After the fact and after the relationship's dissolved, with claims of tangible evidence can be considered, however the tangible evidence is presented. Claims of tangible evidence not produced are not too credible. If an Ellison video does exist, and it "goes public" per holders of such an item, on the eve of the general election, motive can be guessed at but tangible evidence must be seen and weighed.
Timmer begins his post by writing of the Argento SNAFU business, dead chef by suicide as part of the sad tale, with a segue to Ellison-Bonahan showing the point of his post.
Where I would supplement a viewpoint, a seventeen year old male having a chance to roll with an attractive and experienced female - is there any real "victim" other than one with a wooden interpretation of age limits in a statute trumping what was and should have remained a voluntary and private thing. No violence by either against either, and it surely looking as if Argento was set up but willingly cast discredit upon herself, emotion of the moment outweighing anything resembling good judgment.
A lesson for many - hush money can not always buy hush. Perhaps in some percentage of situations, clearly not all involving dalliance by a most prominent public figure where there's money in disavowing purchased hush. So prudence is proper. Even if prudence is anathema to Donald J. Trump. Perhaps he had a little too much Roy Cohn in his formative years insulating him from consequences of his being himself, whatever, but prudence - would prudence pick Rudy Guilani?
Likely not.
Bonahan per an earlier post reference to an MPP post, referenced again, is fairly well-spoken, but again - no video, no cred.
It has to be that. Tangible evidence from a time of alleged conduct cannot misrecollect nor shade statements to fit whatever motives may exist.
Timmer does not address directly the "what if" part of perhaps a video existing and being strategically (tactically?) withheld; (comedians always say timing is everything). If it exists and at some point is produced, then the event did happen, and the Ellison absolute denial would in such a situation be troubling to most of us.
Timmer keeps a single aspect to the post; Wardlow not being mentioned, but thinking here is one cannot look at that race without the full fear and loathing attaching to who Wardlow is and has been and who, from that, he'd be if handed AG reins. The mind repels at the thought of such a possibility. Wardlow has the mark of James Dobson on his forehead, Think Progress having published:
The 800-Pound Gorilla Of The Christian Right - By Josh Israel, May 1, 2014
The Alliance Defending Freedom wants to take America back to the 3rd century. Literally. On the website for its legal fellowship program, the organization explains that it “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.”
[...] While the Arizona-based organization has not made much progress in its mission of restoring the religious sentiments of the Byzantine Era, it has built a massive “legal ministry,” relying on 21st century attorneys and an eight-figure annual budget to reshape American law and society.
[...] In the high profile Terri Schiavo case, ADF reportedly gave six-figure funding to the attorney representing her parents in their efforts to keep Schiavo on life support.
As it has grown enormously, other similar organizations have seen their own finances stagnate or have withdrawn from the legal arena entirely. And while ADF’s success has been mixed, allies and opponents alike agree that it has become the most powerful force fighting for its agenda.
[...] The founding board and original funders of the group included several of the nation’s most prominent conservative Christians: James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Larry Burkett of Crown Financial Ministries, Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ, D. James Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and radio host Marlin Maddoux. Alan Sears, ADF’s president then and now, was a Reagan appointee and served as executive director of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography under Ed Meese. [...]
The group’s ambitious plans included three things: strategic coordination for the Christian legal community, training an army of Christian lawyers, and funding goals of raising $1 million in 1994, $6 million in 1995, and $25 million by 1997. It would distribute the money to those Christian lawyers around the country, in the form of grants, so they could counter the ACLU and its ilk.
Many of the existing organizations and law firms enthusiastically signed on to the idea. But one group had its doubts, even from the earliest stages. The conservative Rutherford Institute, perhaps best known for its representation of Paula Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, emerged as an early and consistent critic of ADF.
John W. Whitehead, Rutherford’s founder and president, told ThinkProgress that Tom Minnery, an ADF board member and high-ranking executive at Dobson’s Focus on the Family, visited him around the time of the Alliance’s formation to invite his group to join. “I told him I thought it was a vehicle to raise money,” Whitehead recalled, “I believe if you’re gonna be in this area, if you’re defending poor people, you shouldn’t be making money off it. Jesus was an itinerant preacher who was homeless. The guy that kept the money [Judas] turned out to be a government informant.”
Whitehead said that, because his group declined to join, it was blackballed by the ADF leadership — like an Amish shunning.
[bolding added, links in original omitted]
Ignoring some stridency within a post, the LGBTQ community notes that "big gorilla" operation's fingerprint appearance in ways sincerely Christian people might question as dirty pool:
And James Dobson… where do we begin? James Dobson advocates murdering trans women attempting to use the restroom. He claims proponents of gay marriage are literally Hitler. That’s probably a good start. He’s the founder of the group Focus On The Family, also known as Family Policy Alliance, as in WoLF’s partners in the Gavin Grimm counter-suit. This group also advocates gay conversion therapy, changing immigration laws to deport LGBT refugees back to countries that will torture, jail or execute them, and is dedicated to undermining abortion laws and restoring 1950s-style family values.
[...] On January 12, 2017, leaked WoLF board meeting notes came to light (not linking directly to a TERF website, sorry) that have made even other anti-trans feminists concerned. The notes are as follows:
“The board voted unanimously to engage Imperial Independent Media to fundraise for WoLF on a 20% commission basis, and to authorize Natasha to enter into a contract for these services on behalf of WoLF."
Imperial Independent Media is run (according to related LinkedIn profiles) by a man named Zachary Freeman, a Focus On The Family-related activist who was most recently in the news over a lawsuit to gather and distribute names of employees at abortion clinics by having them turned over to the Religious Right anti-abortion activist group Center For Medical Progress. The Center For Medical Progress recently had 15 felony charges filed against them for invasions of privacy and illegal recordings made of abortion clinic employees. These recordings were used in sting videos to propagate the completely debunked “fetal-tissue sale” meme that weighed heavily in arguments to defund Planned Parenthood the past year.
[bolding added, links in original omitted]
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| Joinder of Jesus and the money changers? That is a form of "marriage" to challenge; Alliance without any actual love, besides a love for money talking. A Dob$sonian proposition. The money changer standing taller. |
Casting the AG election as about Ellison-Bohanan bedroom events would be a wrong focus. It is entirely about how bloody awful Wardlow and his henchpersons are and how corrosive things would be, were Wardlow ever to be AG.
Ellison is one major party candidate; Wardlow is the other; and Wardlow is such a despicable fan of Citizens United and Hobby Lobby that his defeat is paramount, even if Ellison is proven to have been lying about an event in a relationship. He'd be weakened, but bottom line, he'd not be Doug Wardlow as Attorney General of Minnesota. Which would be his saving grace in any such moment.
End and totally of story. Vote against Wardlow. If liking Ellison's progressive roots, then vote for Ellison and against Wardlow.
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photo credit, this link