I don't know how many of you have been following this story but the other day, a low-level McCain campaign worker named Ashley Todd reported that she'd been assaulted at an ATM in Pittsburgh. A tall black man (she said) had noticed the McCain bumper sticker on her car and this had led to him blackening her eye and carving a backwards "B" on one of her cheeks. The "B" apparently stood for "Barack."
There was a brief period when some bloggers and McCain's Pennsylvania communications director tried to drum up outrage in a way that might make people mad enough to vote for McCain. But most people seemed to sense that there was something amiss with her story…and sure enough, she has confessed it was a hoax and that the damage was self-inflicted. (I don't think, by the way, that this reflects in any way on Senator McCain except, of course, for the fact that his Pennsylvania communications director is kind of a sleazeball.)
Police reportedly knew instantly that the young lady had done this to herself. It was because of the backwards "B," which suggested Ms. Todd had applied the damage in a mirror. When I heard that, my mind flashed back to another unscrupulous fraud who tried pretty much the same scam and made the same mistake.
Some of you probably remember Morton Downey Jr., who had a loud and shrill talk show back in the eighties. He was like Jerry Springer but without the class. Downey was a right-winger who was hated by right-wingers for making them look like screaming maniacs and by left-wingers for what he screamed. His show was popular for a brief period — about fifteen minutes, as I recall — and was cancelled after two years.
Soon after, Downey was in the news again. He reported he'd been assaulted in a men's room at the San Francisco Airport. A bunch of neo-Nazis beat him up, shaved his head and painted a swastika on his face…or so he said. Police noted that the swastika was painted in reverse…and Downey eventually admitted that he'd applied it and that the whole thing had been a publicity stunt.
Moral of the story? When you fake getting assaulted by someone who wrote on your face — and you will; I know you — don't look in a mirror. See what valuable things you can learn from this website?