St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter/columnist Jo Mannies follows up on her report from yesterday on the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) “voter fraud” scamster Thor Hearne, the high-level GOP muckety-muck, below-the-radar “grass roots” propagandist, Bush/Cheney ’04 national general counsel, and top-order Democratic vote suppressor.
You’ll recall that yesterday’s report from Mannies had paraphrased Hearne’s comment to the effect of his “most vocal critics also are Web-based liberal blog sites.” As it turns out, Hearne had actually mentioned The BRAD BLOG by name in her interview with him, according to what Mannies told us yesterday when she called seeking comment. As she hadn’t been able to reach me the day before, she didn’t want to mention us in that piece specifically until she was able to get comment in response.
For whatever reason, Mannies is the only member of the media right now to whom Hearne seems willing to talk since his operation was forced underground in the glare of the U.S. Attorney Purge spotlight. Hearne has refused comment to all manner of MSM-types seeking interviews — even begging off, along with his other ACVR partners in crime, from an NPR piece yesterday which covered Hearne and his scam. (Their report kindly included a brief clip from an interview with us, pointing out that we broke the story on these cretins two years ago and have been keeping up the drumbeat ever since.)
Mannies told us yesterday that “Thor says he’s in the spotlight because some of the blogs, particularly yours, which he mentioned by name, have put him there.” So much for the old Republican saw about taking personal responsibility for oneself. But whatever. While she was unable to find the direct quote from her interview with him for her follow-up piece today, she did manage to name a few names in it — ours.
Here’s that entire follow-up from today’s Post-Dispatch…
St. Louis lawyer Thor Hearne has singled out one blog site in particular “” Bradblog “” for initiating many of the accusations that Hearne, a prominent figure in the national vote-fraud debate, is linked to last year’s Justice Department firings of U.S. attorneys.
Hearne has denied any role in the dismissals, which many of those lawyers have tied to GOP complaints that they failed to pursue vote-fraud cases.
Bradblog challenges Hearne’s denials, and blogger Brad Friedman says he’ll continue to do so.
By the way, Friedman is a freelance investigative reporter and commentator who is a native of University City and graduated from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue.
Friedman, who now lives in California, takes issue with Hearne’s assertions that he’s a liberal. Friedman says he’s simply a critic of the GOP’s vote-fraud assertions, and among the Internet cadre raising questions about the trustworthiness of electronic voting machines.
A couple of minor points for accuracy in response. The most noteworthy of which is that I didn’t “take issue with Hearne’s assertions that [I am] a liberal.” I took issue with Mannies’s assertion, since I presumed it was hers as used in the original story. And on that, I merely pointed out, as I always do when it comes up, how bemused I am by the apparent need for such blanket label assertions from the MSM when describing us. NPR did the same in their report yesterday, as have the New York Times and others when referencing The BRAD BLOG.
Never mind that these folks rarely, if ever, bother to ask about my personal political inclinations, or support their assertions of the “liberalism” of this blog, the practice itself simply bespeaks of the MSM’s internalization of the phony GOP-propagated Red/Blue, Right/Left, Conservative/Liberal, Republican/Democrat, Good/Evil dichotomy that continues to ill-serve political discourse and journalism in this nation. Even if the practice does help to forward Republican interests for dividing and conquering by any means necessary. (Even unsupported ones, such as claiming their party represents a “conservative” agenda.)
And just for hometown accuracy — as the question of which high school one attended is a big topic for St. Louisans — we didn’t actually graduate from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue (where Hearne lives, by the way) as we left before Junior year to go to school in Michigan.
Those points covered, the only one which really matters is the pride we take in Hearne’s recognition that we’ve had any part in helping to fuck up his insipid agenda to defraud American voters, and that we have every intention to “continue to do so” even if we don’t have the nearly one million dollars of mystery money that he was given to ply his anti-American trade.
You’re welcome, Thor!
Coffee this summer when I come to St. Louis to visit family? We’ll be happy to buy!
For more information on the “non-partisan” tax-exempt ACVR “Voter Fraud” scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney ’04 National General Counsel Mark F. “Thor” Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG’s full Special Coverage of the “American Center for Voting Rights” at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.
Shall we send Thor some cheese to go with that whine?
🙂 🙂
I am getting sooo tired of GOP operatives trying to play up the “liberal” thing, every time they’re called on something substantive. I call this the “Fox TV-watching syndrome.” Says a lot about their supporters, who care more about getting “liberals” than they do about running the country effectively and legally.
Aren’t these excuses for illegal behavior by all those JD folks, and their peripherals like this Hearne guy, a riot? It’s all your fault, Brad!!! I have a child who is almost 12 years old right now, so I can totally relate to this “it’s somebody else’s fault” line.
Does this Thor character actually expect political observers to believe he was forced to give up his important mission, because of hounding by the press? Incredible.
I especially love Goodling’s “I didn’t mean to do it” defense. Good grief. Haven’t heard THAT one around my house since the 1st grade. Is that the best a graduate of those Christian “law schools” can do? That takes the cream out of the twinkie defense any old day.
Brad, just patiently continue to remind them that democrats can steal elections, too, when given the chance, so your efforts are for everyone, not just the CURRENT gang of schoolyard bullies.
Some enterprising 20-something should put together a film/audio clip of all these pathetically hilarious excuses. I’d like to use it as a middle school teaching tool. Imagine the 7th and 8th grade classroom discussions these excuses would inspire.
