Here’s Your NSRC Eye-Roller of the Day

The National Republican Senatorial Committee makes a flimsy attempt to call out Ed Markey.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) put out a release today screaming that “Ed Markey is the first to violate the “People’s Pledge.”” That would be the pledge that is not in effect, because Gabriel Gomez refused to sign it.

I mean, wow.

The NRSC is calling Markey out over a report that NextGen, an environmental advocacy group—pardon me, a “radical extremist army” according to the NRSC—plans to spend money on behalf of Markey. Which, aside from the fact that it hasn’t actually happened, would not technically be a violation, because Markey’s obligation (since he cannot, by law, actually stop outside groups from spending) would be to contribute to charity an amount equal to half of whatever NextGen ends up spending, once the group actually spends it—all of which would of course be predicated upon there being an actual agreement in place to violate, which there is not because Gomez refused to sign it.

And even if we granted NRSC all of this, and agreed that “violate the People’s Pledge” means “have an outside group announce plans to spend money on your behalf in what would be a violation of the People’s Pledge if the candidates had actually entered into such an agreement,” it would still be a lie to say that Ed Markey is the first to violate the pledge.

That’s because Gomez has already violated it.

As Paul McMorrow writes over at CommonWealth, the Massachusetts Republican Party—an outside group under the People’s Pledge—has spent more than $300,000 on ads currently running; you’ll notice they disclose at the end that they are paid for by the MassGOP.

You know what else is an outside group? The NRSC, which just the other day sent John McCain to Boston for a big fundraiser for the Gomez Victory Fund, established specifically to funnel those contributions to the NRSC to spend on behalf of Gabriel Gomez — in clear violation of the People’s Pledge if, in fact, such an agreement was in effect, which it is not because Gomez refused to sign it.

So what we have here is a group that is in the active process of “violating the pledge” on behalf of the candidate who prevented the pledge from being in effect, berating the other candidate for allegedly violating the pledge.

Which is why my very, very favorite part of the NRSC release is the last sentence:

Ed Markey is a walking, talking, breathing embodiment of Washington hypocrisy

(PS. The NRSC is located in Washington.)