Our man Cris Seligmann from
Arkansas Tonight filed this piece a litte while ago...how nasty can local elections get?
DEPT. OF DIRTY TRICKS -- DID CONSERVATIVE BLOG JUMP THE GUN?We consider this of interest today on the political front. It also may be an example of why the mainstream media find it so hard to grant a lot of credit to the blogosphere, especially the Arkansas version thereof.
The unabashadly partisan blog ArkFam (they recently ranked all the state's columnists as either liberals or conservatives) has a blaring headline on a recent post, but the headline is deceiving. "Proud Conservative" (also proudly anonymous) leads with "Robbyn Tumey - The Benton County Democrat Party Chairman and candidate for St. Rep indicted for trafficking illegal aliens." PC doesn't post sources, nor does PC post any documentation for the direct accusation.
We've done a little more homework. Click here to read the indictment in the case (.pdf file). We can't seem to find candidate Tumey's name on the indictment, unless she goes by another, more ethnic name (even though she owns the company). More interesting, you'll notice the indictment says absolutely nothing about "illegal aliens" or any other kind of alien. The AP story about what happened doesn't seem to mention that either -- perhaps the accusing bloggers would care to share their sources?
Sources tell us the company subcontracted the job (at Ft. Leonard) to another company -- a company responsible for paying workers on the job. A company that ought to either figure into the indictment, or be the sole defendant. Officials at Tumey's company say the prosecutor never called or consulted with them about the case, and they find it highly questionable that the prosecutor issued a news release before doing so -- a decision some suspect has overtly political intent behind it.
You can expect to see more about the story in the state and local papers in the morning. Commentary on the ArfFam blog has run mixed...we've grabbed some of the less complimentary ones to illustrate the suspicions expressed by some readers...
Yeah, I bet this is political - obviously, the US Attorney in Kansas City is doing this to help Aaron Burkes win a state legislative seat - PLEEEEEASSSE
and this -- which follows the admonition by the the blogger in question for Mr. Beebe to give any campaign monies received from Ms. Tumey or MSI back to the donors.
Beebe should return any MSI contributions immediately, but he will likely wait until John Boozman returns the money he took from Tom DeLay's PAC. Maybe they could do a duet refund of the ill-gotten lucre. Or make it a quartet with McDaniel returning the $13,00 from Bruce Burrow's companies and the RPA returning all the money to Suhl and the Lord's Ranch fronts.
Then let's pass legislation banning all corporate contributions in state campaigns.
Sorry, didn't mean to bum you out.
Aside from the factual problems with the story and the headline, the overt partisan nature of the blog makes the allegation look overwhelmingly political in nature -- like a feat of mudslinging on the part of operatives who have already played fast and loose with facts, and who will now try to take those factual mistakes and turn them into some sort of campaign mantra -- what some call the "smear" tactic. What's more interesting is the convenient nature of the story -- one connected to an issue most Republican strategists see as perhaps the only viable "wedge" issue in the upcoming campaign -- immigration. ArkFam then tries to stretch things by linking the nonspecified immigration dig to the Beebe campaign -- something suspect in the current political climate.
If one were to follow the logic displayed in the article, then it would appear the "other side" of speculation about the same story would have to involve unbased speculation about some sort of conspiracy involving a politcally motivated prosecutor trying to give a troubled Republican campaign a boost.
Might work if you go in for conspiracy theories, like some local blogs. We'll have more for you as the story develops. Again, get ready for an interesting campaign season.