As philosophers and military commanders have observed since antiquity -- The best defense is a good offense. (The Frantics credited "Mel, the cook on Alice" in their hilarious Tae Kwon Leap skit. Many people might think of Vince Lombardi ahead of Vic Tayback.)

Now we get to see whether that works in politics. 

Last month, CNN reported that North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson -- currently the GOP nominee for governor -- frequented porn sites two decades ago and left racist and misogynist comments on the content, including identifying as a "black Nazi." Robinson vehemently denied the allegations at the time, and managed to survive a last-minute attempt to replace him on the ballot. Nevertheless, Robinson's polling has nose-dived in a state where Republicans are usually competitive, and he now trails Democrat Josh Stein by 16 points. 

Today, Robinson fired back, launching a $50 million defamation suit against CNN and presumably reporter Andrew Kaczynski. Robinson and his attorney claim that CNN ignored potentially contradictory evidence of identity theft and published the material with actual malice:

Robinson, who announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Raleigh with a Virginia-based attorney, has denied authoring the messages.

CNN “chose to publish despite knowing or recklessly disregarding that Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data — including his name, date of birth, passwords, and the email address supposedly associated with the NudeAfrica account — were previously compromised by multiple data breaches,” the lawsuit states, referencing the website.

Robinson, who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, called the report a “high-tech lynching” against a candidate “who has been targeted from Day 1 by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed.”

The lawsuit also targets a punk-band leader in Greensboro. The singer named Louis Love Money -- no, really -- claimed that Robinson used to frequent the porn shop at which he worked. He made that claim in a music video and then in an interview, and has apparently refused to retract the claim. 

Money may have some trouble backing up that claim in court, but will CNN? The postings do exist, and they did have Robinson's information attached to them. CNN has argued in the report and since that it did a significant amount of research and concluded that the postings used "figures of speech" Robinson frequently used on more common social-media platforms, including Twitter. 

Of course, Robinson could argue just as well that someone didn't just steal his identity but also impersonated his 'voice' from social media. And that may well be what happened, but that is a different kettle of fish from defamation, especially as a "public person" under the Sullivan standard. That requires plaintiffs to establish that the claims are false, but also to establish that CNN and Kaczynski either knew them to be false or acted with such reckless disregard to the possibility as to demonstrate "actual malice." 

Can his attorney make that case? Take a look at the original report. Whether or not the stolen-identity explanation is true and/or convincing, it does appear that Kaczynski did some due diligence and cross-checked other content produced by Robinson. There is a level of care taken that would cut against an argument of reckless disregard for truth if the case makes it to trial. That's not to say that Robinson can't prove his case, but defamation claims involving public figures -- especially political figures -- have to clear a really high threshold. And unlike CNN's experience with Nick Sandmann -- who wasn't a "public person" under Sullivan, of course -- the outlet appears to have covered its rear end better this time around. 

But that may not really be the point of this lawsuit. Robinson needs to make a political case against these allegations more than a legal case. The best defense is a good offense, and the expense of legal action is outweighed by the political cost of inaction. Even the legal costs may not be all that significant over the next three weeks, and if Robinson loses, he can quietly abandon the claim -- if he's of a mind to do so. But for right now, Robinson needs to show he's committed to fighting these allegations, and perhaps he has a case to make, too. Stay tuned.