Democrats Stoop to Conquer

We frequently hear the lament that it’s hard to find good people to stand for public office.  Stacey Stout—an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department under Presidents Bush and Obama—should make anyone’s list of just the sort of person we need in public life.

This is her second try for an east metro seat in the state House of Representatives.  Democrats will stop at nothing to keep her out of the legislature.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the latest shenanigans:  the state Democrat Party sent out an anti-Stout mailer where they photoshopped a different head onto a body to further a “guilt by association” attack.

Here is the mail piece,

 

The face of the man in the bottom photograph (captioned “Stout works for extreme Republicans) belongs to the state House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt.  The body belongs to Conor McFadden, the son of U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden, as illustrated in the Star Tribune's side-by-side comparison,

In case you haven’t kept up, “extremist” is the focus-grouped term Democrats use for Republicans (and more broadly, non-Democrats) this election year.

The Star Tribune quotes the Democrats’ campaign manager on the incident,

Zack Rodvold, who manages the DFL House's campaign operation, said photo changes like that are standard tools mailing designers use.

"Every major political party in every state in the United States uses Photoshop," said Rodvold.  "I don’t think this is unique."

 

Really?  Substituting one person’s head for another in a political photograph is something closer to Soviet-era tactics.  As I’ve pointed out before, everything about the Democrats’ campaign in Minnesota is turning out to be fake [1, 2 and  3], all the way down.

As everyone involved points out, there are no shortages of photographs including both Stout and Daudt.  So why do it?  Because they have, and will, get away with it.