert an additional scurrilous story.
That's an impressive new low.
If Whalen's Wikipedia entry said that he was pregnant with campaign manager Lee Beard's child, would Beard email bloggers to find out whether the entry was correct (and include what appears to be a cheap shot about Whalen's past romantic life in his email)? Would he expect the Herseth campaign to do so, or just go straight to the blogs? What would he say if they did?
His assertion is simply ridiculous on its face. No one would go about their "fact checking" in this manner, especially coupled with the gratuitous name-calling ("Home Wrecker"). He may well have wanted to get the second story out rather than the wikipedia story, which is stupid and obviously fraudulent on its face, and used the wikipedia story as a pretext.
August 7, 2006 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, what's the reference to "Home Wrecker with a Texas Congressman" about?
August 7, 2006 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed, it's important to track down the person responsible for the Wikipedia line. Dollars to donuts, they're connected to the Whalen campaign. Beard probably had a staffer do it or else a friendly blogger.
Yes, bloggers (a particular blogger really) smeared Daschle relentlessly. It's now par for the course for every politician.
August 7, 2006 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I answered my own question from some old blog postings, but the home wrecker reference seems to be a totally vile fabrication, as it appears the Congressman in question was already divorced when she met him:
Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D), who just won the special South Dakota election, had a boyfriend waiting for her on Capitol Hill when she arrived last week.
He's Democratic Rep. Max Sandlin, a four-term Texan.
http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/2004/week24/index.html#entry-1566638
Later reference (July 2005, unconfirmed if still dating, Sandlin out of Congress due to DeLay redistricting): http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/UndertheDome/060705.html
August 7, 2006 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The IP address of the Wikipedia vandal appears to be 67.82.48.187.
Anyone know a good IP look-up program?
August 7, 2006 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone know how to interpret this info? It seems to suggest the user is a customer of this company, which is apparently located in Hicksville, NY. Is it possible to narrow it down further?
Output from ARIN WHOIS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARIN Home Page ARIN Site Map ARIN WHOIS Help Tutorial on Querying ARIN's WHOIS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search for :
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search results for: 67.82.48.187
Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) NETBLK-OOL-4BLK (NET-67-80-0-0-1)
67.80.0.0 - 67.87.255.255
Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems) OOL-CPE-JCSNNJ-67-82-48-0-22 (NET-67-82-48-0-1)
67.82.48.0 - 67.82.51.255
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-08-06 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
If contact information is out of date or incorrect, please contact hostmaster@arin.net. Include all relevant information in your e-mail and ARIN will investigate the matter.
August 7, 2006 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I added something about this: the RCJ article confirms that he was already divorced.
August 7, 2006 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
A pedophile, eh? I knew it all along. You can always tell. Now I suppose he'll deny it, the liar!
August 7, 2006 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't the denial constitute proof of both pedophilia and lying?
I mean, if he really is a pedophile, we'd all expect him to deny it and lie about it, wouldn't we?
So if he's denying it, does that prove its true?
August 7, 2006 6:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lately, the best one word description I have for Republicans is: VILE!
Bushco delenda est.
August 7, 2006 10:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great.
I hope no one in South Dakota makes the mistake of believing anything that comes out of the mouth of someone who could sink so low as to spread such ridiculous rumors and outright lies. The campaign should really be held to account for it in the local media. It's disgusting and debases the entire campaign.
August 8, 2006 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink