Representative Mike Reynolds' Misguided Attack

Oklahoma City State Representative Mike Reynolds has now become the latest Republican to launch a laughable, misguided attack against state Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan.

"The Republican smear pattern is to place the name of a good person in a story with someone they at one time met, knew, worked for, took a contribution from or had a contact with who may have done something wrong that was unknown at the time. This is the political version of the Kevin Bacon game," Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman Lisa Pryor said. "And, as we all know from that game, you can connect anyone to anyone else in six moves or less. In the political realm it becomes a dishonest and perverse sport, which Republican political hacks seem to revel in. If they would do real work for the people of Oklahoma maybe they wouldn't have so much time on their hands. Instead, they play the Oklahoma Politics version of the Kevin Bacon game."

Look at how the game is played, using Republicans: Jack Abramoff gave tainted money to Ernest Istook; Ernest Istook was supported by Oklahoma Republican Party chair Gary Jones; Gary Jones knows Mike Reynolds; therefore, Mike Reynolds probably took tainted money from Jack Abramoff; he does not show it on his ethics report, therefore Mike Reynolds appears to have broken Oklahoma Ethics rules.

Crazy? Yes. It's also very easy to do. But, the dishonesty doesn't stop there. Mike Reynolds claims Jeff McMahan broke Oklahoma criminal laws by having his office spokesperson talk to reporters about the false charges levied against him. Yet, Mike Reynolds attacks McMahan through a press release sent by and likely prepared by employees of the House of Representatives media office, who are paid by state tax dollars. Therefore, using his own logic, Mike Reynolds has broken Oklahoma criminal laws. Wonder when he will turn himself in to the law?

On Tuesday, Reynolds claimed McMahan violated state law by having his office spokesperson answer questions from reporters about McMahan's efforts to set the record straight. In his release, Reynolds claimed, "it is indefensible to co-mingle political activity with the official state functions of the office."

Pryor said, "it is more than just a little ironic that Representative Reynolds used the state- funded House of Representatives media office to send out, if not prepare his lame political hackery." She said this proves once again, that the hypocrisy and deceit of the Republican political noise machine knows no limits. The Oklahoma Republican Party is once again led by sore loser Gary Jones, who has twice lost to McMahan in the race for Auditor and Inspector, so these kinds of attacks should also come as no surprise.

Republicans are throwing mud at McMahan because he accepted campaign donations from alleged straw donors. McMahan announced he would return the money and amend his campaign finance reports, as allowed by state law, to correct the discrepancy. McMahan accepted donations legally and properly accounted for them in his required ethics reports. The improper activity, if there was any, was done by the donors, Pryor said. McMahan had no knowledge of their behavior nor did he have any control over them.