We've been gathering string on this story all day long, but it's taken me awhile to dump it all on the blog.
Here's where we're at. The kid bloggers* over at Burnt Orange Report discovered that their prolific pro-Cornyn commenter, Buck Smith, was none other than Dave Beckwith, longtime Cornyn staffer, former aide to Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Vice President Dan Quayle.
Dave Beckwith, aka "Buck Smith". This picture was taken sometime within the past few years.
Beckwith is kind of a legend for the way he deals with reporters when they write stories he views as unfair or unfavorable. He once "berated [NYT's Maureen Dowd] in public on several occassions... at one point, she left a dinner distraught because of Beckwith's open hostility toward her," according to a 1990 Beckwith profile in the Washington Post.
His online persona doesn't differ.
"Buck Smith, time and again, comes in, makes fun of people, challenges them to a duel," said Matt Glazer, BOR's Editor.
But "Smith" never disclosed his true identity. He left more than eighty comments on the left-leaning BOR and in other places, like Daily Kos, since last summer.
I asked Cornyn's campaign whether they stood by all of their paid senior staffer's online comments.
Say it ain't so! Another Big Bad John video? I'm not sure if there are some sort of copyright issues here, but the Rick Noriega campaign has used images and the song from US Senator John Cornyn's "Big Bad John" video and mashed it all up with their own messages. Check it out:
Tell us: Which version of Big Bad John is your favorite?
The national lampooning of US Senator John Cornyn's GOP state convention video continues. Cornyn's camp says it's happy to get all the free press, and it seems the likes of Jon Stewart are happy to give it to him.
Stewart's comment on Cornyn's tassel-happy burnt orange jacket:
"How did you find that jacket in adult size? Cause I'm pretty sure everyone's Nephew Ralphie wants one."
Okay we are going to break the PJ policy and do a poll post because I did a TV story about a Rasmussen poll a month ago showing Democrat Rick Noriega only four points behind Senator John Cornyn, and now the same poll shows something totally different.
For his part, Rick Noriega's polished up his look and his game, darting around last week's state Democratic convention like some sort of celebrity (complete with the documentary cameras following him around). The substance of what he's saying hasn't changed much, but the stump speech delivery has improved since primary season.
I sat in the back of the press room during a Q and A with Texas press, and Noriega had a chummy style with reporters -- "Hey, you cut your hair" or "Elise, you look like a raccoon". (I'm told by Stiles that this is kind of a Houston politics type of style). But when it came to dealing with lots of questions on lots of topics, he was not as smooth or articulate. I think this was observed when Noriega debated Ray McMurrey during the primary debate.
U.S. Senate candidate and Texas National Guardsman Rick Noriega reported for duty today with the 1-141 Infantry Battalion. He's going to be away for two weeks, but will get a short leave in order to attend the upcoming state Democratic convention.
Meanwhile, Bush-bashing New York Times columnist Frank Rich dropped Noriega's name in his Sunday column.
There are other signs of Iraq's durable political lethality as well. Looking for a bright spot in their loss of three once-safe House seats in special elections this spring, Republicans have duly noted that the Democrats who won in Louisiana and Mississippi were social "conservatives," anti-abortion and pro-gun. They failed to notice that all three Democratic winners, including the two in the South, oppose the war. Even more remarkably, new polling in Texas finds that an incumbent Republican senator and Bush rubber stamp, John Cornyn, is only four percentage points ahead of his Democratic challenger, Rick Noriega, a fierce war critic who served in Afghanistan.
Rich is talking about two polls from a few weeks ago; but Cornyn's camp points to a more recent poll* by GOP pollster Mike Baselice.
It shows incumbent Senator John Cornyn (49%) with a sixteen-point lead over Rick Noriega (33%). The margin of error is +/-3.5% points. The numbers are broken down by geographic locations, and in Houston Noriega comes closest to Cornyn, but 9% points behind.
*What am I doing writing about a poll?!?! I said I wouldn't do it on PJ, unless it was a Belo poll. Okay this is my last time. Hold me to it.
Totally unproductive three-day weekend here at PJ headquarters. Just to get y'all back up to speed:
On the Texas front:
--The Texas Supreme Court reviewed documents over the weekend but so far has not made a decision on whether to overturn a ruling by the Third Court of Appeals that Texas was wrong to seize those 460 children from the FLDS compound.
--The "who loves veterans more" back-and-forth between Senate candidates John Cornyn and Rick Noriega continues. Noriega stoked the flames by penning an op-ed which ran in the Houston Chronicle about the Senator Jim Webb sponsored G.I. bill that the Senate passed last week:
Unfortunately, my opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, failed to stand up for our troops. Cornyn was one of only 22 senators to vote against the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Act, continuing his history of turning his back on veterans. Adding insult to injury, Cornyn went so far as to condone and encourage a presidential veto of the bill. Webb's GI Bill passed with the support of 75 senators, including Texas' senior Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
GOP presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, joined Cornyn in voting against the bill. Both believe the bill will reduce the military's retention rate at a time when the country is trying to expand the size of the military.
For his part, Cornyn criss-crossed the state to spend time with military men and women on Memorial Day. Cornyn issued this statement:
"As terrorism remains a real and serious threat, and our country must continue to stand strong against it, these young men and women have chosen a challenging and honorable course. They will be our nation's future leaders and defenders, and I was honored to congratulate each of them for their accomplishments and wish them the best.
"I hope each of us can give thanks not only on Memorial Day, but every day for our men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we hold so dearly."
On the national front, Hillary Clinton sparked collective outrage from the mainstream press and the blogosphere late Friday after she said this about RFK. (It was later discovered that it's the second time she's made the statement):
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."
She said she regretted the comments if they offended anyone, and especially the Kennedy's. RFK Jr came out to defend her. MSNBC's Keith "Special Comment" Olbermann unleashed on her with a fury he usually reserves for President Bush:
Obama himself said on Saturday that he didn't take Clinton's comments to mean any harm.
