Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
Late Tuesday night, after the election returns from Florida showed a landslide win for Clint Curtis over Andy Michaud in the 24th congressional district’s Democratic primary, I heard a fascinating story from Ace Reporter and Managing Editor Alex Babcock of Oviedo, Florida’s Seminole Chronicle. The Chronicle is Feeney’s “hometown paper” which both the corrupt Republican congressman, and Yang Enterprises Inc. (YEI) — the company he used to lobby for, even while he was speaker of the Florida House! — threatened with a lawsuit after the paper dared to report on Curtis’ sworn, video-taped testimony to members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
Curtis had testified that Feeney asked him to create a prototype of electronic vote-rigging software when they were both employed by YEI as The BRAD BLOG originally broke back in December of 2004. Curtis, of course, is now the Democratic candidate challenging Feeney for the U.S. House seat in Florida’s 24th congressional district.
Babcock’s remarkable account of the “jubilant” Election Night conversation, witnessed by at least three other parties, went as follows…
Tom Feeney stopped by for a few minutes to congratulate Keith Britton and have a beer. Britton is a Republican candidate challenging another Republican for a City Council seat in Oviedo.
Michelle asked Feeney why he would prepare a flattering depiction of Curtis in a campaign advertisement that reached voters before the Democratic primary.
“You’ll find out,” he said with a smirk.
Babcock continued:
“Are we going to get a copy?” Michelle asked. Feeney replied that we were in the book, and would look bad for being in it because we’d be in the same company as Hustler Magazine.
Laughing, Feeney continued with description of the book, pausing briefly to ask: “Do you think I’m kidding?” to which I replied, “No, I don’t think you’re kidding.” Feeney hastily added, “I’m not kidding.”
He seemed particularly interested in the results of the District 24 Democratic primary, delighted in the news of Curtis’ victory. He seemed spurred on by this news, which clearly he’d received before arriving at the Britton victory party.
Feeney was eager to describe the details of his plans to destroy Curtis’ reputation by maligning him as “mentally unbalanced,” implying that Curtis was an easy opponent to beat, compared with [Curtis’ primary opponent, Andy] Michaud.
Though official returns were not yet in for the Curtis vs. Michaud Democratic primary, Curtis held a 19 percent margin at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, making him the likely challenger for Feeney’s District 24 Congressional seat.
Feeney said the national media has already begun to describe Curtis as a member of the “tin hat” society.
Feeney delighted in describing how the Chronicle will be depicted alongside Hustler Magazine as one of the “dumb-ass” news organizations that have reported on the Curtis matter.
The implications would apparently be that: [1] any publication that found itself in the same collection as Hustler would be disgraced, and [2] Clint Curtis and those who took his claims seriously would therefore be shown to be “crazy”.
In short, Feeney hopes to convince the media that no “respectable” news outlet would (or should) give any credence to “Crazy Clint Curtis” and his “outrageous” claims (on the grounds that none has yet done so?).
It doesn’t take a rocket scientest to speculate that Feeney hopes to use the confusion thereby created as a “smoke screen” behind which he can hide while “ducking” the many questions which he “” Feeney “” would prefer not to answer. We’ll see about that.
Ironically, Feeney (or, more likely, his campaign staff) may have unwittingly compiled a masterful condemnation of the craven American print media and their collective fear of such an explosive story.
Alternatively but also ironically, Feeney (or his staff) could be distributing “” free of charge to local media “” the very rope by which he “” Feeney “” will be hung! Who knows? Give ’em enough rope, right? We’ll see about that, too.
Alex Babcock said the conversation he described was witnessed by himself and Michelle, Feeney, at least one member of Feeney’s staff and supporters of the Council candidate.
So it wasn’t exactly a private, off-the-record chat.
Presumably Feeney was supposed to keep his strategy — and those books — secret, wouldn’t you think?
It does seem that he said more on Tuesday night than he was supposed to, doesn’t it?
I mean, why would he pre-announce a smear campaign like that?
And why would he call the Seminole Chronicle a dumb-ass paper — in front of the Managing Editor of the Seminole Chronicle?
What really happened Tuesday night at Toucan Willie’s?
Do you think Tom Feeney was so surprised to see a couple of reporters at a gathering for politicos on Election Night that he lost his composure and said way too much?
Do you think he’d been celebrating just a bit too hard? In other words, do you think he was just way too happy about the prospect of running against “Crazy Clint Curtis”?
And while we’re asking questions, here’s another batch for you:
Is Tom Feeney really and truly elated to be running against Clint Curtis?
Or is he scared to death and just putting up a good front?
How about: scared to death and not putting up a very good front at all?
We shall see…
Meanwhile, Clint Curtis, apprised of Feeney’s self-confessed strategy, responded this way:
If it requires a demented mind to believe that a sitting congressman should not be assisting a company that has been spying, and even had an employee convicted of espionage, then I must have lost my mind.
