And by quagmire I mean the cut throat politics of South Carolina. It appears that the internecine struggles of the SC Republican party is spilling forth from the political races to smear campaigns against political consultancy firms by utilizing these firms blog arms.
We've seen such public displays of disaffection before between Will Folks, editor of FITSNews and principal in Viewpolitik.com and Rod Shealey, a well known SC politico.
But now it appears that the Palmetto Scoop is joining the mendacious fray. The editor of TPS is in the employ of Rick Quinn's political consultancy firm Mail Marketing Services, essentially getting paid to operate the blog among other web activities. His site is accusing rival consultancy firm, Under the Powerlines, of malicious behavior against one of that companies own clients Senator Jim DeMint. The evidence that Mr. Fogle offers seems rather creative if not the product of an afternoon of boredom. To create such a smear all Mr. Fogle would have to do is Google the phrase "Under the Powerlines" and simply attribute the link on the Senators page with the "CoveShorts Channel" link, which by the way, is the second link when you Google Under the Powerlines.
Who knows Mr. Fogle could be telling the truth, but I'm not convinced. It seems much more plausable that 1) Mr. Fogle had too much free time on his hands in this the doldrums season of politiking and or 2) with the economic downturn, of course you're going to see the vultures of political culture turn on each other in order to steal accounts.
Then we came across this on Talking Points Memo:
GOP Senator's Campaign Site Links To Gay-Stereotype Comedy Vid
So off to The Palmetto Scoop to see what they have to say:Spoof or goof?
Sen. Jim DeMint, a very right-wing South Carolina Republican up for re-election in 2010, might want to hire some new people to do his campaign Web site -- the current one links to a YouTube of a homemade comedy sketch stereotyping gays.
The Palmetto Scoop discovered that DeMint's site has a link at the bottom to their Webmaster, a company called Under The Power Lines:
Clicking through on the company's link then takes the reader to a YouTube channel featuring three guys who do dirty comedy, with the current top entry about an effeminate gay man literally coming out of the closet:
Late Update: Well, that was quick. DeMint's campaign has hastily changed the link to the right one, another organization called Under The Power Lines that actually built their site.
DISCLAIMER ON SENATOR’S WEBSITE SENDS VISITORS TO VIDEO ABOUT ‘COMING OUT OF CLOSET’
I honestly have no idea what this is all about, but Sen. Jim DeMint’s website, which recently won acclaim from McClatchy Newspapers, is sending visitors to the above YouTube video (ed: NOT PG-13) in which a 20-something guy “comes out of the closet” to his friends. Literally and figuratively.
It’s really not all that funny but it’s certainly an odd thing for a sitting U.S. Senator to have on his Website.
The link can be found on the site’s disclaimer, where it reads “Website by Under The Power Lines” — the company that developed DeMint’s site and apparently these videos as well. When visitors click on “Under the Power Lines,” they are taken to TheCoveShorts’ YouTube page, featuring the above video.
Readers may remember that this same group was responsible for the Phoney Fred Wesbite launched during the height of the Republican presidential primary battle.
Perhaps it would be a good idea for these guys to stay away from the Internet tubes.
View a screen grab of the link on DeMint’s page here.
FITSNews copies TPS' link.
And there the matter rests. Following Republican politics in South Carolina reminds me of trying to figure out what was going on in what we quaintly called "Red China" in the 1960s.
And at the bottom of it all, what's the big deal? Senator DeMint is one of the most homophobic members of the US Senate. A sophomoric gay skit on his website should be par for the course.
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