June 29, 2014

"Tea party leader Mark Mayfield suicide: A sign of politics 'beyond the pale'?"

Headline at the Christian Science Monitor.

I'd say what we had here was one man with terrible judgment.
Mr. Mayfield was charged on May 22 with conspiring with three other men to take a photo of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife, Rose, who is in a nursing home. The photo was used briefly as part of an anti-Cochran ad. Mayfield didn’t take the photo, but allegedly used knowledge of the facility to help a blogger gain access.
That's an awful thing to do and so is killing yourself. You don't get to deflect the blame for what you did onto other people by wreaking a death penalty on yourself. Death is an unfair sentence for this crime, and just because you've made yourself the victim of this unfair sentence doesn't make the criminal case the authorities brought against you unfair. And too bad if Cochran supporters took political advantage of the criminal charges. What did you expect? Stay alive and face the consequences.

22 comments:

Tarrou said...

I disagree, Ann.

This used to be called "The Honorable Thing".

Sometimes the old ways are best.

Rusty said...

A conservative does something horrible and in an act of remorse, kills himself. A liberal would hold a press conference.

Unknown said...

Bad judgement and a skeezy thing, but what is the "crime?"

oneStarman said...

Suicide? He won't be doing any Testifying NOW will he?

holdfast said...

A liberal would hold a press conference, with his dick hanging out.

FIFY

The Crack Emcee said...

Looking at his photo HAS to be like looking at so many here:

Staring into the nice, reasonable, face of another violent white lunatic, still fighting for America's racist "traditional values" that no one, but our most twisted whites, still want anything to do with.

Looking at his photo HAS to be like writing so many here - just insane:

Tea Party HOOOOO!!!!!

Original Mike said...

"You don't get to deflect the blame for what you did onto other people by wreaking a death penalty on yourself. Death is an unfair sentence for this crime, and just because you've made yourself the victim of this unfair sentence doesn't make the criminal case the authorities brought against you unfair."

You're assuming a lot about his motivation.

Anonymous said...

At first I couldn't imagine why a photo or video of Cochran's wife in a nursing home could possibly benefit his primary opponent. Turns out there is a reason. For some time there have been rumors that Cochran has been Doing the Dirty Deed with a younger female assistant. What the opponent's supporters apparently hoped to show is that Rose Cochran is completely out of the picture, so that Thad might be expected to look for, ahem, "companionship" elsewhere.

The really disturbing thing in all this is the fact that Rose Cochran has been in a nursing home for 14 years, starting when she probably wasn't much over 60 at most. That's a horrifying fate.

Peter

Peter

Oso Negro said...

How about those irregular votes in that contest? Do you suppose they will be investigated?

Oso Negro said...

How about those irregular votes in that contest? Do you suppose they will be investigated?

Krumhorn said...

I disagree. As a strong Tea Party supporter, we don't need that kind of political combat. That's the very sort of creepiness that typically characterizes the conduct of lefties for whom the ends justify the means. But they mean oh-so well. Whereas conservatives are eeevul.

The big difference is that this guy's conduct is repudiated by conservatives. In sharp contest, folks like Lois Lerner, Susan Rice, Obummer and Bill Ayers are celebrated for their despicable acts.

This guy offed himself. Good. There are a great many lefties who could usefully emulate that example and do us all a big favor. Who knows? It might also reduce the abortion rate too and save some innocents from slaughter.

- Krumhorn

lemondog said...

..take a photo of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife, Rose, who is in a nursing home.

It is hard for me to conceive how a photo of an opponents wife suffering from dementia and confined to a nursing, could be used as a campaign positive.

Truly, truly poor judgment.

Anonymous said...

This has got to say something about a whole group of people, right?

One guy commits suicide but he associates with a group. Certainly this tells us something about the whole group.

Can't we judge the whole group by this one guy?

Crack, you're up to tell us what this says about the whole group, you non-Racist you.

n.n said...

I though his suicide was motivated by economic factors, specifically his threatened legal practice.

SJ said...

Don't know a thing about this, except what I read here...

I notice that the guy was charged, but the article doesn't do a good job of outlining the evidence against him.

So I have no idea whether the charges were provable.

All I know is that (a) he was charged, and (b) committed suicide.

That could be a frame-up leading to despair, or it could be a realization that dirty deeds will come out at trial, and destroy the man's law license and public career.

It's easy to jump to conclusions of guilt or innocence.

Are all the facts in public view?

retired said...

Suicide is almost always caused by mental illness. Show a little restrain and compassion, all of you. Not every thing is political.

And WTF haven't you banned crack? A troll within a troll. Maybe he is Meade's nom de guerre.

richardsson said...

Nobody comes out of this election looking good...except the Democrat. One of the reasons I quit politics at an early age was that I had to work with too many people who couldn't see beyond the next move. These campaigns were full of people like that. The lawyer killed himself because he knew after the fact that he would never live down being involved in such a low down stunt as dragging a defenseless old woman into a political campaign. But Cochrane and the RNC may have to answer for winning ugly. What if it turns out that the Democrat wins and they end up one vote shy of a majority in the Senate? What happens to the GOP nationally if the Tea Party voters nationally sit out the election?

The Crack Emcee said...

eric,

"This has got to say something about a whole group of people, right?"

As much as Trayvon Martin, a hoodie, and "purple drank" did.

retired,

"And WTF haven't you banned crack? A troll within a troll. Maybe he is Meade's nom de guerre."

I don't know what a nom de guerre is but, with that Amazon portal, I betcha he can get two or three,...

The Crack Emcee said...

richardsson,

"What happens to the GOP nationally if the Tea Party voters nationally sit out the election?"

We go down - but the fruitcakes will be out - and the GOP that freed the slaves can re-emerge,...

Kirk Parker said...

" What happens to the GOP nationally if the Tea Party voters nationally sit out the election? "

The Institutional Republicans will richly deserve the catastrophe they get as a result. The nation as a whole? Not so deserving...

a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...

I thought it was great that blacks and Southern Republicans could win together. What a marvelous beyond the Pale story. You know the phrase 'beyond the Pale' comes from an English view of Ireland. When Henry VIII was king of England, Great Britain was nominally in control of Ireland but, really, English authority only extended about 90 miles from Dublin, the rest was 'beyond the Pale.'

Jupiter said...

"Mark Mayfield, a respected lawyer and tea party operative in Mississippi, has died after being accused of taking part in an unseemly, Watergate-like conspiracy to undermine long-time Sen. Thad Cochran’s campaign."

Watergate-like?