Political Monkey Business

So the litigious birther/truther James Schneller of Wayne will now be on the ballot in the race for the U.S. House seat for the 7th District. He got there with the apparent help of at least some Democratic activists collecting signatures, hoping he'll pull enough support away from Republican Pat Meehan to allow Democrat Bryan Lentz to slip into the seat.

In politics this is considered clever. In the real world, it's considered cynical and a little bit sleazy.

Lentz isn't answering any questions about his campaign helping to collect the 4,800 signature to get Schneller on the ballot. David Landau has issued a non-denial denial.

“I can say on the record that the Delaware County Democratic Committee did not authorize, approve, organize or assist in the effort to get Mr. Schneller on the ballot,” he wrote in an e-mail.

What about any of its members? What about any of Lentz' Democratic political supporters?

Having Schneller on the ballot may be a tiny advantage to Democrats. But he so lacks political credibility that its unlikely he'll garner even one percent of the vote. The Tea Partiers aren't interested in him and the more they find out about his penchant for suing people and his wacky 9/11 conspiracy theories, the less interest they will be.

What this loses Lentz is the moral high ground when it comes running against the county GOP machine. He vociferously complained about Meehan campaign volunteers collecting phony signatures to get him on the ballot. Now, he looks like something of a hypocrite for refusing to answer questions about what if any monkey business his supporters engaged in to help him.