Reading notes

This is both amusing and sad —

Republicans have accused Democratic U.S. House candidate Stephanie Herseth of maintaining a secret Web page to receive campaign donations raised from ads on liberal groups’ Internet sites. …

Jason Glodt, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, said the Herseth campaign arranged the special Internet donation site to prevent most South Dakotans from knowing about Herseth’s relationship with such liberal groups.

The Herseth Web page takes campaign donations from people directed there from Internet sites called “blogs,” which are online bulletin boards that feature journals, opinionated articles and messages.

“There’s a reason she’s got that secret site. She doesn’t want to advertise the fact she’s doing this,” Glodt said Thursday.

Of course, one’s natural first response is to say, What a dumb*ss, because Stephanie’s blog is only as secret as being the first hit in both a Google search and a Yahoo search for “stephanie herseth” (as asa — and Levsen in the article — points out).

But Glodt is probably not dumb; what he’s probably doing is testing if his constituency is uninformed/gullible enough to fall for a smear linking the Herseth candidacy’s fundraising with “those damned liberals” (and from out of state, to boot).

Personally, I’m informed enough not to fall for her opponent’s fundraising having come primarily from big interests to whom he’s now beholden.

As cynic points out, the reason this SD race concerns non-residents of South Dakota, too — such that nationwide interest and fundraising makes sense — is that “whoever gets elected to Congress from SD gets to vote on sh*t that affect all Americans, even the whole damn world.”

[via Daily Kos]