Get It Out There
by digby
I've told this story before, but those of you who've heard it will just have to bear up. In the 1992 election when I was making volunteer calls for Clinton, Mary Matalin made a major gaffe she had to apologize for quite publicly. (Doesn't matter what it was.) I was riding down in the elevator with a high level political consultant (who didn't know me from Adam, of course) and I smugly mentioned that Matalin had really stepped in it. He looked at me like I was a moron and said, "she got it out there, didn't she?"
Here's another little pointer on wingnut gossip mongering and dirty politics. As you sling the shit with the biggest megaphone you can find, be sure to primly assert that you don't believe a word of it and chastize those who are doing it on the victim's behalf. It makes you look like a good guy even though your purpose is to spread the gossip far and wide.
In this case it doesn't matter much because the "gossip" is irrelevant to normal people and would make no difference if it were true. This gossip is aimed solely at the wingnut doughboy losers who couldn't manage to get laid at the Bunny Ranch with 5k in their pockets. Still, it's nice of one of the leading voices in the blogosphere to spread it around, (while being above it all, of course.) It's good practice for serious swift-boating.
Thank to Tristram Shandy
Update: Well that didn't take long. From the comments I find that Little Green Footballs has taken the next step (no linky to exterminationist sites):
I can’t help noticing how much Moulitsas’ conspiracy-oriented mindset echoes the anti-rational paranoia of radical Islam.
Now that's how a real smear is done folks!
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