Call me crazy, but if the GOP plays this right, we can commit the Texas Senate seat to the “win” column.

PJ Media’s Matt Margolis has led the coverage, but the TL;DR synopsis is this: Rumors are flying that James Talarico, the Democrats’ Senate candidate in the Lone Star State, took a break from campaigning to lock himself in a rubber room while wearing a jacket with super long sleeves.

Talarico emphatically denied it, insisting that it was just a bad case of the flu:

As did the medical center:

Are there reasons to be skeptical of the loony-bin theory? Yup: Medical centers aren’t allowed to give private medical info to randos, a recorded call from a receptionist isn’t rock-solid confirmation, and the story has more holes than a golf course.

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As @CynicalPublius pointed out, there could be eight people in Ohio who share a name with the Texas Democrat. Veterans of Project Veritas — an organization that knows a thing or two about undercover investigative journalism — have thrown cold water on the cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs theory, too.

It also defies common sense: If Talarico was having a mental health episode, wouldn’t you expect the campaign to quarantine him in a Texas home or a nearby hotel floor and hire a full-time therapist/physician?

The campaign has over $70 million. It’s not like doctors, therapists, and hotel rooms were beyond Talarico’s budget. Why would his team take the risk of flying him to Ohio? Flight plans are documented by the FAA — and there are zillions of other points of exposure. 

If this story is legit, whoever came up with Talarico’s treatment plan is nutty, too.

But it’s 100% true that Talarico missed 12 days of political campaigning in the final 50 days of the race. And it’s also true that his flu story is at least somewhat contradictory:

Again, not exactly a smoking gun. Barely a smoking match. 

If this were a legal case, it’d be laughed out of court.

But it’s not a legal case; it’s a political race — which means its jurisdiction is the court of public opinion.

And in the court of public opinion, the biggest, most compelling, most deeply damaging circumstantial evidence is this: James Talarico looks like the kind of guy who’d use mental health professionals.

He’s a 37-year-old effete left-winger. He thinks and speaks in the language of Woke:

And part of the Woke culture is relying on therapy as the ultimate solution for all mental health problems. Got issues with sadness, anger, or your in-laws?

The answer is therapy.

It’s become a cliché on left-leaning message boards like Reddit: No matter life’s problem, therapy is always, always, always the solution. This is an idea heavily promoted, crazily enough, by the healthcare professionals and the media:

HealthCore Clinic: Why Everyone Can Benefit From Therapy

HuffPost: 4 Ways Everyone Can Benefit From Therapy

AltaMed: Why Anyone Can Benefit From Therapy

CNN: Should Everyone Consider Therapy to Be Happier?

Emerge Professionals: 5 Unexpected Ways Everyone Can Benefit From Therapy

Girls Gone Strong: Why Therapy Can Be Beneficial for Everyone

Galvin Growth Group: Everyone Can Benefit From Therapy. Here’s Why.

People Incorporated | Mental Health Services: Why Therapy Is for Everyone

Psychology Today: Five Reasons Anyone Can Benefit From Psychotherapy

TED Talks: Why We Should All Try Therapy

Achieve Counseling & Wellness: Here’s Why Everyone (Even Happy People) Can Benefit From Therapy

Grounded Roots Therapy: Why Everyone Can Benefit From Therapy

Choices Psychotherapy: Why Everyone Could Use Therapy

Brookings: Make Therapy Free for Everyone

Whether or not Talarico actually spent time in a mental health facility is beside the point: Allegations don’t stick because they’re truthful — they stick because they’re plausible.

(By the way, if you wanna scare the bejesus out of the Dems, tell ‘em that the therapists who just treated Talarico were the same ones who helped John Fetterman, and now Talarico is saying nice things about Israel.)

Democrats use the power of plausible allegations all the time. Like ol’ Harry Reid said when he was called on the carpet for falsely accusing Mitt Romney of not paying taxes: “Romney didn’t win, did he?” When Democrats do it, the ends justify the means.

In fact, Reid insisted that the burden was on Romney to disprove his allegation! 

“So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for ten years,” Reid said in August of 2012. “Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

The same logic was applied to the 2016 Russia hoax. “The American people deserve to know the truth,” argued Nancy Pelosi, because “a foreign regime has attacked the sanctity of American democracy itself, and we cannot pretend otherwise.”

Therefore, a political investigation is imperative!

Yet again, the burden was on Republicans to disprove the Democrats. And when President Donald Trump didn’t play ball, why, it surely meant he’s a secret Russian agent. 

(Gasp! I knew it!)

But the all-time champion of goalpost-moving, burden-switching allegations was the so-called Jeffrey Epstein controversy. No matter how many millions of documents were released, it was never enough. No matter how much transparency was given, the critics were never satisfied.

Release the Epstein Files! Release the Epstein Files! Release the Epstein Files!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, THINK OF THE CHILDREN — AND RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!

(Wait, you already did? Then you better release MORE files! Otherwise, you have something to hide!)

Garsh, you’d almost get the impression that the Democrats were only interested in exploiting the horror of child sex crimes to score political points. 

But if those are the rules of the game, the Republicans should play by the rules. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander (and the four other genders, too).

Republicans must demand: Release the Talarico Files!

James Talarico owns his medical records. They belong to him. That means that there’s a very easy way to kill the “cuckoo controversy” once and for all.

Release the Talarico Files!

There’s just as much evidence that James Talarico was in a medical treatment center for a mental meltdown as there’s for Jeffrey Epstein being a Mossad-controlled foreign agent who blackmailed world leaders with hidden cameras. If anything, the Talarico story is probably more likely to be true, because we’ve already combed through millions upon millions of Epstein files — and we still haven’t found a smoking gun.

But James Talarico hasn’t revealed anything at all. He’s keeping his files a secret. 

The media aren't even allowed to look at them.

Arguably, the Talarico situation is far more dire: Epstein (allegedly) sought to influence powerful people; Talarico is campaigning to be one. That escalates the stakes quite significantly.

If he’s lying about his medical records, what else is he lying about? 

Throughout the Epstein controversy, the Democrats were clamoring for transparency, demanding disclosure, and pushing for the unsealing of all privileged documents. Shouldn’t the same standard apply to Talarico?

His vote will impact every single American. The consequences of him being a dishonest wackaloon are enormous. 

This is serious stuff!

Hey, it’ll certainly affect you and your family far more than a convicted felon who died seven years ago. Priorities, people.

From “Remember the Alamo!” to “Release the Talarico Files!” Methinks the GOP has stumbled upon a winning campaign message in the Lone Star State. Because, even if it isn’t truthful, it’s plausible — and in the court of public opinion, the burden of proof is on him. 

Not us.

In fact, it just might be crazy enough to work.