Republican Public Officials Just Can't Handle a Tape Recorder

They've been wheedling us for days, but we've successfully ignored TheKansasRepublican and their days of off-the-wall accusations that Congresswoman Nancy Boyda is sneaking around with a camcorder going all paparazzi on Lynn Jenkins.

We kid, of course, but not as much as we'd hope. Here's the gist of their actual complaint:

• Nancy Boyda, who voted against FISA, is now paying for a "stalker" to follow Lynn Jenkins around and tape her every word. They'd like you to think he's taping her at the grocery store, probably.

• This is very, very bad, and also hypocritical.
  

Oh, how to respond without being disrespectful...

OK, we'll start with the easy ones: Congresswoman Nancy Boyda isn't paying anyone to film anything at this point of the campaign (check the FEC reports yourselves). The tracker (yes, that's what the "stalker" is really called by people not trying to be incendiary) is paid for by the Kansas Democratic Party, and is a standard part of federal-level campaigning this day and age.

The fella from the KDP isn't following Lynn to the bathroom or getting in anyone's face...he's attending public events...the PUBLIC events of an ELECTED official running for a federal OFFICE. No elected official has any right- ever- to complain about being recorded at a public event.

The idea our State Treasurer is so secretive she doesn't want her potential constituents to know what she's saying, and that the Kansas Republican Party wants to keep it from us all, too, is one of the scariest things we've seen thus far in this race.

We can't really expect Republicans to be advocates for open government, though, can we?

Next, the Republicans, in their crazy rush to push out silly analysis, also left out the fact the KDP is also recording Jim Ryun at his events, too...they're ignoring that, but we aren't sure why. Too busy, probably.

Speaking of things the Republicans are ignoring: You can also ask Ryun or Jenkins or any staffer thereof...from what we've been told, they all know the "stalker" doesn't work for Boyda...but facts get in the way of quality spin.

In the end, the bit that's drawn a post out of us is that the Republican bloggers have the audacity to compare the recording of public events hosted by people wanting to be our representative in Congress to the federal government spying on American citizens. That's why they're calling Boyda a hypocrite, by the way- because she voted to prevent warrantless wiretaps of American citizens without oversight, but then recorders her opponents (which she isn't doing...oh, whatever...you get the picture).

That Republicans in Kansas are callous enough to compare taping public events to a federal government attempting to spy on Americans without a warrant is grossly inappropriate, but no one needs us to point that out- it's obvious to anyone other than Republican partisan hacks.

We will come back, in the end, to the fact this is just another occasion of Republicans lying when it can be proven that they are...and another example of exactly how desperate Republicans are to keep as much information as they can from the American people- and exactly how desperate they are to take down Congresswoman Boyda with baseless drivel.

Luckily, no one is listening to them.

KS GOP blog objects to Boyda's speech on FISA, calls her "profane"

After being viewed more than 6,000 times in 48 hours, we're pretty comfortable saying Nancy Boyda's speech on FISA is a runaway success.

And, with a runaway success for a Democrat in Kansas, we were also equally comfortable saying it would be met by the screeching sound of Kansas Republican bloggers dragging their fingernails across computer monitors all over the state in an effort to eviscerate Congresswoman Boyda for her position.

We waited all day Saturday. Maybe they were researching the history of FISA- you know, that it was established to prevent another Nixon of spying on American citizens again. We waited all day Sunday. Maybe it was going to a point-by-point response with charts and graphs. We waited through nearly the whole day Monday before, finally, one of our comrades on the Right finally put finger to keyboard and posted a response.

What, after three days of preparation, did they say?

"Nancy Boyda's a potty mouth and doo-doo head!" And then they misquoted her.

Yes, that's right, the attack that seems to be the one the Republicans are going with is that Nancy Boyda is just a foul-mouthed sailor-of-a-woman who dared to say the word "damn" in public, which, apparently, is all you have to do to be "profane" nowadays. At least she's in good company, since, you know, she was quoting Mark Twain.

But, remember friends, the folk at The Kansas Republican are from a different era...just like the leadership of their party.

"My land, she cursed! Carrie, quick, get the smelling salts, I do believe Wild Bill is going to faint! Oh, he's been overcome with the vapors! Call Doc Holliday on the party line!"

Next they'll be after her for wearing pants in public. And what on Earth will we do about her driving- and voting! Just- goodness!

While the response is unfortunately pathetic (we waited so long for it!), we can't ignore the fact they decided to misquote Boyda's speech, even though the transcript is published in full right here at BoydaBloc. They're lying when they say Nancy said these two things:

“Republicans Are Damn Liars… they should be ashamed”

and

Boyda felt comfortable calling Republicans peddlers of “lies, damn lies.. who should be ashamed of themselves.”

Take a look at the first post from today, which contains the whole transcript of Boyda's remarks, and you can see for yourself that she never, once, said either of those things.

She was, indeed, very specific that the Kansas Republican Party, not Kansas Republicans, should be ashamed of its ad suggesting that she is on the side of terrorists.

We might be going out on a limb here, but we think ads like that one already make Kansas Republicans ashamed of their party leaders. What kind of person with any sense about them could ask if a sitting Member of Congress is on the side of the terrorists? She right, that's a stupid question, an unpatriotic question, and we'd guess the vast majority of Kansas Republicans agree with her on those two points.

In the end, this was a pathetic attempt to redirect discussion away from the fact Nancy Boyda's position on FISA is right, the people of Kansas agree with her, and that they simply can't get any traction out of criticizing her for what she actually said- so, instead of talking about that, they make up quotes, attribute them to her, and then spew righteous indignation about her swearing.

'Course, it would be too much to expect of any of the Republican blogs in Kansas to actually talk about the issues when they have character assassination and misdirection to use instead. That's fine, because if they tried to engage Boyda on the issues they'd lose.