McConnell asks FBI to investigate leaked recording on Ashley Judd

[Geee]

The Hill:

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has asked the FBI to investigate the recording of a campaign strategy meeting in which the lawmaker and his staff made disparaging remarks about actress Ashley Judd.

In the recording, obtained by Mother Jones, McConnell and his aides debate the merits of attacking Judd’s mental health, religion and family values. Judd had been considering a 2014 Senate run against McConnell but opted against the race last month.

 

“Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings,” McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement.

“Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.”

[Casino67]

This is the first paragraph of the story from the WaPo

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/04/09/what-the-mitch-mcconnell-tape-really-tells-us/

 

"The political world is a-twitter over an audio tape obtained by Mother Jones of a private campaign meeting involving Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and his 2014 re-election staff in which the past public statements — and mental health — of his one-time potential opponent Ashley Judd is discussed."

 

Not one word in the story that the FBI is investigating the taping. No bias there.

[clearvision]

Probably someone on the staff.

[Geee]

Shades of Newt!

[Valin]

The Hill:

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has asked the FBI to investigate the recording of a campaign strategy meeting in which the lawmaker and his staff made disparaging remarks about actress Ashley Judd.

In the recording, obtained by Mother Jones, McConnell and his aides debate the merits of attacking Judd’s mental health, religion and family values.

 

 

Only an idiot or a leftest (but I repeat myself) would be in any way surprised that this sort of thing goes on. It would be a surprise if it didn't happen.

[Valin]

Shades of Newt!

 

?

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign asked the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office on Tuesday to investigate how Mother Jones magazine obtained a recording of a February strategy session.

“Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings,” McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement. “Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.”

Added a source close to the campaign: “We’re going on the assumption that a crime has been committed. No one at the meeting leaked this.”

(PHOTOS: Ashley Judd through the years)

The McConnell campaign has not offered any direct evidence the recording was the result of an illegal bug.

On Tuesday morning, Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, published an audio recording of McConnell staffers discussing opposition research they could use against actress Ashley Judd, who was considering running against veteran senator in the 2014 Senate race. Judd announced last week that she would not make the race.

The magazine reported that in the Feb. 2 recording, McConnell and his aides were heard considering attacking Judd for “past struggles with depression and for her religious views.”

(Also on POLITICO: Pundits react: Ashely Judd won't run)

Someone on the tape is heard saying:

“She’s clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it’s been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she’s suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the ’90s.”

McConnell is not disputing the authenticity of the tape. Yesterday, his campaign offices were swept by a private security detail, which did not find a bug. Still, given that the meeting was attending by only a handful of longtime McConnell insiders, team McConnell is convinced it was not an internal leak. In an earlier statement, the McConnell campaign accused “the Left” of using “Nixonian tactics” and bugging the campaign’s headquarters.

________

 

Who bugged whom?

[Geee]

Shades of Newt!

 

?

 

There was a couple that eavesdropped on Newts cell calls(when you could do such a thing if you had the right airwave) and taped them They gave them to the DNC. It was illegal, but no charges were ever brought against them naturally.

[Valin]

Shades of Newt!

 

?

 

 

 

There was a couple that eavesdropped on Newts cell calls(when you could do such a thing if you had the right airwave) and taped them They gave them to the DNC. It was illegal, but no charges were ever brought against them naturally.

 

The light bulb goes on!!!

[Valin]

The Week’s Least Compelling Scandal

John Hinderaker

4/9/13

 

Washington is abuzz over Mother Jones’s publication of secretly-recorded audio of a meeting between Senator Mitch McConnell and a small group of his campaign advisers. McConnell and his aides are heard discussing the potential candidacy of actress Ashley Judd, and suggesting ways in which she could be vulnerable. (Judd has since announced that she will not seek the Democratic nomination to run against McConnell.) Politico, like many other outlets, tried to make the conversation sound churlish:

 

(Snip)

 

It turns out, though, that “[m]ost of the discussion focuses on Judd’s liberal positions, including support for gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.” And the mental health reference comes from Judd’s own autobiography:

 

(Snip)

 

So it doesn’t sound like much of a story. It’s not as though they rooted through Judd’s garbage or broke into her personal email account. Now that would be a scandal that the press would never let go of, right?

 

 

OTOH it sounds like someone on McConnell's staff (or close to it) has been telling stories out of school.

[Valin]

Ann Althouse

Secret recording of Mitch McConnell strategy session about how to go after Ashley Judd.

 

David Corn at Mother Jones has lots of audio clips and transcript, but he doesn't tell us who made the tape and gave it to him. Surveillance on a political campaign? If that's not bad, should we revise our opinion about the Watergate burglary?

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

Comments

 

 

Methadras said...

 

Why is this news? Ever been in a marketing meeting that talks about how to take down a competitor or how to expose their weakness on their brand and product? How is this any different? Oh right, this is about finding peoples soft spots and hitting them. Oh the shame of it all. So maudlin and everything.

4/9/13, 11:04 AM

 

 

Well Said Methadras, Well Said!

[clearvision]

Report: Ky. Democrat says liberal group taped McConnell meeting

 

Progress Kentucky, the liberal super PAC that came under fire for making racial slurs about the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is also responsible for a recently-leaked recording of the senator in a strategy meeting, according to Louisville radio station WFPL and Fox News.

LINK