Frankly, the response by the Democrats should have been anticipated. In this case, "investigative" or "gotcha" journalism is the only way responsibility could have been assigned without counter-accusations. Perhaps the blogosphere and instant communications made the chance for an undercover investigation (a simple pick-up of the poster with a camera) unavailable.

Perpetuating a story like this is almost as bad as pulling off such a juvenile trick in the first place. On top of that, it's not even a good juvenile trick.

A two-week period is plenty long enough to call in a news crew with cameras, to do a good job of exposing the "goings on".

This is a campaign swoop-and-squat.

By perpetuating, I suppose you mean bringing it to the public's attention, so as to emphasize what contempt the left has for even a modicum of civility.

While perpetuating the story may not suit your purposes, finding out the truth would be beneficial to all. You are correct that the 2 weeks was wasted and we will likely not know the truth.

Semi

I suppose you'd say the same thing if this were a Republican flier, right? When your own side gets caught, it's much-ado-about-nothing. Otherwise it's a big expose of the opponents proclivities for crassness and I'll-say-anything-to-win-mentality. Riiiigghht.

I'm saying that this is the same kind of antics that have gone on since politics began (ancient Rome, perhaps?). No matter which side does it, it should be done with more creativity and finesse. If they are going to stoop to such tactics, they should at least do a good job of it.

The blatancy of the thing automatically kicks in the backfire factor.

I'm also not surprised to see Michelle Malkin chiming in. She must be between gigs.

Semi-human, er, uh, pundit;
It's too bad that you and your ilk can't accept responsibility for disgusting dirty politics such as that shown in this poster. Like it was said before, if it was a Republican who put it out, you'd be all over it like a fly on stink. But since it's your side, hey, what's the big deal?
It shouldn't have been "perpetuated???" What's up with that?? And you people are always talking about wanting the truth? Only when it comes to Republicans, I suppose. Demos have a free pass, according to people like you, right? After all, the media is on your side, anyhow. Oh, well -- I guess I shouldn't expect too much from the people who claim to corner the market on tolerance, diversity, honesty and civility. When you have to keep on bellowing out that claim, instead of actually practicing it, I suppose one can't actually believe that it's true.

The local paper in the small town where the poster was distributed did a story on it after the editor heard complaints from people for 2 weeks. From there, it bubbled up through the blogosphere to the mainstream media. The Dems' claim that the flier was a GOP trick ring hollow and the claim that it was available for only a few minutes is most likely a lie.

The blatancy of the thing automatically kicks in the backfire factor.

Um, sure, whatever.

You do remember that the left has made a habit out of comparing Bush to Hitler, don't you? And that they've paid little or no price for doing something so tasteless and ignorant?

This is just more of the same.

And the "oh, this is just a Republican dirty trick" line has worn out this year. SwiftVets -- Rove made them do it. Rather's fakes -- Rove planted them. Disgusting posters -- obviously a Republican trick.

It's like Democrats simply will not accept their own mistakes, and feel compelled to blame everything on the Other. That's not a healthy impulse.

It's not *like* they Democrats will not accept their own mistakes. They simply *can't* do it. Liberals think they are always right no matter what they do or say.

Rep. Fitzhugh was on NewsTalk 99.1's Hallerin Hilton Hill Show this morning (Knoxville; 7:15am). Predictably, 100% deniability; however, his official story went like this:
Someone brought the fliers into the local campaign office (which is used not only by him but other local Dems). The office, being staffed by two elderly people, noticed the fliers and that they should not be there. The fliers were removed, taken outside and put in a public trash can at the curb. Someone came into the office a short time later, enquired about the fliers and was told they had thrown them away. The person then goes outside, removes one from the trash and proclaims 'we are taking this to the newspaper'. Fitzhugh went on to state:
"Did I have anything to do with this? Absolutely not."
"Did I know about this (the fliers)? Absolutely not."
"Did I put a stop to it? Absolutely"

Within 5 minutes, there were 2-3 phone calls (local) to support him (from Republican friends). Well, it isn't very hard to make sure you have some friends call in support. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at his statements and conclude that he most likely knew about it + is willing to do whatever it takes to salvage his campaign. Predictably, he blamed most of it on teamGOP. Of course, Hallerin was a gracious host and believed him. Whether he did it or not, I just have an extremely difficult time believing that he would not have taken a political football such as this flier and run with it immediately....unless, of course, he was lying. I hate election years.

I don't live in Fitzhugh's district, but I voted early in NE Tennessee today and against the Democrat I supported 2 years ago because I was so outraged by this poster. I do hope my representative will switch to running as an Independent because he has done a good job for our district. I just can't vote for anyone in a party that would stoop this low.

While living in a different city than my current one, about 20 years ago...during the height of the "Nuclear Freeze" campaign, a poster appeared which advertized the visit of one "Oleg Vishenko", Soviet Information minister, to explain how Korean Air 007 was a "Spy Flight". (And thus justified to shoot it down..)

The peace groups DENIED they had anything to do with it, after it went public. Their sympathizers in the local media did everything to back that assertion. Trouble was, IT WAS TRUE! The poster had been produced for "internal" distribution among the "peace groups" in the area. Someone got it to a copy machine, and it GOT OUT...

Darn, these things happen!

Followup to Tom's comment. Thursday's Mike Fleming show (WREC AM600; Memphis) also had an interview with Fitzhugh. I was working and missed it. Fleming was also being pretty sympathetic, chastising Republicans for being so quick to blame him when they didn't know the "whole" story. Fleming claimed that Fitzhugh had a lot of charity associations with mental retardation groups and that his wife was a special needs teacher. Can't verify if that's true.

"The fliers were removed, taken outside and put in a public trash can at the curb."

Why in the world would you take the fliers and dump them in an outside trash can? Why go through all the trouble of going outside to trash them? Do they take their trash a peice at a time outside to dispose of of it? Didn't they have trash cans inside? Why blame it on the elderly? They may be old but there're not stupid. Something just is not right with that part of Fitzhugh's story.

I think that because mainstream opponets of President Bush have been so blinded by hate and irresponible with their characterizations and language that many of the more impressionable part of that group have taken the cue and believe that any agitprop or behavior is okay. These things will continue to occur until the leadership of the Democratic party starts to take some responibility and changes their discourse and admonishing their nutjobs instead of lying or blaming it on the victim or both.

That should read "they're not stupid" not "there're not stupid" I am on pain medication from experiencing a bout of pneumonia.

When I was young, I worked a great deal with retarded children. This was before it became popular to refer to them as "special" or "special needs" children. We noticed that there were always persons who would make fun of these kids, often to the point of making them cry. Always, when confronted with their offense, they claimed we and the children "simply did not understand the joke," or that we did not realize they were talking about someone/something else. People who are willing to attack children as part of their politics as here, or with Sophia Parlock (here http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040916/480/wvrs10309162250), are not to be trusted with running any part of this government.

I still think it bears remembering that this type of allusion to foes of the Democratic party is not new. Al Gore, Maureen Dowd and others have coined and used the term "extra-chromosome conservatives" for years. Maureen Dowd apparently loves the way it rolls off her tongue and has used it frequently in her writings. And, these mordant musings are preserved in the media. Did those nasty conservative types make them say it and make Dowd say it over and over and over again?

BGF