Glad to see the stoopid msm finally giving you some well-deserved and long overdue credit for keeping up the noise on this story. Too bad they won’t acknowledge the other important stories you’ve broken while the msm dolts filed breathless reports on the latest Hollywood cutie-pie to enter rehab, get arrested, or flash her crotch.
Linda@ #3
You have heard the expression “Only Nixon Could Go to China”, yes? Well, I am not at all tired of whiney NeoCon and Republican thieves and thugs blaming Liberals. I want more and more of it. You see, at the rate things are going, only NeoCons and Republican Thieves can restore the good name of Liberal with a capital “L”. It is becoming more apparent that Conservative = Evil Republican with every passing day. When Republicans begin identifying themselves as “moderates”, we shall know for sure that Liberals are really back.
It was great to see the St. Louis Post-Dispatch finally have a real news story headlining the newspaper Wednesday, thanks to your work. The msm needs to put their egos in check and realize they would benefit greatly from working with bloggers. It amazes me how people know so little about what is actually going on unless they get their info from the blogs.
Who’s Horton Watkins?
From Wikipedia:
Well, of course we’ve know all along that Brad is above average!
Love it! Credit long overdue to the Bradster! You’re making some pretty significant dents Mr.Friedman, and we’re all so proud of your tireless efforts to save us all!
Another FYI:
I just emailed the following question to the Diane Rehm show for today’s 2 hour News Roundup discussion. The hour that covers domestic issues (not international) airs at 10:00 EDT. You, too, can write in at drshow@wamu.org or call in at 1-800-433-8850. Diane is out of town this week, but there will be Susan Page or Steve Roberts or someone leading the way today.
Hey Brad, liberal kudos! Another one bites the dust. Keep the pressure on, sir, your tireless efforts are greatly appreciated, even here in the heart of Europe!
What is “the brad blog”??? I never heard of it…
Let me “un-spin” this statement. What he’s really saying is, “I blame Brad Blog…for exposing my corrupt fake voters rights group.”
Is that “bad”, to be “blamed” for THAT??? I think that’s a GOOD thing to be “blamed” for!!!!!
That’s like a murderer “blaming” an eyewitness to a murder! “Damn that eyewitness, for seeing me murder someone! I BLAME THE WITNESS FOR ME GOING TO THE SLAMMER!!!”
Is this the “Scooby-Doo” ending, where the criminal is in handcuffs at the end, and the police pull his mask off, and he says, “…and I would’ve gotten away with it…if it wasn’t for that DAMN BRAD BLOG!!!”
The true pattern Hearne was caught up in was actually a power grab that extended all the way to the
WhiteWhat House!They wanted to centralize power in the Department of
JusticeJust Us so they could control whether on not they would be indicted if they committed crimes.There are so many potential prosecutions that they are desperate to keep Gonzales in to protect the crooks. If a real attorney general gets in Rove, Hearne, and the gang are in for hell and high water.
We can only hope that if we can’t have justice in the next 1.5 years, we can file charges after the crooks have left. The Hague will still be open, Ft. Leavenworth will still be taking prisoners.
I can’t stand the thought that my tax dollars will be protecting these worthless f*cks for the rest of their lives. Unless, of course, we can try and imprison them.
Thanks Brad, for all of your tireless work, from a felow Missourian and leftist.
It’s your fault, Brad Friedman. You made him do it.
I remember a cartoon that had Dennis the Menace saying “He started it. He hit me back first.”
As a graduate of Horton Walkins and a bradblog fan, this article will keep a smile on my face the rest of the day. Thanks Brad, and when you visit St. Louis you are welcome to have coffee at my house anytime. I might even throw in some cake.
THOR HEARNE,..
From this,.. (link)
to this,.. just a big crybaby !!!! (link)
(Mr. Hearne, does somebodies diaper need to be changed?)
ACVR’s Thor Hearne Blames The BRAD BLOG for His Demise
. . . ya just can’t get a betta complement than that.
Looks like it’s time to skip the “no confidence” vote on Gonzales and go straight for impeachment and removal.
We can’t let too many loose ends go untended in a legal sense.
The Repubs who skipped committe hearings are probably eager to distance themselves from the stinking pile of Bush in the White House and they might be persuaded to vote ‘not present’ or somesuch to let the impeachment proceed.
Third effort to post this comment since the 1st 2 mysteriously disappeared like votes cast on electronic voting machines without a verifiable paper trail. Always worth voicing my dissent until this lying treasonous attorney is disbarred and does hard time.
Outstanding work Brad.
Cannot wait until this American Voting Rights Faux F*ck and the Cheney-Bush administration he represents goes down in flames for clearly deceiving Americans and obstruction and manipulation of U.S. elections amongst their many heinous crimes against man and all wild life on this planet.
ALSO: Way to make an open STATEMENT setting people straight on tagging your political stance and that of your blog as “LIBERAL.” Clearly your blog reports on the NON-PARTISAN lack of accountability and integrity of US elections since electronic voting machines have been sold as the new way America votes, not to mention the criminals counting the votes, and clearly stealing elections with the help of the corporate mass media acting as their mouthpiece.
SAVING THE WORLD ONE BLOG AT A TIME!
LONG LIVE THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS AT BRADBLOG!!!