As a former Louisvillian, I have been watching the McConnell-Progress Kentucky taping scandal unfold with some interest. It is quickly turning into a melodrama of epic proportions, little of which will make it into the national mainstream media because of the ideological bias of that institution. The scandal involves three key players on the left, all of whom have questionable criminal backgrounds, and the peculiar political dynamics inherent in incestuous small-to-medium sized towns.
Louisville is well known among its inhabitants as an incestuous town. From the major power players and the extreme wealth of the East End-Oldham County nexus to the so-called counter-culture of “The Scene” as its participants call it, to the extreme poverty of the West End, the players keep playing in their own backyards, fighting amongst the various factions, and protecting insiders in ways that Shakespeare himself could not resist writing about were he alive today. I like to call it Shakespeare for Hillbillies, though the participants would object that they are from “cosmopolitan” Louisville.
I lived in Louisville for some 20+ years before making the jump to Hoosierland here in Indiana, so I know a lot of which I speak. One of the best parts of moving across the bridge was the ability to leave Louisville’s political scene in the dust. I had no idea what ideological suffocation I felt until it was gone. People like to think of Kentucky these days as part of the Midwestern nexus of GOP power, but the truth is that the Democratic Party has long had a lock on the state. Ernie Fletcher, for example, was the first GOP governor in Kentucky since the year I was born (1971). Louisville in particular is a bastion of Democratic politics.
About a week ago, a non-scandal broke out when David Corn, Mother Jones’ Chief Washington Correspondent, who specializes in leaking opposition research for national Democrats, published the transcripts and audio of a secret recording of an oppo-research meeting of McConnell’s reelection staff. Less than a week later a member of the Executive Committee of Jefferson County Democrats announced to the press that two members of a Democratic superPAC called ProgressKentucky had bragged about recording the meeting from the hallway outside. The liberal national media initially jumped on the case, focusing on the fact that participants in the McConnell meeting had mentioned Ashley Judd’s mental health, a fact she herself mentioned in her own memoir published in 2011. Apparently it’s okay for she, not for thee.
Character assassination is nothing new in politics. Recall the relentless attacks last year on Mitt and Ann Romney, from Rosen’s comments that Ann Romney hadn’t “worked a day in her life,” to their tax returns, to Mitt Romney’s “binder full of women.” Just check out some of the more questionable attacks on Obama coming from places like Infowars (no link, sorry). The political landscape is riddled with what rational people call ad hominem attacks. What made this story so special was the status of Mitch McConnell as Minority Leader for the GOP, and the fact that he has been particularly effective at neutralizing some of Democrats’ most beloved agenda items, most notably McCain-Feingold. He is a shrewd and calculating player of the game, and that Democrats cannot abide. Hence the intense push to unseat him.
Much to Corn’s chagrin, I suspect, the case has done nothing but strengthen McConnell in Kentucky. That’s because he knows how to play the game, and got out in front of the story quickly with a narrative of “Nixonian-Watergate style” attacks by state Democrats. The story turned an endangered incumbent suffering from low approval ratings into a sympathetic figure to the less-than-interested voters across the state, voters who, it must be noted, were suspicious of a perceived radical outsider like Ashley Judd from the get-go.
The reason for this is the near-universal condemnation of ProgressKentucky’s legally questionable tactics, and the emerging character portraits of the three key players on the left. These players are: Shawn Reilly, co-founder and leader of ProgressKentucky; Curtis Morrison, a longtime Louisville activist, OccupyLouisville leader, and freelance reporter for the aptly named Insider Louisville who also served as ProgressKentucky’s communications point man until the Twitter feed of PK made racially insensitive remarks about McConnell’s Chinese wife; and Jacob Conway, the Democratic Party finger-pointer who outed the pair. As it turns out, all three have criminal histories that have emerged in the wake of the breaking story, and they are all turning on each other as the FBI continues to investigate.
Most of this has been unearthed via careful and tedious investigative reporting done by Jacob Payne of Page One Kentucky, a political independent who seems to delight in revealing the ridiculousness of Kentucky party politics on both sides of the aisle. In several posts he has uncovered Shawn Reilly’s involvement in the famous murder of a Bellermine University student a few years ago, Curtis Morrison’s trespassing charges, and Jacob Conway’s plea deal to what could have been a charge of embezzlement after $3,000 went missing from his former employer. Those are just the facts, but the details on Reilly’s and Conway’s background in particular are far more lurid, involving lying to the police, a civil law suit, and fleeing subpoenas in the case of Reilly, and lying to the police and secret escort services in the case of Conway. I invite you to check out the juicy details for yourselves.
Notably the local mainstream press won’t touch these issues, as is their wont in the incestuous fishbowl of party politics that is the town of Louisville. For Louisville’s power players, members of one’s own faction must be protected at all cost, even the cost of one’s own credibility. The irony, as well as the dynamics of Louisville’s political landscape, are best exemplified by Insider Louisville editor Terry Boyd’s quote when asked about Morrison’s involvement in the wake of Conway’s allegations:
“I don’t know what the hell is going on with the Mitch McConnell thing, and I don’t want to know.”
The case has pitted national Democrats, desperate to distance themselves from what they call “amateurs”, against Louisville’s insider Democrats who instinctively operate out of a sense of self-preservation. Nevertheless, for those in the know, the irony of Kentucky’s Democratic operatives outing McConnell for private character assassination talk getting outed and character assassinated themselves publicly is not only juicy, it’s hilarious. Pass the popcorn, please.
True story:
I almost forgot the dueling press stories that are the result of Louisville’s protectionist impulses.
