Even when the Fletcher Taylor incident initially happened, the Cox campaign was, out of respect for the family, silent. Clearly, in my opinion, what happened with Fletcher is a tragedy that should not in any way be exploited for political gain- by either candidate.
In terms of Taylor's allegations today, we don't know who edited the bio yet. The Cox folks say they are investigating, and I am confident they will and that they will take appropriate action.
What we do know for certain is who called the press about it: the Taylor campaign through Senator Robert Brown. I suspect before they made this the press story of the day, very few people were checking up on Mark on Wikipedia. Now they are, though, and Fletcher Taylor is news again simply because the Taylor folks called the press and made these allegations. If the Taylor campaign had not done that, we would not be discussing Fletcher now. The Taylor campaign made the press call, why? Because they thought it was politically expedient to do so. Period.
This situation does raise more questions than answers.
Also, I am NOT an IT expert. I can barely manage the HTML for this blog. But doesn't this situation raise a lot of questions? For example, while it is possible to trace an IP address to a computer, it is not possible to know who was using the computer, and if it is part of a network, does that not create additional challenges?
I went to the Wikipedia site and found the history of changes to the Taylor page interesting. It looks like it has been altered more than once, and on the subject of Fletcher, on April 12th and April 25th. Seems like the Taylor campaign very quickly became aware of these changes.
Here's the track of the changes:
This was the change on April 12th
Taylor is married to his third wife, the former Sacha Wilbanks of [[Lavonia, Georgia]]. Taylor has one adult son, Fletcher, by his first marriage to Robin Taylor. Fletcher Taylor was recently involved in a fatal automobile accident while under the influence of alcohol. He is a member of the Porterfield [[United Methodist Church]] in Albany.
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Taylor is married to his third wife, the former Sacha Wilbanks of [[Lavonia, Georgia]]. Taylor has one adult son, Fletcher, by his first marriage to Robin Taylor. He is a member of the Porterfield [[United Methodist Church]] in Albany.
This was the change on April 25th (today)
On [[August 19]], 2005, Taylor's son Fletcher was involved in a car crash in [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. Fletcher's passenger died as a result of the accident, and Fletcher was later charged with felony DUI. It was speculated at the time that the incident would significantly impact Taylor's campaign, but it has not become a major issue thus far.
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On [[August 19]], 2005, Taylor's son Fletcher was involved in a car crash in [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. Fletcher's passenger died as a result of the accident, and Fletcher was later charged with felony DUI.
Of course, those of you who are familiar with Wikipedia know that the service allows users to log in and edit information on the site with the hope that the information they provide will become more complete and more accurate. Sometimes vandals have posted inaccurate information, and that has been a problem. That is not the allegation in this case. This information added was accurate.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Taylor/Cox Tempest
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17 comments:
There's just no room for something like this in campaigns. And I sincerely feel for any innocent persosn who are affected by this. But I would heed Amy's caution to at least let the dust settle on this. Just because you can trace an IP doesn't mean you've found the user.
I would also remind some folks that not too long ago there was a fire at the Taylor campaign headquarters. A few Taylorites jumped to conclusions about who did it and why. And they all had egg on their faces when they found out it was an inside job. At any rate, this whole week has been disappointing to me. Not least of which has been the nasty and mean spirited tone of Rick Dent's blog this week.
And I'm also disappointed for us, because we're making the Republicans jobs that much easier.
Has anyone else noticed something suspicious on the Cox campaign site? There's a comment under the Gwinnett Republican poll credited to "Peter Jackson." It could be a coincidence, but Peter Jackson happens to be th name of a Cox spokesperson. And a rather odd comment about Morton Brilliant being a "yankee" is credited to a Peter Jackson. Is something fishy going on here?
http://www.cathycox.com/blog/164/gwinnett-county-poll-shows-republicans-favor-cox#comment
Button: I did notice the odd posts under the Gwinnett story and thought that someone was playing tricks and that the posts were just not screened.
Jo: Robert Brown, who is a great senator with a fine history of service to Middle Georgia, is Taylor's point person in Macon. How do you think he learned about the allegations? The AP story simply attributes the complaint to the "Taylor Camp." If Taylor surrogates are calling the press without the blessing of the campaign, then they have bigger problems than someone altering an internet bio.
This would not be a story if Taylor did not want it to be a story. Period.
No, whether or not it is the truth is not justification for altering the bio, but, again, tracing an ISP does not implicate a particular person.
Hall: I'll bet that the whole network at the Cox campaign is registered to Morton. Has no one else ever used one of your computers, with or without permission?
Thanks for posting the story msatl_dem.
Do any of you think that it was in the best interest of Fletcher Taylor for Mark to make this a story?
It is if Mark wants to deflate the story. Wow this craziness by the Taylor campaign would make even Billy McKinney proud.
