Quote:

---

Rand Paul has barely said two words to any press since his disastrous coming-out party on the Rachel Maddow show, and Sharron Angel could end up a size 2 if she keeps running through parking lots from local media the way she does lately. Thank-goodness for the softball media of Fox News, where everyone is a master right-wing media giant in their own mind. On Fox News if you toe the party line, your made to look like a competent political rock star in total command of the media which seems to be where 95% of the Republican party now spends their inter-viewing moments. Most experts agree that a Michelle Bachmann type Republican will never again trust any media entity other than Fox news.

Whether it is Sharron Angel doing parking lot sprints, Rand Paul who can't meet the press or a half-term governor; the Republican party now has a media problem go with their broken policies, fears and lies.

---

Quote:

---

With a month left until the midterm elections, there is something noticeably absent from some key statewide races: the candidates.

They’re ducking public events, refusing to publicize the ones they do hold and skipping debates and national TV interviews altogether – out of fear of a gotcha moment that will come back to haunt them.


In some cases, a tea-party-oriented candidate has made a plain calculation that a one-day, process story about an absence from the campaign trail or a refusal to debate is less damaging than the captured-on-tape gaffe the candidate could make when facing reporters.

As of Friday, Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck had gone nine consecutive days without holding a public event and acknowledged to The Denver Post that he’s more mindful now that he’s constantly being recorded by the ubiquitous 'trackers' being used by both sides.


Tea party darlings Rand Paul of Kentucky and Christine O’Donnell of Delaware both surged to primary victories thanks, in part, to national media exposure, but after their own comments got them into trouble, they abruptly canceled post-primary Sunday show appearances and have largely avoided doing non-Fox national TV.

But what’s more remarkable is that they’ve also taken a low profile in their own states. Paul once asked local reporters to submit questions in writing and often hurries to his car to avoid them.

O’Donnell has been nearly impossible to track down in Delaware since winning her primary last month and actually had to deny Friday that she was in hiding.


The lengths to which some of the hopefuls have gone — such as refusing to release public schedules to local reporters — have astounded veteran political observers and sparked a debate over whether the year of the missing candidate marks a new era in which statewide contenders will be as guarded as presidential aspirants.

So rather than present the opportunity for an encounter that might later surface in an opponent’s TV ad, the candidates prefer to risk an image of them fleeing cameras and shouted questions as protective aides whisk them into the safety of a waiting car.

Call it the political equivalent of Dean Smith’s “Four Corners” offense: As the election grows near, and some of the media-shy candidates draw close in the polls, they’re effectively running out the clock.

In Wisconsin, the campaign of GOP Senate hopeful Ron Johnson, a first-time candidate who has made some verbal miscues but who leads three-term Sen. Russ Feingold in the polls, has ignored requests from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to share his daily schedule. Feingold’s camp also won’t release a daily schedule but told the paper, the state’s largest, that it would let its reporters know about some events after they’re confirmed.


Embattled Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), explaining why he wasn’t doing any town hall meetings this summer, said he didn’t want “nuts to hit me with a camera.”

“I’m not going to arm my opponent with a baseball bat,” he said.


In Texas, GOP Gov. Rick Perry is refusing to debate Democrat Bill White at all, while next door in Louisiana, GOP Sen. David Vitter has agreed to just one forum with Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon.

“It’s the ultimate prevent defense,” said Cook of the play-it-safe candidates. “Everything is viewed as risk versus reward, and anything that’s not a guaranteed reward is just zeroed out.”

In one instance, after a debate debacle in which she paused awkwardly and seemed frozen, Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer indicated she wouldn’t face her Democratic opponent again.

---

Quote:

---

Alaska Tea Party Senate candidate Joe Miller's security detail handcuffed the editor of the online site Alaska Dispatch yesterday following an event at an anchorage school because the editor was reportedly trying to interview Miller:

"Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger. Hopfinger has not been charged but the owner of the Drop Zone, the private security firm that's been providing Miller's security, accused Hopfinger of trespassing at the public event, a town hall sponsored by the Miller campaign.

"While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them too with arrest for trespass. A Daily News reporter interviewed Hopfinger anyway. No other reporters were arrested, though a few shoving matches and chest bumps ensued as the guards attempted to cordon off Hopfinger and block photographs and videos from being taken of the bizarre school scene."

DailyKos reports that Hopfinger was trying to question Miller about his ethics, and that last week...Miller said that "he will no longer answer reporters' questions about his background and personal life."

---

Quote:

---

Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino threatened to "take out" a reporter following a heated exchange,

The dustup occurred Wednesday when New York Post State Editor Fredric Dicker asked Paladino to prove his accusation that Democratic challenger Andrew Cuomo cheated on his ex-wife while the couple were still married.

"What evidence do you have for something most people would consider a smear?" Dicker asked.

Rather than respond to the question, Paladino accused Dicker of sending a "goon" to photograph his young daughter, who was born to a mistress and kept secret from his wife for a decade. "You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino told Dicker.

---