Crass Covert Cads Calumniate Congressional Cutie!
Hello everybody. This is your guest-blogger here. It's a well-known fact that the Wonkette regulars have a sick, twistedly sexual, and frankly sad obsession with Katherine Harris. Thus, I thought I'd use this platform to reveal my own secret and much healthier Capitol Hill crush, South Dakota's at-large Congressperson Stephanie Herseth. That's her over the right. Isn't sheadorable?
Anyway, usually she keeps a fairly low profile and thus manages to stay off this site's lecherous radar, but in the last week or so she's found herself entangled in an imbroglio that involves fake fiances, fake fetuses, and a vandalized Wikipedia article. More on the madness after the jump.
The story goes like this. On August 3, an anonymous editor changed Herseth's Wikipedia article to read that her chief of staff, who was also her fiance, had knocked her up , and that as a result she had decided to switch abortion-rights teams from pro-choice to pro-life. None of this is true -- as in, she's not pregnant, she's not engaged to her chief of staff, she's still pro-choice, and it's not clear that "Ajay Bruno," the name given for her fiance/chief of staff, actually exists (the only Google hits for his name in conjunction with Herseth involve the Wikipedia vandalism). The wisdom of crowds had fixed the article by that night, but not before Herseth's opponent's campaign manager had sent the following e-mail to a slew of bloggers:
Bloggers,
Please read the profile below in Wikipedia.
http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Herseth
It says that she is engaged to her Chief of Staff, Pregnant, and Pro-Life.
This is a big change from being a Home Wrecker with a Texas Congressman two years ago!
I look forward to your thoughts and verification of the claims.
Lee Breard
Campaign Manager
Bruce Whalen for U.S. Congress
The e-mail was posted by Mount Blogmore , a political blog run by the Rapid City Journal, and the shitstorm that followed was predictable but entertaining. The "Home Wrecker" charge apparently involves her boyfriend, former Texas Congressman Max Sandlin, who...
Wait a minute.
Stephanie Herseth ... has ... a boyfriend?
Uh ... hold on ...
[Silent moment to restore composure.]
Anyhoo, Sandlin divorced his ex-wife in 2001 and met Herseth in 2002, so all these claims about "Home Wrecking" are just LIES, vicious LIES.(See Steph, it's OK, I'll still stand up for you, even though ... sniff.)
The hijinks got extra hilarious Tuesday when both candidates were at a powwow in Pine Ridge.
[Herseth spokesman Russ] Levsen said Whalen had "confronted" Herseth at a powwow in Pine Ridge on Sunday and asked about the Wikipedia claim. "He approached her and confronted her and said, 'Is it true?'" Levsen said. "She said, 'I can't believe you're asking that.' And he asked again if it was true. And she said, 'No, Bruce, it isn't true.'"
Breard [the dude who sent the original e-mail] said by e-mail Tuesday that the exchange Sunday began after Herseth rejected a challenge from Whalen to debate in front of the powwow crowd. "She said, 'Your manager needs to apologize to me,'" Breard said. "Mr. Whalen stated, 'Well, is it true, in reference to that you are now pro-life?' She responded with, 'I cannot believe that you asked me that.'"
When one of the Native Americans at the powwow realized that a couple of politicians were having a fight there about a Wikipedia article, he cried a single majestic and noble tear.
Anyway, we all know that this won't hurt Steph's chances of re-election at ALL and that she's TOTALLY going to take her cute self back to Congress and keep doing that thing she does and it'll be GREAT.
Plus she and her boyfriend will be very happy.
Her ... her boyfriend.
Who is 18 years older than she is.
At least according to Wikipedia.
(Steph! Call me!)
Update: Isthis the MySpace profile of the cad who dared impugn Steph's good name? Or is he just a young Republican pawn in somebody's larger game? (WARNING: Extremely crappy music plays when you open this page.)
Wiki-spurious [Mount Blogmore]
Rumor battle continues [Rapid City Journal]