Monday, October 25, 2010

Carnahan Plumbs the Depths of Clark's Law

You've probably heard the adage: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." That's known as Hanlon's Razor. There is a similar though profoundly different adage known as Clark's Law (named in honor of Arthur C. Clark): "Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

I believe that what we're witnessing with the Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) campaign and the smears from www TheRealEdMartin com is an example of that sufficiently advanced incompetence that is indistinguishable from malice. That's one reason I have not blogged about MissouriRecord's post about Russ Carnahan being in the same sort of legal jeopardy that sent Russ's 2008 primary opponent, Jeff Smith, to prison. I've taken the view that Russ deserves our presumption of innocence not only because that presumption is at the core of our shared American values, but also because his ham-handedness is without equal.

Over the past couple of days, 24thState.com detailed the connections between the smear and Russ Carnahan's campaign. The connections are sometimes indirect—laundered, so to speak, through third parties. Some highlights from 24thState include the sock puppetry of Victor Arango and Jeannine Dillon:
An Emmy award-winning journalist and an Edward R Murrow award winning journalist were reduced to leaving fake comments, anonymous diaries, and lame Facebook comments to spread a story. They couldn't use their contacts in media to push the smear, so they attempted to fake it online.
Then there's the timing of certain payments that may have gone to Michael Corwin (proprietor of TheRealEdMartin):
Note that $2000 is what Corwin says he was paid. If Stanford did indeed hire Corwin, and he was paid from the invoice, it seems the 120 day trigger for campaign finance violations was absolutely hit, and it calls into question the verbal statement from Corwin and the Carnahans that "June" or "last spring" was when they parted ways. The Carnahan campaign has to answer this. Did the research they paid for on August 5 concern information that led to the creation of TheRealEdMartin?
And the dubious connections to the Carnahan family blog FiredUpMissouri:
In short, you cannot post a diary at FiredUpMissouri without the express permission of an admin. A new user would have to be approved by Sean Nicholson or another admin to post. The site is tightly controlled.

The cosmopolatino account doesn't show up in the normal sequence. In fact, it doesn't show up at all. And there have been no postings or comments before or after that I could find. It was a single diary from an anonymous individual that spent days sitting in the latest diaries section of FiredUp. That's the perfect place for deniability.
Here's all of 24thState's coverage:
Given that Ed Martin has already filed one FEC complaint about Russ's self-dealing on the Crystal Ballroom, another complaint seems inevitable on this smear. That's especially true in light of the timing here:
Notice the date that video was posted: October 19th, 2010. Now notice the timestamps of these posts on Ed Martin's facebook wall from the Carnahan campaign's chief harridan, Teri Powers:


Again. Sloppy. Teri Powers knew about the smear campaign and simply couldn't wait for the video release and her ebullience got the best of her. This is the kind of incompetence that advises and serves Missouri's Third Congressional District in our nation's capital.

And, lest you think this is an isolated case of one bad apple in the well-oiled Carnahan machine, let me remind you of Javonne Spitz's arrest in 2009 and this past summer's firebombing of Carnahan's office by a former employee with a dispute over pay. The inmates are in charge of that asylum and have been for quite some time.

After all of that, my view has not changed since my last post on the smear:
The campaign of desperate Democrat Russ Carnahan has coordinated a smear on Ed Martin. The attack alleges that Ed Martin was complicit in shuffling pedophile priests around St. Louis Catholic Churches while he served at the St. Louis Archdiocese (www.therealedmartin.com). In the video above, Ed Martin, Marie Kenyon, and Rev. Bruce McCoy speak to the allegations. Marie is a life-long Democrat who worked with Ed at the Archdiocese. Marie makes the key point:
What was said about Ed in the video is simply not true. Anyone who knows the Catholic church knows lay employees have no say-so, no responsibility whatsoever in priestly claimants. They just don't.
If the claims of TheRealEdMartin are true, I believe that Ed Martin must step down. If they are false, then the Carnahan campaign must disavow them and apologize. Because Ed and Russ are necessarily biased actors on this very public stage, I would suggest a jury of their peers. Such a jury would consist of candidates and elected office holders in Missouri's Third Congressional District. Do the Aldermen of St. Louis stand by the charge that Ed Martin was complicit in pedophilia? Does Mayor Slay? Do the candidates for the state house stand with Russ or Ed on this?

Why hasn't the local media pressed them on this question?

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