We must respond to this misoginistic attack on young women staffers by this blogger who is Erik Paulsen’s paid consultant. I’m going to ask you to do several things:
1) Click on this link to understand my outrage. http://www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/2008/10/26/more-evidence-of-madias-postive-and-uplifting-campaign/
2) Write xx@paulsenforcongress.com. She is Erik Paulsen’s communications director or call Erik Paulsen at xx@paulsenforcongress.com (952) 934-xxxx
3) Forward this request to every woman you know who will write in to express her disgust with Paulsen’s campaign and his paid minions.
4) Keep track of how many people write. Let’s aim for 100 emails before lunch today.
5) Please email me that you have written to Erik Paulsen.
Thank you.
I am approaching every women’s organization I know. We are powerful. We can make a difference. We cannot remain silent!
While MNpublius has absolutely nothing to do with this viral email it is not at all surprising that people are outraged and disgusted with the behavior of Paulsen’s highest paid consultant. To be honest though, it would be a lot more effective to tell the media to cover this than it would be to bombard the campaign with emails.
Either way, will Erik Paulsen condemn these actions?
He should respond to the charges. Paulsen has paid Brodkorb $12k since this summer - $3k during this past month. If that’s not enough proof that they have a business relationship and Brodkorb represents Paulsen, I don’t know what it. Obviously Paulsen is paying Brodkorb to slime Madia. It’s one thing for Brodkorb to go after Madia for his positions but it’s another for him to attempt to destroy young women’s lives. Brodkorb is a father of two daughters. I just wonder how he’d feel if these same things were written about his daughters down the road. As the mother of a young woman, I wouldn’t show those postings to my husband. He’d be in an attorney’s office so fast it would make your head spin.
This is called Defamation of Character. The fact that Brodkorb is being paid by Erik Paulsen makes Paulsen culpable.
Just slimy. These girls are someone’s daughters. Erik has 4 daughters. Michael has 2 daughters.
I don’t think they would want anyone to call their daughters the names that have been printed over at MDE. Those posts should be removed, and those girls should be issued an apology.
This blog and its commenters must be acknowledged as one of the most vile environments for women and quite frankly, anyone that supports respectable, issue-oriented discourse. His blog is filled with ad hominum attacks and profane, disgusting language suitable for prepubescent males. Mr Brodkorb has a disclaimer that acknowledges his employment by Erik Paulsen. “This is a reminder that I am a part-time research consultant to Erik Paulsen for Congress.
I have written to Erik Paulsen and to his Communications Director. I have not received a response or an acknowledgment of his employee’s hateful blog even though I heard Mr. Paulsen on the recent MPR debate say that he supports “political civility.” His actions speak so loudly; it is hard to hear what he says.”
Obviously Paulsen approves of the work that Brodkorb performs for him. His FEC report shows $12k since this summer and $3k in payments to Brodkorb in the last month. Someone who disapproves of someone else’s performance does not continue to pay them for their efforts. Brodkorb’s efforts at slime and innuendo and defamation obviously meet Paulsen’s approval.
So… In order for Brodkorb to come up with this, I think the term is cyber-stalking, if not worse. I don’t see how this is any reflection of Madia as a congressman, but only a small lesson on campaign staff management. If Brodkorb thinks things look different at a Republican’s campaign ofc or on lesser staff myspace pages, he should investigate that as well for reference. I think images and objectives there (with RW bloggers as the model) would probably surprise (shock) him. Truly disgusting for grown men to use young college-age women as cannon fodder to ‘score’ something- and in such a stretch of (outdated, fogeyish) imagination.
I agree, Loonwalk. What a campaign staffer (brodkorb) does in their personal time (write a blog) should in no way reflect upon the candidate (Paulsen).
Glad we agree.
Poor DTM not to realize that Michael Brodkorb gets paid a lot of money by the GOP and Erik Paulsen to keep that trash going over at MDE.
Certainly not something done in his spare time. His job. And he is well paid.
I see. Adult women who are employed by Ashwin Madia take pictures of themselves, in Madia clothes, in front of writings that refer themselves in demeaning ways, and then to top it off put them on the internet for the world to see.
The Madia response? Send out surrogates to attack people for writing about these pictures and finding the pictures to be of disgusting taste.
The adult women who took it upon themselves to demean not only themselves but the activities of 3rd district voters? They’re the victim here, no public accountability.
So now we know how Madia would operate in Congress - simply send out the bulldogs to bite back - zero accountability.
I think Madia may need to show a little more bravery in the 3rd before he gets promoted to Washington.
ArmChairOperative,
I can only conclude that you either have not read the slime posted on MDE or you do not have any young adults in your life. If you had either, you would definitely NOT support the trash talk over there. The point is that these young women have been viciously slimed for doing absolutely nothing wrong. They aren’t shown half dressed. They aren’t out on a street corner. They aren’t doing anything more than smiling or posing for photos. There’s nothing slimy about the photos….but the comments are unacceptable. If you support Paulsen, so be it. But, I would suggest that you consider that Paulsen is paying Brodkorb lots of money to slime young women. If that’s okay with you then you are less of a person than I presumed and obviously not a boyfriend, husband nor father. In what part of your life does a photo of a young woman smiling at a camera deserve the description of sluts, skanks etc? It doesn’t in most women’s worlds. Divorce your absurd hatred of Madia from the treatment of Brodkorb with Paulsen’s paycheck of these young women. Open your eyes and look objectively. Would you want your sister, daughter, girlfriend or mother treated as such? I should hope not.
I am not and will NEVER support Paulsen.
Your response, which is based on the premise that I am a male, again ignores their disregard for the seriousness of a Congressional campaign and shows a blatant lack of respect for Minnesota’s 3rd district.
If they did nothing wrong, why were the pictures taken down?
If someone was publicly mocking me and using pictures that they found of me on my MySpace page to do it, I’d probably pull down every online picture of me I could.
That would not be an admission of guilt, it would be giving a fucktard less ammunition to use to mess with me.
Downtown Chet, It wasn’t mocking. It was slander and defamation. These young women have families. I hope one of their families has hired a lawyer. There are screenshots somewhere. The comments over there are not acceptable - no matter what they did.
ArmChairOperative, I could only assume by your lack of empathy that you were male. I would hate to even consider that you could be female and consider those postings acceptable.
DTM:
I have seen many of your posts and you seem to be an extraordinarily rational person. That’s why I too cannot believe you have viewed these postings. I have to believe if you had, you would not have become an apologist for Michael Brodkorb and the depraved postings of the prepubescent commenters on his blog.