Steve Kegel, John McCain, and Milwaukee

Barack Obama is running some really sleazy ads. It's a myth (or, if you prefer, a lie) that he's running a positive, honest campaign. He's not, not at all.

Obama has enlisted Steve Kegel to distort John McCain's words.

(The political radio commercials are STEVE KEGEL, not to be confused with Chris Kegel. STEVE KEGEL is a union labor organizer in Milwaukee.)

A comment McCain made in 2004 has been trotted out to turn Milwaukeeans against the Republican candidate.

I think John Jagler, 620 WTMJ radio host, bears some responsibility for bringing the line to the attention of the Obama camp.

Anyway, in 2004, Mark Leibovich wrote a piece about McCain in the Washington Post. The article was written back when McCain was still a lib media darling. Leibovich was at a Diamondbacks game with McCain and offered some insights.

Between pitches, the following tidbits of McCainiana are gleaned:

• He would hate to live in Milwaukee.

• He has been unimpressed with Kerry's recent performances: "Kerry's gotta stop nuancing everything."

• John Edwards would have been a tougher nominee to beat.

Can you believe that Obama has approved a message that utilizes that line to sway voters in Milwaukee and Wisconsin?

It's nuts.

John Jagler and Gene Mueller of 620 WMTJ spoke to Leibovich about the 4-year-old remark.

"We were at a Diamondbacks game (against the San Diego Padres) in 2004, in the springtime. I was writing a profile of him for the Washington Post, which is where I worked then.

"We were just talking. He was just talking about various random things that two people sitting next to each other in the course of a three-hour baseball game talk about.

"For whatever reason, he said he would hate to live in Milwaukee. I put it in my story, and lo and behold, four years later, a radio station in Milwaukee has found it.

"I think it was probably a former Brewer playing in the game."

As a matter of fact, on the next part of his online article of the story, he says that former Brewer and then-Diamondback Richie Sexson was batting in the game.

"(McCain's) a big baseball fan. He knows baseball. It's not inconceivable that, you talk baseball and a team comes up. I would be guessing if I sort of tried to remember the context, but it was pretty straight forward.

"If he did, I don't remember. The only reason I put that in the story was that I did a bunch of bullet points on stuff that he said, and points that were memorable to me and that wound up in my notebook."

Leibovich doesn't recall the exact context, but he believes it was baseball related.

McCain doesn't have some deep-seated hate for the city of Milwaukee. The suggestion that he was slamming the city and, more importantly, its people is ridiculous.

Of course, that doesn't stop Obama from trying to make that connection. It's completely unfounded, but he does it anyway.

Jagler has discovered that doing some opposition research for Obama and writing a blog post on his findings has consequences.

Why is my name on a democratic party news release? That's the question I found myself asking today. A few days ago, Gene and I talked about a four year old article out of the Washington Post. In it, John McCain, while watching a baseball with a reporter mentioned he would hate to live in the city of Milwaukee.

...Well, somebody over at the democratic party picked up on it. They sent out a press release making it seem like we thought it was a news story or something or that we were trying to get people fired up about. If they wanted to may political hay out of such a random comment, fine. I just wish they wouldn't have attached my name to it without adding my take.

We go out of our way to stay "apolitical" on the show. We bring you the news and leave the commentary to others like Charlie Sykes and others.

Jagler may stay "apolitical" on his show but not on his blog.

He writes:

By the way, a listener speculated that McCain said he would hate to live in Milwaukee because of the bad season the Brewers were having in 2004. That doesn't make any sense. While the Brewers were bad and won only 67 games, McCain's D-Backs only won 51.

So Jagler's in a hole and he decides to keep digging. He's like Steve Kagen in that sense.

Jagler claims to be apolitical and then he argues that McCain wasn't just talking baseball, saying his remark wouldn't make any sense if that were case.

It sounds like Jagler is trying to keep the comment alive and make it an issue.

In any event, Obama has decided to use the comment against McCain.

It's a thoroughly lame move.