A Romney-sized rat

The post below references Craig Unger's important story, published in Salon on October 1, indicating that Mitt Romney fastened onto the Benghazi pseudo-scandal after receiving some inside dope from the intel community. Apparently, Team Romney learned from sympathetic spooks that there were warnings of an impending attack...

The source described the Republicans as chortling with glee that the Obama administration “definitely had intel” about the attack before it happened. “Intelligence can be graded in different ways,” he added, “and sometimes A and B don’t get connected. But [the Romney campaign] will try to paint it to look like Obama had advance knowledge of the attack and is weak on terrorism.”

In the days since October 1, this prediction has borne out, more or less. Unger warns that there is more to come -- a phase two to Romney's Libya strategy. We probably won't see that second phase until fairly close to the election.

So far, the Benghazi story has not worked to Romney's favor. Mitt embarrassed himself when he tried to make political points on the day of the attack, and he seemed crude and desperate during the second debate.

Yet the right won't let the story go. That fact tells me that there may really be a phase two -- which leaves us all waiting for the other shoe to drop.

A friend to this blog writes:

Joe....Have you been following the hysteria happening on the internet about a website called "The October Surprise" that claims to have solid evidence that "one of our presidential candidates" is lying to us?

This website, which appears to be down currently, has a countdown clock up and says that it will be releasing this irrefutable info on Sunday evening before the Monday debate.

Could this be what the GOP has up it's sleeve?

Also, I found it interesting that Jim Corsi was seen (on video) boarding Romney's campaign plane yesterday. In what universe would a lunatic birther, conspiracy theorist like Jim Corsi be invited to travel with a Presidential candidate in the closing days of an election?

Something rotten in Romneyville

Something rotten indeed. For more on that website, see here. And this is the actual website itself. It promises a grand revelation in four days. The site also released blurry images of documents which allegedly have something to do with the Surprise. The first one looks like a tax form.

Here's what Gawker has to say about the October Surprise countdown site:

So far, very little has been revealed besides a claim that one of the candidates "isn't being honest," which is no surprise.

However, the person or persons behind the site say the content that will be unveiled at precisely 5:30 PM ET on October 22nd has been verified by a "rock solid" source and is "irrefutable."

Among the most popular speculations currently being floated are Romney's elusive tax returns or something damning involving President Obama and Libya.

The former stems from the suggestion made by some that one of the blurry "teaser documents" posted online resembles a tax form, and another possibly features a Massachusetts State letterhead.

The latter was prompted by a hint dropped on the site's official Twitter feed claiming the subject of the "surprise" was "mentioned in both the VP debate and second presidential debate."

That last clue is intriguing. To the best of my recollection, Romney's tax returns (one popular guess as to the nature of the "Surprise") were not mentioned in those debates. But Libya was.

The Twitter feed indicates that the vile Texas Darlin' is paying attention to this story. That bodes ill. Incidentally, the October Surprise graphic used as an avatar comes from the cover of the hardback edition of Barbara Honneger's book about the original October Surprise.

So far, everything validates Unger.

Incidentally, the Corsi report may be found on Politico.