John McCormack, destroyer of campaigns

First, John McCormack — a reporter for The Weekly Standard — goes to New York to cover the special election in NY-23 and ends up getting the cops called on him by the Republican candidate for the seat. She goes on to lose, having alienated the conservative base, in no small part because she was insane enough to call the cops on a conservative reporter.

Having caught wind of McCormack’s dogged pursuit of the truth, Martha Coakley — the Democrat looking to fill Ted Kennedy’s empty seat — has hired what appear to be Pinkertons to keep McCormack from asking her any questions. Go check the video out at that NRO post: Someone literally pushes McCormack to the ground then blocks his way as he attempts to ask any questions of the candidate — a candidate who had been taking questions from the press seconds prior.

It turns out that the thug in question isn’t a Pinkerton at all, but a political operative by the name of Michael Meehan. He works for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and has been “dispatched” to the Coakley campaign to help salvage it. Oops.

I’m sure we can expect howls of outrage from the press any second now…I mean, can you imagine what would be said if this happened to, say, Jake Tapper? Or Chuck Todd? What we have here is an operative of a political party pushing a member of the press to the ground then physically stopping him from asking questions of a political candidate. Andrew Sullivan gets all worked up every time Sarah Palin has the audacity to close a speech to the press; certainly we can hope to see some vitriol when actual physical violence is used to suppress the fourth estate. Right? Right?