Whoa… I’ve always had a lot of respect for Rusty Shackleford and The Jawa Report, but they’ve completely blown me away this morning. They’ve done some amazing investigative work, and they’ve uncovered what appears to be a very professional, very covert operation by some very high-powered persons on the Democratic side of things to smear and attempt to destroy Sarah Palin.
I say “appears” because there is no absolute smoking gun, but the circumstantial evidence seems so strong that, if it were mere coincidence, it would be about as likely as, say, me winning the lottery three times, then getting struck by lightning and hit by a meteorite right after I spontaneously combusted.
This is exactly the kind of thing that the mainstream media ought to be investigating — not how many cars John and Cindy McCain own or other equally critical matters.
Will there be an investigation into this? Will someone in the mainstream media take the work of the Jawas and take it even further?
As far as I’m concerned, if it isn’t followed up in the mainstream media, then I’ll take that as affirmation that every single thing Rusty and crew allege is not only 100% accurate, but their speculations are also true.
And I’d recommend that others take the same approach. These people — Publicis Group, David Axelrod, the Winner family, Jared Liu-Klein, Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, Jesus’ General, and a cast of thousands — have long forfeited the benefit of the doubt.
What gets my attention the most, though, is how this is PRECISELY the sort of political ratfucking that we’ve seen attributed to Karl Rove by these sorts of people for about a decade, but never — NEVER — has it been so carefully laid out, with names, dates, and thorough documentation that we have here. It could be an indication of just how good Karl Rove really is, that he never left the kind of fingerprints that these assholes did, or it could be the ultimate form of “projection” — they actually buy into their bullshit that they say about him so much that they feel that it is not only acceptable, but necessary that they do it themselves.
Go over to Rusty’s. Read. Read it with the utmost skepticism. Pore over every detail, every nuance, every allegation with the most jaundiced eye. Search for the slightest weakness in the chain of evidence that would pull his whole carefully-crafted conspiracy theory apart.
I tried. I wanted to debunk his story. I didn’t want to think that people with this level of power, of influence, would have the sheer lack of scruples and integrity, and would do something this despicable purely for the sake of political gain.
I failed. Rusty sold me that it’s all true.
As far as I’m concerned, the only unresolved question is how closely this comes to the Obama campaign itself. I’m convinced that Obama’s Chief Media Strategist, David Axelrod, had at least a part in the whole thing. And if that comes out, he’ll go under the bus in an attempt to distance Obama himself from this whole disgusting mess.
I dunno if any laws were broken in this action. I find myself hoping some were, because I’d love to see some of these bastards spend time behind bars for what they’ve done.
Update: For those who need it spelled out (and it does get complicated quickly), Patterico has a very nice bullet-pointed summary of the whole mess, Ace has his usually-entertaining take on the matter, and Dan Riehl adds even more to the whole story. It’s almost unbelievable.
It ought to be. I wish to hell it was. But it’s all too plausible, in this day and age.
