'Crazy,' 'Threatening' Debt Ceiling Emails Coming From Inside The House! A Wonket Mystery Survey

We love a mystery! And this week's political mystery (apart from the continued popularity of Sarah Palin) is a real head-scratcher: In January, someone sent House Republicans mean anonymous emails promising DEEP HURTING for any any member of the GOP caucus who voted to increase the debt ceiling. So you are probably asking yourself, "So? It's an email, what's the big deal?" and also "Where is that large automobile?" Well here is what the big deal is: the spam was sent to the House members' super-top-secret confidential private House email addresses, the addresses that they only use for correspondence with each other. Buzzfeed's John Stanton says,

Because of the near-secret nature of lawmakers’ internal email addresses, the emails have raised more than a few eyebrows -- and the possibility that one of their own was behind, or at least assisting in the attacks.

Can you imagine the drama of House Republicans looking suspiciously at each other, wondering who sent the emails or leaked the list to a debt-ceiling reality denier? Must be crazy paranoid over there right now. More than usual, we mean.

The emails were intended to influence Republican votes on extending the debt ceiling, which became much less of an issue yesterday when, unable to come up with anything that a majority of Republicans would support, Speaker John Boehner introduced a "clean" one-year debt ceiling extension which was passed by all the House Democrats and 28 Republicans. But the question remains:  Who spilled the Tubby Custard? And who sent the emails, or gave the quasi-secret email list to an outsider? Please 'splain to us, Buzzfeed's John Stanton!

“It’s got to be another member. Probably one of the crazy ones,” said a Republican who had seen the email, which was sent from an anonymous email address, unrepresentative1@gmx.com.

In the email, the lawmakers received a set of forwarded emails sent by “unrepresentative one” to Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford and Speaker John Boehner. The apparent message to GOP House members: If you vote for a debt-limit increase, an outside group mentioned in the email will mobilize against you.

In the forwarded email to Boehner, the writer professes his previous loyalty to the House leader before accusing the Ohio Republican of lying. “John, I’ve never voted against you. Nor have I ever not done whatever you asked of me, nor am I one of the second-guessers who thinks you have an easy job. But, isn’t it time we stopped lying to the American People in re the debt limit?” the email says.

And then there's a bunch of links to wingnut editorials explaining that the debt ceiling can be ignored without a default, if the Treasury just does some creative accounting and stiffs a few contractors here and then.

But just to show that the emailer Knows Stuff and Means Business, the email includes a list of "targeted debt hikers" who unpatriotically voted to not default on the national debt and destroy the economy, and a spreadsheet of Lankford's donors, as an implied "we know who to tell about your perfidious debt vote."

For his part, Lankford doesn't think the email was sent by any member of the house, because it just sounds too darn unhinged. Yes, too unhinged to have come from a member of the House:

“It reads too weird to be that. Some of the statements, some of the stuff in it … at one point in one of the original emails they call me Jim. No one calls me Jim. I go by James. There’s one addressed to the speaker and it’s starts off to ‘John.’ Nobody calls the speaker ‘John,’” Lankford told BuzzFeed Tuesday afternoon.

“So it looks like something someone has created on the outside that wants to pretend they look like us. Because I keep looking at and reading it and thinking nobody even reads or writes like this. And it’s just too weird,” he added.

You ask us, that makes Jimmy Lankford Prime Suspect numero Uno. But who do YOU think is the anonymous troll? We have a poll thingy below; check back later for results, which we may or may not make up completely out of nothing.

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