After failing to
"pet the dog" convincingly, the John Georges for Mayor campaign apparently went for two with a slimy "wag the dog" maneuver that disintegrated on impact. According to
Loki's research at Humid City, the Georges team seems to be responsible for a spoof web site that
mocked Mitch Landrieu. Worse, in ham-handed fashion they tried to frame James Perry's campaign for the stunt before quickly pulling it down.
Georges tells the Gambit he had nothing to do with it, then promised to call back when he learned that the web site in question "was registered to a company called ComputerCC, which — according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office — is located at the same physical address as Georges’ own Web consulting company, Iokon".
The Gambit terms the controversy "Mitchgate". As soon as possible I think this skullduggery should be described in a way that clearly throws it back on Georges. Perhaps "Bitchgate" might be more appropriate given the known facts and Georges' troubled history with petting and now (apparently) wagging the dog. Actually, that's not very good. Perhaps my intrepid readers can coin a better name for this scandal. (Bonus points for gracefully working
"Iokon" into the mix-- I couldn't.) However I do know that the James Perry campaign in particular would be well-served to seize on this lousy execution of slimeball politics, and pound Georges for all he's worth. We don't need this sort of political mischief. The stakes are too high... etc.
Assuming the Georges team created the site and there are no more twists to the story, what does it say about Georges that he denied involvement? It's the old clueless versus liar dilemma.
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Update: I'm directing this post at Georges based on the known facts. However, I am assuming that this isn't likely some triple bank shot maneuver by an unknown party that is trying to hit Mitch (blatant mockery), Perry (with www.perryforchange.com listed in the "contact info" of the faux site), Henry (by omission)
and Georges (with the web registry info). I can't totally discount this possibility because of the repeated dog commercial mockery in the video. Would the Georges team go after themselves like that? And if they were skillful enough to do that misdirection, why would they not cloak the registry info better?
Labels: Elections and Campaigns, Georges, James Perry, Mitch Landrieu
10 Comments:
I doubt Perry will touch it again. Sounds like Alex Morgan got his ass handed to him by Troy Henry. Rightly so (assuming, of course, that Troy Henry didn't actually pay for the spot).
Perry's blame henry press release jumped the gun in assinine fashion. But, they'll return to it early and often if and when this is pegged to Georges.
so is act three screwing the pooch?
maybe he could have it catered with some korean bbq ala curb your enthusiasm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR6d67O6478
I can't think of any cute name to give the scandal... but I couldn't help but think of "Iko Iko" and this is from Wikipedia because I didn't feel like typing:
-""Iko Iko" ... song that tells of a parade collision between two "tribes" of Mardi Gras Indians.
The story tells of a "spy boy" or "spy dog" i.e. a lookout for one band of Indians encountering the "flag boy" or guidon carrier for another band. He threatens to set the flag on fire.-
Emphasis is mine. But the conflict, the dog, the setting of fires... there's gotta be a song for Iokongate or whatever that could be immortalized from this mayors race.
Iokongate might actually play, anon. More soon.
Here's a question for Geek gallery (and I mean that in the kindest possible way):
How much would that site and the video cost to produce? Any rough estimates?
Perry looked like amateur hour yesterday with his "Protect the Master" posting accusing Henry, without any evidence. Dude, Mitch is a big boy. Let him fight his own battles!
I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, but the bottom line is that Perry's campaign is the only one with the "high-tech" young folks. Honestly, I think Perry did this just to draw attention to himself. Pit-e-ful.
Iokon did it...period. The question is did they go off the reservation or did Georges pay them to do it. I am guessing, they went rogue...realized they were about to be tracked back...then pulled the site down to try and hide their tracks.
So if Georges didn't know about it, he needs to fire Iokon because he obviously isn't in control of his own campaign. Right now, this is all on Georges...his silence is deafening.
The Who Dat Iokon Code ... Its like a Dan Brown movie.
I've been switching between blogs since yesterday just looking for clues....
Ooooooh, This is Fun!
