This:

"Clearly, it does not seem as though the media in Rochester is doing much of anything of the allegations made against Kuhl, and are instead focusing on how the documents were made public. Aaarrgghh. Too bad they didn't do that with the Swift Liars."

is an all-to-typical double standard, the reason for which is pretty simple.

Liberals believe in equality, and treating everyone by the same standard. Conservatives believe in inequality, and treating the "good people" (themselves) one way, while treating the "bad people" (everyone else) another.  Hence, it's only natural to take any accusation against a "liberal" seriously, just as it's only natural to doubt any accusation against a "conservative" and focus instead on the people making it, their dark motives, etc.--even if they people you've focused on aren't the actual source of the accusation.

This is one of the underlying rationales behind the conservative cant about the "liberal media." It doesn't matter how far the media tilts to the right, so long as it lets anything throught that's unpleasant, that reflects badly on conservatives or their cherished beliefs, than that one thing is enough to make it the focus as the evil accuser, even if it's just reporting the weather.

http://www.foxrochester.com

A major local TV new source is RNews (Time Warner).
http://www.rnews.com

-Todd at RIT

When the story is placed on a television station, using sordid details of shotguns and ex-wives as a TEASER - one might think that the media was doing sort of the same thing they are blasting Sam for.

Furthermore, the guy pulled a frigging shotgun on his ex wife at a dinner party!  Let's get serious, this is someone we want in Congress?

Goodness gracious.  Talk about holier than thou.

Tim

front page of Yahoo news

Rival Gets Candidate's Divorce Records

1 hour, 5 minutes ago

By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press Writer

BATH, N.Y. - Sealed divorce records alleging a Republican candidate for Congress once threatened his wife at gunpoint were obtained by his Democratic opponent's campaign manager, a prosecutor said Thursday.

On instructions from Democrat Samara Barend's campaign manager, a college student went to the Steuben County Clerk's office in September to get "publicly available information" about Republican state Sen. John "Randy" Kuhl, county District Attorney John Tunney said.

Court-sealed documents detailing Kuhl's divorce in 2000 were included inadvertently, and the student, Andrew Rachlin, 22, copied the papers and turned them over to Barend campaign manager Jonah Siegellak, said Tunney, who investigated at Kuhl's request.

Barend and Siegellak have repeatedly said there was no connection between the campaign and the release of the divorce papers. In the Oct. 7 edition of The Leader newspaper in Corning, Siegellak said that "no one in this camp went to retrieve those documents."

Barend in a statement Thursday did not address Tunney's findings, saying instead: "Today it was made clear that Mr. Kuhl is the one who has explaining to do. Now he is free to explain why he told the public there was `nothing incriminating' in the documents."

Kuhl and his former wife, Jennifer, have called the release of the papers "ugly politics" and an invasion of the family's privacy.

"I was extremely disappointed to learn that Samara Barend was behind" the disclosure, Kuhl said in a statement.

The district attorney said no charges will be filed.

Kuhl is running against Barend for the seat vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Amo Houghton. Barend is a former aide to New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites).

Earlier this year, Illinois Republican Jack Ryan ended his U.S. Senate bid after the release of divorce records that included allegations that he took his wife to sex clubs.

From that NBC:

In a statement released late Thursday afternoon, Kuhl said, "I was extremely disappointed to learn that Samara Barend was behind the invasion into our family's privacy."

Barend did not apologize. In a statement, her campaign said, "(Kuhl) is free to explain why he told the public there was nothing incriminating in the documents."

Now we can get down to seeing some real politics happen. So, how long is the DCCC going to wait to give the Shotgun Senator his due?

OK,  a shotgun is a lot nastier than a pillow by any measure.  But if we can let Wu off the hook after 28 years,  when should we let Kuhl off the hook?

With something like, "Randy Kuhl's taste for violent intimidation and disdain for the rule of laws he should be helping enforce would put him right at home in Tom DeLay's Congress. We can't have our leaders running around half-cocked."

Or maybe revise the classic: "Senator, when did you stop threatening your wife with a shotgun?"

I wonder if the (ex-?) wife is angry because it puts her in more danger. That's the only reason I can think of that would make it worth downplaying - and even then, if Kuhl would harm his wife after that, we really need him not to be elected to Congress.

p.s. invasion of privacy? it's a public f***ing record! if there were any responsible journalists in the district, do you think any of them would've dug this up?

I grew up in NY-29 (Corning, NY) and I have a pretty good feel for how people there are going to react to the news that a volunteer from Samara's campaign was involved in obtaining Kuhl's divorce records - not well.

While its true that the neither the volunteer nor the Steuben County records clerk did anything illegal (although the clerk was clearly incompetent, you need to show intent for this act to be illegal...), the constitutents of NY-29 will for sure will be turned off by this whole thing and perceive Kuhl as a victim, to his benefit on election day.  There are nearly twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats in the district and the default for most people is to vote GOP.  Given that good 'ol Randy has been in local politics for 20 years many will feel that he deserves Amo's old seat, especially in light of these circumstances.

I would like nothing more than to have Samara win NY-29 and if I still lived in that district I would still vote for her.  But I seriously doubt that many people living there now (including my parents) will feel this way.