If you have to be insane in order to believe that selling your vote for personal gain is wrong, then it’s time to sign me up for Bellevue.
It all boils down to who is telling the truth and who is willing to take the polygraph test. Even if I am somehow able to pass that test, based on Feeney’s mental illness theory, shouldn’t Mr. Feeeny be able to counter these claims with a one-on-one public test of his own?
Stop the Tom-Foolery. Take The Test, Tom.
Clint has said something similar before. Why not? It makes sense…
Stalwart BRAD BLOG commenter Charlie L picked up on the theme and added a few more lines:
If fighting against Feeney’s corruption and criminal behaviour in our Congress is crazy, then I’M CRAZY.
If wanting the Democracy that our young men and women are supposedly dying for in Iraq to MEAN something here at home is CRAZY, then THAT’S WHAT I AM.
If believing that this Republican administration is out-of-control and that rubber-stamp Congressmen like Tom Feeney have abdicated their duty to perform Checks and Balances is CRAZY, then I’m INSTITUTIONAL.
You would have to be WAY BEYOND CRAZY to support Tom Feeney in this race.
How about that?
Good goin’, Charlie!
Anybody else? Now’s your chance!
WP,
Do you ever sleep? You are doing a great job on this blog. Tell Brad that I said you deserve a raise.
If believing that members of Congress should work to further the interests of us the people is crazy, I’ll gladly embrace the label…
If Clints book is titled “A fly on the wall”
What would Tom-Feenerys book be titled ?
Maybe “A fly on the stinking pile of feces that is our corrupt Government today”
Or “A fly on Bushs drawers, which I like to unzip”
I knew Feenery was going to do that
All the Pukes know is personal destruction
Can’t you sue for slander ? That’s all they seem to understand, is whats in their wallets
It’s not a big surprise that Fiendy is going to use this strategy. Distracting attention away from his own corruption and the real issues, and making himself seem the lesser of two evils, are his only hopes of survival. Unfortunately the fact is that Fiendy’s millions can buy a heck of a lot of smear, and the local media (i.e. the Orlando Sentinel) is going to be complicit in perpetuating this lie. Nobody is going to defend Clint against these accusations except Clint, and his supporters. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ll be doing what I can, as should everyone. We’ve got two months of battle ahead, and I’ll be proud to be on the front lines.
That strategy would be par for Fiendey. Oh I see, since Clint passed the lie detector test that means he really believes his own lies which makes him crazy. Gross.
I’m all for democracy, the Bradblog, and Clint Curtis. I don’t see the strength of claiming anything about a polygraph test, public or not. Doesn’t Curtis have anything better to attach to his star? Since a polygraph is not admissable in court, it seems just the truth of Feeney’s connections to publicly known shady people like Abramoff would serve him better as a campaign talking point.
How ’bout some of y’all down in Feeney’s district do a Freeway Blogger thing. The signs should simply read “Take the test, Tom”
Then maybe we could get a billboard that says “What is Tom Feeney hiding? Take the test, Tom.”
If nothing else, it should make people ask “What the hell are they talking about?”
(BTW, Whisper Campaigns couldn’t hurt either – right WP? *winks*)
I’d love to see Feeney fielding questions in a town-hall meeting too – without a screened audience.
damn i just want to see Clint Curtis broil this lying indignant piece of self-absorbed toe jam Feeney take this race to the national media hard core…come on Feeney…your a whining little punk, you have been called out, straight the F%cK Out…and you will not answer the friggin questions…time to get your ass a packin Feeney…you got no fight, no game, no truth, no credibility, and you are riding a dying pony into a real deep patch of thorns….. I plead for Clint Curtis to not retreat one step, he has waged the perfect fight so far, now its just time to bring the jab, cross, uppercut flurries faster and faster, Feeney deserve not one drop of mercy at this point, no 3-knockdown rule in effect…TEAR HIM UP CLINT! and if tom feeney can call be crazy for supporting Clint Curtis, I can call Feeney and all his buddies a circle jerk party.
WP, thanks for the props… it made me smile (beam?)
Can’t wait to see Clint tear up the Florida landscape — this should be real “fun.”
We need T-shirts and bumper stickers — “Crazy for Democracy! Crazy for Clint!”
Strange that all it would take is a few “respectable newspapers” to report favorably for Clint in order to turn him from a crazy to a hero. Strange indeed that this seems so farfetched that would happen in light of all the info that is available at bradblog. I think Mr. Curtis should forget about the regular media altogether and spend all his money on getting people to come to this site and read the available facts and then his job will be easy, just keep asking for that public polygraph and point out the craziness that seems to have taken hold in Feeney’s mind, once again copiously detailed in these digital pages. The work my friends is being done by Brad and his merry band of sometimes frozen freedom fighters.
