Are we at defamation yet?
"Tony Post is on a roll!" ejaculates Bill Clay/Hans Grüber (who I am starting to suspect really is Tony Post).
Really. The only place Tony Post is rolling is downhill. This week Post tried to manufacture controversy by claiming Senate staffer and potential House candidate Matt Varilek violated the Hatch Act by criticizing Rep. Kristi Noem. He even tries to drag Brendan Johnson into the muck by challenging the U.S. Attorney to investigate Varilek's alleged lawbreaking.
But as I noted Friday and as Mr. Varilek himself points out in Kevin Woster's column today, the Hatch Act does not apply to Congressional staffers:
Nonetheless, the "Hatch Act," which until recently prohibited partisan political activity by federal civil service employees, never applied to congressional staff [Senate Ethics Manual, Chapter 6: Political Activity, 2003 edition, p. 140].
So the Minnesotan the GOP hired over plenty of South Dakota candidates now leads South Dakota Republicans into making false accusations of lawbreaking against a South Dakotan. Post mutters something to Woster about a "gentleman's agreement" among members of our Congressional delegation not to dish on each other. If Post is truly concerned about gentlemanliness (and a big part of that word is manliness, Tony), then the next two words out of his mouth should be retraction and apology.
Good grief, Republicans! Are you so arrogant in your assumption of perpetual one-party rule that you think you can hire a complete meathead to run your party? You still need a party exec who can get his facts right. I was able to Google up enough info to find the Hatch Act doesn't apply to Varilek in less than an hour, and I'm just a lowly blogger spending most of his time teaching French verb conjugations.
Seriously, South Dakota Republicans, how much are you paying Tony Post to get the law wrong and make false accusations? And how long will you keep paying him to embarrass the party?
From your link, Cory:
"Public Figures
Under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1964 Case, New York Times v Sullivan, where a public figure attempts to bring an action for defamation, the public figure must prove an additional element: That the statement was made with "actual malice". In translation, that means that the person making the statement knew the statement to be false, or issued the statement with reckless disregard as to its truth."
Mr. Post might want to mentally entertain the possibility (probability) that Mr. Varilek knows quite a few very skillful attorneys who would be happy to lighten his wallet for him.
I was wondering about that additional "malice" condition. The GOP/DWC press releases certainly smell of malice. And to think that a state party executive is oblivious to Senate ethics rules stretches my generous creduilty. Perhaps someone should make back-up copies of those posts before they disappear. And perhaps it is more important than ever that we know the true identity of "Bill Clay".
I'd hate to teach a republican anything but how dumb can you be? Not a lot of people know of Varilek, I've met him a few times, but no one knew who he was. You just turned in a mid week article in the Daily Republic into something that the Argus and RCJ have picked up. Noem is not polling great, and you just gave a week long news cycle to a guy that no one knew. Wow. Where did you repubs get this guy?
Cory,
I don't see anything all that bad on the SDWC. Posting a press release? It is newsworthy after all.
Maybe Post crossed the line but merely posting the story isn't all that big of a deal. Though it's amuzing to read your post and response for political theatre.
Mike, I look at it this way: Post is paid good money to know politics and make his party look good. By not looking up the Hatch Act, he proves he fails the first point (he gets a worse score than the unpaid bloggers and even a DWC commenter who pointed out the Post error early). By giving Varilek free press with no points scored for the GOP, he blows the second point.
I will agree, who chairs the SDGOP probably doesn't matter to anyone outside the political elites and bloggerazzi. But for those of us paying attention, Post is making himself and his party look like bumblers. Nesselhuf issues a lot of press releases, and I don't get fired up about all of them, but I have trouble thinking of a press release from Nesselhuf that actually sets Democrats back. If Post keeps shooting blanks and Nesselhuf keeps showing fire, Dems could retake some seats in Pierre next year. That would be newsworthy.
I'll try to give SDGOP a break, sort of. Their response is ridiculously hyperbolic.
That being said, I'm constantly reminded that people generally err out of stupidity not malice.
I would guess that that little aphorism applies to party chairs who are in over their heads and more than a little greedy to hold on to success that others earned for them.
You know what I say about politics, LK: fight hyperbolae with parabolae—wait, that's what I say about geometry....
Had I not read the SDWC I wouldn't have a clue what was in the press release so I'm glad it was on there.
I also think Post screwed this one up. Varilek just got oodles of free media for going to a meeting in Mitchell. Varilek is also getting fairly positive media from Ellis and Woster rather than having to defend himself because Post went over board.
I tune Nesselhuf out on the Dem side because he is over the top also and read the Madville Times for more well thought opinion.
Looks like I'm going to be tuning the SDGOP out again also. Why don't they just say Varilek acted in poor taste? I know I wouldn't like it if a Thune staffer did this either.
Post and Varilek probably need to take a chill pill until they know what they are doing.
15 people attended Varilek's meeting. Then Post got the 2 largest papers to cover that meeting. Varilek is laughing all the way to the bank on this SD GOP screw up.
Noem's people are the ones who overlooked experienced SD GOP opperatives in favor of Minnesota boy. However he runs the SD GOP is on them.