‘Forget It, Jake …’

Posted on | May 18, 2014 | 39 Comments

It’s ~~Chinatown~~ Mississippi:

A Pearl man who runs a political blog is accused of sneaking into a nursing home where U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife is bedridden and photographing her, then posting the image in a video political “hit piece” on the internet.
Madison Police arrested Clayton Thomas Kelly, 28, of Pearl on Friday night on a charge of exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He’s being held on a $100,000 bond. . . .
Kelly is accused of sneaking into St. Catherine’s Village in Madison, where Rose Cochran has resided since 2000, suffering from progressive dementia and now bedridden.
Cochran on Saturday issued a statement: “I have been fortunate to have a wonderful family, and like so many families, we are deeply affected by my wife’s serious, long-term illness, that we consider to be a very private family matter. We will continue doing everything we can to protect my wife’s safety and security.”
Donald Clark, attorney for Sen. and Rose Cochran, said the Cochrans’ “privacy and dignity have been violated.”

The blogger accused of this bizarre criminal stunt is a supporter of Cochran’s GOP primary challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who I’ve endorsed. Of course, I would never in a million years endorse this kind of weirdness, and I’m sure McDaniel wouldn’t either, but the Cochran campaign seems to be suggesting such complicity.

You know how bloggers have a reputation as being crazy and irresponsible? Yeah, this ain't helping. http://t.co/n9aQPGwJoB

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 18, 2014

(Hat-tip: Memeorandum.)

Category: Crime, Mississippi, Senate

Comments

39 Responses to “‘Forget It, Jake …’”

Political Rift » ‘Forget It, Jake …’
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:25 am

[…] Read more here: ‘Forget It, Jake …’ […]
ariyadesai01
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:27 am

RT @smitty_one_each: TOM ‘Forget It, Jake …’ http://t.co/LQgqI577pa #TCOT
Atari 2600
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:36 am

One of the drawbacks of having a political presence is that one becomes the target of crackpots like this. He’s a political blogger, thereby illustrating the perils of political blogging.
Atari 2600
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:43 am

… It should be no great surprise that the crackpot in question is a Democrat.
Anamika
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:55 am

Democrats will be rooting for more of this kind of Tea Party Vs GOP establishment, inspired craziness.
https://twitter.com/AnaMyID/status/467817362926755840
richard mcenroe
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:56 am

Assholes like that are only forgiven when they already HAVE political power.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 18th, 2014 @ 10:57 am

Who does he think he is? Bob Woodard?
richard mcenroe
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:02 am

Good heavens. you mean the press was less than forthcoming about an offender’s party affiliation? Inconcievable!
Atari 2600
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:04 am

Oh shit, scratch this sentence, he’s actually a Republican. Fuck me.
Daniel O'Brien
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:21 am

Better to dig into Cochran’s relationship with his office chief. Nice. Lives in her basement. Takes her on government paid trips everywhere.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:26 am

Yes I am sure you will.
Mike G.
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:47 am

This sort of craziness is what we expect from liberal bloggers. This asshole should be shunned, his name to never be uttered in public discourse ever again.
M. Thompson
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:50 am

If I was the challenger, I would separate from this guy YESTERDAY, and claim no prior knowledge. It’s the only possible way to salvage a win.

Sadly, this just gets Cochran sympathy.
richard mcenroe
May 18th, 2014 @ 12:54 pm

Well then, damn and string him up anyway.
Alan Markus
May 18th, 2014 @ 1:07 pm

I read several versions of this story – I think the one linked at Drudge had something like 4 updates – worse case of “he say-she say” I have seen in a long time – after looking at that, it would have been helpful to have some kind of diagram to keep track of the 6-8 players in on this “controversy”.

Major issue is who knew what first? Sounds like the McDaniel side is doing exactly what needs to be done if you are a conservative Republican – constant monitoring of media & blogs and on a moments notice be ready to react to something that can bite you in the ass, and get ahead of the situation ASAP before the liberals run with it. Looks like they were trying to minimize this incident as soon as possible to prevent embarrassment to either party. And somewhere along the line, the Cochran side is assuming that the knowledge gained from seeing the offensive posting and subsequent arrest implies some special advance notification. Maybe because Cochran has been in office 36 years, there is a lack of awareness of how information can be gained on the internet, that not all information is dispersed through official channels.

Case in point – in fatal traffic accidents, our metro newspaper disables the comments function, as too many people were posting names & conditions of victims, speculating on who caused it, etc.,
Separated at Birth: Mississippi Political Blogger Clayton Thomas Kelly and…? | Batshit Crazy News
May 18th, 2014 @ 2:04 pm

[…] TOM: “Forget it Jake, it’s…” […]
Matt_SE
May 18th, 2014 @ 2:39 pm

Ok, I’ll say it:
Maybe this blogger was paid by Cochran to do this, to drum up sympathy. A longshot, but not impossible. After all, how many other things have happened in the last 5 years that we would’ve thought to be “impossible?”
Whatever happens, I wouldn’t count on getting to the bottom of this before the election is over.
Adjoran
May 18th, 2014 @ 4:14 pm

Well, McDaniel’s campaign manager isn’t commenting on how she knew about it before any news reports of the incident – the arrest was posted on the police blotter Friday night, but no mention of Cochran or his wife, just an “at risk adult.”

So how did they know the blogger had done this and was arrested for it? He only included a still photo of the woman in an anti-Cochran video without saying where he got it.

