Care for some innuendo with your news?

David D. Kirkpatrick has ginned up some controversy by passing on a small smear from an anonymous campaign (my emphasis)...

But the Edwards campaign may have expected the support of the group, Alliance for a New America, set up by a local of the Service Employees International Union. An Oct. 8 e-mail message circulated among the union leaders who created the group suggests that they were talking with Edwards campaign officials about “what specific kinds of support they would like to see from us” just as they were planning to create an outside group to advertise in early primary states with “a serious 527 legal structure.”

The message, sent by the president of one of the locals involved, was obtained by a rival campaign.

"…may have expected…"

Don'cha just love that? May have. Maybe not.

Not even "…probably expected." Nope, that would take, well, some kind of evidence or something.

Of course, there is evidence. The memo itself. But that's a problem for the smear mongers.

See, the description of the memo makes it pretty clear that the SEIU was looking at the legitimate ways that it could coordinate it's support directly with the campaign before pulling the trigger by forming a 527 and cutting off that direct contact. All normal, legal interactions between unions and campaigns.

Because the most effective way for unions to reach out beyond their membership is sometimes the use of 527s, I disagree with the Edwards' campaign's disavowal their independent expenditures. There are abusive uses of the independent organizations, no doubt, but the solution to bad speech, they say, is often more speech. If the price of unhindered political speech and activity on behalf of political candidates and issues is the potential for abuse, it's a small price, best paid in the coin of diligent oversight and enforcement of the applicable regulations.

There's just no there there. It's a shameful performance for the Times, but they could make amends by coming clean on the source.

"…a rival campaign."?

Please.