Lowell Feld accuses me of defamation. My response? Bring it.
By Brian Schoeneman | Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 | PoliticsYesterday, I posted a story accusing Lowell Feld over at Blue Virginia of using the two racist emails he received from unknown sources of using racism as a weapon against Scott Rigell in the VA-2 race.
Today, in a poorly spelled, spluttering response, he calls J.R. and I extremists, and accuses us of defamation. Why? Because I speculated about his motives for releasing those emails and then trying to link them to Scott Rigell two weeks before an election – the textbook definition of an October surprise.
My response? Well, after I laughed and told my wife to come read the story, my response was pretty straight forward: bring it. You want to waste your time and money pursuing what is, at best, a frivilous suit, I have no problems defending myself. Hell, I’ll do it pro se, and if you actually find an attorney willing to file this stinkbomb, I’d strongly consider filing for 8.01-271.1 sanctions on him as soon as the case is thrown out on demurrer, if it even gets that far. Let me save you $500, Lowell – a five minute review of defamation law in Virginia will demonstrate that there’s no case here. Everything I said was my opinion.
Lowell is simply trying to deflect criticism from himself. He knows he was used and he doesn’t much care. And while he can claim as much as he wants that he’s a progressive and hates Glenn Nye, anyone who has read Blue Virginia for more than five minutes recognizes that the blog is a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party in Virginia, and anything he can do to tear down a Republican, any Republican, is fine by him. That’s why he routinely bans Republicans who post on the site (as he did me months ago), and why he’s been running multiple stories attacking Rigell (see a few here and here). If Lowell wants to try and pretend that he’s not supporting Glenn Nye, thats fine, but when he posts stuff about Scott Rigell saying “[t]he question for 2nd CD voters is this: do you want an uninformed, extreme, slippery, used-car salesman representing you in Congress the next two years? No, didn’t think so[,]” I don’t get the feeling he’s suggesting folks in the 2nd vote for Kenny Golden.
The timing of the release of these emails is questionable. If this had simply been the Bartholomew email, I wouldn’t have said a thing. As I have noted multiple times on Bearing Drift, Common Sense and Twitter, I was appalled by that email and I was happy that Bartholomew stepped down – racism has no place in politics, in either party. No one is ignoring the “frontstory” here – the frontstory was over. Bartholomew stepped down. But when another email shows up the next day, Lowell takes the time to screenshot Scott Rigell’s website before he gets the story up, and DPVA drops a statement based on the story in less than ten minutes – what are any of us supposed to think? What looked like a one off slip of judgment on behalf of one local Republican leader becomes a coordinated smear campaign. What does it say that the first inclination of both Lowell and DPVA was to link both of these stories to Scott Rigell?
The fact that Lowell did absolutely no checking of his source or even possibly considered he was being used is laughable. What kind of a “journalist” posts a story and then, when he’s challenged on it, says “Why I only received the email on October 18, 2010, I have no idea. If anyone would like to look into this and let us all know, that would be great. Personally, I’d be curious.” Really? You won’t release the source’s identity, and you’re the only one (other than the source) who knows who the source is, but it’s up to the rest of us to guess and then ask him why he waited months?
What a joke.
As I noted yesterday, racism is wrong and the jokes and videos sent out damaged far more than simply VBRC, David Bartholomew, Karen Beauchamp or Scott Rigell. They hurt the entire Republican party because they let the Democrats maintain the false claim that all of us are racists. That’s not true, but that doesn’t stop them from running those stories.
And while I know that racism is wrong, I also know that trying to use racism to score political points is also wrong. Ending racism should be apolitical and bipartisan – something all Americans do and believe in because it’s the right thing to do. Lowell, by not questioning his source and just blindly running to the internet without even pausing to wonder why he was being given this email at this time, let himself be used to smear Scott Rigell. That’s unethical, and anyone who claims to be a “journalist” should be offended that someone believed they were that easy to manipulate. But, then again, it’s probably not hard to manipulate someone who, by all appearances, wants to be manipulated. And by linking the stories to Scott Rigell when the link to his campaign is tenuous at best, Lowell and DPVA demonstrated both their desperation and their willingness to do or say anything, no matter how ridiculous, to try and benefit their candidates. That’s sad.
Oh, one more thing. I do owe Lowell a big thank you – whenever anyone in my party calls me a RINO for my stance on social issues, like my criticism of Ken Cuccinelli for his letter to Virginia’s colleges on their anti-discrimination policies, my defense of moderates like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, or my post applauding the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell decision, I can point to this post where you call me an “extreme right wingnut.” Thanks for rehabilitating me in the eyes of my colleagues.
(Edited to use the Virginia civil procedure terms)
PS – Congrats to all of my CUA colleagues who passed the VA bar!
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About the author
A veteran political professional, long-time Republican party activist and attorney Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.
