Newly-minted journalist Mike Stark got set up. He went to an Allen rally and some kid in front of him took a dive and claimed to have been attacked. The AP is covering it. It would be reasonable to question Stark’s account if Allen didn’t have a long, long history of surrounding himself with nasty volunteers who are kept around to do precisely this sort of thing.
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Waldo:
Maybe he was set up. But his question was inappropriate. Webb doesn’t need this crap in the news.
WTF?
Stark should have never asked the question?
Yea, just progressive bloggers were commenting about Peggy Fox. She should’ve never asked Allen about his mother’s Jewish heritage?
How the hell are voters supposed to find out about candidates if every time someone asks an impertinent question a bunch of panty-waist Democrats start to shake sweat and then attack the questioner who is trying to bring light to voters?
Of course you don’t know that Waldo, any more than we don’t ~know~ Stark is in collusion with the Webbites.
Mimi:
This isn’t how we win. We beat Allen by forcing him to talk about the issues, which M-D says he’s losing on in nearly every subject (save Immigration). We focus on “It’s time for a change.” We focus on how Allen has voted against the citizens of Virginia again and again. We focus on Jim Webb’s integrity. We don’t charge an Allen rally and ask him if he spat on his first wife.
Ward:
Trust me, this ass isn’t with us. He’s not part of the Webb team. He’s just some loud-mouth Kossak.
This was an entirely predictable outcome to Stark’s naive belief that he can go around confronting Allen (and any other Republican he hates) with his pointless ambushes. OF COURSE he was set up. Wow, never saw that one coming. What I don’t get is: a) why we keep giving this guy a platform to continue his ultimately counter-productive outrageous behavior with outfits like Air America “hiring” him; and b) why we act so surprised he’d be targeted by the Allen dirty-tricks squad when they’ve been so willing to completely trash Webb, who’s who’s TRIED to keep this campaign focused on issues. Allen’s in the fight of his life. He’s not going down easily, and every time this idiot goes out to “confront” Allen with his “really important question” about Allen’s ancient history divorce he hands loaded rifles to Allen and distracts the debate from the real issues. I’m sick to death of this pathetic poseur and feel not one iota of sympathy for him. I don’t care if he spends the rest of the race in jail. At least that will keep him from screwing up Webb’s campaign with his egotistical antics. I swear, he’s such a clumsy oaf and so negative in his effect I’d be willing to believe he’s a plant from the other side. No one who professes to be an Allen opponent can be this stupid, can they?
What question? He didn’t ask a question. He went to an Allen rally in his capacity as a reporter and before he could say a word, some kid in front of him dove to the ground, or so goes his account.
These gems from Mike Starks own website:
Well, that’s almost what I asked him today.
The Jim Webb campaign has video of this, but I’m afraid they won’t release it
I’m hopeful that I can be useful to the Webb campaign (and I’m signing up with UVa Dems)
Please could someone please tell me how Mike Stark and say he has nothing to do with the Webb effort. These are his own words.
I am sorry, this guy is an idiot. Can he go away now?
“These are his own words.”
Ummmm, crazy people say crazy things all the time . . . somehow the Webb campaign is now accountable for the people who try to volunteer for them?
Webb is beating Allen all on his own–ok, ok with a little help from Allen, hemself. Webb certainly doesn’t need juvenile pranks to take your bolero-wearing clown to the cleaners.
crazy people say crazy things all the time
So everything he says bad about Allen is true but his connection to Webb might be lies. Come on at least be consistent. He is either a noble guy trying to get justice for the rest of us or he is a egoist who is more interested in inserting himself into the process. Screaming rumours that have been denied by Allen’s first wife.
No I don’t believe Webb had anything to do with it but I do believe his people and Mike Stark do know each other, to what extent only they know
http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/home/headlines/4567887.html
about 1/2way through I explain my “connection” to the Webb campaign.
Is Mike Stark on the Allen campaign payroll? Every time he shows up at a George Allen event, he makes Webb supporters look like jackasses and creates a greater sense of solidarity among Allen supporters.
Mike Stark stay home. We don’t want your kind of help.
Look at the Hate and Fear in those Allen supporters. Stark’s questions are driving them crazy. Too bad they dont’t have a better leader to help them through this. Where was George Allen in all of this? He should read Jim Webb’s book on leading from the front – Fields of Fire.
