"Governer Bredesen: you just lost the respect of a nitwit. What are you going to do next?"

"I'm going to Disneyland!"

Takes one to know one, evidently.

Your first problem, Bill was assuming there were any good Democrats that would rise up against this outrage, without trying to duck the blame for it.

If Fitzugh, and Bredesen, were decent men they would say "Look, we don't know who did it, be we're sorry it was found in a Democratic office, and we promise nothing like that will ever make its way in, no matter who did it". But instead, they have to try and turn it around and get points out of it.

For Christ's sake, Fitzhugh isn't even in a federal election; this is a state legislator wrapped up in Presidential politics. I've always maintained that this was probably some DU moonbat working for the KE04 campaign out of Fitzhugh's office. Unless Fitzhugh was extremely stupid, he surely wouldn't approve of such trash in his office. I think it was one of his supporters, not him.

There is simply no evidence the Republicans were behind this. Why can't Democrats just admit that? It's not like every vile slur in the book isn't uttered about conservatives by liberals every single day.

The Governor has apparently lost Clark's respect.

Oh, that's not what you meant?

Democrats' sad slip slide into hypocrisy continues. Every election cycle, at least one democrat pops on TV with a damning flier that nobody's ever seen anywhere, not found in any office, but that he or she claims to have found hanging "somewhere", and waves around as proof of the evil of republicans.

Here, we have a flier that was sitting in an actual Dem office, seen there, taken from there, admittedly tossed in the trash there, apparently brought back out of the trash there, and it's a republican trick.

Wish I could remember who said it... but the Democratic party has truly become a religious cult. The creed is political infallibility, complete with the current fetish to make everybody else apologize for every little thing that gets up their nose.

Just one problem with this story Bill. It's all lies. Your "sources" are unable to produce anyone who saw the flyer being "distributed" from Fitzhugh's office. They told the AP that Jim Mitchell could confirm the story, but all he says is that Fitzhugh is a decent man and that "somebody" got the flyer from "somebody."

AP story.

You're just repeating rumor as fact.

It's obvious what happened. One GOP dirty trickster walked in and put the flyers on a table, and then another walked in shortly after hoping to "discover" them. In fact, an alert Fitzhugh volunteer had already tossed them in the trash.

You can decide right now whether to admit you've been hoaxed, or expose yourself as a willing collaborator of a typical Rovian trick.

Anyone who cares about a developmentally disabled person should remember which party it was that decided to make fun of Special Olympians for political gain. Hint: it wasn't the Democrats.

And you owe both Mr. Fitzhugh and Gov. Beseden an apology.

More here:

The "Special Olympics" dirty trick.

Kleiman writes: It's obvious what happened. One GOP dirty trickster walked in and put the flyers on a table, and then another walked in shortly after hoping to "discover" them. In fact, an alert Fitzhugh volunteer had already tossed them in the trash.

Can you prove that? Or are you just repeating Democrat spin? THe comments of the office worker indicate the fliers were available on her desk for a long enough period of time that she is unsure how many people took one before she trashed them.

Fitzhugh originally claimed the fliers were thrown away within minutes of being delivered, but in the AP story that Kleiman linked to, Fitzhugh now says it was available for "hours."

Kleiman writes: Anyone who cares about a developmentally disabled person should remember which party it was that decided to make fun of Special Olympians for political gain. Hint: it wasn't the Democrats.

Well, actually, it was Al Gore a few years ago who referred to the "extra chromosome" Republicans, a clear allusion to mental retardation. Gore is, as you may recall, a Democrat. A Tennessee Democrat, at that.

The Democratic spin on this story was set from the get-go by the head of the state party - he said this was a GOP dirty trick - and the rest of the party has fallen into line. But they have produced ZERO evidence.

But what we do know is this:
1. The flier attacks President Bush, a Republican.
2. It was made available in the campaign office of Democrat incumbent, an office shared by the local part of the Kerry campaign.
3. The message of the flier - in effect calling Bush a "retard" - fits with a comment Democratic theme that Bush is stupid.
4. The flier was available for at least two HOURS before it was thrown away.
5. Rep. Fitzhugh's story has changed - he initially said it was thrown away almost IMMEDIATELY.
6. The existence of the flier was known in that small town for two weeks before the story went national via HobbsOnline, Drudge and other websites.
7. During that two-week period, when the town was, according to the local newspaper editor, "buzzing" about the flier, Rep. Fitzhugh uttered not a single word of protest or condemnation or claim that he had been victimized by a GOP dirty trick.
8. Only after the story broke nationally was the allegation made that the flier was a GOP dirty trick. The claim was made by the head of the state Democratic Party and the theme rapidly echoed in lockstep by party members and even the Tennessee AP reporter.