…or “A Fly On Lemme”…
We need pre-election polls, now that we know it’s Clint vs. the keystone figure in e-vote hacking…
Previously, I said that during the Clint vs. king of e-vote fraud debates, they should hold up pix of Lemme, like they do at basketball games to fluster the foul shooter. (Feeney, the “foul” shooter)
…the debates could turn into a macabre “Tell-tale Heart” for Feeney!!!
My goodness, Mr Feeney’s plan of attack is not very PC. It’s kind of pitiful and weak. Clint Curtis did have the courage to take and pass the polygraph. Certainly, can pass a mental acuity exam, just listen to him! But, if Feeney is intent on name calling, I’d rather be called crazy, than corrupt, any day.
Charlie L,I like those ideas re t-shirts and bumper stickers
It’s pure Rove, as usual. Rove seems to take the approach of picking out one’s own weak point and then driving straight at it, trying to be the first to frame public perception. So if Curtis’ strongest argument against Feeney is the claim that Feeney = corrupt, Feeney (following Rovian theory) drives straight at the character issue, pouring out Curtis = crazy smears. It’s a high stakes approach, one that could easily backfire and thus could be defeated by politicians who don’t succomb to fear. Hopefully, politicians who don’t blink are finally coming up through the ranks. Hopefully, Curtis is one.
I think that what we’ve already seen this campaign season (for example, raving and hysterical rhetoric from Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush and a virtually made up piece of 911 propaganda put out by ABC), shows that the next two months may see the most lurid campaigning in US history.
I know that’s quite a statement, considering some of the campaigns this country has seen, especially in the 19th century, but, again, consider what we’ve seen already, in just the past month, even just the past week.
The Dems MUST not lose focus. Let the Pubs show themselves up as unbalanced. There are ways to be passionate without being lurid. Dems need to stay in that realm.
EXPOSE TOM FEENEY..OK i will.
U LYING SACK OF SH*T> U give special meaning to the Bushit administration slogan “cut and run.”
U “CUT” by attacking your opposing candidate by attaching adjectives with a negative connotation and then continue “RUNNING” your mouth in an attempt to redirect attention from your own acts of corruption.
Burn biotch but keep running those misleading TV ads paid for by your Bushit NEO-CON party TOM.. i’m sure there’s more than a few uninformed dumbass voters lost in Florida TV land who would believe a voice over of your crap for 30 seconds uncensored.
Epppie is right, of course – this Feeney “strategery” has Rove written all over it.
I would like to punch Tom Feeney in his smirking face. Counterproductive, perhaps, but it would feel great, cathartic even. Am I a bad person?
Methinks Feeney got drunk and spilled his nasty beans. His bizarre campaign scenario reminds me of The repub. talking points after Bush said he was closing down “secret prisons”..”the democrats will be left in a state of confusion.” Right ..after Bush had previously stated there were no secret prisons. He was responding to the Hamden Supreme court ruling..that the prisoners have the right to trial. I think Curtis is going to win..(1) the cost of living increases, esp. gas. Even the rich don’t like to spend money for gas..can’t hold it in your hand. They esp. know high gas prices are the result of the prez’s friendship with big oil. (2) Even though election theft has never been covered in the media/democratic party. The people in Fla. and Ohio know. Need independent polls so they don’t steal this one.
Feeney is the nutjob if he thinks collecting all news about CUrtis in one book somehow means he is like HUstler or the news is like Hustler or whatever he’s thinking.
I guess that means someone can make a magazine full of picture of naked women on even pages and Tom Feeney on odd pages, distribute it, and then say that Feeney is a pervert because he is in a book with naked women.
WHat an idiot.
More ‘exposure’ on the Hustler article.
http://www.examiner.com/a-27139...__Sept__8.html
I don’t think people are going to be as repulsed as Feeney thinks. People are aware that Larry Flynt has been going after politicians for a long time, and he has dug up a lot of dirt in his years. They might be slightly more distressed that their congressman is so corrupt.
I still like “tom-feenery” the best.
Clinton Curtis Campaign.
I must be the craziest man in America.
I’m running in the November Election for Congress in Florida’s 24th District.
Against a man who asked me to write software to prove you can alter voting totals done on e-voting machines.
I must be the craziest man in America.
I volunteered to take a “Polygraph Lie Detector Test” to prove Tom Feeney asked for this software.
I “passed” all question put to me on the “Polygraph Lie Detector Test” to prove Tom Feeney asked for this software.
I must be the craziest man in America.
I expected Tom Feeney to challenge me on this .
To sue me for liable.
To sue me for defamation of character .
I must be the craziest man in America.
I expected Tom Feeney to take a “Polygraph Lie Detector Test” to prove his innocence .