How did they know? The first news reports weren’t published until after 9 am Saturday.
Adjoran
May 18th, 2014 @ 4:16 pm

Maybe space aliens did it. There is at least as much evidence of that.

This guy has had his picture taken with McDaniel at least twice, and been attacking Cochran constantly, but you see a conspiracy?

Man, that was some well-planned conspiracy!
Adjoran
May 18th, 2014 @ 4:20 pm

McDaniel wasn’t going to win anyway, despite being the “sane one” of the so-called “tea party” Senate challengers. He was down 52-35 in the last poll with just over two weeks to go, and that was BEFORE this stuff.

His campaign manager called Cochran’s Friday night at 11:34, to express sympathy and tell him they had nothing to do with it. But there was no details of the arrest reported until Saturday morning.

So how did they know it was Cochran’s wife?

No, they weren’t “monitoring Google alerts” and saw the video, as some supporters on the internet speculate. The video was posted weeks ago and taken down after a few hours. Then nothing until the arrest. Nice try, though.

So, how did they know?
ZZZZZZZZ
May 18th, 2014 @ 4:38 pm

zzzzzzzzzzz……..
Matt_SE
May 18th, 2014 @ 5:56 pm

Well, I wasn’t exactly advocating that position. Just mentioning it…elephant in the room, and all.
And I will note that there’s only slightly more evidence that McDaniel put him up to it (all circumstantial). And that’s what we’re really talking about here, because if he’s just some random kook, then McDaniel is obviously not responsible.
So in other words, we don’t know anything.
Kirby McCain
May 18th, 2014 @ 6:13 pm

Well, I’ll say this, there a certain undeniable fanaticism in the Tea party that relates to the Left’s by any means. While the candidate may not and probably wasn’t involved Tea Party shrillness was.
LN_Smithee
May 18th, 2014 @ 6:47 pm

I don’t even get what the point of having the pic of Cochran’s wife was supposed to be. It’s not as if it was as obvious as Charles Foster Kane “Caught In Love Nest With ‘Singer.’ ” Was it that he was some kind of a-hole for not giving everything up to be by her side as she slipped away? Was she supposed to serve as a metaphor for neglected constituents?
Matt_SE
May 18th, 2014 @ 7:20 pm

You realize that’s a variation on “Sarah Palin’s target graphics made Jared Loughner do it” meme, right?
Kirby McCain
May 18th, 2014 @ 7:22 pm

You do realize that bad causes attract bad people, right? That’s not what I say but it’s what someone else likes to say.
K-Bob
May 18th, 2014 @ 7:43 pm

Fanaticism? Only among the usual fringers you find in any movement. But to tar the whole with that is bizarre.
K-Bob
May 18th, 2014 @ 7:50 pm

I don’t see how “bloggers” have a “reputation” as anything. Blogging is an activity practiced by people from every walk of life.

Political bloggers aren’t even that much alike.

I’d just put him in the “crank” category (with a side of “dumb kid”) and treat him as such.
Kirby McCain
May 18th, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

Not at all. Tea Party fanatics love to say that if their candidate doesn’t beat the GOP incumbent that they won’t vote or they will vote for the Democrat. In doing so it is clear that the Tea Party is the enemy of the GOP. Terms like ‘Vichy GOP’ ring a bell? Against a Tea Party candidate a Democrat only has to run a centrist campaign to win because that’s what most people want outside our large urban areas.
Matt_SE
May 18th, 2014 @ 9:29 pm

Hmmmm:

http://www.redstate.com/2014/05/18/was-this-a-coordinated-hit-on-chris-mcdaniel/

Good question.
K-Bob
May 18th, 2014 @ 11:21 pm

This isn’t 1973 anymore. Conventional wisdom is done.

That’s a remnant of the kind of old-school CW I’ve been reading from Michael Barone and others since I was kid. It’s dead, Jim. Stick a fork in it.
Quartermaster
May 19th, 2014 @ 7:46 am

Howze about Quisling? Frankly, such labels attached to certain GOPe types not only ring true, they are true.
At present, there is no such thing as a centrist major party. Both major parties are well left of center.
Quartermaster
May 19th, 2014 @ 7:49 am

Adjoran, both of us know that there are other channels through which info flows than the MSM. I would not be the least bit surprised if someone at the PD is a McDaniel supporter and passed the info onto the campaign.
Adjoran
May 20th, 2014 @ 12:35 am

The arrest wasn’t three weeks ago, but they knew about the video three weeks ago when it went up, and lied about it.
Quartermaster
May 20th, 2014 @ 6:49 pm

To say they are lying about it means something that is an impossibility for you. You can’t get in their heads or their hearts.

And, if it went up 3 weeks ago, I would expect they would know about shortly thereafter. As for the statement, you have no idea who was making it, or what they knew at the time they spoke. Unless you are a mind reader, your on thin ice.
Quartermaster
May 20th, 2014 @ 7:27 pm

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/20/bloggers-wife-chris-mcdaniel-asked-him-to-take-down-the-video-of-thad-cochrans-wife-right-after-it-went-up/
Adjoran
May 21st, 2014 @ 5:06 am

They told the media the day after the arrest that they knew nothing of it, they left a voicemail message for Cochran saying they had heard of it weeks before.
Both cannot be true. One is a lie (same woman speaking for McDaniel on both).
Quartermaster
May 21st, 2014 @ 6:36 pm

See immediately below. Adjoran. You need to shut up while you’re ahead.
FMJRA 2.0: Satisfaction : The Other McCain
May 24th, 2014 @ 4:58 pm

[…] ‘Forget It, Jake …’ […]