BUT NO EVIDENCE OF REPUBLICAN INVOLVMENT HAS BEEN PRODUCED.

The ONLY evidence that exists ties the flier to the campaign HQ of a Democratic incumbent - though, I suspect, he had nothing to do with producing the flier. Some hatred-filled loose-cannon Democrat supporter of his or local Bush-hater probably produced it. After all, remember the Fitzhugh campaign HQ is ALSO the local HQ of the Kerry campaign.

Kleiman, when you produce something other than just wishful thinking, please let us know. Until then, what little evidence there is - the flier, its presence in the Democratic campaign office, its anti-Bush tone - point to a Democratic origin for the poster. No evidence points otherwise.

What Mark Kleiman said.

As a parent of an autistic child who participates in Special Olympics, I would find your outrage more credible if you had been outraged when Michael Savage mocked autistic kids, or when Rusch Limbaugh suggested that people with Asperger Syndrome would do better in social situations if they just consumed "copius quantities of adult beverages" or when Neal Boortz contended that ADHD is a myth caused by lazy teachers and bad parents. Citations at wampum.

One side of the political spectrum has a history of mocking special needs kids for political gain. Here is a hint. It ain't the Democrats.

One more bit of response to Kleiman, who wrote that "They told the AP that Jim Mitchell could confirm the story, but all he says is that Fitzhugh is a decent man and that "somebody" got the flyer from "somebody."

Read the fourth update to this post.

Better yet, here it is, from a blogger who did some first-hand actual reporting on the story:

that's not what Mitchell told me this morning. I told him that another news report quoted him saying that he didn't know where the flyer came from; I asked him if that was accurate and if he could tell me where the flyers originated. "The Democratic headquarters here." Are you sure, I asked him. "Yes," he said unequivocally. You mean the Democratic headquarters office downtown that also serves as the Fitzhugh campaign office? "Yes," he repeated. When I asked if he thought the Fitzhugh campaign was responsible for the flyer, which had been circulating around town for two weeks according to the local newspaper editor, Mitchell told me "I think it was a fellow from the campaign." Whoever it was, he was, "mean and stupid" and "it makes me mad because this hurts special needs kids."

For years now, Hobbs, I've read your blog. I take a perverse pleasure in seeing exactly how gullible you are, how willing to ALWAYS buy the GOP spin, and how eager you are to trash the Democratic Party. Your "outrage" about this Special Olympics business is sadly typical of you and your particular brand of inanity.

Don't ever change, man. As if you could.

Who says comedy isn't alive and well in the Blogosphere?

They were thrown in the trash, huh?

Isn't that a waste of good paper? I mean, come on, here they are smearing fine up-standing Republicans, and then they WASTE PAPER BY THROWING IT AWAY???

No wonder we have a deficit.

It is strange though... They threw them away. They were in the trash. Why would they throw flyers away if they agreed with them or manufactured them?

This is ridiculous. I don't believe you take yourselves seriously.

The whole "setup" theory relies on the myth that the fliers were dropped off by the mystery man and immediately thrown away. The Tennessean's interview with Ms. Honey from Fitzhugh's office makes it clear that the timeline was longer than that. ("... she 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." - if she threw them away immediately she would know that ZERO went out the door in that time frame)

And again, why on earth would the Republicans pull this "dirty trick" in an insignificant state house race, when there are bigger fish to fry in AK, OK, and SD (where dem senate candiates will need the support of 20-40% of Bush voters to win.)

Since the only "proof" of a setup is innuendo, it should at least be logical.

It's getting harder and harder to keep from making the obvious point about the way Democrats are acting. In EVERY case this year of them screwing up, they've had a single answer for it: REPUBLICANS DID IT!!!

They've even taken to blaming Republicans for bills they've introduced to Congress, and whining when Republicans have the gall to bring those bills to vote.

This is not a healthy place to be, mentally or politically.

The scandal is that the flier was allowed to be distributed from his campaign office for a period of time

You appear to be under the belief that is actually was distributed from the office. It wasn't. Does that clear it up?

