There’s an old joke about a politician. “He’s out campaigning in outlying areas. He’s out lying in them.” A bit of reporting by The Politico seems to bring that to mind:
Rick Santorum on Thursday afternoon slipped away from the campaign trail to speak to a fundraiser for a supportive super PAC, despite denying previous reports that he planned to do so.
As Texas Gov. Rick Perry might say: “Oops.”
The fundraiser drew between 20 and 25 donors to a gated country club in Dallas where Santorum spoke for about half-an-hour about the previous evening’s debate and the upcoming primaries, then chatted briefly with supporters, according to a source familiar with the event.
t’s unclear how much money the event raised for the super PAC, which is called the Red, White and Blue Fund. But Santorum’s presence could help significantly with its fundraising going forward because it marks the first time that the candidate has bestowed something of a blessing on the super PAC.
The super PAC has spent $5.5 million on ads, phone banking and direct mail to boost Santorum’s presidential campaign – including $1.7 million in Michigan ahead of that state’s pivotal Tuesday primary. The group has been credited with helping lift Santorum to victory in the Iowa caucus…
The Politico story is significant. It’s the case of a news organization catching a politician in what seems to be a blatant lie. Illegal? Nope.
But it won’t help Santorum’s credibility. Just look at more details on this story:
Santorum’s main rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, made similar appearances last year at fundraisers boosting Restore Our Future, the fundraising juggernaut super PAC supporting his presidential campaign. At a July dinner party in New York hosted by the super PAC, Romney made brief remarks, then left, according to iWatch News.
And President Barack Obama and Romney this month announced that they intended to dispatch top aides to appear at fundraisers for the super PACs boosting their respective presidential campaigns.
But Santorum’s campaign initially demanded a correction to a POLITICO report last week revealing his plans to speak at Thursday’s super PAC fundraiser. And Santorum himself after Wednesday’s debate appeared to deny he would be appearing at an event for the Red, White and Blue Fund, telling a Yahoo News reporter “I’m doing some fundraising. I’m not doing a Super PAC event.”
The campaign did not respond Friday to questions about the apparent reversal.
Everyone who has worked in the news biz knows that in most cases when there is no response it means they’re a)hoping the story will go away b)trying to let it fizzle out c)waiting longer to get a response. But those who have nothing to hide usually respond ASAP.
This most certainly won’t help Santorum’s credibility. The Romney campaign could hype the story, quoting Politico. And if this is what it seems to be it means Santorum will get even more media scrutiny when he makes an assertion.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73262.html#ixzz1nN6EuynD
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.