You rock, Greg.

You and Josh and Eric have done a smashing job since the primaries ended. The primaries were tough for us - two really strong candidates and a hard damn fight. But since the nomination was nailed down, y'all have been awesome!

Congratulations, Greg. I'd say, given that the McCain campaign is now trying to discredit Election Central, that y'all have definitely arrived with respect to political coverage.

The McCain campaign lie?! No! Say it ain't so, Joe!

Interesting how that story fell off the radar screen so quickly. I hope TPM continues to raise its profile so that McCain himself has to address it as something he needs to repudiate (as he swore he would).

McCain lie? How disrespectful.

Well I have to say that I am shocked to find this out about TPM. We should all boycott this site until Josh issues an apology.

Granted, making McCain and Co. mad by telling the truth is about as difficult as making a cat mad by throwing it in water, but, still, to be singled out for abuse by them is a signal honor.

Nail McCain's ass to the wall, should be easy with all that old, wrinkly skin.....

Keep up the pressure!

Great job, Greg, on this story. I hereby drop my practice of calling you Greg "this is huge" Sargent for the duration.

Speaking of fraud...CBS News reports Palin is facing yet another ethics investigation in Alaska now for having the state pay for her children's travel on "unofficial" business:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/28/cbsnews_investigates/main4554071.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

We here at TPM have the power! Like Dean said...

This is how lame the mcShame folks are! To attack us is to say we've been doing a damn good job! And they have to realize that TPM is one with its audience! It's very important that we keep an eye out for any trolls trying to split the TPM and we the worker-bees.

Any chance the two Pittsburgh reporters would be willing to come forward to discuss this further?

My thank you as well to Greg for great work on this story. Putting the focus right on the campaign spokesman instead of the lunatic Ashley Todd. What we need is an MSM combo like Drudge+Fox to push these kinds of stories. It seems if it is not on their home pages, the rest of the MSM go braindead and ignore it. They do not wish to do their own leg work and homework.

The mcWar campaign is just plain stupid. They keep on giving...

Why on earth did they revive this story. It is like at this point they want to lose...Greg, did you try to interview the PA communication director for the MCWar campaign?

Great reporting.

Good work, Greg.

To attack TPM is really stupid. All the blogs will now be on this very story!! It will only push the story up. Magnify it!

They simply don't understand the force multiplier that the internet has become. Push against any reputable site and all will work together to push back.

We here have done such a super job of taking down Palin and mcShame. And I'm sure they're mad as hell at all of us.

Go ahead. Make our day! Complain to all the other bloggers!

This is sweet!

The McCain camp forced to acknowledge the "liberal blog" TPM! Ha!

What could possibly be next, a black President?!

Of course they are lying about this because if it were true... 'the race would be over', right?!

As I read today the media are getting bored with the McCain camp because their slime has become so predictable.

TPM Rocks!

mcShame campaign: It's all about appearances. Unless we say it isn't!

The Times and TPM both say that Larson, the robo-call guy, was Palin's personal shopper on the NY shopping spree. (I wouldn't be surprised if the campaign had a CAD-plotted dress-form for Palin.) I don't think Ms. Palin knows how much was or wasn't spent. Slush.
She just wears 'em. It's somebody else's job to pay for them.

Anybody with sense knows the police wouldn't have released that incendiary story to the press, especially since the police were skeptical from the start.
At least McCain is being asked about it by the local press, thanks to your investigation.

Anyone watching Keith O and Rachel knows that TPM has been quoted in their segments on this issue. KO keeps bringing this subject up. I will ask everyone to keep one TV tuned into MSNBC even if you are not watching so the Neilson Rating keeps MSNBC beating BillO in the KO and Rachel hours. BillO is ranting about fraud in the Neilson Rating after coming in third in a spot check the same day he signed his new contract. We can keep him ranting about Neilson instead of ranting about everything else.

Anyone watching Keith O and Rachel knows that TPM has been quoted in their segments on this issue. KO keeps bringing this subject up. I will ask everyone to keep one TV tuned into MSNBC even if you are not watching so the Neilson Rating keeps MSNBC beating BillO in the KO and Rachel hours. BillO is ranting about fraud in the Neilson Rating after coming in third in a spot check the same day he signed his new contract. We can keep him ranting about Neilson instead of ranting about everything else.

Rather, our story simply reported that...

Lose the simply.  It sounds whiny and defensive.

It's really kind of sad the things some of the Republicans will stoop to in order to close the gap and have a chance at election. It may not have been one of McCain's top people who pulled this stunt. Surely McCain's people are aware of the power of the internet in spreading the word....truth as well as lies.

No sane person would want to give credence to a story based on a lie knowing it would hit the internet and be uncovered as to what it really is.

I'll toos my kudos into the pot as well. I was dismayed by a lot of the pro-Clinton stories TPM's crack Election Central was scraping together during the Primary season, but redemption is this plentiful only rarely; at least to these eyes. You are, like the man said, da bomb.

As for why the MSM isn't pushing back harder on the Feldman story, I have to wonder what people expect. The decades long drumbeat of rhetoric about 'Liberal media' has got corporate news outlets so inchoately spooked and over-cautious they wouldn't report that 2+2=4 unless they get it from an official source.

I'm sure there are plenty of reporters who would love to tear into McCain/Palin untruths with a vengeance; they just need to have someone from the Obama campaign go on television and literally call them goddamned liars . . . and even then they'd feel a responsibility to 'report both sides' (said sides being Fact and Fiction) as theough they had equivalent legitimacy.

Stay on it, and don't let these lying republicans get away with this. This was a front running attempt at race baiting that they hoped would win them PA.

If that girl didn't confess for two more days then McCain would have gotten in even deeper while pushing the story. Its sickening to see how low they were willing to go to win.

In this time of the internet, all it takes is one person seeing an obscure story ANYWHERE for it to get national attention. I saw that story on newsvine. LOTS of stories on newsvine! If it puts a bad light on the McPander to the base, so be it. Can't say that crap his people are slinging won't cover them as well! Personllay, I refuse to expect a person who wouldn't stand up for his own FAMILY to stand up for me.....therefore he and his redheaded beitch won't be getting MY vote!