Politico's Discredited Story: Dave Built That
By now you’ve probably heard more than you care to
about a Congressional delegation trip to Israel last summer. However, important
new information continues to emerge that we think you should know.
Some elements of the Politico story have
been called into question by various news organizations, including the Wall
Street Journal, Washington
Post and Los
Angeles Times. These organizati ons have shown that the FBI
activity that Politico put at the center of its story had nothing to do
with anything that occurred at the Sea of Galilee.
Furthermore, it must be noted that the
Politico story didn’t accuse Representative Quayle of any
wrongdoing or any inappropriate actions. It simply notes that he was
one of many trip attendees that went swimming in the Sea of Galilee.
Congressman Quayle, and his wife Tiffany, have said
countless times that Rep. Quayle took a short, religiously meaningful swim on
his own and acquired a vial of water from the lake to baptize his daughter.
Just after the story came out on Sunday night,
Dave Schweikert threw together a press availability, and began running
TV ads, radio ads, and robo-calls implying wrongdoing by Rep. Quayle, calling
him a “playboy”, but at the same time refusing to actually accuse him
of any actual misconduct of any kind.
When pressed by various news outlets to get specific
about what exactly he’s accusing Quayle of doing, Dave has continued to wriggle
and dodge.
That’s just the way Dave Schweikert works.
It’s a continuation of his campaign of lies and innuendo.
So what would be more unethical than
sensationalizing a story that barely mentioned Rep. Quayle in order to attack
his faith and character? Being responsible for the story.
“The
inaccurate portrayal of Quayle as an active participant in a drunken swim party
has led many Republican insiders, including Quayle and his staffers, to believe
Schweikert leaked the story to Politico and framed Quayle’s alleged involvement
in an effort to boost his own chances in the primary.”
The story contains quotes from a number of senior
Capitol Hill sources saying that there is an emerging consensus that Dave
Schweikert was behind the story:
“There seems
to be a general consensus that the story was leaked by Schweikert to help him in
his primary against Quayle,” one high-ranking Capitol Hill GOP source told
TheDC. “If that’s true, it’s unfortunate that he’s willing to pit his own
re-election against the party.”
Another
senior Hill GOP source said that “[w]here there’s smoke, there’s fire. And there
definitely seems to be troubling indication that it’s coming from
Schweikert.”
A third
high-ranking GOP source said that the Politico article was “not anything logical
or about the truth,” and it’s clear that Schweikert and his political allies
leaked it to try to smear Quayle.
“They’re in a
sprint until next Tuesday, and there’s a lot of evangelical voters who would
probably be upset by things like this,” that source said. “All they have to do
is maintain this for another week and Schweikert wins.”
Dishonest Dave’s camp continued with its usual
tactics after they were confronted with the question of whether Dave shared
responsibility for the story, which continues here:
Schweikert campaign spokesman
Chris Baker denies that Schweikert, his congressional office or his campaign
“provided” or “gave” this story to Politico. “No one from the Schweikert
campaign, official office, or anyone associated with the Schweikert campaign
gave this story to Politico,” Baker wrote in an email to TheDC. “Schweikert did
not provide the story to Politico.”
When TheDC asked Baker if
Schweikert or his staffers had anything to do with this story, if they knew when
it was going to run, or if Schweikert’s team helped Politico put this piece
together, he refused to answer.
Baker’s carefully worded denials
are themselves strong evidence that Schweikert was in fact the source of
misinformation fed to Politico designed to place Ben Quayle in a false
light.
Schweikert himself skirted the
question too, saying it’s “absurd” to believe that he’s the source because
Politico is a “national newspaper.”
“How would we have [access to]
that?” Schweikert said on a local news radio program.
But this is laughable, and insults the intelligence
of voters. Schweikert had easy access to Politico, as does every member of
Congress. Reporter Jake Sherman and Schweikert, moreover, are quite well
acquainted. Sherman tweeted a series of photographs several months ago showing
the two hanging out together at a shooting range in Arizona.
Schweikert continued Baker’s slimy evasion in an
interview this morning on “Politico Live”, in which he asked the author of the
Politico story, Jake Sherman, to say that he wasn’t the source for the
story. Sherman affirmed that he wasn’t the source.
Note, however, that Matthew Boyle’s article, which
led to this denial didn’t claim that Schweikert was the sole source. It
discussed whether Schweikert or his camp aided in the development of the story,
and that the super pac “National Horizon”, which is run by Dave Schweikert’s
former Chief of Staff and exists to support his reelection, may have been the
original source.
At that point, Chris Baker stopped responding, and
Dave Schweikert has stayed silent on the issue while talking endlessly in vague
smears of Ben Quayle’s character.
Today, Dave Schweikert has continued to run his
defamatory television, radio and telephone ads which call Ben Quayle a
“playboy”, while simultaneously calling the whole story “no big deal” and while
refusing to accuse Rep. Quayle of any particular act.
As usual, Dishonest Dave’s messaging is
based on insinuation, innuendo and outright lies.
Dave Schweikert has claimed (absurdly) to be
anywhere from 13 to 30 points ahead in this primary, so why is he running a
desperate campaign of lies and innuendo? Why does he ceaselessly attack Rep.
Quayle’s faith and character in a pathetic attempt to continue his career in
politics?
Dave Schweikert might be a professional liar, but he
isn’t fooling the voters of CD-6.
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