Check out the second video clip. At the 0:23 mark you see the kid just take a dive, like a lead singer stage diving into the audience. He goes 180° in the wrong direction for Stark to have pushed him.
Christ, that’s pathetic. I hope there’s video from another angle.
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: Mike Stark attempted to confront George Allen at the Omni, to ask him a question. All Stark got to say, before being strong-armed away and thrown to the floor, was “I want to ask a question.” (It was while he was being hustled out that Stark asked the wife-abuse question.)
And when Stark showed up at the Weyer’s Cave rally, there apparently was a plan in place to get rid of him: Police were on the scene, and before Stark had a chance to ask any questions, a young man fell to the ground next to him and the police swooped in and immediately arrested Stark. (When they put you in handcuffs, that’s what being arrested looks like, even if it’s officially called “investigative detention”.)
Hm. A rally of supporters, and independent voices are silenced before they can ruffle the feathers of our public servant. Sound familiar? Perhaps Senator Allen should create a “free speech” zone. How about a fenced-in area out in the parking lot?
He plays up a tough-guy image, but George Allen is scared silly by words he doesn’t want to hear. Eek! Words! Somebody, help! Get them off me!
And what in the world are we coming to when a public appearance by a political candidate is considered by nearly everyone — on both sides of the aisle — as some kind of private party for the faithful? When dissenting voices are seen as embarrassing — as though the person with the tough questions should stay away from these public appearances. How distasteful — all these uncomfortable questions!
When, exactly, should a citizen have the right to confront a candidate publicly with whatever concern he or she may have?
The manner in which the candidate and his organization comport themselves in the face of ‘words they don’t want to hear’ says a lot about the character of the candidate, and the manner in which he will govern once in power.
The way Mike Stark has been treated by the Allen organization is nothing more than George Allen’s personality, writ large. The man is a bully. And whether it’s on the local or the international level, this country is fed up with bullying.
Dive boy appears to have expended his courage in that dive – he refuses to talk to the press, or testify to the circumstances. In Stark’s press interview he says that he will pursue charges for the Omni assault if George Allen does not resolve the situation prior to Tuesday…hmmmmm.
Waldo, you’ve become a sad, pitiful tool of the moveon.org / raisingkaine / dailykos crowd.
And it’s a shame.
Sam, every comment that you have ever posted to my blog has been to disagree with me. You have never posted to say “good point,” “right on,” or “good to see you standing up for something unpopular,” even when I have posted strong defenses of Sen. Allen or President Bush. So I hope you’ll understand that I place no faith in your mock disappointment or your hypothesis that I’ve somehow changed radically in the past 30 days.
I just checked the IP history and browser strings. “Sam Reilly” is “I.Publius.” The match is identical, clear down to the posting times and unusual browser extensions.
Your faux outrage is especially ridiculous now. Here I was thinking that you were somebody contributing honestly, and it turns out you’re continuing to invent positions that you do not hold and behaving rudely apparently just for fun. (That being, not coincidentally, the definition of a troll.) I sent you a polite e-mail explaining that you were no longer welcome here some months ago, explaining why that’s so; you never responded. The proper thing to do is not to invent a new alias. I contacted you privately to avoid embarrassing you unnecessarily. I will again avoid that in order to keep what is private private. I’ve behaved decently. Here’s hoping you’ll learn to do the same.
Waldo, Shame on you. you can’t clearly see anything definitive either way on that video. After years of being involved in sport as a referee the fact you can only see shoulders and chests makes any sense of certainty impossible. If I pitch one way from being bumped you can fall in another direction after getting caught up trying to right yourself or tangled up with others feet. Mike admits to bumping him, but says it wasn’t hard. He alleges a “vast right wing mother/son conspiracy” (my words)set him up. Anybody else start laughing when he said that.
Mike Stark on this thread said look at the link, I did. It says nothing about Webb, why not explain what he meant here? Why didn’t he answer what he did with the money he raised from the Daily Kos? No answer when the cameras were rolling. No comment Mike?
The quote he wanted to ask about was from the 1993 governor’s race and I have never heard it used since then(it could have been). But Allen did say it just not in this race or the last race. Stark won’t answer questions from his own blog written in the last 90 days. This is not about Mike Stark’s rights. It’s about beating Allen by any means necessary.
