You'd have to be naïve or stupid to believe that the Russian ratfcking of the 2016 political season was limited to the presidential race. The rot spread deeply, and some of it leached into the congressional campaigns as well. Passing along a piece of a big New York Times story, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel explains that some of the allies of Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, were quite willing to fence some purloined e-correspondence themselves.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, which is endorsed by Ryan, a Janesville Republican, and other House GOP leaders, ran an ad that targeted Florida Democrat Joe Garcia and that used material allegedly exposed by a group of hackers operating under the name Guccifer 2.0. Garcia, who lost his race to Republican Carlos Curbelo, also made use of hacked material in criticizing his own opponent in the Democratic primary, Annette Taddeo, according to the Times. The Leadership Fund ad cites a "Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee internal document" as among its source materials, along with a story in the Miami Herald. Federal law bars coordination between candidates like Ryan and super PACs such as the Congressional Leadership Fund and independent spending arm of the National Republican Campaign Committee. So under that law, Ryan would not have any involvement in the Leadership Fund ad. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong had no comment on whether Ryan agreed with the Leadership Fund's decision to use the material.

Again, the investigation cannot be undertaken within the conventional congressional committee structure. It's entirely possible that, at this point, it cannot be undertaken by Congress at all. This business needs an Archibald Cox. And the Roto-Rooter man.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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