McCaskill goes after the people who exposed her?

Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill's campaign manager on Wednesday called for her Republican rival Josh Hawley to launch an investigation of footage of her campaign taken by a conservative group known for "sting" videos of liberal organizations.

"We have reason to believe that fraud has been committed against our campaign," McCaskill campaign manager David Kirby said, later adding that "there's no question that the videos were captured under false pretenses and misrepresentations, which under Missouri law is fraud."

Not only that... but at one point she tried to pin the blame on her opponent, Josh Hawley

"It is startling that Josh Hawley would be part of fraudulently embedding somebody in my campaign," McCaskill told KOLR-10 in Springfield, Missouri on Tuesday.

Hawley fired back Wednesday, calling that assertion "absurd." 

"Senator, accusing people of crimes is a serious thing," Hawley tweeted. "If you have evidence of a crime, please come forward with it immediately. Otherwise, please stop politicizing the legal process for your re-election."

When pressed by reporters Wednesday, Kirby said Hawley is "perpetrating this fraud by promoting it and encouraging it." 

This is the classic "shoot the messenger" defense. The louder McCaskill is screaming, the more damaging this probably is to her in general. It's one thing to take donations from Planned Parenthood, especially if you are a Democrat. In fact, it's sort of expected.

But if you are telling your constituents that you are "not" taking those donations, when in fact you are taking them (just hiding the manner in which they are getting to you) then that is a matter of tremendous dishonestly.

This is the inherent issue with Democratic Senators in red states (or Republican Senators in blue states). They tend to spend most of their time trying to "act" as if they are not really members of the party that they represent.

Moreover, many times the appearance of non-partisanship and political independence (especially from controversial special interest groups like Planned Parenthood) is part of the appeal to voting for a Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, or Susan Collins.

If it were to be determined that any of these people are being "deceptive" about their true allegiances and true beliefs then it may be difficult to keep their popularity. These videos (which aim to show that McCaskill is a leftist liberal in independent's clothing) likely hits McCaskill where it hurts.