August 08, 2010 05:43 PM UTC

B******t, response in triplicate, investigations, and policy wonks go to war

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• by: MikeD1970

The last few days have been interesting to say the least in the Democratic senate race.  Starting with the New York Times Financial writer Gretchen Morgenson’s article, it only got more heated.

Bennet campaign spokesman Trevor Kincaid showed his Rahm Emmanuel ties by launching into a rather blunt response.

Fox News spoke with Bennet’s press person, Trevor Kincaid. When asked if Bennet was going to issue a statement or hold a presser about the Times article, Kincaid said, “First of all the New York Times article is b******t.” Kincaid went on to say the NYT reporter (Gretchen Morgenson) had obviously never attended a Denver Public Schools board meeting. As of this writing, the Bennet campaign has not issued an official response on the information contained in the article.

Somehow I’m guessing Mr. Kincaid has never been to a DPS school board meeting either, but it made for a headline grabbing fact-free response.

The Bennet campaign did eventually respond, along with new DPS superintendent Tom Boasberg.  They give a slighly more tactful response than Kincaid.  The problem?  As Michael Booth points out:

Bennet’s campaign Friday released talking points that mirrored Boasberg’s.

Even odder, a former DPS board members jumps into the fray, echoing the same talking point, but claiming them as her own.  Thumbs up to the Bennet folks for keeping everyone on message, but epic #FAIL for what is obviously planting language for Boasberg and the board to use.

Trying to grab whatever earned media he can, Bennet launched into a round-the-clock tour of the state — by plane, train, and automobile (well maybe not train, but his campaign did put out a picture of him talking to a greyhound bus driver).

This briefly exits the campaign realm and enters public policy, as a member of the Colorado Legislature calls for investigations into what happened at DPS.  Win or lose for Bennet Tuesday, it seems like a lot of people are going to be asking some very uncomfortable questions about what exactly Bennet, Boasberg, and the Board did and what the long term effects entail.

Back in the campaign corner, apparently the Romanoff folks got tired of the Bennet campaign calling b******t on everything without backing up their claims, so the launched what looks like one of the most citation filled sites in the history of politics: Thebennetway.com.

Romanoff has been categorized as a policy wonk who “lives and breathes this stuff” — the guy who stayed up late actually reading every bill on his desk.  It shouldn’t be a surprise then that the Romanoff camp’s response to attacks on their ads reads like the supporting documents of a bill.  Presented in a “WWBD” (What would Bennet do) style, it outlines “the Bennet way” at Anschutz, DPS, and in Washington.  Presumably the site helps keep many of Romanoff’s attacks in the news this final weekend, and it pops up in google for the increasingly small amount people who haven’t actually voted yet.

So that sums up about 72 hours of the closing days.  Is there anything interesting left to happen on Monday?