I expected Tom Feeney to cut his ties with the company who employed illegal Chinese spies.
I must be the craziest man in America.
For most of all I expected Tom Feeney (who has run unopposed for his last two elections) to run a “clean campaign” based on the issues that are concerning most Americans in these troubled times .
Blah blah blah
Do it before Feeney starts his smear campaign “¦turn it on him .
I wasted a lot of gas trying to find those Hustler magazines. And the politics and cartoons in Hustler are spot-on with my assessment of things.
Epppie is right. This campaign is very noteworthy, one where collectables will have value.
I don’t think there can be too many slogans.
T-Shirts, different ones from every city, on the “Clint Curtis Truth Tour”.
But alas, money is an issue. I was able to get some “Take the Test, Tom” stuff at http://www.cafepress.com.
Marty, Clint’s field director, has “Clint Curtis” bumper stickers. If you’ll sport one on your car no matter where you are, we can start national buzz.
Sign on as a subscriber to Clint’s Website so you can get the email blasts from the campaign. Forward those email blasts to everyone you know to create street buzz.
Toss your $5.00 Clint’s way if you can.
Use Halloween (oh, the horror) as a opportunity to throw Voting Integrity Theme parties (come as someone who messed with elections) , or Fear Mongering Theme parties (come as someone who tells us to “be afraid”). Give your guests ideas of who they can be, and have them research their person.
I wonder if we could buy advertising space at the movie theater? What would that cost? I know billboards are very costly. And Clear Channel (BushCo) owns many of the billboards near my route here in the good ole’ boy network Orlando. Who knows if they would let us display a billboard or if they might jack up the price as a favor to Feendy? I know that Feendy is pushing his weight around in other ways that have created unexpected results from a sure thing.
It will be a challenge to get the Slantinel to play nice instead of playing politics. I just started reading Greg Palast’s “The Best Democracy that Money Can Buy.” Greg says something about good journalism, and how corporate interests to actualize profit prohibits good investigative journalism; that a good investigative journalist:
— comforts the uncomfortable,
–and makes uncomfortable the comfortable
Slantinel, I’m still waiting.
I’m started to collect my collectables for the race of the year. Science books are taking out Pluto. Social Studies books are going to have to insert Clint Curtis.
Clint Curtis, the man that, with his voting district and national teams of crazy people, single-handedly overturned election fraud, and made EVERY politician accountable to lie detector tests in public view. Accountablility, baby!
Clint is as cool as a cucumber in front of large groups and small. Feendy’s blood pressure goes up — hence his red face everywhere these past couple of weeks.
Feendy is not happy! I wonder what GWB thinks about this? Or is the GODFATHER, Capo di Capo, being kept in the dark again? Certainly Jeb “Punkinhead” Bush knows this saga well.
#25
Samhain 2006
A Walking Diebold Machine, A Walking Touch Screen, And a Pad of Paper/Pencil (Made out of register to vote applications)
Doorbell: Ding Dong
KIDS: “Trick or Electronic Vote Fraud!”
Neighbor: Huh?
KIDS: “Are you registered to vote Sir?”
Neighbor: Huh
KIDS: “Keep your candies” “Do you vote?”
Okay, okay, I suck at this kind of scripting.
BradBlog regulars will get the idea.
I ain’t trying to be cryptic to the uninitiated.
But what would it accomplish? NOTHING. Maybe register a couple more folks, to go vote without validation, oversight, or accuracy.
I started out trying to be funny but…
What is the damn answer?!
The thing that nobody’s mentioning is that Florida’s voting machines are still rigged and have no paper ballots…
Clint says he has a way to get around fonky voting machines…
Can we make that work for all Dems? Have y’all checked out Clint’s plan?
Some say Feeney is not liked in DC and they might let him go down in a fair fight…
I don’t believe that…
shw
I think Feeney is doing a total bluff! That’s why he spilled the beans about he strategy and acting like he’s elated at the primary results. He’s trying to scare any publication that dares to publish favorable stories about Curtis, by threatening them with using his huge monetary resources to connect them with porno!
Desperation, nothing more. Drink the Jim Jones Kool Aid Feeney, you sad excuse for a man! In the next couple of months, you will be exposed and made naked in front of the American people who’s votes you are willing to steal!
Shannon Williford,
I live in the district and whoever is telling you that nonsense is misleading you. D.C. will unleash the furies to protect him! My neighbor is a huge supporter and I have to listen to her diatribes about the fact that Boehner, Hastert, McCain, Cheney, etc. have all been here. She goes to all the events….needless to say it has strained our relationship so we’ve agreed to stay away from one another until after the election. i can’t see ruining a long time relationship with a neighbor over the likes of Feeney! The last thing we want is for Clint to believe somethign that’s not true. He has his hands full as it is.
Emma