Comments
17 Responses to "Lowell Feld accuses me of defamation. My response? Bring it."
I don’t want to hear that bullshit from the Dem bloggers that brought you NAMBLA-gate and macaca. And did we mention Lowell is for sale to the highest Democratic bidder?
And since when does Lowell get to make the claim of defamation against anyone? Outrageous.
In my opinion Democrat hacks like Lowell Feld are mad because of the category 5 hurricane that is coming on Nov 2nd and it isn’t anything they can do about it.Quite the Change since 2008.
Lowell Feld is a “public figure”, whether he likes it or not, and they are held to a different standard than your average Joe.
Then again, Democrats know a thing or two about frivolous law-suits.
Nah. Lowell’s not going to do anything. He knows it would just turn around on him. The real question is what racist-filth, yet private, email do you think Blue Virginia will post today in the late afternoon (exposing it to thousands), and how fast on its heels will the DPVA have their press release out?
Mere seconds seems to be the collusion. Wonder whether that falls under FEC guidelines or not?
Lowell keeps changing his story over on Blue Virginia.
He’s claiming now that Kenny Golden’s people sent this out. He didn’t get the emails directly, he got them through a Democratic source who got them anonymously.
Next up he’ll be saying that his best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl who saw Scott Rigell pass out at 31 Flavors last night.
Why’s it gotta be 31 flavors? What do you have against rocky road ice cream, Brian???
Gee, what a shock. Golden’s folks are involved.
I disagree with Lowell posting it, but don’t fault him for it.
Golden’s folks shilling it though – which I hypothesized and anticipated – pathetic.
Yet look which party tried to capitalize on it.
How is Lowell’s story changing an issue? He always said he never got the emails directly. When someone gets more information that is a bad thing? He now found out his source got it from Kenny Golden’s folks but “his story is changing” even though Brian and others asked for more information regarding his source? Seems like it would be impossible for Lowell to win in this forum.
Jason…did you bother to read my comment? I believe I said:
“I disagree with Lowell posting it, but don’t fault him for it.”
But, you’re right, it is impossible for Lowell to win in this forum. But that’s self-inflicted.
JR my response was not to you I thought your comment was very appropriate. It was Brian’s sarcastic reference to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Jason, my point is that had Lowell simply stated in either of his posts where he got the information, he could have avoided all this.
But he didn’t. First he doesn’t say anything. Then he says he won’t divulge his sources. Then he says he got it from a Democrat who got it from an anonymous source. Then he says it came from the Golden camp.
This whole thing has been fishy from the start. I still think it stinks.
Point taken Brian. I would leave open the possibility that Lowell did not have permission to reveal his sources initially and then was given permission and disclosed the sources of the information. That was my only point.
I saw the email and the joke that started this tempest-in-a-teapot.
I liked the joke. It was funny satirical humor, much like we see on TV today.
It never occurred to me to forward the email, like some obviously did, but I am sure that, like all good jokes, that one will be around for a long time.
Nobody should lose a job, even a volunteer job, over a joke; even one deemed to be “politically incorrect” by the opposition.
I agree with the others who are calling for a stake to be driven through the heart of all of this PC crap. I am sick of it and all of the snarky little gotcha moments that the political correctness worshipers (from both Parties) have wasted our time with for the last several decades.
From now on, if they are not actually discussing actual solutions, then the Press should not report anything.
Nye is likely going to lose his seat, not because Rigell has had anything better to propose, but because there will be a big backlash against the stupid Democratic operatives who tried to make an issue out of an emailed joke.
I say, DEATH TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!
Clairese Starr,
I have to agree that political correctness in this country needs to be toned down some, but this joke goes far beyond PC and, frankly, just isn’t funny. Having grown up in the 1950s and 1960s with overt racism that included adults who routinely used the N-word in casual conversation, I am proud of how much progress we have made in learning to value others by their character and not their color, as Dr. King advised. But we are hardly a post-racial society yet. Racism today is too often covert and unconscious, as subtle as subconsciously acting on preconceived notions and prejudices. These are barriers to true equality in society, just as formidable as false accusations of racism that demagogues such Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are prone to make. Stupid jokes that seek to make stereotypes humorous demean both the target group and the people who tell them.
BTW, just a collateral comment about this matter. In every organization I have worked since the advent of email, the policy has been that you are not responsible for email that you receive. You are, however, responsible for all email you send or forward and should have no expectation of privacy in that regard. Public figures would be wise to follow that policy.
I can understand you all getting your panties in a wad over Lowell Feld’s accusing you of racism, but you seem comfortable with Ben Tribbet’s multiparty accusations about everything from bestiality to ________.
This IS backfiring on Nye and Golden as well. It is all very “fishy”!
It is all very offensive to think that voters are stupid enough to fall for this?!!! I mean, really?? And also to use a horrible thing such as racism, as a tool to “try” to de-rail a campaign. Everyone involved should be ashammed!
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