GOP Congressional Candidate Calls the Cops on a Reporter

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Reporter's Notebook

Reporter John McCormack from the conservative Weekly Standard attended a forum Monday night where New York special election congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava spoke to fellow Republicans. After the event, McCormack approached the candidate peppering her with questions about card check, taxes and health care reform. The questions continued as the reporter walked with Scozzafava to her car. Minutes later, a police car arrived.

McCormack writes: "'You scared the candidate a little bit,' Officer Grolman told me. [Scozzafava] got startled that's all... It's not like you're in any trouble.'"

McCormack concludes it's Scozzafava's candidacy that might be in trouble if, "she has someone with her campaign call the cops when she's questioned by a reporter who is (if I may say so) polite — if a bit persistent."

Scozzafava is losing support. According to a Siena Research Institute poll (with a 3.9 percent margin of error), she's turned a seven-point lead on Democrat Bill Owens into a four-point deficit in just a couple of weeks. And third party conservative candidate David Hoffman has gained seven, and now trails Scozzafava by just six points.

Contact Sport

Another close race is in Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails Republican Sue Lowden by almost eight points in the latest RealClearPolitics average.

Reid is down about 5.5 to Republican Danny Tarkanian. But it appears the former boxer's campaign is in full fight mode. Politico newspaper reports a Reid adviser is coming out swinging: "I expect [Reid] to vaporize Lowden or Tarkanian or who(m)ever is the opponent."

Double Standard?

During this morning's off-camera White House briefing with reporters, ABC's Jake Tapper asked press secretary Robert Gibbs about the ongoing White House attacks on Fox News. After being asked about the charge that Fox isn't a real news organization, Gibbs answered, "We render opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness of that coverage."

Tapper: "That's a pretty sweeping declaration that they're not a news organization. How are they different from, say another, say ABC, MSNBC, Univision?"

Gibbs: "You and I should watch sometime around nine o'clock tonight or five this afternoon."

Tapper: "I'm not talking about their opinion programs. Or issues you have with certain reports. I'm talking about saying that thousands of individuals who work for a media organization — do not work for a news organization. Why is that appropriate for the White House to say?"

Gibbs: "That is our opinion."

Their strong opinions about our opinion shows (Glenn Beck runs at 5 p.m. ET and Sean Hannity at 9 p.m. ET), apparently do not extend to similar shows on other networks. A White House official tells us that the audience for Monday's off-the-record briefing with President Obama — included MSNBC personalities Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.