The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Mississippi Scandal

Posted on | July 1, 2014 | 29 Comments

Charles C. Johnson’s interview with Rev. Stevie Fielder, a pastor who says he participated in an illegal vote-buying scheme during the Mississippi Senate campaign, was lighting up Twitter last night. Aaron Gardner at Red State provides transcripts of much of the interview. Rev. Fielder provides text messages which appear to confirm that a staffer on the campaign to re-elect Republican Sen. Thad Cochran authorized and or coordinated these illegal payments.

That’s the story so far, and a damned important story it is, too. The question is whether it will be followed up, and whether law enforcement — including the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission — will investigated these allegations.

 

Comments

29 Responses to “The Mississippi Scandal”

  1. Quartermaster
    July 1st, 2014 @ 8:39 am

    Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.

  2. ConstantineX1
    July 1st, 2014 @ 9:48 am

    Haley Barbour should have to put up with Thad Cochran drooling on him in their shared prison cell.

  3. Catfish
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:03 am

    You would think that Mississippi’s Democrat AG, Jim Hood, would be jumping all over this for no other reason than to mess with the Republican establishment in Miss. This would be a great way for him to start poking his finger in the eyes of Haley Barbour, Phil Bryant, Tate Reeves and others.

  4. Senator Thad Cochran connected to illegal vote buying… | Batshit Crazy News
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:05 am

    […] TOM: Will Mississippi Officials or the Feds do anything about it? […]

  5. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:14 am
  6. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:28 am

    Hood is probably on Barbour’s payroll.

  7. Kirby McCain
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:30 am

    Time and again the Tea baggers lose an election and go all out to damage the candidate. This room’s gotten way too goddam mutterfucking hip for me. Cya

  8. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:33 am

    Which race was it where the Tea Party candidate won by courting Democrats? Where he/she had to bribe Dems to vote for him/her?
    …’cause I must’ve missed that one.

  9. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:37 am

    Sarcasm there?

  10. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:38 am

    I hope so, because if we’ve lost the all-important Kirby McCain demographic…

  11. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:40 am

    There goes the 1860’s prospector vote.

  12. DaTechGuy on DaRadio
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:49 am

    It will not be followed up and the GOP thanks to the Hobby Lobby 504 ruling has a great excuse to tell tea party types to let it go

  13. DaTechGuy on DaRadio
    July 1st, 2014 @ 10:57 am

    Frankly if the Tea Party had all the koch money the left says it didn’t couldn’t McDaniel have outbid Cochran for the black vote?

  14. richard mcenroe
    July 1st, 2014 @ 11:52 am

    I’m sorry Stacy, but I haven’t heard anything about this over all the damn crickets chirping on the news.

  15. richard mcenroe
    July 1st, 2014 @ 11:53 am

    If we’re going to have candidates who buy votes from Democrats, why not just have a Democrat senator and be done with it?

  16. blder
    July 1st, 2014 @ 11:55 am

    Yea, Gotnews certainly sounds reliable.

  17. havloq
    July 1st, 2014 @ 12:27 pm

    You’ve got the authentic frontier gibberish down pat.

  18. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 1:16 pm

    OTOH, how many reporters do you think the New York Times has assigned to this story?
    New media may be less reliable, but at least you can always find someone covering a story.

  19. blder
    July 1st, 2014 @ 2:22 pm

    Right, because a “story” is some random dude making an accusation.

    Listen, if this turns out to be true, great, take them down, however the proprietor of Gotnews, Charles C. Johnson, has pushed false stories before so it is ridiculous that people running this story are not mentioning his credibility.

  20. Matt_SE
    July 1st, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

    Nobody’s arguing for taking him at his word. Things need to be investigated.
    But remember that it was the National *Freakin’* Inquirer that broke the John Edwards scandal.

  21. NeoWayland
    July 1st, 2014 @ 2:53 pm

    I’ll say it again. The national parties should be prosecuted under the RICO act.

  22. bet0001970
    July 1st, 2014 @ 6:15 pm

    Except the National Enquirer had credibility BEFORE they broke the John Edwards story.

  23. Quartermaster
    July 1st, 2014 @ 8:36 pm

    When they acquire credibility? Not in my lifetime.

    The Edwards thing may have started in Enquirer, but no one really believed it until a someone that deals in something not generally made up took it up.

  24. Quartermaster
    July 1st, 2014 @ 8:36 pm

    No argument from me.

  25. NeoWayland
    July 1st, 2014 @ 9:11 pm

    You know, I’ve not checked. Any chance that a state AG can do a RICO case, or are the FedGovs automatically involved?

  26. Adjoran
    July 2nd, 2014 @ 1:07 am

    The guy is openly admitting to breaking the law himself, so I’d think the AG has to investigate.

    I understand that DOJ is sending people too, but that’s probably to make sure no black voters were shortchanged.

  27. Quartermaster
    July 2nd, 2014 @ 6:28 am

    I think they can do a RICO suit, but criminal charges are something else.

  28. richard mcenroe
    July 3rd, 2014 @ 1:02 am

    True the Vote filed suit against the MI SoS and GOP. Are they are fly-by-night operation?

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    July 6th, 2014 @ 5:41 pm

    […] The Mississippi Scandal […]