I can’t help feeling some sympathy for her at this point, as clearly she and her staff weren’t prepared for a tough race with national media attention. The clusterfark with the Standard, capped by proof that her staffers were lying, was bad enough, but in case there was any lingering doubt that this train is off the tracks, this masterstroke of political optics ought to remove it. A helpful hint from Dave Weigel to whoever it was on Team Dede that thought a presser outside the opponent’s HQ would be a smooth move: “Little-known fact: There are lots of campaign workers, and signs, in such offices, ready to be deployed.”

Exit question: What’s more embarrassing here, the fact that she’s questioning someone else’s “political courage” after having called the cops on John McCormack for asking her a question about abortion or the fact that Doug Hoffman already challenged her to a series of debates months ago, which she duly declined?