October 15, 2004

Offensive Flier Update: A "Whodunit"

Today's Jackson Sun reports on the mystery of the offensive campaign flier distributed via the campaign headquarters of an incumbent Democrat state legislator in West Tennessee, noting that the state's Democratic Party Chairman Randy Button is trying to blame Republicans for the flier, but the GOP is firing back:

State Republicans also got into the mix Thursday, saying Democrats can't blame the flier on the GOP. ''The facts don't lie,'' said Beth Harwell, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. ''The bottom line is the flier came out of the Democratic Party's headquarters and they should be ashamed.

Given that Button has provided no evidence for his charge, Harwell is right.

State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh admits the flier was available in his campaign office but claims it was only for a few minutes until a campaign worker saw them and tossed them in the trash. He's implying they were placed there by Republicans trying to harm his campaign.

Memo to Rep. Fitzhugh: Unless you have evidence for that charge, you ought to just admit that it's possible that the fliers were placed there by a supporter of yours who wrongly thought the flier was funny, apologize, and move on. Instead of trying to shift the blame - without evidence - to the GOP. Your Republican challenger, Dave Dahl, is absolutely right in this story from WMC-TV in Memphis when he says Fitzhugh "needs to say that they were in my headquarters, don't know how they got there, but I'm sorry for anyone they offended."

Today's Tennessean has that paper's first coverage of the story, which broke in the blogosphere two days ago. But it's a good story, worth waiting for, as the paper sheds a little more light on Fitzhugh's claim that the flier was only available in his campaign HQ for a few minutes before a worker trashed them. That appears not to be true:

The fliers first appeared last Tuesday or Wednesday, said Katie Honey, a volunteer in the Lauderdale County Democratic Party headquarters. ''A man brought it in, and later I looked at it and said, 'This is not something for us. This needs to be trashed,' '' said Honey, a retired clothing store and beauty shop operator.

Later, she said, ''Some other gentleman came in and was raising cain, talking about the flier, saying it was a disgrace and this and that. I said, 'We're not giving out no fliers. We thought it was terrible and put it in the trash.' He went out there and got them and took them with him.'' Honey said she did not know how many fliers went out the door between the time they were on her desk and when she threw them away.

James Mitchell, owner of the City Pawn Shop in downtown Ripley, confirmed that he was the person who got a copy out of the trash. ''I went down there, and they admitted they were handing them out. I got one out of the trash can. I thought this is about as ridiculous as anything you ever heard of. The fact they're making fun of special kids, that's what offended me.''

He said he took a copy to Dahl's campaign headquarters.

My previous coverage on this story:
Offensive Poster Update - Oct. 14, 2004
AP Reports on Democrats' Derogatory Poster, Oct. 13, 2004
Special Olympics Statement, Oct. 13, 2004
Disgusting Poster Update, Oct. 13, 2004
More on that Disgusting Democrat Poster, Oct. 13, 2004
Disgusting: Democrat poster compares Bush to mentally handicapped, Oct. 12, 2004