I realize the Ashley Todd story is sad, and it's getting stale, but there is one very disturbing aspect to this story that has been almost totally ignored: Ms. Todd's career with the College Republicans. I have been unable to find an older diary which addresses it. Please read on.
Ashley Todd has been portrayed both here and by the press as an overly enthusiastic, low-level McCain "volunteer", a young, naive victim who was taken in by the McCain campaign's hysterical anti-Obama propaganda. She also claims to have "a history" of alleged "mental problems".
Okay. Maybe.
But there some problems with this. Ms. Todd's online info, her "resume", totally undermines the notion that she was just a misguided, mentally ill kid.
It appears Ms. Todd is a lot more than just a "low-level McCain volunteer".
Most everybody here knows by now that she belongs to the College Republicans. But what a lot of people are missing is this interesting part:
Ashley Todd was recently recruited to join an elite, prestigous College Republican leadership team, the 2008 Field Represenative Program.
From the CRNC's (the College Republican National Committee) Field Rep Program website:
For the past 20 years, the Field Representative Program has been the cornerstone of the College Republican National Committee. With programs in the Fall and the Spring, we deploy dozens of young, highly trained field operatives across the country to recruit new students to join the College Republicans.
Ashley Todd was one such individual; the "cornerstone" of the College Republicans!
According to CR Nation, a College Republican blog, the most recent CRNC Field Rep Team was selected and deployed in various states in August and is referred to as the "most ambitious Field Team ever".
Scroll down and read the comments, and check out their past blog entries. Apparently things were not going smoothly with past Field Rep Teams. One of the CR members responds to some very harsh criticism:
"...the field reps went through the most thorough vetting process ever, they received the most detailed and intense training ever, they are fully-funded for the first time in history, they are all equipped with video cameras for the first time ever (something our party really needs), and they were placed in states with tough political races as opposed to given out as favors to state chairs who are on the admin’s team."
Heh. I wonder how well Ashley was vetted?
The CRNC Field Represenative Program apparently plays a crucial role in developing future Conservative leaders. It a sort of training and outreach program for exceptionally talented College Republicans. Twice a year, the CRNC selects approximately 50 noteworthy young Republicans who have shown initiative, intelligence, and organizational & leadership skills.
Their overt mission statement is to simply recruit more College Republicans, but more importantly the Field Reps like Ms. Todd travel the country, network with other GOP groups, and get to know the GOP from the inside. They are not mere volunteers. They are literally the cadre of the future GOP leadership. The selections for the Field Rep Team are made out a pool of College Republican applicants.
This is from the CR Field Team application:
You will have the unique opportunity to travel the country, meet new friends, and make political connections that will last a lifetime. Many of our Field Representatives are offered impressive jobs in the political and private sector once they finish!
The Field Rep Team is one of the most important stepping stones to a career as a GOP operative, and Ms. Todd was one of them.
This is NOT a voluntary position. She did not simply "volunteer" for this job; she applied for it and was selected out of many applicants by the current College Republican leadership. They recruited, vetted and intensively trained her to join their upper ranks. She apparently demonstrated the necessary energy, skill and ambition. She was being groomed for an important role as a future GOP "operative" (their words) and behind-the-scenes organizer.
One part of her training is to "volunteer" as a campaign worker while rubbing elbows with other CRs and even real grown-up GOP leaders. It's a chance for a CR Field Rep like Ashley to get in the trenches of a major campaign.
The Incident and "mental illness":
She apparently told her mugging story to somebody high(er) up in the GOP before she called the cops - she contacted either her College Republican/Field Rep Team boss or the Pennsylvania McCain campaign first. A mere "volunteer" wouldn't have had the means to do this unless she possessed the phone numbers of some V.I.P.s and was planning this out.
Is this the behavior of an unstable, "mentally ill" campaign volunteer?
No.
This was planned.
Ms. Todd knew precisely what she was doing, and what the implications of her actions were.
I strongly doubt that she has a history of mental illness. I would submit that people with a mental illness that causes them to do what she did are not simultaneously able to excel as a presumably talented, skillful College Republican Field Rep, all snarkery aside.
Did she have help before the fact? Probably not, but the press doesn't seem to be interested in pursuing all the implications of this weird story.
There are so many utterly despicable and disturbing facets to this. We have we have corrosive right wing propaganda, we have racism, we have a political party that tried to milk this for all it was worth - for about 15 seconds, we have a largely complacent press who still fails to report this story accurately, we have the manipulation of victimhood for political purposes and an act which causes us to doubt violence against women, and we even have a "crazy b***h" to reinforce sexist stereotypes.
Ugh.
Maybe we should just wait for the election to end before we revisit this.
I would probably say, "yeah, to hell with it for now", but jeez, Ms. Todd's prestigous position within the CRNC is, well, frightening.
How important is the CRNC Field Rep Team Program?
If there are any of you who are more familiar with the CRNC organization and the Field Rep Program, please add to this. Ms. Todd's Field Rep Team blog and Twitter pages have been disappeared, and I've already spent too much time on this diary...Maybe others can provide more info. Gotta go.
Update: Here's a link to an new article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: provided by a couple readers.
Fascinating. She had been lying and hoaxing all campaign season, and the College Republicans STILL recruited her for their "cornerstone" leadership project, the glorious Field Rep Team.