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Full Transcript and Audio of Mitch McConnell Campaign's Meeting on Ashley Judd

Helix

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On February 2, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader facing reelection next year, held a private meeting at his Louisville, Kentucky, campaign headquarters with several aides to discuss opposition research collected on his potential challengers and how best to defeat possible foes. Much of the conversation focused on actor/activist Ashley Judd, who at the time was the most prominent of McConnell's potential Democratic opponents, and McConnell and his aides considered assailing Judd for her past struggles with depression and for her religious views.

Full Transcript and Audio of Mitch McConnell Campaign's Meeting on Ashley Judd | Mother Jones

somebody bugged the meeting, apparently. if you ever wondered what goes on in a strategy session, you'll find it interesting.
 
The transcript does not have McConnell plotting this, just listening to a presenter. My guess would be that the presenter is the one who leaked the tape. Reeks of a set up to me.
 
somebody bugged the meeting, apparently. if you ever wondered what goes on in a strategy session, you'll find it interesting.

So if someone "advised" Obama to nuke the whales, taping the session, then that would be shocking news as well? ;)
 
I don't find anything said in the transcript to be very controversial. It's basically a rehashing of her own statements; statements which an opposition candidate would want to utilize to showcase the differences between Judd and themselves.
 
So if someone "advised" Obama to nuke the whales, taping the session, then that would be shocking news as well? ;)

There's probably more than one person here at DP who would post it.
 
I don't find anything said in the transcript to be very controversial. It's basically a rehashing of her own statements; statements which an opposition candidate would want to utilize to showcase the differences between Judd and themselves.

yeah, from the bit of it i read, it wasn't like Mitt's fundraiser or anything. i just found it interesting to be a fly on the wall for one of those meetings. take home message : if you're going to run for office, somebody somewhere has compiled every single thing that you have ever said publicly and possibly privately. i can only imagine how tapes of our bar gigs would be used against me, if i ever ran.

Narrator's ominous voice :

"Helix may claim to have all of the answers, but why was he climbing on the bar while bellowing Doors songs on this tape? Tell Helix that we want boring plutocrats to represent us instead of rock and rollers."

lol
 
So if someone "advised" Obama to nuke the whales, taping the session, then that would be shocking news as well? ;)

i'd buy that for a dollar.
 
McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Months after Mitt Romney was secretly taped at a fundraiser maligning the "47 percent" of Americans who don't pay income taxes, Mother Jones, the same publication that unveiled that now-infamous clip that changed the trajectory of Romney's candidacy, is out with another secret tape: This time of a meeting between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., an embattled four-term senator who faces a tough re-election battle next year, and his campaign aides.

The tape, which according to Mother Jones was recorded on February 2 and provided to the publication by a source who required anonymity, captures the senator's aides discussing opposition research on Ashley Judd, the actress and activist who was at the time considering challenging McConnell for his Senate seat. (She has since decided not to run.) Among the topics presented as possible campaign fodder include Judd's struggle with depression, her religious views, and the fact that her grandmother allegedly once called her an "out-of-touch, Hollywood liberal" -- among other things.

"You know, she's suffered some suicidal tendencies," said an aide in the room who appeared to be presenting the opposition research findings, per the tape. "She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the '90s. Phil Maxson found this, which sort of I think is a pretty revealing interview."

Judd had previously revealed in her 2011 autobiography, "All That Is Bitter and Sweet," that she had thoughts of suicide and bouts with depression when she was younger.

On the tape, the presenter plays an interview in which Judd spoke of being overwhelmed upon returning to the U.S. from an overseas trip.

"I call it the American anesthesia. You know, I come back to this country. I freak out in airports. The colors, the sounds, all those different ways of packaging the same snack but trying to, you know, make it look like it's distinct and different and convince consumers that they have to have it," she says in the interview. "I mean all of that. The last time I came home from a trip, I absolutely flipped out when I saw pink fuzzy socks on a rack. I mean, I can never anticipate what is going to push me over the edge."

"So pink fuzzy socks are of concern," the aide said to laughter, after playing the clip. "So, that's sort of the tip of the iceberg. Like I said, you know, we're still drilling down and there's a wealth of material, and it's just hard to get all the way around it."

McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd - CBS News

This is a ****ing joke. It was a private conservation about political strategies, do you really think the other side doesn't do the same? And the best part is that McConnell wasn't even there. I don't understand why the mainstream media is covering this. I would be more surprised if this type of discussion didn't occur.
 
