I’m amazed you squeezed so many insults and namecalling into one comment. Surely you are to be commended. I only knew one other person who could do that so well.

Just as a factual point of reference, Palin pushed her kids into the limelight, the media didn’t go “after” them, she ran them out, to make herself look good. Big difference, but then why am I pointing out a factual difference to a professional smear artist? Won’t make a bit of difference.

I’m just glad to see that they are still using the same playbook, that cost them the congress, WH, VA Senate, Governor’s Mansion and soon to be HOD. Clearly the republithugs are slow learners. Try as they might, slither under the rocks, twist, spin and opine, they are destroying themselves and will blame everyone else, but themselves for their humiliating losses. So please, keep posting BK, so we can see the entire 2009 playbook on campaign tactics! Lets see that manufactured indignation and pompous bellyaching!

Keep it up Vivian, you’ve drawn them out, in a most professional and accurate manner. Lets watch them huff-n-puff-n-pound-their-little-hairless-chests!

I can think of a whole lot of folks that are not the McDonnell campaign that could have placed this story, including the RGA or just a supporter. I intentionally did not lay the blame at the feet of the McDonnell campaign because I have no evidence that his campaign was behind it. (That, plus we Dems just went through a primary in which a campaign was charged with the behavior of its supporters.)

If you were so concerned about the attacks, why didn’t you question them?

So, who are the others who might be seeking political advantage?

As far as the nature of this, on one hand, it humanizes these figures. And in many cases, these incidents unearth topics that are general problems that many families face and, in some cases, that we as a society face (like teen pregnancy and underage drinking). On the other, the relations never chose to be public figures and may not want to be. So, having their missteps out there for public consumption seems unfair. And as a whole, maybe this serves to influence people not to run for public office.

(1) Would the item be newsworthy, to the same degree, if the person involved were not related to the public figure? A 20-year-old arrested for misdemeanor underage alcohol possession in Bath County probably would not be news in Richmond, Northern Virginia, or Tidewater. Nor would a pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old girl in Alaska be news nationwide. On the other hand, would a shoplifting conviction in Henrico County be reported in the Times-Dispatch even if the offender were not Chief Justice Hassell’s daughter? Probably, but probably not as prominently as it was.

If the item is newsworthy on its on–and on the same scale–it clearly is fair game, good or bad. If a relative of either of the candidates for governor went on a statewide ax-murdering spree, it’s going to be news regardless of the candidate. On the other hand, ordinarily private things like their school performance, medical records, credit histories would only ever be in the public view *because* of their relationship to the candidate. So there’s a spectrum here.

(2) To what degree does the candidate place the family member in the public view? Surrounding oneself with pictures of one’s family in a political ad or on the stage at a political event is pretty standard: it signals nothing more than that they exist. But I think it’s a step farther when, for example, a candidate describes one of his children as “an honor roll student at X University.” That puts the student’s grades in issue and possibly fairly invites scrutiny into the academic record.

(3) I think that the age of the relative instinctively is a factor, but I don’t know that it bears up to analysis. On one hand, the younger the person is the more leeway they should have to make mistakes and escape scrutiny. On the other hand, the older the person is the less likely they are to operate under the control of the candidate. A parent can’t do much about his 32-year-old child’s behavior anymore, can he? But a 5-year-old who steals a pack of gum from a convenience store while his parent is gassing up the minivan between campaign stops might be so young he deserves a free pass.

So, in the end, there are too many subjective considerations to make a firm rule–and that room for subjectivity is always going to allow one side to accuse the other of being unfair whenever it criticizes a candidate’s family member. I think the only firm rule is that when a public figure completely separates his family from his public role, the issue truly has to be completely newsworthy on its own–like the ax-murder example.

Is it not just as likely that it was Deed’s own people, who, knowing it would come out at some time, chose to have it surface and be done with early in the campaign?

Aside from which, how many voters who live in the real world are going to get that worked up over a 20 yr old college student drinking?