"Confession" that Samara Barend's Campaign Manager was the "broker/recipient" of the infamous divorce papers is sour and sad.  Randy can start measuring his Congressional Office for preferred carpeting and drapes.  "Sam" will be defeated 2-1 unless (and then it would be a remote chance) she goes public w/dismissal of this Campaign Mgr.; apologizes publicly to the family, but reiterates that she, like many, are troubled by these revelations; and then pledges, and sticks to, campaign on THE REAL ISSUES during these final critical days.  Sad, given her promise--as well as that impressive "Rochester Democrat and Chronicle" endorsement (which don't be surprised if it's rescinded).  The bulk of that cash in her campaign account should be spent on thoughtful, crisp full-page print ads, scheduled for Sunday, addressing this very thing.  

...eleventh hour "I've had enough" ads, supporting Mr. Kuhl, prepared by statesman/giant Amo (who Randy is running to succeed).  How I wish Amo had stayed in office....or--and who'd have thought it--that Mark Assini, the right-winger from Rochester, might have won the GOP primary.

...calling for Barend to fire, right now, her Campaign Manager.  Next step?--Maybe they'll rescind their endorsement.

This ran in the Rochester daily today, but didn't seem to be picked up anywhere else.  If Barend really DID offer the Campaign Mgr. an option between being fired and taking a demotion, she needs to get this message out--AND VIA PAID MEDIA ADS,  at this late date.  Support for Randy Kuhl, out of justified outrage w/the Campaign Manager's lying, is snowballing---and a once-promising upset is now pretty much destined for failure, save for some dramatic steps.

"Barend demotes assistant for leak

Jack Jones
Staff writer

(October 25, 2004) -- CORNING -- Democratic Congressional candidate Samara Barend has demoted her campaign manager as punishment for his role in obtaining and releasing the divorce documents of her Republican opponent, state Sen. Randy Kuhl.

Barend, D-Corning, and Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, are running for the 29th Congressional District seat being vacated by Amo Houghton, R-Corning, who is stepping down after 18 years in Congress

Barend, 27, said today that she met with Jonah Siegellak -- who has admitted leaking the legally sealed divorce records to the media after they were inadvertently turned over to a Barend campaign worker by the Steuben County clerk's office -- and gave him a choice of resigning or of being demoted.

"I gave him an option. You're either fired, or you're going to stand up and take responsibility," Barend said. "The easy thing would have been for him to walk away. He's been severely demoted."

Barend said Siegellak, 27, was now handling unspecified details of her campaign, and had been ordered to make no further comment on her behalf to the press.

"He made an error in judgment," said Barend, who continued to call on Kuhl to publicly acknowledge or refute allegations in the divorce documents that he threatened to kill his former wife.

Kuhl, 61, has called for legal action against the people in Barend's campaign responsible for obtaining and making public the sealed divorce papers.

"The real issue is that we can't trust Samara Barend; not only on this issue, but on a host of other issues like taxes and health care," said Kuhl spokesman Ira Treuhaft.

The divorce papers reveal that Kuhl's ex-wife, Jennifer, accused him of threatening to shoot her, abusing alcohol, propositioning other women in her presence and other acts of "cruel and inhuman punishment" when she sued him for divorce in 1997.

For several weeks, Siegellak, Barend and other members of her staff denied having anything to do with obtaining the documents, which were inadvertently released by a county employee to campaign volunteers seeking information from public documents, such as police records relating to Kuhl's arrest in 1997 for drunk driving."

It's too bad that this young promising girl had to resort to playing dirty politics to try to win.  It's backfiring on her greatly.  Everyone realizes the Kuhl divorce papers are the ranting allegations of a woman who was, at the time, engaged in a bitter divorce and was willing to file anything.  There is no evidence of criminal acts on his part to verify her stories.  Obviously, if he really brandished guns to her at a dinner party with witnesses, the people at the party could be questioned and he would have been arrested and at least charged  and/or detained.   When the police investigate domestic disputes that involve firearms, there is never just a casual treatment.

Her lying to cover up the "leaking" of these documents is showing her poor thinking.  She should have had the presence of mind to fire the campaign manager immediately and denounce his actions strongly.  Then, she might have used the documents safely to slander Kuhl.  Now, she looks in the local media, like a shrill, whiney, desparate candidate, where Kuhl appears stronger.

His dwi conviction was already well-known.  It happened in 1994.  She claimed a second dwi conviction, but apparently (as reported in today's paper locally) there is no evidence of that second conviction to validate the claim.  So she has now lied again to the public.

She's really blown it.  It shows she is not capable enough to run for office.  Remember, the Kuhl documents are just allegations.  The fact that his ex-wife now stands with him to denounce her actions show that she doesn't truly hate him.  Some idiot claimed that she was just doing it for the money.  Now that's another totally baseless claim again.  It shows another lack of character of her supporters.  It will probably be a long time before another Democrat is successful in running in this 29th District.  It's still overwhelmingly Repub. and NYers tend to constantly re-elect incumbants once they get in.  They've been re-electing Democrat Susan John, who was also arrested for dwi, when she was involved in a committee to revise dwi laws!  Forgiveness can be a strange thing.  Plus Bare-end cannot quite shake the "carpet-bagger" image as someone who just moved into the district for the election.  Her actual campaign was kind of a one-note song about being the glorified gopher for Senator D-Amato on the I-86 project.  She really didn't have enough solid credentials to run for this office, but I give her credit for trying.  If she had lost normally, it wouldn't have hurt her further chances for other offices, but I think this scandal will be remembered for her part in it and her reluctance to choose a higher ground and that will be costly for her.

I also chuckle about the comments on "how good she looked" on tv, etc.  As if her young age and looks had something to do with being in office.  It's a good thing for Hilary it did not.  She should have stuck to blaming Kuhl for NY's corrupt state government, which he is at least partly responsible for.  That would have been her best chance.

Shine on, bare-end!

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