The real scandal is that the GOP has nothing but dirty tricks left since their record is so abysmal. Given Rove's history and the recent record of the GOP, they have set themselves up to take the fall even if, unlike this case most likely, they didn't do anything. And, yes, this is just a state legislator's campaign but the current political climate will allow projection onto the national parties...again, Rove, go read his history. He took the mantle from Atwater and amplified it to the point that the whole GOP is now tainted.

And because you say so, that makes it true!

Dirty tricks? You mean like:

1. Tens of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations?
2. DNC memo urging "pre-emptive" claims of voter intimidation (where none exists)?
3. Union thugs invading GOP offices to intimidate volunteers? Gunshots and break-ins at GOP offices?
4. Making a mockery of campaign finance reform after yapping about it for years?
5. The faked Rather memos? (Oh yeah, I guess they don't count since the conspiracy-mongers think they were Rove plants too)

From what I've heard there isn't any compelling evidence either way (on whether the fliers were planted in the office by a Republican operative as a dirty trick, or were planted there by a doofus of a Democrat). Given that the campaign staff more-or-less immediately threw them away (two hours counts as more-or-less immediately, in my book), what exactly is the point of making an issue out of it? To make Democrats look bad through some kind of guilt-by-association? Hey, way to run a positive, issue-oriented campaign, guys.

Skippy writes:

You appear to be under the belief that is actually was distributed from the office. It wasn't. Does that clear it up?

Skippy, Rep. Fitzhugh admits the flier was available in his campaign office for at least two hours. It was. Does that clear it up?

I have followed the Fitzhugh Special Olympics story this week. Sad.

But to think that this kind of thing is limited to Democrats is fantasy.

However, you also don't see masses of Republicans rushing to declare this a Democratic dirty trick. If someone's really doing that, then they're an idiot and they should knock it off, no matter which side.

"Dirty tricks? You mean like:"

No, s/he means like:

* Physical assaults
* Vandalization of Democratic campaign offices
* Systematic attempts to keep likely-Dem voters off the rolls by falsely classifying them as felons and then making them go through significant hurdles to "prove" they have the right to vote
* Sending people to the homes of minorities to intimidate them into not voting
* Calling newly-registered voters on the phone and telling them that their registrations weren't valid so they shouldn't bother to show up at the polls
* Hiring "phone bombers" to bog down the phones at Democratic "get out the vote" offices (a 2002 tactic)
* Registering thousands of new voters but illegally shredding and tossing those that were Democratic
* Trying to disqualify likely-Dem voter registrations because they were printed on paper that wasn't the right weight
* Trying to throw out likely-Dem registrations because a "citizen" box wasn't checked even though all the new voters signed a citizenship paper attached to the registration form
* And so on, and so on, and so on -- over the past five years, the Republican party has consistently engaged in shameless attempts to keep those likely to vote Democrat from having their votes counted. To even try to equate the Democrats' behavior, or imply that it's worse, is either naive or dishonest.

(Let's not even get into Karl Rove's career, which has been dedicated to getting people elected at all costs, no dirty tricks off-limits.)

Buzz -- let's add:

6. Feeding the NY Times fake quotes in order to support the Donks latest scare-the-seniors campaign.

7. Introducing bills to reinstate the draft, claiming the Republicans want to do it, whining when the bills are voted down nearly unanimously, then continuing to lie about the issue.

If anyone has the time you can verify where the forms were duplicated if you can come up with another flyer that came out of the printer/copier from which the flyer was produced.

Almost all toners have a signature 'fingerprint' based on imperfections in the roller. These are little out of place specs or missing toner lines that repeat on the paper. This poster seems to have a missing toner line about 1/2 way down on the paper on the right and another almost at the bottom on the right. You'd need to match this to other copies of the flyer to see if the crease was from duplication or from the original print but in either case if you match those lines and other imperfections to other documents from where you know they are produced then you've got your source.

Obviously you'd have to have something that was printed around the same time as when the posters were printed but since the life of most toners is over 10,000 copies there’s a good window here. If you do find it and the imperfections line up it's like DNA... no denying the parent.

The Democrats would stand a much better chance of refuting stuff like this if their poster children that protest would be caught on film/tape with signs depicting Bush as Hitler, Bush as a Chimp etc. Such things come home to roost.