Politically: Are you suggesting that something new is going to break in the Fletcher Taylor story, and so Mark did this as a strategy to deflect? If so, interesting theory. I hadn't thought of that.
But I do agree with all who have said that this conversation is not what this campaign is about. It only helps Sonny.
I think the story was going to be stuck to him period, so he attacks a mother figure instead, ultimate deflection...but we'll see. I've been working around the capitol a short time, but long enough to know something smells like crap when I see it. This one's a stinker.
This keeps getting worse. This is taken directly from Insider Advantage....
"Working to ratchet-up the issue a notch, Dent fired off a new e-mail to reporters this morning saying he had traced "attacks" on two other Wikipedia entries to Brilliant, citing changes to the biographies of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Dino Rossi, a former candidate for governor of Washington state. Sanford and Rossi have nothing in common except "they all are or have been opposed by campaigns that employ or once employed ... Brilliant," Dent said.
Wikipedia is a free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers. The Taylor campaign said it traced to Brilliant two items added to the Taylor biography last November.
The first read: ““The primary campaign has so far been a bumpy road for the Lt. Governor. Public polling shows him trailing Cox by double digits in the primary, and running far behind Perdue in the general election. Two-thirds of the Georgia House Democrats have endorsed Cox over Taylor, and she is raising more money than he. His campaign was also rocked by news that his son was involved in a DUI that left one man dead. Finally, his gubernatorial campaign is hampered by persistent speculation that he may run for reelection instead.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????????
MsAtl and Kimberly, are you simply worried about Taylor winning the primary? Or do you care anything about winning in Nov. too?
Trolling around the blogosphere (much like the Taylor campaign exploiting this) isn't helping Fletcher Taylor or anyone else involved. There are real people involved in this who are probably still suffering from the stigma and the trauma of the incident. Yet, some folks act like they're wetting their tweeds with delight over this. If winning the primary is that important to you, I will remind you that the general election is the most important battle in this war.
You two have made up your minds already. And that's fine with me. But please don't act like that's not been the case for quite some time. And please do remember that real campaigns are about issues. And they are about hashing out ideas that will best serve the public's needs. I hope both campaigns will just get on with it.
Oh yeah, then why did you post just YESTERDAY that you "hadn't made up my mind yet." Did you do all of that research and come to all of those conclusions in less than 24 hours? You've only been waiting for an opportunity. Now who's a liar?
You need to remember something. Taylor can't win this election in Nov. without a united Democratic party - which means a whole boatload of Cox supporters like me. And your behavior isn't doing much to interest me in working for a potential Taylor campaign in the fall.
Discussion is fine. Disagreement is fine. Profanity is not fine, so please either edit it out of your posts or I will delete.
And, Jen: No two people could have less in common, and I suspect you know that. Here are my questions for you Taylor-ites:
1) Why did Mark leak this story now when he has known about it since November?
2) In this instance, Taylor using his son for poltical gain by leakign the story to beat up on Cathy. Are all of you fine with that? It's ok for him to do that? Me thinks thou doest protest too much.
2) Does Mark Taylor really want to make this election about character? He'd better think hard about that choice.
It's interesting that you removed a comment Amy that had profanity. You let politically blonde post some lovely things the other day. Bias?
I have not removed any of the referenced comments, but the author did and I appreciate that. One of the "deleted comment" notes you see on the list was my own post that had more than one error in it. I couldn't figure out how to edit it once it was posted, so I deleted it and tried again.
And, do you really ,really want someone to start a discussion about character? Please, please, please let this election be about character.
Character about MT? He IS one, he doesn't have any. Well, unless you have something he wants, then he might, MIGHT, make a deal with you. Anyone that's ever worked on legislation in the Senate knows that.
congrats amy, looks like you've drawn most of the taylor staff that isn't busy reading Wiki to your site instead of campaigning.
Kidding, but was trying to make a point none the less. Love the defensive tactics...bring it.
taylorites burn crap and cox's manager posts it...too much.
Taylor can stop making this race a circus anyday now if he wants to, something tells me he doesn't.
Everything up to now - the using 1mil of his family's money to releasing this now immediately after the polls show he's STILL lagging behind after a huge media buy - show one thing. A guy who's DESPARATE to hold onto power he can't have, and you want to compare this to an internet posting by a campaign manager?
Ummmmmm......yeeeaaahh.
Jo, if you think that a staffer altering an internet bio (with factual but ought to have been off limits info)is comparable to Reed, you need to do some reading on Reed. That's just nuts, and I suspect you know that.
You're ready to write off a candidate for bio thing, yet, I have yet to hear you-or Taylor or any Taylor supporter-condemn Dent for what he wrote on the Taylor website: mocking untruths about Cox. Apparently, your rules are for one side only.
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