A party is supposed to take a cool, careful look at potential candidates who will run under its name. Right?<\/p>\n
Well, the title of this post. Above. \u21d1 (I know you know where “above” is; I just have a couple of extra seconds and felt like sticking that arrow in.)<\/p>\n
Here’s what DailyKos Elections just reported on one GOP candidate:<\/p>\n
\u2022 PA-07<\/strong>: You’re a Republican who’s down in the polls, trails in fundraising, and is trying to hold an open seat that favored Hillary Clinton in what has turned out to be a very difficult year for your party, so what do you do? Obviously, you file a lawsuit<\/a> four weeks before Election Day reminding everyone that you were placed on leave by your former employer earlier this year over allegations you committed sexual misconduct.<\/em><\/p>\n So yeah, that’s what Marty Nothstein did on Wednesday, suing both the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, where he’d been executive director, as well as the Morning Call, the newspaper that originally reported the story<\/a>, for conspiring to defame him as “part of a political smear campaign designed to influence the election.” The president of the velodrome, as the cycling center is commonly known, strongly denied Nothstein’s charges, as did the Morning Call, which said it “stands by its reporting.”<\/em><\/p>\n Defamation cases like this rarely succeed, especially when brought by public figures, who face a high burden of proof. And Nothstein certainly is one: In addition to running for Congress, he’s an Olympic gold medalist and chair of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners. If there’s a motive here beyond pure pique, it’s hard to see what it might be, unless Nothstein thinks he can gin up the Trumpist base by painting himself as a victim of the media.<\/em><\/p>\n There are a few more paragraphs discussing how the GOP seems not to be eager to $$$upport this guy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A party is supposed to take a cool, careful look at potential candidates who will run under its name. Right? Well, the title of this post. Above. \u21d1 (I know you know where “above” is; I just have a couple … Continue reading