An update to the Blueprint NC scandal that broke on Thursday evening, the Director for Blueprint NC, Sean Kosofsky, is attempting to disown the leaked memo and documents — even though it all came directly from employee Stephanie Bass’ email.  Kosofsky’s statements were, at best, weak and desperate. WRAL, who still has not commented on the link between Blueprint NC and their owner, Jim Goodmon, reports:

“The email from Stephanie is referring to the slide deck, the POLLING MEMO and the data,” Blueprint NC Executive Director Sean Kosofsky wrote in an email on Saturday. “This document from early December is not our document at all. We never drafted that. All these news outlets have been had.

“This is a James O’Keefe-style splicing of two radially different things,” he continued, referring to a Republican filmmaker and provocateur whose work has frequently been called into question.

James O’Keefe, call your office.  Two radially different things? All of the documents included seemed pretty much in line with each other in data and message.  It gets better. The article also published Kosofsky emailed replies to questions, emphasis is mine:

Asked it was appropriate for his organization to participate in meetings where such memos are distributed and whether he endorsed all the ideas in the memo, Kosofsky replied via email:

Darn right. C3 nonprofits should absolutely try to stop bad policies that hurt the poor and hurt the environment, women and the middle class. If they need to exploit weaknesses of lawmakers, they should. I stand by that.

The meeting in December was of over 50 organizations. People bring their own idea. I am not going to claim or distance myself from things without greater context. The only thing that matters to Blueprint is what Blueprint does. I cannot speak for others. We cannot be held to what others do at meetings we are at. that is completely unfair.

I am not going to cherry pick ideas from that draft plan and say which ones we approve of or disapprove of. I will say this…The stakes are high for the people of NC. This governor and legislature are approving raises for their cabinet while gutting benefits for folks already injured by unemployment. Blueprint and our partners are passionate advocates for policy passed in the public interest, not passed for special interests. Our partners can educate the public, educate lawmakers and absolutely hold them accountable when they vote against the interests of the people of NC. the public should know that charitable groups can and do advocate strongly. they should. Blueprint doesn’t lobby or do any public advocacy. This isn’t about us at all.

So, let’s get this straight: Kosofsky claims it’s some kind of conspiracy, the documents are not related to each other but yet is proud of it and stands behind it. Got it.

The 2013 legislative agenda was not dated specifically, but the rest was – including the talking points. We saw the whole memo, who does he think he’s kidding? The big “DRAFT: NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION” and Bass’ email stating this was all “CONFIDENTIAL” and ‘not to share with the whole world’ were just there for fun.

None of these documents are related nor endorsed by Blueprint NC – except they are, but everyone is supposed to ignore that because ‘we’re taking it all out of context’! We’re clearly not understanding that a leaked memo, with a group of attachments that look kind of bad, are part of a big ‘gotcha style’ story perpetrated by Right Wingers, right? Especially since the story was first reported by that very Right Wing paper, The Charlotte Observer?

Wow… and they say Republican messaging is awful.

Mr. Kosofsky would do better to stop finger pointing, hyperbole and paranoid accusations and perhaps figure out who leaked the memo in the first place. Clearly someone found it disturbing enough to share with the press.

Related Posts:

Liberal NC Non-Profit Group’s Attack Memo Leaked

@WRAL Silent On Internal Link To Blueprint NC’s Attack Memo

3rd Local Media Outlet Ignores Goodmon/Blueprint NC Connection