Look! LOOOOOOOK!

I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice if the media did their job and explained to the public the frame that Republicans are using in their campaign this year: namely, that the name of the game is to attack not Democratic candidates themselves, but people tangentially related to them:

• Keith Ellison is Louis Farrakhan!
• Plus, Keith Ellison got money from somebody who likes Hamas!
• Colleen Rowley has a volunteer who believes things that she doesn't!
• Some people said things about Amy Klobuchar!
• Some other people said things about Mike Hatch!

In other words, like a petulant child, Ron Carey, MDE, and all the Republicans this year are screaming, "Look at what these people did! Look! LOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!!"

They can't draw attention to DFL candidates themselves, because by and large they are good candidates that people like and that have nothing to hide. Compared to some of the Republican candidates (Michelle Bachman, recently unhinged Alan Fine), it's really no contest who the more personable and mature candidates are. And running on the record? The national Republican record is a disaster, and the state record is not a whole lot better.

Republicans are scared that voters are finally going to hold them accountable for not being serious about our country's safety, not looking out for our infrastructure while playing games with our money (Bridge to Nowhere? Bungled Crosstown reconstruction?), getting the government involved in private matters where it shouldn't be involved, and letting the middle class languish while the top 1% of earners reap all of the rewards. And they should be scared. So all they have to run on is character assassination and mud-slinging.

The media typically responds to this by printing "he said, she said" stories that give ridiculous charges airtime, therefore validating them. That's not reporting; that's stenography. Reporting would be dismissing Alan Fine's outrageous statements and pointing out that there is literally no record of Keith Ellison saying anything anti-Semitic, and then refusing to give Fine coverage if he keeps on repeating this nonsense. Will it happen?