The hyped up story from a former Kavanaugh classmate Ed Whelan cooked up was helped along by DC pr firm, CRC and later considered a far fetched idea, when Dr. Ford said and I am paraphrasing, “Nope, not possible.”
I am always dumbfounded by the lengths the supporters of this nominee will well, stoop to.
It turns out that the Keystone Cops detective work by conservative legal activist Ed Whelan — which set Washington abuzz with the promise of exonerating Brett Kavanaugh, only to be met by mockery and then partially retracted — was not his handiwork alone.
The hype ping-ponged from Republicans on Capitol Hill to Kavanaugh’s team in the White House, evidence of an extraordinarily successful public relations campaign that ultimately backfired when Whelan’s theory — complete with architectural drawings and an alleged Kavanaugh doppelgänger — landed with a thud on Twitter Thursday evening.
The coordinated effort was a testament to the far-reaching but frenzied attempt among conservatives to save Kavanaugh, which appeared to have spun out of the White House’s control. Indeed, Whelan told associates that he had kept his friend Kavanaugh and those working with him in the White House in the dark about his plans.
Thanks in part to the anticipation Whelan ginned up, Republicans who had gotten excited by the prospect that he really did have information that would solve Kavanaugh’s problems drew attention to Whelan. They later insisted they were kept in the dark until he went public, and fled from any association with Whelan’s theory.
CRC, however, was right there with him all along.
On Friday, hours after Whelan called his decision to name and post photographs of Kavanaugh’s high school classmate “an appalling an inexcusable mistake of judgment,” CRC helped organize a news conference featuring an array of women who dismissed Ford’s allegations.
Best known for its work with the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004, CRC bills itself as a full-service communications firm “specializing in media relations, social media and issues management,” according to its website.
In a series of Twitter posts on Tuesday evening, Whelan strongly suggested he had obtained information that would clear Kavanaugh’s name. “By one week from today, I expect that Judge Kavanaugh will have been clearly vindicated on this matter.” He continued, “Specifically, I expect that compelling evidence will show his categorical denial to be truthful. There will be no cloud over him.”
For 48 hours, he declined to share that “compelling evidence” with close colleagues or Kavanaugh allies. Several have said privately that they regret that decision because they would have advised Whelan against the course of action that CRC advised, and that he eventually took.
And because we live in a world of instant facts…here’s a Heavy page on Ed Whalen
