Amidst forgery scandal, ACCCE still finds time to argue that Kentucky should be more flat

Rachel Maddow covered the ACCCE letter forgery last night in a segment that also featured an interview with Virginia Rep. Tom Periello, one of the targets of the coal-industry funded letter scandal, notes Appalachian Voices. Worth watching for the recap of the forgery scandal as well as to see how intelligently Rep. Periello discusses the fraud as well as the disruptive individuals who turn up to town hall meetings.

Its worth focusing on one very important point: the forged letters were discovered three days before the vote that they were intended to influence, but no one alerted the targeted members of Congress - Reps Periello, Dahlkemper, or Carney (those we know of so far) - to let them know.

We haven't heard of any ACCCE spokespeople agreeing to talk on tv about their role in the scandal, or their 'apology' for it, which GetEnergySmartNow eviscerates in a step-by-step read and react piece.

In the same piece, GESN notes that the Hawthorn Group, which hired Bonner & Associates for ACCCE, has released a statement about the scandal, noting that they asked Bonner & Associates to tell the members.

Uh-huh. Apparently Hawthorn and ACCCE judged that Bonner & Associates' track-record of integrity made them a reliable means of informing members of Congress whom they'd deceived that they had been deceived. Track-record yes, integrity....no.

But, readers will be relieved to know that despite the horror, despite the scalding embarrassment and humiliation...ACCCE still has the rocks to have their flacks out making the case for coal...The latest installment: explaining that blowing up mountains is a good idea because Kentucky suffers from a critical shortage of flat, as ThinkProgress notes.