Prominent Progressive's Email Suggests Defacing Cover of Paul Ryan's New Book

August 19th, 2014 4:07 PM

Imagine that a prominent Republican activist proposed a campaign of malicious destruction against Hillary Clinton's latest book. Does anyone doubt that the press would be all over it as proof that conservatives and Republicans are disrespectful and mean-spirited?

Well, Erica Payne is a prominent, aggressively self-promoting progressive. The advanced nature of her activist bona fides might cause you to assume that she would think before stooping to openly suggesting destruction of property. Nope. Via Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard (link is in original; bolds are mine):


RyanAndGranny0814Wide

Activist Encourages Defacement of Cover of Paul Ryan's Book

Erica Payne, founder and president of the left-wing Agenda Project, is encouraging people to deface the cover of Paul Ryan's new book, which is hitting shelves today.

"Hi Daniel," Payne writes in an email. "Just a heads up, Paul Ryan's new book comes out today and his publisher is furious! It turns out that they accidentally shipped it with the wrong cover, and they need your help to make things right.

"We have the correct cover and it's up to us to get it on as many of his books as possible, as soon as possible." The real cover is right here. Just print it out, take it to your nearest bookstore, and place it over the book jacket.

Here's the real book cover (note: it doesn't include an image of Ryan pushing granny over the cliff):

I take it from Halper's writeup that there is no indication from Payne that she is kidding.

One likely reason for Payne's failure to self-filter is that even if caught, it won't hurt her career or her causes because they won't get wide media exposure.

Recall how someone at a California county-level GOP office got national exposure for spreading a joke about President Obama, which, though in dreadful taste, is not a crime.

But defacing books is.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.