The Kentucky Bugging Scandal

[Color Me Badd Fan]

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/04/wow-bombshell-in-mcconnell-bugging-case/

Just to provide a quick synopsis -- Mitch McConnell had a closed door meeting with campaign staffers where they discussed the possibility of Ashley Judd getting the Democratic nomination to run against him. McConnell and/or some his staffers discussed the fact that she is, or at least has been at times, looney toons and that they would make it an issue in a campaign. Someone secretly recorded the audio from this meeting. David Corn and Mother Jones somehow received the recording and released it online. Why they released it is beyond me for a couple reasons: 1) Since the recording was made, Ashley Judd has ceased being any kind of candidate for the Senate in Kentucky; and 2) Although libs and media types have tried to play this up as bad ol' Mitch McConnell preying upon the infirmity of poor ol' Ashley Judd and that a candidate's mental health shouldn't be an issue in a campaign, fair-minded people think "hell yeah, someone's mental health should be an issue in a campaign, if that's off the table is anything then actually on the table?"

Although McConnell comes across as dry and boring, he's actually one of the more astute guys in the Congress/Senate. When a press conference was held the other day, McConnell just ignored the "Mr. McConnell, is it fair to use an opponent's mental health as a campaign issue?" questions and just repeatedly said "this is one of the tactics of the modern left, they bug your offices and record your conversations, it's Nixonian. These are the same people that mocked the ethnicity of my wife." It would surprise me if McConnell would throw out an allegation like that unless he had a pretty good idea of what happened.

Well, apparently someone from the Kentucky Democratic party has come out and said that some liberal Super-Pac in Kentucky (the same one that mocked McConnell's wife) were the ones behind the bugging. My limited knowledge of the law in this regard is that it is legal under Federal law and in some states to record conversations if you're one of the parties to them and I don't think you even have to inform the person you're recording it. In other states, both parties have to know they're being recorded. In this case, this was private meeting and no party to the conversation knew they were being recorded. Apparently doing something like this is a felony.

[Uncle Ted]

Well, apparently someone from the Kentucky Democratic party has come out and said that some liberal Super-Pac in Kentucky (the same one that mocked McConnell's wife) were the ones behind the bugging. My limited knowledge of the law in this regard is that it is legal under Federal law and in some states to record conversations if you're one of the parties to them and I don't think you even have to inform the person you're recording it. In other states, both parties have to know they're being recorded. In this case, this was private meeting and no party to the conversation knew they were being recorded. Apparently doing something like this is a felony.

Ask Richard Nixon. Wasn't Mother Jones the same news outlet that also released the recording of Rmoney talking about the 47% percent?

[myboynoah]

Ask Richard Nixon. Wasn't Mother Jones the same news outlet that also released the recording of Rmoney talking about the 47% percent?

Yes.

Progress Kentucky activists behind McConnell tape, Democrat alleges

According to Conway’s account, the recording was made in early February, when McConnell held an open house, with media included, to unveil his reelection campaign headquarters in Louisville. Reilly and Morrison were not at the open house, Conway said, but they arrived afterward and heard and taped the private conversation from the hall. The recording was published by Mother Jones, a liberal magazine.

.............

The creators of the recording could face criminal charges. Gene Policinski, senior vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, said it depends in part on whether there was a reasonable expectation of privacy during the taping and whether physical trespassing was involved. What is clear is that if Mother Jones was not involved in acquiring the tape, the First Amendment protects the magazine from prosecution.

On the tape, McConnell and his staff discuss lines of attack to use against potential opponent actress Ashley Judd, who has since announced that she will not run for Senate, as well as likely Senate challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state.

Progress Kentucky came under fire earlier this year for a tweet about Mitch McConnell’s Chinese-American wife. After the tape went public, McConnell tied the tape to the offensive tweet, saying both showed how low “the political left” would go in attacking him. The group, which had attracted little notice until the tweet, had raised only about $1,000 as of December.

I agree with CMBF that this hurt Judd much more than McConnell.

[il Padrino Ute]

My understanding is that everything that was discussed behind closed doors was already public knowledge because of Ashley Judd's book in which she talked about her mental health issues.