I’m beaming with pride: Today, the Anne Northup for Congress campaign sent out an e-mail urging Louisvillians to sign her “Lower Gas Louisville” petition — and used my editor’s note from today’s paper to rile up the masses.

Referring to LEO Weekly as “Yarmuth Weekly” — people, John Yarmuth sold LEO in 2003 and has written one guest column for the newspaper since declaring a run for Congress in early 2006 — the Northup mailer called my piece a “vulgar, rage filled editorial — better yet, a temper tantrum.” Hm. I actually thought my piece contained some decent humor, but hey, when you’re 17 points down in the polls in the district you represented for a decade, the sense of humor level can get a little low.

As her campaign is wont to do, the e-mail ignores the context of my comments, saying I’m anti-Kentucky coal and the people whose jobs depend on it for invoking my well-known stance against mountaintop removal coal mining (read: NOT COAL MINING IN GENERAL), and reducing my ideas for actually addressing the “energy crisis” to a mention of buying food at a farmer’s market (and this is the part they ignore) rather than paying into a food transport system that consumes billions of gallons of gas per year. Naturally, I proposed that and a few other alternative modes of transportation to replace short car trips (to save gas and money, which I actually thought Northup might find amenable) as a small portion of what needs to be a broad, multi-faceted address to the energy issue. They ignored that context, obviously, because it’s unsuitable for this very fine point they appear to be trying to make.

Predictably, they carefully plucked words and phrases from the editorial to make it look all scary and liberal (I also foisted my position that we SHOULD drill for oil on American soil, a Republican position, but they ignored that because we’re all screwed if Northup agrees with something I’ve said), try to connect it to Yarmuth, and send it out to the list!

Oh, and they close by calling my request for a serious energy policy from Northup and a broader discussion of actual energy policy a “liberal, elitist, do-nothing view on energy.” And a petition urging Congress to help lower gas prices is what again? Policy?

I’m saddened, frankly, that the Northup campaign has chosen to commit yet another vital mistake this campaign season by trying to pull me into this process and use me against Yarmuth. I’m saddened, of course, because it’s the pathetic behavior of a petulant child, not a serious Congressional candidate.

I’ll be giving a call to Northup’s campaign tomorrow to see if they’re really serious about this stuff. Look for a follow-up. (SG)

UPDATE: Here is the Northup campaign mailer. Apparently some of her minions have been instructed to email me using similar language. This should be fun.