Brady President Paul Helmke appeared on FOX News yesterday morning to rebut the latest NRA smear tactics against Sen. Obama.

Paul went on immediately before NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, and frankly pushed LaPierre off the field before he had a chance to say a word.

Paul made it clear that after the Heller decision, nobody’s going to “take anybody’s guns away,” and the NRA is scrambling for a scare tactic to keep the donations rolling in.

But with at least four national fact checking organizations calling NRA’s anti-Obama smear campaign everything from “misleading” to “a huge stretch” to “intentionally dishonest” and “pants on fire wrong,” it was all Mr. LaPierre could do to convince viewers that he and the NRA leadership weren’t lying through their teeth.

For Heaven’s sake, NRA called Sen. John McCain “one of the premier flag carriers for the enemies of the Second Amendment” just a few years ago. Then they endorsed him for President.

And if that isn’t enough, Paul also reminded the audience about the still-unresolved NRA spy scandal, calling into question the last shred of credibility NRA has left with the electorate.

FOX News America’s Newsroom Anchor Megyn Kelly was actually the first journalist in the country to pose a question about the NRA spy directly to an NRA official on the air.

Characteristically, Wayne LaPierre ducked.

Watch the two main segments here (the third and final segment with Wayne LaPierre has yet to be posted):

ABC News reported Tuesday that the campaign of Sen. John McCain “sought to distance itself” from NRA lobbyist James Jay Baker because of his connection to the NRA spy scandal.

Baker was the former executive director at NRA-ILA when his deputy allegedly managed a spy who infiltrated the gun control movement.

Baker was also reported by the New York Times to be in McCain’s “kitchen cabinet,” contributed over $3,000 to McCain since 2006, and billed the NRA over $2 million in lobbying fees since 2002.

Mother Jones pointed out yesterday, however, that Baker remains listed as a co-Chair of the Sportsmen for McCain National Steering Committee:

… It stands to reason why the [McCain] campaign would want to draw a wide berth around Baker. Until 2002, Baker was the executive director of the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. During his tenure, the ILA engaged the services of a now defunct private security firm, Beckett Brown, which specialized in spying on activist groups. Beckett Brown’s point of contact at ILA was Baker’s deputy, Patrick O’Malley. O’Malley also served as an NRA contact for Mary Lou Sapone, who, as Mother Jones reported in July, is a freelance spy who infiltrated the gun control movement from more than a decade on behalf of the gun lobby. When we contacted Baker seeking comment on Sapone’s work for the NRA, he said, “I don’t have anything to say about any vendors at the NRA.” And while maintaining that he had no knowledge of any efforts to penetrate the gun control movement while he was at the NRA, he added: “We got information from whatever sources we can.” The NRA has refused to comment on the Sapone story, declining to explain any possible relationship between the ILA and Sapone.

But if McCain intends on throwing Baker overboard, he has a strange way of showing it. On Thursday his campaign issued a press release announcing the leadership of the National Steering Committee of the Sportsmen for McCain coalition. And, along with Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, Baker is one of its co-chairs.

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Will Senator McCain demand an accounting from Baker – a “high level volunteer” and co-Chair of a major McCain campaign committee – on charges that he apparently oversaw a spy operation run out of the NRA lobbying shop?

Will McCain demand an explanation from Baker about his and the NRA’s role in allegedly paying a spy to infiltrate the gun control movement by befriending gun violence victims and their families?

The “Straight Talk Express” seems to be stuck in the station on this count.

Just posted to ABC News, excerpted at length here:

A Republican political operative considered part of the McCain campaign’s “kitchen cabinet” oversaw a National Rifle Association lobbying campaign that allegedly hired a spy to infiltrate gun control groups, according to Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

James Jay Baker served as executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) in the late 1990s when it allegedly hired a woman to pose as a gun control activist and funnel information back to the NRA.

A McCain campaign spokesperson said Baker was only a “high level volunteer” for the campaign.

…

Baker, who is still registered as a lobbyist for the NRA, is now Managing Director of the Washington-based lobbying firm, Ogilvy Government Relations. Ogilvy has billed the NRA $90,000 so far for 2008, according to the company’s financial disclosure forms, and $360,000 in 2007. Congressional lobbying disclosure reports show the NRA has paid Ogilvy $2.34 million since Baker left the NRA and joined the firm.

Gun control activists who say they are “stunned” to learn about the allegations that McFate/Sapone was a spy, are calling on McCain to take a stand against Baker whom the Brady Campaign has linked to the underhanded business of spying.

“Senator McCain describes himself as a ’straight talker’ and a critic of the Washington lobbying establishment,” said Helmke. “Senator McCain and his campaign need to answer whether or not they approve of this spying on victims, and whether they will ask Mr. Baker and the NRA to explain the extent of their involvement in these activities.”

The McCain campaign today sought to distance itself from Baker.

…

The NRA did not return phone calls requesting comment. Neither did Baker, who did, however, tell Mother Jones that he was not aware of any infiltration of the gun control movement.

Baker’s deputy director at the NRA’s ILA, Patrick O’Malley, who is identified as Sapone’s contact at the NRA in BBI depositions, did not return phone calls requesting comment.

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The New York Times reported that Baker was in Sen. McCain’s “kitchen cabinet” here.

The Los Angeles Daily News also reported this in February of this year (article not available online).

Find Congressional lobbying disclosure forms here.

Read the Mother Jones report about the NRA spy, and James Jay Baker’s connection to her through his former deputy director, Patrick O’Malley, here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer today editorializes on the NRA spy scandal that continues to inspire national media scrutiny.

Read it here:

Maybe it’s a compliment for gun-control groups to have been spied upon by so formidable an adversary as the National Rifle Association.

That doesn’t make it any less despicable, though, for an active volunteer in the gun-control movement in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to work as a paid spy for the NRA.

The volunteer known as Mary McFate sat on the board of the CeaseFirePA gun-control group and worked with other gun-control efforts in the state for several years. She ran unsuccessfully for the board of the nation’s premier gun-control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

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CNN continued the intensifying media scrutiny after Mother Jones reported two weeks ago that the NRA paid someone to spy on gun violence victims and their families, as well as infiltrate the gun violence prevention movement.

Asked once again to comment on these reports, an NRA press secretary told CNN, “I’ve told you guys repeatedly, I have no comment.”

Two weeks after the story broke, the National Rifle Association is still hostage to the bunker paranoia that may have led them to hire a spy in the first place.