ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity

This post contains a healthy dose of conjecture. I make no apologies for this.

As I mentioned in my update earlier, Ethan S. Winner of Winner & Associates has attempted to take full credit for the devious anti-Palin video meant to look like part of an anonymous grassroots campaign. If you want to see his statement at length, go to Jawa. I’ll just be making fun of the really dumb parts here. In short, this chipmunk is attempting to throw himself on the grenade and shield the Obama campaign from the blast.

“Contrary to the allegation in the Jawa Report, the voice-over artist has never done any work for the Obama campaign. I retained her through a talent agency based solely on the quality of her voice.”

Okay Ethan, so you were fortunate enough to randomly find a voice-over artist who sounds exactly the same as the artist from the Obama campaign videos, you’re certain these are two different actresses, and yet you’re not offering the names of these two actresses because…? Not buying it. Right now, I think someone is looking for a different actress who sounds the same as our mystery girl and can be paid to go on record saying she made one of the videos when she didn’t. Apparently that much couldn’t be done in the 15 hours it took for Winner & co. to write this statement.

“Neither the Obama campaign nor any independent political action committee has had a connection with the making and/or posting of this video.”

Sure. I also hear Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman Monica Lewinsky.

“I made this video because I think it is important for the public to be aware of the association between Sarah and Todd Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party.”

Of course. And you felt the need to publish a lie in the video that had long been retracted by theNew York Times because the public is stupid and they won’t vote for Obama unless they’re lied to.

“While a number of media outlets have said that reports that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party may have been erroneous, her attendance at the party’s 1994 convention, her video speech to the 2008 convention and her husband’s membership in the Alaskan Independence Party have not been called into question.”

I guess you missed the memo, Ethan. As soon as Palin was accused of ever having been a member of the AIP, she quickly and confidently released her entire voter registration history proving that she’d been a Republican since she was registered to vote. For you to not know this by now makes you either very, very stupid or very, very dishonest. Maybe a little of both.

“Some people have asked why I have pulled the video from the Internet. The reason is simple. Following the posting of personal information about me by the Jawa Report, my family began to receive threatening and abusive phone calls and emails.”

And Ethan concludes on a very large whopper. Look Ethan, you (or someone with your YouTube account information) pulled the videos and canceled your accounts within one hour of Rusty’s post going up. You expect us to believe that even though Rusty was very professional and refused to post your contact information or links to pictures of your family that he found, those evil right-wingers formed an e-lynch party within minutes and found that information for themselves and went after you, prompting you to such decisive action within the hour? In the middle of the night?? To paraphrase what one of the commentators on Ace said, that’s record time even for us wingnut warmongers clinging to our guns and religion.

Nothing can deceive unless it bears a plausible resemblance to the truth. Anyone who thinks this story is plausible must also believe that Lindsay Lohan has yet to contract any STDs.

ANALYSIS

In spite of the hilarity of Ethan Wiener’s response, I find myself feeling pessimistic about this story and skeptical that it will have the long-reaching effects initially hoped for. Remember when John Edwards finally owned up to his adultery, but only confessed that it had technically happened and refused to admit to having cheated on his wife while she was actively battling cancer or having fathered a love child? Remember how he boldly offered to take a paternity test, only for Riehl Hunter to make it known that she did not want one done? In other words, he confessed only to what had been proven and what could be proven.

This confession is exactly like that. The legal team at Winner & Associates and the Obama campaign pored over Rusty’s report to determine just what he could and could not prove, then they ordered Ethan S. Winner to take the fall and confess to the minimum. I mean, the guy didn’t even admit that his debunked video was peddling a blatant lie. You can bet that they spent the last day shredding paper and making sure their tracks were covered. The chances of this being solidly linked back to Obama or Axelrod are likely gone.

Furthermore, even before weenie-boy’s confession, the story was getting very little playtime. Most of the right-wing blogs covered the initial story, but not even Drudge or Rush picked it up. And while some blogs are hailing this confession as the “first blood” and a victory in the story, personally, I think it’s the only blood we’re going to see. And I simply cannot deny that the fact is, it’s the blood of a chipmunk. In an echo of something NRO said a few years ago, it doesn’t matter how much we pound our feet and beat our chests and dance around this carcass, it will still be just a chipmunk.

If a more solid connection to the Obama campaign can’t be established soon, it’s time to move on.