McCain-Palin Lied About Rick Davis and Davis Manafort

Via Newsweek, the lobbying firm Davis-Manafort listed Rick Davis as a corporate officer as recently as April of this year, and reported him as such in routine information disclosures to the Virginia Government. So much for him having severed his ties with the firm in 2006.

When informed of this state of affairs, according to Newsweek:

The McCain campaign Wednesday sought to clarify Davis's affiliation with his firm, but insisted that the new information contained in the corporate filings in Virginia didn't alter their basic points. "Rick Davis is functionally not affiliated with the firm," said (Jill) Hazelbaker, the communications director. "That is to say that, since he left, he in fact has not done any work for Davis Manafort or its clients, and he has not taken a salary or received compensation since 2006. Furthermore, he will not receive any deferred compensation."

Why am I skeptical towards this statement? Maybe because of the vehemence of the campaign's claims regarding his continued ties to the firm? Maybe because of the way they tried to smear the news outlets that reported on it in the first place?

It just blows my mind that these people think that they can bullshit the public and press and not get caught. As Andrew Sullivan opines, their lies are demonstrably lies, but this doesn't deter them from doing it. It's mind-boggling.

The GOP campaign is coming apart at the seams. I thought a month ago that the Palin pick was going to deep-six McCain's chances, but it looks like he and his handlers are doing a pretty thorough job of that without her help.