From the paper of record in Louisville:
From WFPL, the NPR affiliate that broke the Conway allegations:
Thanks for summing this up. I’ve been hearing about this for the past week and tried to read up on it, but was left wondering WTF it all means.
Calling your political opponent a crazy twit isn’t unethical if your political opponent really is a crazy twit.
I’ve been tweeting so much lately I worry about how many characters are in my comments here.
Using twitter is insidious. I would explain, but it would take too many characters.
Great post. KY sounds delicious from a gossip politics point of view, and horrible if you want actual government services to work. Everywhere you look closely at government function, you get high school cliques, petty behavior, and corruption. No wonder so many push for smaller government. The less of it you have, the less crime and incompetence you have.
Oh man, you have no idea. Nepotism runs very deep in KY.
Been going on since the great flood. 🙂
What an awesome history though. Part of the Union. Founding part of the underground railroad. Black union soldiers. Split though in many ways. Horses of course. And most importantly, where Johnny Depp is from. 🙂
No doubt about it. Kentucky does have awesome history. What you noted is just the tip of the iceberg.
That’s why Justified has such a rich vein of good stories set in Harlan County. They could easily be true.
Sort of relates. Dorothy and Alice:
Both, it should be noted, former Miss Kentuckys.
Maybe the really weird shit they saw was before their famous adventures. 🙂
IIRC, Pussy Galore was from KY too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Kentucky
There are a few surprises in that list.
A lot of Kentuckians I know are pretty independent. I wonder if that’s from how horrible and corrupt both parties are in that state. Hadn’t thought about why before. Or maybe that’s because I mostly know the ones that escaped.
A and B can both true. They are here. You’d have to be insanely well connected to stay if you had any ambition.
If we were Vile Progs we would be saying nasty things about this.
Fascinating post. Great job!
the weird thing is that Ashley Judd had already said she was not running before david corn published the story. The point was already moot.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/14/5340078/nevada-buses-hundreds-of-mentally.html
I finally figured out how we got stuck with Harry Reid
Tweetered:
thank you. maybe the lack of mental health care in Nevada will make enough waves to get fixed
Althouse:
LOL, it’s a very unpopular thought these days, but I am in awe of how much energy a gallon of gas can generate.
I watched a show about the guy who discovered how to refine it so it could really produce. The scary part was that he had to literally build a fire under this gas tank that was like a pressure cooker, and just kind of hope the whole thing didn’t explode. All’s well that ends well, but they were really holding their breath and hoping for the best.
1 gallon of gas will propel 1 ton of car and four adults about 20 miles in 20 minutes with the A/C going. Greenies call that wasteful.
Back in the BC days (before cars) 20 miles a day was good time on flat ground.
check it out MYIQ
DoomClown @DoomClown 8h
On April 14, Lincoln was shot, the Titanic sank, and the “Black Sunday” Dust Bowl storm destroyed Oklahoma. Have a nice day!
Retweeted by David Burge
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2013/04/only-thing-mother-jones-tape-proves-is.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
david corn no journalistic standards
http://www.aim.org/newswire/gas-news-north-dakota-building-first-us-oil-refinery-since-1976/
some good news for a change
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/04/14/i-sold-my-home-in-cyprus-when-my-husband-died-and-the-bank-kept-the-money/
the cost of Cyprus bank thefts
Watching America’s Funniest Videos. Little girl (4?) is being quizzed with math flash cards.
They show her: 3 and she answers “Three”.
They show her I I and she answers “Pause”.
They tell her “That’s eleven” and she rolls her eyes and says “That’s a pause” like she knows they are lying to her.
OT:
Kentucky is the only state to have a governor assassinated and all the people involved were either pardoned or acquitted.
One of Wyoming’s governors had a pair of shoes made out of an outlaw’s skin. Creepy!
I like political history. It makes makes realize that as crazy as things are, there was a time when they were even crazier.
I think Illinois holds the record for the number of governors to go directly from the state house to the big house.
Venezuela’s electoral authority: interim president Maduro wins election; Maduro had 50.66% of votes, Capriles 49.07% – @Reuters, @AFP
More: Venezuela vote results are irreversible, election board says; board president urges respect for results, tells Venezuelans to stay indoors – @Reuters
Defeated #Venezuela presidential candidate Henrique #Capriles refuses to accept election result http://t.co/pdVa5l8Pqf #Maduro
I wonder who Obama would hand pick as his successor?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/14/Border-congressman-Big-Sis-must-read-entire-Obamacare-2-0-immigration-bill-prior-to-testifying-next-week
this should keep her busy
Just as I suspected, there is no border security before amnesty in the bill. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. So they’ll pass this, and then there will be another 11+ million illegal immigrants in the years ahead. And so it goes, round and round. The best part is, the Repubs who will go along with this actually think it will help them with the latino vote. Now that’s funny.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/04/14/msnbc-marxist-melissa-harris-perry-we-need-to-impinge-on-individual-freedoms-for-the-common-good/
why are we giving air time to pravda aka msnbc
A gay gun rights group is upset with the new gun control bill, especially in states that don’t recognize gay marriage. Ooops.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/12/gun-bill-championed-by-democrats-discriminates-against-gay-gun-owners/
Love their name, The Pink Pistols 😀
If you missed the MTV Movie Awards, the winnahs are:
http://news.moviefone.com/2013/04/12/mtv-movie-awards-2013-winners-results_n_3071846.html
😀 How long has he been under the bus? Moron.
https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/statuses/323602323425353728
I wasn’t feeling so good yesterday , but today I just have to get in here and say how much I enjoyed this post and the comments too . I hope to see more Dems libs and Vile Progs go after each other; MMA style 🙂
😆