She was serious. Leslie Cockburn, Democrat nominee for congress in Virginia’s 5th District, falsely accused her opponent, Air Force veteran Denver Riggleman, of being into something she called “Bigfoot erotica.” Cockburn tried to use her new term to conclude that Riggleman was disqualified as a congressional candidate. And she was serious. She really believed that Riggleman was, as she put it, “a devotee of Bigfoot erotica.” What is wrong with her?
This all started Sunday evening when Cockburn tweeted a photo from Riggleman’s Instagram account. You see, Riggleman is a regular guy who actually has a sense of humor. A friend of Riggleman’s from his Air Force days sent Riggleman some funny photos of Bigfoot drawings that had the beast’s private parts hidden by a large black bar that said “censored.” Riggleman shared them on Instagram. They are funny. If you don’t think they’re funny, then you probably are still smart enough to understand that they are jokes.
But Cockburn thought her campaign could benefit by using those photos as genesis for a public false accusation that Riggleman is into what she called “Bigfoot erotica.” Is she that desperate to smear a distinguished veteran? The writer’s at National Lampoon may have been able to come up with that, but we are surprised a congressional candidate actually tried to be serious about what she called “Bigfoot erotica.”
Needless to say, Riggleman is not into Cockburn’s hope of “Bigfoot erotica.” He’s just a cool guy with a dry, sharp sense of humor.
Riggleman supporters have had a lot of funny with Cockburn’s ridiculousness. A factitious new slogan for the campaign has been proposed; “Something To Believe In.” Riggleman himself jokingly said, “I do not believe that Bigfoot is real. But I don’t want to alienate any Bigfoot voters.” Hilarious.
So what can we conclude about Cockburn from this super weird episode?
The facts again are Cockburn saw photos on Instagram. She didn’t understand they were jokes. So, without contacting Riggleman, she falsely accused him of being into something very bizarre. She is supposed to be a journalist. She should have known that she didn’t have enough in her story to publish her own ridiculous claim. But that didn’t stop her. Had she used a newspaper’s Twitter handle to make her “devotee of Bigfoot erotica” claim, then she would had to have taken it down and then face disciplinary action of some kind, which may have included a termination of her employment.
Parody in politics is getting really tough these days. Democrat Leslie Cockburn wants to talk about “Bigfoot erotica.” Wow, that last sentence is factual and disturbing.
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