Thad Cochran is getting his butt kicked in Mississippi by conservative challenger Chris McDaniel. That has sent the NRSC and its friends into a tailspin and they are desperate to tar and feather Chris McDaniel.

Some freak in Mississippi has handed them their latest tool. By willfully ignoring the real timeline and facts, the NRSC wishes to drag Chris McDaniel into scandal and, they no doubt hope, down in the polls.

It is an open secret in Mississippi that Thad Cochran’s wife is in a nursing home. I have known it for some time, which is why RedState has not pushed the story about Cochran’s relationship with Kay Webber. Cochran lives with Mrs. Webber, she travels with him socially and professionally, etc. In fact, if you google for Thad Cochran and his wife, the images that come up are of Thad Cochran and Mrs. Webber.

It is a tragic story, given Mrs. Cochran’s health. She suffers from dementia and has been confined to a nursing home for years. In the past two weeks though, a number of bloggers have tried to raise the red flag on Thad Cochran’s relationship with Mrs. Webber since they live together and she is also on his payroll. We have done our best to avoid delving into this story other than acknowledging its existence. It is, again, a tragic situation.

However, today it is necessary to explain what the story actually is in order to put into context what happened overnight.

It appears some freak in Mississippi, emboldened by the Cochran family’s personal situation, decided to sneak into the nursing home to videotape Mrs. Cochran. Some people don’t have the good sense God gave even tree frogs.

The story got picked up by Jackson Jambalaya, a friend’s political blog, before midnight Friday night. Kingfish has posted here at RedState on occasion.

According to Kingfish, he intentionally posted this at the end of the original:

Hmmm….. in other words he “allegedly” sneaked into St. Catherine’s Village and took pictures of someone. Who is the victim? Is there more to the story?

Like many politicos in Mississippi, Kingfish already knew who the victim was because of the name of the nursing home. Among those serious into politics in Mississippi, this was already known. Just look at the comments to his post. At 12:16 a.m. this morning someone commented

Let’s see how they try and defend this one. These people truly are b@$ s%÷t crazy!!

Clearly someone suspected there was politically motivated. By 5:23 a.m., there was this comment directly linking the incident to Cochran vis-a-vis Kay Webber:

Hmmm. Could be politics at play here. First; the aide is jet setting around the world at taxpayer expense. Now this………

[Emphasis added]

At 6:44 a.m. there was this:

Somebody help. Is Clayton Kelly anybody? I’m guessing he “allegedly” photographed the wife of someone with significant name recognition. He looks like someone I wouldn’t let near my kids…. Or my grandparents now. But other than that, who is this slovenly-looking POS?

[Emphasis added]

Shortly before 8:00 a.m. this morning, someone from the McDaniel campaign reached out to Senator Cochran to condemn what had happened. Everybody knew who the victim was and it is clear by even the comments on this blog that were posted before sun up.

After 9 o’clock this morning, the Clarion-Ledger confirmed that Mrs. Cochran was the victim. At that time, the NRSC, the Thad Cochran campaign, and others began attacking Chris McDaniel. They claimed he must have been involved because he knew it was Mrs. Cochran before the media reported it.

In other words, it was well known before the Clarion-Ledger’s report that Mrs. Cochran was involved. Chris McDaniel’s campaign called to assure Senator Cochran that no one from the McDaniel campaign was involved. Then the Cochran campaign and NRSC decided to exploit the show of concern for political gain by lying about who knew what.

Here is paid NRSC hack Brian Walsh:

If the McDaniel camp had no involvement in Cochran incident how did they know about the arrest before everyone else? http://t.co/Ggo1h72m5D

— Brian Walsh (@brianjameswalsh) May 17, 2014

Except McDaniel’s campaign team were not the only ones.

Press confirmation may not have come until after 9am this morning, but the first comments to Jackson Jambalaya were happening just after midnight this morning. In fact, before the Clarion-Ledger confirmed the news and before Kingfish had updated his blog on the subject, this very explicit comment was out on Kingfish’s blog:

Thad Cochran’s wife has been a resident in their Alzheimer Unit at St. Catherine’s for several years.

I am convinced (my opinion here) that McDaniel is an unethical sleazeball himself, and attracts similarly inclined slime to his campaign.

IMHO of course.

So here is someone who hates Chris McDaniel, thinks it is his campaign, but says so before the Clarion-Ledger even confirmed the fact that Mrs. Cochran was involved. As the Clarion-Ledger itself reported

A Clarion-Ledger article posted online at 9:24 a.m. broke the news about a connection between the arrest and the Cochrans.

That comment was posted at 8:48 a.m., about a half-hour before the Clarion-Ledger confirmed the story. Indeed there were several more comments directly tying this to Mrs. Cochran before the Clarion-Ledger announced she was the victim.

But somehow Chris McDaniel was the only one who knew about Mrs. Cochran.

It appears, as well, that McDaniel’s campaign was being pre-emptive. His campaign staff reached out to the Cochran camp this morning before 8am. Around 10:00 this morning, McDaniel said he had not heard anything about it. We can concoct a grand conspiracy, but perhaps the campaign got ahead of the candidate, which often happens.

If we are going with grand conspiracy, can we talk about Kay Webber’s salary package?