Defending Donehue
It's not every day someone you know becomes a front page national news story, even in the Blogland.
By now, far more people know the name of my friend Wesley Donehue than they did yesterday. Especially outside of South Carolina. All thanks to a parody website that he was involved with.
I've gotten to know him well over the years ... a couple of times, we butted heads on opposing campaigns, but I grew to respect the guy. I'm sure I was the last person he expected to see at his mother's funeral, but when you come to respect a person, even when you don't always agree with them, you do what has to be done.
On that day, there wasn't anywhere else I needed to be more than right there to let him know he had my prayers and my support. Today is another one of those occasions, and again, I'm standing beside the guy.
Having done my fair share of parody and satire here in the Blogland, I know all too well that one man's joke is another's "vicious, misleading attack". A lot of political satire has at least some basis in fact and reality, and that's what I saw on the site for what little time it was up there.
I could understand the position of the Thompson campaign, but just as well I could understand how he thought he was trying to make a point, and have some fun too. Come on, guys, this site was too over the top for anyone but a total moron to take as a primary source of information ... right?
My first rule of politics is simple: "If it ain't fun, I'm going home." In this, he abided by this essential rule wonderfully.
As to his being considered amatuerish in what he did, I can assure you that as easily as this website was traced, and as skilled as he and his partners are, if they'd wanted to hide the website, it could have been done easily. I remember when I did the EvacuateHodges.com website. It took a couple of weeks before they tracked it back to its original owner. One of those sites was one that took a piece out of Wesley's tail when we were supporting opposing candidates, but he got over it. It took him a couple of weeks to figure out it was me, and I had to help him figure out it was me.
The bottom line was this: if he was trying to hide who was behind the site, he could never have been found. He knows how to do it, and if he didn't, he could have asked me.
So this evening, I ask all of you to stop taking this stuff so seriously and give the guy a break. Even if the other side didn't get the joke, he trying to have a little fun ... and I'm sure before it's over, some of the Thompson people, probably without authorization, are going to have a little fun with Romney and/or other candidates.
Big deal. Those who work on campaigns often rely on these kind of stunts as a sort-of coping mechanism to relieve the boredom and the long hours that come with working in that field. I've been there, so I know what it's like. Some of the people I've played prank/counter-prank with have become good friends. Mr. Donehue is one of them.
It's going to be a long few months, so there's no point getting all bent out of shape about something so small and trival in the grand scheme of things. Let's back off the guy, refocus ourselves on the issues (and the next prank), get out there and get to work for the candidates of our choice (if we have one ... I still don't).
By now, far more people know the name of my friend Wesley Donehue than they did yesterday. Especially outside of South Carolina. All thanks to a parody website that he was involved with.
I've gotten to know him well over the years ... a couple of times, we butted heads on opposing campaigns, but I grew to respect the guy. I'm sure I was the last person he expected to see at his mother's funeral, but when you come to respect a person, even when you don't always agree with them, you do what has to be done.
On that day, there wasn't anywhere else I needed to be more than right there to let him know he had my prayers and my support. Today is another one of those occasions, and again, I'm standing beside the guy.
Having done my fair share of parody and satire here in the Blogland, I know all too well that one man's joke is another's "vicious, misleading attack". A lot of political satire has at least some basis in fact and reality, and that's what I saw on the site for what little time it was up there.
I could understand the position of the Thompson campaign, but just as well I could understand how he thought he was trying to make a point, and have some fun too. Come on, guys, this site was too over the top for anyone but a total moron to take as a primary source of information ... right?
My first rule of politics is simple: "If it ain't fun, I'm going home." In this, he abided by this essential rule wonderfully.
As to his being considered amatuerish in what he did, I can assure you that as easily as this website was traced, and as skilled as he and his partners are, if they'd wanted to hide the website, it could have been done easily. I remember when I did the EvacuateHodges.com website. It took a couple of weeks before they tracked it back to its original owner. One of those sites was one that took a piece out of Wesley's tail when we were supporting opposing candidates, but he got over it. It took him a couple of weeks to figure out it was me, and I had to help him figure out it was me.
The bottom line was this: if he was trying to hide who was behind the site, he could never have been found. He knows how to do it, and if he didn't, he could have asked me.
So this evening, I ask all of you to stop taking this stuff so seriously and give the guy a break. Even if the other side didn't get the joke, he trying to have a little fun ... and I'm sure before it's over, some of the Thompson people, probably without authorization, are going to have a little fun with Romney and/or other candidates.
Big deal. Those who work on campaigns often rely on these kind of stunts as a sort-of coping mechanism to relieve the boredom and the long hours that come with working in that field. I've been there, so I know what it's like. Some of the people I've played prank/counter-prank with have become good friends. Mr. Donehue is one of them.
It's going to be a long few months, so there's no point getting all bent out of shape about something so small and trival in the grand scheme of things. Let's back off the guy, refocus ourselves on the issues (and the next prank), get out there and get to work for the candidates of our choice (if we have one ... I still don't).
