Yesterday we saw that Rep. Marion Berry's son, Mitchell, was behind a sham, corporate-funded group attacking Bill Halter for explaining President Bill Clinton's social security plan when he served as head of the Social Security Administration (a plan that Blanche Lincoln enthusiastically supported).
Of course, the truth of the matter is not important to Lincoln and her allies, as they seek to spread fear, uncertainty, and misinformation in her desperate gambit to save her job.
But it does bear greater scrutiny into Mitchell Berry's shadow group. The folks at the Arkansas News are digging deeper.
Arkansans for Common Sense is running an ad accusing Halter of wanting to privatize Social Security when he worked in the Clinton administration. According to Halter’s campaign, the ad was produced by Dane Strother of the firm Strother Strategies.
Another firm of Strother’s, Strother Duffy Strother, has listed Lincoln as a client in the past, Halter’s campaign said. A partner in that firm, Jim Duffy, is a partner in Lincoln’s current media firm, Murphy Putnam Media, the campaign said.
“Is Jim Duffy working at both shops to illegally coordinate this smear attack?” asked Halter’s campaign manager, Carol Butler.
Duffy told the Arkansas News Bureau the accusation is false.
“Strother Duffy Strother ceased to exist in January of 2009, and I went work for Murphy Putnam in April of 2009,” he said. “Murphy Putnam is now the firm that is working on (the campaign of) Blanche Lincoln, and I had absolutely nothing to do with that ad.”
The firm closed in 2009? Then why was the website still up advertising the firm's work? In fact, here's a screen capture from yesterday, showing its client list:
Nice to see Zell Miller on that list! Now, you can't check this website anymore, because apparently as soon as the Arkansas Times started digging around, Strother or Duffy panicked and brought down that page. But what kind of company keeps their website open over a year after it supposedly shuts its doors?
So to recap:
- Strother and Duffy have DC political media firm Strother Duffy Strother. Among their clients are Blanche Lincoln (and Zell Miller).
- Strother has new firm, Strother Strategies, that works with shadow donors to launch baseless attacks on Halter.
- Duffy, his longtime business partner (see screenshot bragging about being the "oldest existing Democratic media firm") is working directly with Lincoln via Murphy Putnam.
- And it's all one big coincidence!
Obviously this stinks to high hell. it's everything that is wrong with politics today.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Berry is claiming he doesn't run the shadow group, that he just coincidentally happened to be the lawyer that filed the organization's paperwork even though this father is Halter's biggest nemesis in Arkansas.
So many coincidences!
Yet Berry won't say who is running that sleaze operation, if it in fact isn't him. His is the only name associated with the group, yet he won't reveal who else is involved, and where its money comes from.
These smear merchants are terrified of being exposed. Yet this is exactly the kind of anonymous corporate efforts that will become commonplace in the post-Citizens United world. It's somewhat fitting that Blanche Lincoln's operation would be leading the way.
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