One has to consider it odd that — in an item of defamation — the Reeves campaign elected to take the information to 2.3 million Washington Post readers rather than conceal the information from the public in a totalizing way.
In fact, according to information gathered by The John Fredericks Radio Program down in Hampton Roads, it would appear as if Vogel was not only blindsided by the allegations, but given not just one but two ultimatums by a mutually trusted state senator last week, otherwise Reeves would take the allegations to the Washington Post.
But before Vogel even had the chance to even consider the information during the Christmas holiday, and before the mediator could contemplate and consider the second ultimatum, the deadline passed…
Something doesn’t quite add up.
In 2013, a campaign manager affiliated with State Senator Mark Obenshain stole the cell phone of Delegate Rob Bell. Rather than play the role of plumbing division, Obenshain did something remarkable from a politician: not only did he apologize on the campaign manager’s behalf, he immediately fired the campaign manager.
Bell, equally to his credit, let it go and dropped it. You never read about it in the print media, you never read about it in digital media.
The offending staffer eventually found work elsewhere… and was eventually enmeshed in yet another scandal trying to shake down Pete Snyder for $85,000 — in co-ordination with other staffers trying to pay down Corey Stewart’s campaign debt.
The reason for the segue? In Virginia, there is a tradition of gathering all the facts and doing the right thing among fellow Republicans — not the “ready, fire, aim!” which only benefits the Democratic opposition.
Certainly, the mediator’s trust here was openly violated by the nature of this ultimatum — at least, this is a prevailing sentiment among others.
Yet there is one bottom line in the whole Reeves e-mail kerfuffle: if his team had the goods, they’d be in a courtroom right now, not with the Washington Post.
…and so the alternative is to take it to the media and allow readers to allow their prejudice (or an artful arrangement of the “facts”) to present the case, often through paid intermediaries.
More from the Fredericks article:
The good news for Vogel is it’s hard to imagine why her husband Alex – a big money D.C. lawyer – would get involved in something as amateurish as this fake email scandal. Plus Vogel is an ethics lawyer, so she knows better.
“I am horrified by this and I am as upset as Senator Reeves,” Vogel said in an email. “Unfortunately, we only learned about this in the last few days and we are doing everything in our power to get to the bottom of it. We certainly did not send, approve or authorize any anonymous communications. We would never condone such tactics, nor would we permit a campaign employee or volunteer to do so on behalf of our campaign.”
Reeves’ campaign seems eager to push the narrative, as does Delegate Freitas (who is seeking to inherit any empty state senate slot that Reeves would leave behind upon winning the Lieutenant Governor’s spot).
…but it’s all too eager. Things are not fitting in place as they should. There’s a reason why this is being tried in a court of public opinion and not in a courtroom, folks… but the pretension of a mediator? Then to violate that mediator’s goodwill?
That smacks of rank campaigning rather than violated honor. Reeves knows better, even if those around him do not. Vogel is looking more like the target of a concerted smear campaign rather than the source of a botched plumbing operation.