Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Like George W. Bush, who described his alcohol and drug usage as a "youthful indiscretion" that he did not want to talk about — and the media unbelievably gave him a free pass — Ben Quayle is describing his involvement with the raunchy web site TheDirty.com, which some say is degrading to women, as "a smear. This is a smear on me from a smear website being pushed by a smear campaign.” Quayle is also hoping to get a free pass from a disinterested lazy media. Doesn't look like the media wants to play ball with young Ben and help him cover-up his "youthful indiscretion."
Laurie Roberts at the Arizona Republic today takes Ben Quayle to task for his death spiral of lies about TheDirty.com in Ben Quayle's skeleton isn't going to RIP:
While basking in the glow of his Republican primary victory Wednesday, Ben Quayle all but proclaimed his Dirty Scottsdale skeleton dead and buried.
“We're going to focus on the issues that are important to this country, important to Arizona CD 3,” he told reporters, when asked about his ties to the raunchy website. “I've been consistent from the very beginning on this issue.”
Well, let's review, shall we?
Kasie Hunt and Scott Wong at Politico (some of you may recall that Wong was formerly a Republic reporter and a fine one, at that) broke the story on Aug. 10. Here was their lead:
“Ben Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle and an Arizona Republican congressional candidate, denied Tuesday that he once was a regular contributor to Dirty Scottsdale, a Web site that chronicled the city's clubs and nightlife and the predecessor to the popular gossip Web site, TheDirty.com.
Quayle told Politico that he played no role in founding the website and that he was not one of the original contributors.
“I was not involved in the site,” he said.
This, after the website's founder Hooman Karamian, who goes by the online name of Nik Richie, told Politico that Quayle was “one of the original contributors” to the site, writing under the pseudonym Brock Landers, a porn star in the movie “Boogie Nights”.
Karamian also said that Quayle introduced him to attorneys at his law firm, Snell & Wilmer, so that he could get his website incorporated. “Without Ben,” he told Politico, “there would be no TheDirty.com.”
Quayle, meanwhile, acknowledged that he knows Karamian but told Politico he couldn't remember where they met or whether he introduced Karamian to anyone at his law firm, saying “I don't recall exactly what happened.”
Sad, isn't it, when your memory starts to go at age 33?
A few hours after the story broke, Quayle admitted to 12News that he had, in fact, posted comments to DirtyScottsdale.com in 2007 though he denied posting under the name Brock Landers.
“I just posted comments to try to drive some traffic,” he said.
“What kind of comments?” the reporter asked.
“This is four years ago,” Quayle replied. “This is hilarious this is being brought up. … This is a smear. This is a smear on me from a smear website being pushed by a smear campaign.”
Quayle also conceded to several television stations that he referred Karamian to a lawyer at his firm.
Meanwhile, bloggers were busy digging up early Brock Landers posts from the website, some of which are too graphic and too degrading to women to post in a family newspaper.Quayle's response during various local and national TV interviews? “I am not Brock Landers.”
Well, we know that. He's Ben Quayle, candidate for the United States Congress. The question is, did boy wonder write under that pen name?“I am not a co-creator, a co-founder nor do I have any affiliation with the current website,” he wrote in a statement to campaign backers, referring to TheDirty.com, the successor to the now-defunct Dirty Scottsdale site.
So, to recap.
He denied writing for the website then he admitted writing for the website, saying he posted a handful of “fictional satirical comments”.
He denied that he is Brock Landers but he hasn't denied writing under the name Brock Landers.
And he couldn't recall whether he introduced Karamian to a lawyer for purposes of incorporating the website, but then later admitted that he hooked them up.Now he's says “been consistent from the very beginning on this issue.” His spokesman, Jay Heiler, didn't return a call to explain the definition of the word “consistent.”
NB: I loved this headline from the Gawker: Dan Quayle's Weird Son Is One Step Closer to Washington. It brings to mind this great quote from his father, the perpetual gaffe machine: "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history." – Dan Quayle. Hopefully the voters of CD 3 will reject his "very weird" son for Congress. Arizona deserves better.