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Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Seems to me that if you don't want people to hear what you have to say, then don't say it. Especially in the world of politics.


This is a ****ing joke. It was a private conservation about political strategies, do you really think the other side doesn't do the same? And the best part is that McConnell wasn't even there. I don't understand why the mainstream media is covering this. I would be more surprised if this type of discussion didn't occur.
 
Said it on the other thread, but it bears repeating.

Seems to me that if you don't want people to hear what you have to say, then don't say it. Especially in the world of politics.
 
Said it on the other thread, but it bears repeating.

Seems to me that if you don't want people to hear what you have to say, then don't say it. Especially in the world of politics.

while I don't disagree at all, I'm also for a reasonable expectation of privacy. a campaign event is not private. a private strategy meeting would probably fall under the expectation of privacy, though, at least where bugging is concerned.
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Seems to me that if you don't want people to hear what you have to say, then don't say it. Especially in the world of politics.

It was a private conservation about political strategies.

You don't think we should have a right to privacy? Should pollice be able to listen in to a suspect's private conservations with a lawyer? I mean if they don't want anyone to hear it, they shouldn't say it right?
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

You are comparing apples to oranges. But still, if the criminal doesn't want anyone to know he committed a crime, he shouldn't say it.

It was a private conservation about political strategies.

You don't think we should have a right to privacy? Should pollice be able to listen in to a suspect's private conservations with a lawyer? I mean if they don't want anyone to hear it, they shouldn't say it right?
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Moderator's Warning:
Threads merged
 
How very Nixonian of the left wing website Mother Jones
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

It was a private conservation about political strategies.

You don't think we should have a right to privacy? Should pollice be able to listen in to a suspect's private conservations with a lawyer? I mean if they don't want anyone to hear it, they shouldn't say it right?

When your political strategy is to promote yourself by crapping on your opposition you shouldn't be in politics. If you are so bad yourself that you don't feel you can compete with your opponent based on your own strategies, beliefs, and policies you should probably just give up.
 
somebody bugged the meeting, apparently. if you ever wondered what goes on in a strategy session, you'll find it interesting.

It's freakish how McConnell and his staff think. The funny thing is, he's blamed "Nixonian progressives" from bugging his bull session (more likely it's a disgruntled intern). But if anybody sounds like Nixon in this meeting, it's him!
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Conservative political philosophy at its finest.

Judd's voice: I call it the American anesthesia. You know, I come back to this country. I freak out in airports. The colors, the sounds, all those different ways of packaging the same snack but trying to, you know, make it look like it's distinct and different and convince consumers that they have to have it. I mean all of that. The last time I came home from a trip, I absolutely flipped out when I saw pink fuzzy socks on a rack. I mean, I can never anticipate what is going to push me over the edge. [Laughter.]

But in a few weeks, you know, I'm driving along smooth roads and I think nothing of it. I'm, you know, choosing between four different brands of cereal from plastic dispensers so that I don't have to have, you know, ugly, mismatched boxes on my shelf, and I don't think anything of it. You know?

Presenter: So pink fuzzy socks are of concern. [Laughter.]
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

When your political strategy is to promote yourself by crapping on your opposition you shouldn't be in politics. If you are so bad yourself that you don't feel you can compete with your opponent based on your own strategies, beliefs, and policies you should probably just give up.

You act like this is the first campaign to do this. It was just a discussion of an opponent and possible options, they didn't even act on it. What's wrong with what they said?
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

Conservative political philosophy at its finest.

I would have thought the [laughter] portion would have indicated that the presenter was being facetious. I mean, I get the inclination to be as dishonest as possible in hopes of convincing somebody that the opposition is evil, but when it's this blatant it's just pathetic, dude.
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

You act like this is the first campaign to do this. It was just a discussion of an opponent and possible options, they didn't even act on it. What's wrong with what they said?

Just because it isnt the first, or the only time this has happened doesn't make it right. Are you going to pretend that any immoral activity is ok as long as enough people are doing it?
 
Re: McConnell aides secretly taped ripping Ashley Judd

I would have thought the [laughter] portion would have indicated that the presenter was being facetious. I mean, I get the inclination to be as dishonest as possible in hopes of convincing somebody that the opposition is evil, but when it's this blatant it's just pathetic, dude.

That's the thing: he wasn't. Conservatives actually believe rot like this.
 
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