My mom came by the campaign office today.  Her first visit.  She says my desk looks like my old dorm room.

I didn’t have the heart tell her that it’s only half my desk.  It’s a small office and we have to share.  But it’s cool.  I have a system.   Got things stashed where I can always find them. Knowing where to look is the key, so I don’t have to worry about some intern or volunteer that’s just in for the day poking into something they shouldn’t. 

Wow, I knew Garcetti was a scumbag who epitomized the very worst of Gotham, but even I didn’t know how low he could stoop.  In his relentless efforts to make us think all of Gotham is a bleak, corrupt no man’s land—a kind of Mordor with street lights and traffic signs—our “esteemed opponent” has made it the mission of his life to smear not just the city in general, but the individual heroes. 

The Gotham Post ran this unbelievable photograph it CLAIMS was circulating on the internet.  Now first, the photo is a total fake and I’ll get to that next.  But the thing that really has me steamed is that the Post are the guys making this stuff up.  I’m the one in charge of sweeping the net twice a day and if this picture was “circulating,” believe me, I WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT IT BEFORE THE GOTHAM FRIGGIN POST RAN THEIR PICTURE!

They totally made it up.  I can’t believe how gullible people are!  How can they not see what’s going on here?  How can they not see the agenda that paper has?  It’s not like they’re being SUBTLE or anything! 

Sigh.

So, there’s nothing I can do about the Post at this point, but the picture itself, that’s right out of the Dirty Tricks playbook.  It purports to show Harvey meeting a pair of "unidentified" lobbyists who aren’t all that hard to identify.  Anyone willing to Google for 5 or 10 minutes can easily come up with the names Polly Bailey and Bobby Jay Bliss from the Moderation Council and the Society for the Advancement of Firearms & Effective Training of Youth (S.A.F.E.T.Y), respectively. 

Then they feel so clever for figuring it out, they go off believing that really is Harvey sitting there getting cozy with the alcohol and gun lobbies.

Phone.  Gotta run.  To be continued...

So I spent the morning IDing Bailey and Bliss, hoping to get the names out there and ruin the bloggers’ fun.  Well, Fate must like Harvey, or at least she likes me, because I lucked out.  I didn't just find B&B, I found more photos from the restaurant where the doctored photo was taken, including a more candid shot than the one they Photoshopped in the Post.  It's the SAME DAY, they're all wearing the same clothes, but in this  one it’s really obvious that is not  Harvey in the picture.

The guy bears a ballpark resemblance, sure, but that’s mostly the haircut.  He’s a well-known spin doctor for big tobacco.  In other words, exactly who you’d expect to be having lunch with Miss Moderation Council and Mr. Stop or I’ll Shoot.

So I’m the hero of the hour.  I was gonna take Ma out to celebrate, but Mr. Daniel said I should stick around for the night.  Harvey and Gilda are going to stop in before the fundraising shindig at the circus and “want me to ride out in the car with them.”  I guess that means I’m going to wind up out at the circus grounds, and I’ve got NO idea how many trains that’s going to mean getting home after, but I’ll be damned if I’ll miss a chance to schmooze the candidate.  Celebration dinner with Ma will have to wait.

First cartoon hit today. 

The multi-face thing is pretty generic.  It’s really something you could hurl at any politician.  I mean, why pick on Harvey?    The bat thing is kind of puzzling too.  Harvey hasn’t declared any position on Batman yet, but he has said a lot about the police, naturally.  Everyone knows by now that good, honest cops can look forward to a real partnership with Harvey Dent’s DA’s office, like they never had with the current one.

Harvey, Mr. Daniel, and the others had a quick huddle about it this morning.  Richard especially was surprised it didn’t touch on his resignation.  That’s the attack they all expected.  Why did Harvey leave as ADA after only a few months?  Was he just so bloated from a few high profile wins that he decided to take his boss’s job? 

Instead, we get some fat, balding caricature of a politician.  Looks nothing like Harv.  Richard says they probably want to downplay his good looks.  

Anyway, the rest of the office was pretty hohum about the whole thing, but I clipped it out.  It’s the first political cartoon of a candidate I’m working for.