Republican Dirty Tricks -- Virginia Edition (UPDATED)

Let's start with the PAC fronted by spineless weasel Squeaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan and its efforts to smear the Democrat running against tea bagger Rep. Dave "The Wurst" Brat:

A former C.I.A. officer running for Congress accused a super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday of improperly obtaining her entire federal security clearance application — a highly sensitive document containing extensive personal information — and then using it for political purposes. 

Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate challenging Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Corry Bliss, the executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has raised more than $100 million to help Republicans in the midterm elections. She demanded that the super PAC destroy all copies of the form and agree to not use the information in any fashion.

The article details how the PAC got its weasel paws on the classified document.  What was the information they extracted to smear Spanberger?  Must be something really incriminating, right?

... Ms. Spanberger said in the interview that she had become suspicious that the application had been leaked because Republican-aligned groups conducting “push polling” in the race had been asking respondents whether they knew she had once taught at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., an international baccalaureate program. 

One of her supporters received a call from the polling company and reported that she was asked if she would be less likely to support Ms. Spanberger if she knew that the candidate had taught at a school funded by the Saudi royal family that had “numerous students arrested for terrorism,” Ms. Spanberger said. [Ed.: but we thought Republicans loved the Saudi royal family.]

A recent graduate from the University of Virginia at the time, Ms. Spanberger returned to the United States in 2002 after teaching in Germany and earning a master’s degree. She applied for a job at the C.I.A. that year and was told in December that she had a conditional offer pending her background check, which she was told could take at least six months. 

She waited tables in the interim, and a colleague asked her if she would be interested in a temporary job teaching English at the academy to cover for another instructor’s maternity leave, Ms. Spanberger said. (our emphasis)

This, of course, is all to remind us that Republicans never tire of using racial/ ethnic/ religious boogymen to scare their witless supporters to the polls.  It also reminds us that they will stop at nothing, even trafficking in classified documents, to smear opponents in their desperation (in this case, a former CIA operative and Girl Scout leader for crap's sake running against Brat, who never served his country in any capacity).  "Culture of corruption," indeed.

Here's Spanberger's web site if you want to support her in what will be a close election.

But that's not all!  Virginia has another congressional race where Republican ratf*cking has also taken place:

An election fraud scandal is roiling Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, which Rep. Scott Taylor ... an iron-pumping, flag-wearing former Navy SEAL, has represented for most of one term. 

Forty-one voters and counting [Ed.: it's up to 4 dead people and 59 fraudulent signatures as of this week] have asserted in affidavits that their signatures — or the signatures of their relatives, both living and deceased — were forged in order to get the 2016 Democratic congressional nominee on the ballot as an independent. 

The apparent aim of the alleged forgery scheme was to split Democratic voters between last cycle’s nominee, Shaun Brown, and this year’s nominee, Elaine Luria. 

As it happens, Taylor’s own paid campaign staffers collected the signatures in question — and indicated that they “witnessed the signature of each person who signed this page” and “understand that falsely signing this affidavit is a felony.”  

Elaine Luria served in the Navy for 20 years, where she was imbued with a sense of duty and honor that apparently escaped Taylor during his service.  Adding to this is the fact that Taylor has been out there touting the need to protect elections from "mass voter fraud."  The weasel, like Republicans in general, has no shame (or sense of irony).

Here's Luria's web site if you want to support her and defeat the Republican ratf*ckers.

Let's flip these two seats.

UPDATE:  Some 200 national security and intelligence officials are now calling for an investigation into the release of Spanberger's file.