TPMMuckraker

Kaloogian Campaign Goes to Ground

The Kaloogian for Congress campaign is no longer making the candidate available for interviews or making comments on the Iraq photo fiasco.

Which is too bad, because we have a few questions. For instance, the page featuring the photo includes text by Kaloogian beginning, “I just got back from Iraq.” Yet he appears to have gone there in July 2005 — several months before he entered the House race, or created the Web site. Was this an oversight akin to the bad Baghdad pic?

And who exactly snapped the photo, anyway? And who approved its use?

We may yet find out, but not from the Kaloogian campaign. Calvin Collins, campaign manager for Howard Kaloogian’s bid for Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s old House seat, said that the Kaloogian was not available to be interviewed, and no one else was speaking on his behalf. “No one is giving any comments,” Collins told me.

It’s pretty clear there wasn’t just one wrong step here, but a series of doozies. Coming in the middle of a highly-charged debate over what the ground truth in Iraq is, Kaloogian’s already facing accusations he’s deliberately making this stuff up to support his argument that Baghdad is calm. Why won’t he come clean and explain how it all happened?

Howard Kaloogian

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