The Savage Republican

I don't normally delve into the depths of the fever swamp, but a friend sent me this and I just had to look. Now the diarist in question is of interest to me and it was interesting to see his side of the story but what was really amusing were the comments of the Kidz.

"You're already news, since he's personally attacked you twice. Also talk to a lawyer. If he sent a mass mailing to the whole district attacking you personally, that's libel and slander and you have grounds for a lawsuit. So talk to a lawyer and to the local paper."

Said one commenter. Another chimed in with this:

"and call a press conference to announce you're suing the bastard. You're NOT a public person, and this is damaging in so many ways it's not funny. Call the ACLU too, while you're at it. And the FEC, to find out what money (and whose time) was used to create that flyer. He might be in violation of some FEC regs. But I'd definitely call a lawyer right now. John Edwards might not be too busy... ;-)"

There was lots of advise to "sue the b*stard" and that led a self professed lawyer to chime in with this.

"I would advise Bailey not to bother any attorneys with this garbage, and to quit "helping" congressional candidates. "

That led to an accusation of the poster being a troll. Her response is classic!

"I am attempting to point out that the people here talking about defamation claims don't know what they are talking about. What Kline says is a slight exaggeration at best -- it is essentially true. And its not actionable. If this guy sued,he would end up paying John Kline money. Although the diarist is not a public figure, he is working for a public figure and the allegations relate to his work on Rowley's behalf. This is political speech, and as such, the most first amendment protection is afforded to it, making it is very difficult to prove up a defamation claim.
If a staffer for a Republican congressional candidate had his own political website with controvertial positions, people on DailyKos would be all over it. The diarist screwed up bigtime, and writing a diary about it is even more of a disservice to Rowley. If he really wanted to help her out, he would delete this diary and shut up" (emphasis added)

Common sense out of a Kos commenter. Whoa - whodathunkit....but wait - there is even more common sense out of the poster in question.

"What frustrates me is the reaction to this. Republicans are dirty cheaters? Tell me something I don't know. Four years ago, Minnesota Republicans spun Paul Wellstone's funeral into electoral victory. They are going to keep doing it, especially if we keep making it easy for them.
Instead of talking about suing them or exposing Kline for this we should work on not giving the Republicans easy material to work with. Maybe some self-reflection instead of cheerleading. Despite all the bitching here, if you read the linked article about this with any objectivity, its Rowley who looks bad. Time to stop pretending everything is ok when its not.
Rowley needs to:
1) issue a statement explaining that this guy was not with the campaign when he went to Kline's office, and that the content on the website was not authorized by the campaign.
2) Sh__can him. "(not a direct quote - Kos may allow that kind of language on his site, but I don't!)

What was the reaction of the Kidz to such advice....when they couldn't "shout" the poster down, they ignored her. Keep on ignoring the views that don't agree with you Kidz and you will continue to loose elections! It's your choice... It makes no difference to me whether you pay attention to the common sense advise of a lawyer who knows better or not. Go ahead, distract yourself with a frivolous lawsuit and while you are off doing that, the Kline campaign will continue to do the work that needs to be done in order to win the election.