Allen’s people were wrong in Charlottesville. I have yet to figure out how Mike Stark is on the side of the angels.
You think I should feel “shame” because I lack the experience that you do as a referee? Perhaps a more reasonable way to phrase that would have been “Waldo, I know you think you see that, but after years of being involve in sport as a referee…”
If George Allen was a real leader he would command his rabble to settle down, he would tell Stark to ask his question, he would explain how he didn’t mean to knock Jim Webb’s soft teeth down his whiny throat, rather he meant to knock Mary Sue Terry’s soft teeth down HER whiny throat.
Your Hate and Fear list is getting long I.Poo. Bunker fatigue over at A-Team? You could just walk away from all those tired preconceived notions and start again – your personal walk in the wilderness.
I guess that makes the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department a part of the “Vast” Conspiracy to set Mike Stark up. I think I’ll go with the Sheriff’s Department on this one, when given a choice between thier integrity and Mr. Stark’s.
This has become surreal.
Augusta Sheriff Randall Fisher may be a good Republican, but he doesn’t need the kind of trouble his deputies walked into. Guess that’s why they freed Mike Stark while the TV cameras were there to document improved judgement.
“…the kind of trouble his deputies walked into.”
I suspect that the deputies got tangled in Allen’s sticky web.
Waldo, Shame on you was written in a modest way and not a accusation of a character flaw. No offense was meant.
he meant to knock Mary Sue Terry’s soft teeth down HER whiny throat. that was never said as a direct attack but more an attack on liberals in general. Mary Sue Terry lost because she was a terrible canidate who never won a hard fought race in her life. If you have ever heard her debate or speak you would know why. She lost some areas by 70%. She didn’t lose it because they whispered she might be gay, she lost because she wasn’t ready to take on a real canidate with state wide appeal. She had the machine and the money and squandered it all.
The only reason Allen ran for governor was the democrats redistricted him out of his congressional seat. In many ways Allen is the creation of democratic miscalculation as much as anything else. However, this is the worst he has ever done and has no one to blame but himself. It many ways it more like the race Chuck Robb ran when he lost to Allen.
Unbelievable, Waldo. You not only make incredible, false charges about Allen, but you also make them about commenters you don’t like? You have no shame. I guess the stuff I hear from Charlottesville Dems about you is true. You are a laughing stock.
I guess the stuff I hear from Charlottesville Dems about you is true. You are a laughing stock.
Why are you here, Sam Reilly? You have nothing to add but calling people names. When I used shame ealier and it offendeed my host I could see his point and apologized. I often disagree with Waldo but he has always been fair minded when provided with facts and logic- where are yours? He is spending his time, money and effort to providea a sorely need forum for those who wanted to talk about issues and ideas. I appreciate his effort and since this is his virtual living room, you should at least act with a modicum of repect for your host.
Thank you, Josh.
IP, this is silly. You started posting as “Sam” the very week that you stopped posting as “I.Publius,” the very week that I e-mailed you and explained that your behavior had moved from mere nasty disagreement (acceptable) to lies and personal attacks against me (unacceptable). You post under the same IP addresses from the same computers from the same pair of buildings at the same hours of the day as you used to. Finally, I set a small cookie when you connect that bears a random string that is identical on both accounts, which seals the deal. You’re fooling absolutely nobody. It’s embarrassing to watch.
Please, go away. I’ve asked you nicely privately, and now I’m asking you nicely public. Your behavior was acceptable when your interactions were merely disagreeable, as they were up until August. You have the right to be disagreeable and to disagree with others, and I choose to host that behavior here. But then you moved to lying — claiming that I have deleted your posts, edited your posts to make you appear to have written things that you never wrote, and so on. You know those things are not true, I know those things are not true, and I will not play host to somebody who will accuse me of such things knowing that they are lies.
I do not want to have to call up any of the three places from which you have been in the habit of using this website under both accounts — Richmond University, Verizon, The McEachin Law Firm — and ask them to assist me in getting you to stay away. There’s simply no need for me to go to that effort and there’s no need for you to be publicly embarrassed. Go away and we’ll all be happier.