We all know that the Mississippi runoff election was stolen from Chris McDaniels by BPVs (Black Persons Voting), because why on earth would BPVs head to the poles to prevent a senate seat from going to a guy who likes to hang out with neoconfederates?
But now we have PROOF!! (Warning: RedState link) Proof that Cochran's campaign made direct payments, in cash, at the rate of $15/BPV.
The echo chamber has found an associate pastor who claims to have handled the transactions in the BPV community himself. The story is up on RedState, Breitbart, FreeRepublic and a number of other echo-inducers. Juicy tidbits of what might be a complete fabrication below the orange vote-fraud squiggle.
Reverend Fielder is allegedly steamed that the Cochran campaign did not make good on its promise to pay him for his participation in this sordid vote-buying scheme.
The chamber is touting an audio interview accompanied by a picture of this individual holding up a flip-phone with a text allegedly from a member of Cochran's campaign staff. It also includes, apparently, his pleas to get paid for coming forward.
You can find the interview here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/...
The RedState article cites to MS statutes making the scheme a crime. The website "GotNews" (never heard of it) is breaking the story and promises to follow up.
http://www.gotnews.com/
The story is being pushed at Breitbart and is posted on FreeRepublic and appears to being spreading as I write this. It is now on "FireAndreaMitchell.com" (Darn, I was hoping to buy that URL for my business!), where it is described thusly:
Boom! Reverend Stevie Fielder, says he delivered hundreds or thousands to the polls last week and was told to pay $15 to each voter.
* * *
A black reverend stiffed by the Cochran campaign has exposed an alleged criminal conspiracy by Cochran staffers to commit massive voter fraud ahead of Tuesday’s controversial U.S. Senate Republican runoff election in Mississippi.
Reverend Stevie Fielder, associate pastor at historic First Union Missionary Baptist Church and former official at Meridian’s redevelopment agency, says he delivered “hundreds or even thousands,” of blacks to the polls after being offered money and being assured by a Cochran campaign operative that Chris McDaniel was a racist. “They [the Cochran campaign] told me to offer blacks fifteen dollars each and to vote for Thad.”
There is an awful lot in this story that gets a ping on my BS-meter. This fellow is voluntarily admitting to RICO-scale crimes? The brazen level of activity? You can probably pick up a few other reasons in a short time to wonder about the validity of this tale.
Of course, if it is valid, it spells TROUBLE with a capital "uh." But even if it is all a big sham, this is enough for the right wing to beat the fraud drum for weeks, and then howl with cries of conspiracy when it turns out that this individual did not just pop up to volunteer his guilt in participating in a grand criminal scheme.
Bonus: the story is all about the dreaded BPVs, after all that work that McDaniels & Co. put in to keeping them in their place. So we get a few more weeks of the right wing howling that BPV=fraud. Outreach!
Is it real? Is it a conspiracy? Is this just BS? Is that just what "they" want you to think?
Whatever it is, it promises to deliver some entertainment.
8:45 AM PT: OK, now Forbes is on the case:
http://www.forbes.com/...
Surely someone is willing to give Forbes a click? :-)