Predictably, Pat Powers responds to the spectacle of Dusty Johnson’s allowing Republican operative Paul Erickson to bring a Russian agent to speak to his Teenage Republican campers in 2015 with some poo-pooing what-aboutism. He dredges up old news about Democrats not on any ballot in an effort to distract people from his GOP Congressional candidate Dusty Johnson’s connection with Butina and Erickson, who may have known and kept secret Butina’s role as a Kremlin agent.
Predictably and noteworthily, Dusty Johnson responded with much more class. Questioned last night on Facebook about the Butina affair, Johnson did not go for distraction but admitted the vileness of the anti-American actions of which Maria Butina is accused:
This looks like yet more evidence that the Russian government is not a friend to the United States. Ms Butina posed as a freedom fighter, struggling against the oppression of the Putin regime. Instead, it looks like she’s a scam artist and a liar.
…She spoke effectively about the horror of living under a tyrannical regime. She spoke to our group, Sioux Falls schools, the University of South Dakota, and others. If she’s guilty, I hope she does a good long while in prison [Dusty Johnson for Congress, Facebook replies, 2018.07.16].
Powers does deign to report South Dakota Democratic Party exec Sam Parkinson’s response to the Butina-Erickson-Johnson affair, but he quotes only a portion from KSFY:
The SDGOP owes the people of South Dakota a detailed explanation of how Ms. Butina came to speak at their Teenage Republican Camp at the same time she began her efforts to infiltrate and influence American political organizations, and what relationship, if any, she has with their organization or any of their candidates and elected officials [Sam Parkinson, press release, SDDP, 2018.07.17].
Powers cuts the card there, because he can’t bear to play Parkinson’s full quote, which rips the Republicans for their undeniable error and deliciously borrows some familiar GOP ripostery:
At the very least, South Dakota Republicans acted as unwitting accomplices of the Russian government in their efforts to influence the politics and governance of our country. This is a catastrophic failure at the highest levels of their party organization, and, at minimum, raises serious questions about the SDGOP’s judgment and competence [rest of Sam Parkinson’s quote, 2018.07.17].
I haven’t reached for the word catastrophe to describe Maria Butina’s speech to our delicate Teenage Republicans yet, but Parkinson here is clearly riffing on Minnehaha Republican chair Dave Roetman’s partisan hyperbole about the Democrats’ convention do-over flub. Parkinson’s point is clear: Republicans flip out over Democrats’ clerical errors, which damage no one but Democrats, but Republicans fall for the machinations of Vladimir Putin that put our entire nation at risk.
“Had to hold a second convention” will make for a chuckle-worthy footnote in our history books fifty years from now. “Facilitated a Russian agent trying to undermine democracy” sounds like a much more significant failure, one that hurts us all and warrants further investigation. Dusty Johnson seems to get that; he should pass that word on to his party’s underling propagandist.
Speaking of mistakes, the world is doing a bit more laughing than chuckling at Donald Trump’s admission that he misspoke at the Helsinki summit about supporting American Intel Agencies by confusing “would” and “wouldn’t”
Pat Powers must be having a serious chuckle about Trump’s error that basically rocked the world yesterday.
GOP Senator Offers The Craziest Theory For Why Trump Didn’t Stand Up To Putin https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-putin-theory-mike-rounds_us_5b4e49e7e4b0de86f4879ecd
They are laughing at us, SD.
“Is”, is; “wouldn’t”, would; “The reality is,” Rounds on his theory of Trump as a fourth-dimensional chess master, “‘I know you did it, you know you did it, and you know that I know that you did it.’
hehehe. glad this is not important stuff.
Senator Rounds has identified or is claiming the quantum qualities of Republican leadership in these times. No wonder Senator Rounds tries to save ObamaCare in November of ’17 by working with Democrats to shore up its risk pools, while he then votes in December of ’17 to vote for a tax cut which guts ObamaCare’s enforcement mechanism…. So now the only question left, is whether the GOP is a wave or a particle, or better yet, hopefully soon to be parted by a “Blue Wave.” ;-)
Trump Says He Now Believes Russia Was Behind Election Hacking. Better late than….. .nevermind he will change his mind tomorrow on Twitter.
Rounds says, “And this is the only logical explanation I can come up with it.”
Seriously? Seriously, you addled dunce? That’s ONLY thing you can dream up and you think it’s LOGICAL?!?
SD, you have just won the sweepstakes for the Absolutely Dumbest MOC in DC. God save your souls, because that halfwit isn’t going to help.
How’s that extreme vetting working out? Oh that was only for refugees, nevermind.
The election wasn’t hacked.
The DNC server was. I don’t know by who did it, but I did find out the DNC likes to screw Democrat candidates they don’t want to win.
Russia did not cause Hilary to lose. Anybody who thinks that has an IQ of 5.
Russia did not cause Hilary to lose. Anybody who thinks that has an IQ of 5. Sayeth the IQ of 2.
Forget it, Jason. You are not gonna make it as a standup comedian.
Comrade Jason has not gotten his talking points from Comrade trump/Putin/Kim yet. He is so stuck in yesterday and that is his problem. Time for Comrade Jason to brush up on current releases from the high castle.
One would think that with this demonstrated threat from Russia, Trump would be imposing travel bans on Russia.
Jason keeps forgetting that he’s reading Dakota Free Press, not arguing with whatever he imagines is on DailyKos. I have made no claim about Clinton’s loss in this story. I am only reporting on Maria Butina’s activities, her criminal indictment, her apparent espionage, and her amazing, tawdry connections to South Dakota… which—come now, admit it!—are far more interesting than the same old Trumpologies and distractions Jason injects.