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Posted on 05/26/2014 1:04:14 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
The NRSC spent a chunk of the weekend pounding Chris McDaniel’s campaign because some people there knew three weeks ago about Cochran’s wife being secretly videotaped in a nursing home but said nothing until the story finally broke on Saturday. Read Ed’s post this morning for the details on that. There’s no evidence that McDaniel’s campaign was involved in the harassment — on the contrary, his campaign manager denounced it in a staff e-mail as soon as she heard of it — but after the news about it broke on Saturday, they claimed incorrectly that they’d never heard of the clip before. Cochran fans wanted to know: Why the cover-up? Why sit on information about Cochran’s wife being harassed and then pretend you knew nothing? You should have taken it to the police immediately and told the truth.
Good questions. And not just for McDaniel’s campaign.
Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) legal team apparently held onto information concerning a man’s taping of the senator’s bedridden wife for as many as two weeks before turning it over to the police.
Cochran’s campaign spokesman, Jordan Russell, told The Hill Monday that the campaign was made aware of a video allegedly taken by local political blogger Clayton Kelly of Cochran’s infirm wife on the day it was posted, April 26. He said the campaign conducted its own investigation of the video before alerting Cochran to it and deciding to bring it to an attorney…
“We were made aware of [the video] that morning because people were emailing us saying, ‘Did you see this?’” Russell told The Hill. “We conducted our own review for a few days and then went to Sen. Cochran about it, and that was when the decision was made to turn it over to the attorneys.”…
It’s unclear why Cochran’s attorney, Don Clark, held the information for two weeks before alerting police. Clark did not respond to a request for comment.
They investigated for a few days, got the green light from Cochran to go to their lawyers, and then the lawyers … sat on it. How come? Did they have a legal reason to do so or was this a matter of waiting until we were a bit closer to the June 3rd primary before pushing this to the media? If Team Cochran had gone to the cops at the start of May, the political mudslinging at McDaniel would have played out during the first half of the month, giving him time to recover. By waiting until late May, voter perceptions can be shaped with less time for repairs– even though, as noted above, there’s no evidence at all that McDaniel’s team was complicit in the videotaping.
Also, why would they have conducted their own investigation before telling Cochran what happened? He deserved to know ASAP, if only to make sure his wife had extra security around to keep creepers from peeping through her windows.
By the way, not one but two new polls from outside groups show McDaniel with a small lead over Cochran. The establishment/tea party Armageddon that everyone was hoping for in Kentucky is going to end up fizzling tomorrow night, but Mississippi might end up filling the gap.
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Because Cochran was more interested in having this as a campaign issue that he was interested in protecting his wife’s dignity.
You’re precisely right.
I can barely wait to vote for Chris McDaniel.
I’m PRAYING he wins.
It would be a crying shame were evil to prevail.
Yes, but can the people of MS understand this?
Blessings to you and your family.
One can only conclude that Cochran was not concerned about
criminal activity, but wanted to use his wife as a campaign tool.
Hammer, meet nail. When this sordid episode broke a couple of weeks ago, I asked a rather basic question (on another thread): who benefits from this disclosure at this time? The answer, obviously, is Thad Cochran.
Not only did his team want the news to break closer to the primary, they holding it back as well. Lest we forget, the news about the taping of Cochran’s bed-ridden wife in a nursing home came at the end of a bad week for the incumbent.
In the days leading up to the taping episode going public, the focus of media coverage in Mississippi had been on Thad’s living arrangements. Turns out that he has been renting an apartment in D.C. from his female executive assistant, the same woman who had accompanied him on dozens of Congressional jaunts around the world.
The GOP-e tried to close ranks behind Cochran, noting that many senators travel with members of their staffs. But I can’t think of any that “rent a room” from the same staffer. The good people of Mississippi saw through that smoke screen and realized that Thad has a girlfriend in D.C., while his wife fights her final battle with dementia.
I’m guessing that Cochran got a tip about pending stories on his living arrangements, and decided to use the taping scandal to change the narrative. It was a brilliant political move, but it shows you how sleazy Thad and the GOP establishment really are.
One final note: as I posted previously, several members of my wife’s family have been in nursing homes in recent years. I can’t think of one where a stranger could simply enter the facility, go to a resident’s room and start videotaping. Apparently, the home where Mrs. Cochran resides has the worst security of any memory center, or something was done that allowed the blogger to enter the room without being challenged.
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate your kind words of comfort.
Chris McDaniel’s win will be a blessing not only for MS but also for our nation.
He is a GOOD and decent family man. A true American patriot. I’ve met him in person twice now and he remembered me.
Cochran was mortified over this that he waited weeks to use it for political advantage.
He’s nothing but a political pimp.
Excellent post. I remember your initial comments. Very insightful.
Excellent post. I remember your initial comments. Very insightful.
Nooo,
This piece of crap wouldn’t do that now would he?
No, never. Whatever could I have been thinking???
I had wondered what had become of this story.
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