Stinger Got Stung

The right-wing slime machine has been pushing lies for years. One of the biggest slimeballs is James O'Keefe, who runs the ironically named "Project Veritas." 

O'Keefe destroyed ACORN, a voting rights organization that helped register low-income voters, with a scam video. It came just in time for the 2010 midterms, in which Republicans took control of many statehouses in part due to low turnout among minority voters. This allowed Republicans to control redistricting across the country, allowing them to gerrymander legislative districts to solidify their control over congress, even though Republicans are a minority in many states. Their plan worked!

O'Keefe also tried to destroy Planned Parenthood with phony videos. He was arrested in 2010 for entering a federal building with a false ID trying to carry out a sting against Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu.

In the last few months there have been a slew of accusations of improper sexual conduct against media figures and politicians, including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Al Franken, etc. One of the most visible has been the accusations against Roy Moore, the Republican senate candidate from Alabama. He stands accused by more than half a dozen women of improper sexual conduct when they were minors and he was a 30-something assistant DA.

The accusations against Moore, first published by the Washington Post, are especially credible. They have contemporary corroborating testimony from people who knew that Moore was going after young girls. Moore was banned from the local mall and YMCA for harassing teenage girls. Moore himself confirmed this pattern of conduct when he bragged about first seeing his wife when she was 15, while he was stalking girls in a high-school auditorium.

Many of the accused have lost their jobs (Weinstein and Spacey), admitted their guilt (Weinstein, Spacey and Franken) and even apologized (Franken).

Moore has not admitted guilt or apologized. He has not left the senate race. He has doubled down and attacked his accusers. They are now in their 50s, and like many Alabamians, are Trump voters. They have no axe to grind against Moore politically. By using their real names they have opened themselves up to harassment, but they are willing to risk it because they don't think a child molester should represent their state.

So the right-wing slime machine went into action. Someone started making phone calls in Alabama, claiming to be "Bernie Bernstein" from the Washington Post, and offering cash to women who would make harassment claims against Moore. It's the trifecta of hot buttons: a Jewish reporter from the liberal media attacking a conservative Alabamian.

Then the Washington Post was contacted by a woman with a shocking story:

A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.

In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.

It was all a lie. The reporters did their homework and found inconsistencies in the woman's story. They followed her to the Project Veritas office and exposed another one of O'Keefe's phony stings.

With this failed scam O'Keefe has significantly strengthened the case against Moore. He proved that the Washington Post doesn't print every lie someone tells them, that the Post dots their i's and cross their t's. Like real reporters should.

Was O'Keefe involved with the Bernie Bernstein calls, trying to solicit false accusations? Is Roy Moore colluding with O'Keefe to save his foundering campaign? How deep does this go?