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Just when I think I’m out, they PULL ME BACK IN!

Will Talking Points’ work exposing the multiple villainies of John Ashcroft and his imbecile minions never be done?

Apparently not.

Talking Points thought he liked Ashleigh Banfield, the Starbucksian-looking reporter on MSNBC. But does she have to repeat the Ashcroftians’ …well, talking points word for word?

Banfield led this evening with a stunning new controversy embroiling freshman Senator Jean Carnahan. During her late husband’s campaign against then-Senator Ashcroft, the Carnahan campaign did opposition research on Ashcroft. And now Carnahan’s campaign consultant Marc Farinella has made that opposition research available to those preparing the opposition to Ashcroft. (Actually, he said he’d make it available to whomever wanted it.)

This is shocking!

Except it’s not shocking.

So what? Every campaign does “oppo” research. In fact it was well-known that Ashcroft and Carnahan both did a lot of it.

Banfield also noted that Carnahan’s decision was particularly unexpected after the gentlemanly way Ashcroft chose not to contest her election.

Do we really need to rehash this canard one more time? (Need a refresher? See Tim Noah’s concise dispatching of this moronic argument.)

Ashcroft lost the race by two percentage points. He lost. He had no case with a recount or a court case, period. He made the best of the situation and made a gracious concession. (Of course, saying how gracious it was and using it as a cudgel sort of makes it a little less gracious, right?) Handing over the opposition materials was “troubling, given the class and dignity that was shown by Sen. Ashcroft in conceding the election,” said David Israelite, political director of the RNC. And because of this Carnahan needs to carry water for him?

Please.

This non-story story is a good example of a common reportorial phenomena. Press flaks dress up an utterly known set of facts as a discovery, and lazy or foolish reporters report it as though it were news. Even when it’s clearly not news.

Did you hear the one about how Rick Lazio ran television ads designed to suppress turnout among Hillary Clinton supporters? Or how George W. Bush assisted pro-Bush voters to the polls and systematically avoided providing the same service to Gore suppporters?

You get the idea.

As nearly as I can tell, if one is not a complete moron this is a pretty obvious effort to shift the focus onto Carnahan’s widow. In fact according to the AP “GOP operatives asserted late Tuesday the loan reflects poorly on the governor’s widow, Sen. Jean Carnahan, who was appointed to replace her dead husband.”

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh …. That’s class and dignity for you.

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