Against Trashing Our Opponents

Just because one can does not mean one should: this elemental bit of life's grown up logic appears to have escaped our friends at Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE). The blog is well known, infamous in some quarters and widely-read. Consequently we were dismayed to see it post, replete with documents, a story about the equally well known, in some quarters infamous and widely-read liberal blogger Dusty Trice and a domestic assault incident from almost four years ago. Trice later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Why do this? Trice is not an elected official nor, to MC's knowledge, does he hold any elective office within the DFL. Like everyone else, MC is cognizant of the fact that any shortcoming, mistake or outright screw up will be seized upon and used to destroy and discredit a person running for public office. And we cluck about the lack of good people willing to run for office?

We didn't realize that being an effective blogger also meant that any personal dirt could be aired in a display of appalling moral superiority and breathless (albeit badly written) prose. But here we are. Is there no adult supervision of MDE?

The problem, of course, is that MDE is associated with the current Deputy Chair of the RPM. He stopped blogging when he ran for the office and has not contributed for attribution anything to it since his election. Fairly or not, however, the content of that blog is still associated with him and many believe that nothing this big would be posted without his knowledge or tacit consent. Call it the downside of success.

MC has no way of knowing and isn't laying this particularly odious adventure in trashing at his feet. The people running MDE should rethink what serves their party and their set of ideas, for it is ideas that motivate most of us (yes, even liberals although they haven't had a new one in 50 years). You can't swing a dead cat amongst activists in either party without finding some things most would prefer to keep private. Of course, there was plenty of rumor mongering recently in the race for the RPM endorsement for Governor and a plague upon those houses as well.

MC also knows that not long ago a blogger was ready to run with something on someone on the RPM State Executive Committee from twenty years or more ago. Are we having fun yet? But the blogger was talked out of running the piece on moral, ethical and perhaps even tactical grounds. Who changed that blogger's mind? The Deputy Chair and good for him.

Politics ain't beanbag, we know, we know, but must it be a cesspool? What is more, MC attended the recent RPM convention and heard the Treasurer speak in rather explicit terms about Christ and His blessings upon those proceedings. Leaving aside for the moment that such exclusive deity pandering ought not to happen in a secular political party, we wonder how those who do so square posts like the one at MDE with the teachings they profess to follow. If you do one, you really can't do the other.

Not unless you don't mind being called a hypocrite.

UPDATE: A check of the comments to the MDE post reveals that Trice actually disclosed this matter himself in April and provided links to the court documents! Good god, here we have a non-exclusive being trumpeted as an exclusive and one that should have never run in the first instance. Can we just let the democrats fall apart on their own without self-inflicted wounds like this blog debacle?

Click HERE for the link to the comment.