The site was no equivalent to the evacuate Hodges site some years back. Now, that was pure genius. Kudos my friend. You definitely kicked my butt with that one. Shake hands, laugh and all go have a brew. Heck, let's just have a coke at the Waffle House soon.
I agree with Earl's comments because at the end of the day this should not be so personal and so vicious. Victory can be achieved without tearing down the other person.
Please try and remember when events like the one with Wesley resurface (and they will)there but for the grace of God go I.
all it did was help campsen.
that type of stuff usually doesn't work very well, especially in multi-candidate fields. hopefully, a lesson was learned from that experience.
we hear he's all crazy about polka music too. people like that should be gang-raped by goats and then shot.
Remember when Reagan was dogged about taking naps, he quipped, "While it might be true hard work never killed anyone, I figure why take the chance?" That, along with the age comment in his second debate with Mondale were classics.
I don't think Fred Thompson has that ability to laugh at himself.
For that matter, I do not believe anyone in the field in either party has the ability to laugh at himself or herself.
I don't know Donehue but I know of his allies and ilk. It's best that the light continue to be shone on them before they destroy the GOP further to line their own pockets of gain a couple more phyrric feathers for their caps to replace the rapidly fraying ones of long ago.
You can call me a RINO but to me this means somebody who thinks and does not give knee jerk answers who cannot think or give anything more [oops, that's a good opening for our PACT and SAT scores being so low}. Consider: the State paper published several months back Lexington County perceptions on McCain. A GOPer gave a telling answer in that article; "I hate McCain; I don't know why, but I do." Such is the legacy of the sleaze of 2000 which could be about to be repeated. My relative also said he practically hated McCain but could not tell me why other than he bashed Falwell and Robertson. I went down the list of JM's conservative credentials and got a begrudging admission that he would vote for JM over Hillary. But I'm not here to defend McCain.
One of your friend's associates, let's call WT [for all ayou know I'm talking about Sic Willie calling him Willie Tremendous], is cut from the shabbiest cloth in politics. Let's recall some less than recent events that most have forgotten.
When a campaign WT was associated with got called on a past anti-Jewish tactic, prominently revealed by a prominent Jesish Democrat in the state, that Jew was called for "gestapo tactics" [Oh the deniability]! When the partner paper then extant to the State newspaper told WT they were going to publish it, he sought to deny it and sought to browbeat them by accusing them of "yellow journalism." Go look it up in the archives. I guess that's not so bad since journalism has gone from yellow to brown.
Next, WT got a former Dem. elected guv and despite squeaking by in a GOP orientation landslide year, got impressed with the possibilities. WT convinced him he would be a prominent veep candidate in the future so this guy who had some big challenges with the "Thou shalt nots" decided with WT's help to bolster his national image by calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. Now, that issue is beside the point to my point. With political strategy behind it and ostensible morality, the GOP legislature was blindsided by no consultation and the Black Caucus which would have been supportive was distrustful of the GOP. In short, the ploy to parlay a consultant back into the national scene with big bucks backfired, the guv retreated from his "moral principles" and whether we recall Bubba, or Thou Shalt Not, or the flag as part of the election, go to the CNN exit surveys and look at the wreckage that consultant brought about thankfully temporarily to the GOP through collectively suspect character.
Fortunately, Earl sees satire and pranks involved. Ask the Jewish guy or John McCain or the GOP House and Black Caucuses and I'm sure you'll get a good guffaw at the satire and machinations involved. Unfortunately, our state is gullible enough to believe the deniability when it's
all about a fat consultant keeping the bucks rolling in at the expense of splitting the state at any cost, splitting the GOP at any cost when we need every advantage possible versus Hillary.
If the shoe were on the other foot and Romney were the adversary, it would make the 1928 "Rome, Rum, and Rebellion" and the 1960 questions about JFK look like high mass as sleazy consultants go in for the kill.
It's time some were exposed.
Don't call me a RINO call me an IINO, that is I know.
the point here is this stuff is trivial, and you know if people can't take a joke sometimes, too bad for them.
this is nothing compared to the daisy ad. your comparison is flimsy.
quit taking stuff so seriously, will ya?
what could have been more trivial to a national campaign than Willie Horton? Yet there is no doubt that it hurt the Dukakis campaign tremendously. (at least Atwater didn't try to hide the source.) And I suppose the character assasination of McCain and his family were trivial also. Well, i take that back. Maybe the enlightened Republican voters of SC voted in the presidential primary of 2000 for Bush because they foresaw in him a man of keen judgment who in the future would skillfully prosecute foreign wars, capably handle national disasters such as hurricanes, and successfully protect our borders from illegal immigrants.
a pissing match between political operatives is being made out to be armageddon by the media, and you are making a mountain out of a freakin' mole hill.
i don't get it ... maybe don't you get it? nobody noticed it, nobody cares.
i presume you're a regular reader of this blog, but somehow, all the other things i talk about, of real importance or self-importance, doesn't turn you on. you could care less about 9/11, about higher education, about predatory lending ... but someone puts up a somewhat-sneaky website, and man you hit the ceiling.
i don't care, and judging by the traffic this several-days-old posting is getting, about as many people are tuned into this discussion as even saw Phoney Fred.