Two days ago. the headline at Mother Jones suggested there was a scandal involving Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell:

Secret Tape: McConnell and Aides Weighed Using
Judd’s Mental Health and Religion as Political Ammo

Aides to the Senate GOP leader talking trash about potential Democrat opponent Ashley Judd? Scandalous!

And then the headlines began changing:

FBI asked to probe secret recordings of McConnell meeting
- CNN

McConnell campaign asks for FBI investigation
over leaked Ashley Judd tapes
- Washington Post

McConnell Compares Campaign Recording to Nixon’s Watergate
- Roll Call

Mitch McConnell aide: ‘Gestapo’ tactics
- Politico

In the span of about 24 hours then, the narrative went from “Republicans say mean things about Ashley Judd” to “Hey, isn’t secretly wiretapping your opponent’s campaign kinda like Watergate?” Not just bad and wrong, but also maybe illegal? And then another 24 hours went by, and the finger-pointing began:

Source: Progress Kentucky Behind
Mitch McConnell Campaign Recording
- WFPL, Louisville

Report: Progress Ky. taped McConnell
- Politico

Local Dem Says He Outed Progress Kentucky
To Protect The Party (VIDEO)
- Talking Points Memo

According to the version of the story now being told by local Democrat official Jacob Conway, two activists with Progress Kentucky “bragged to him about how they recorded the meeting” at McConnell’s campaign headquarters, using an iPhone to record it from the hallway.

A Democrat National Committee official LOLed at calls to denounce the secret recording, and accused McConnell of “trying to distract” from the fact that Republicans considered making an issue of ”a woman’s decades old mental health issues.” Except that it wasn’t “decades old.” Judd sought help for her mental illness as recently 2006:

In a 2006 interview, Judd recounted how she “spent years battling depression,” Laurie Sandell of Glamour magazine reported, describing the 47 days Judd spent in treatment at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas, where the actress’s sister, country singer Wynona Judd also underwent treatment.

Judd announced two weeks ago she would not seek the Democrat nomination to challenge McConnell in next year’s election. Democrats are now backing Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, whom polls show trailing the 71-year-old McConnell.