A recording published by Mother Jones of Sen. Mitch McConnell and campaign aides questioning the mental health and religious views of actress and potential challenger Ashley Judd has touched off a round of PR posturing between the two camps and the magazine. 

Mitch McConnellCara Tripicchio, a partner at Beverly Hills-based WKT PR, heads Judd's PR. In a statement, she hit the content of the recordings as "yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington, D.C."

Tripicchio, who has repped Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, among other actors, chided McConnell and his camp for taking "a personal struggle such as depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter."

Judd said last month that she would not mount a challenge to McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader who is considered vulnerable in his Kentucky seat.

McConnell has referred the matter to the FBI and his campaign criticized the making and release of the recording as "Nixonian."

David Corn, who published the story for Mother Jones and authored the 2012 piece containing Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remarks, said he got no response from McConnell or his campaign and is waiting for the senator to comment on the "substance of the story."

The magazine denied a Watergate-like conspiracy to record McConnell. "We were not involved in the making of the tape, but we published a story on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness," Mother Jones said in a statement. "It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that, except to say that under the circumstances, our publication of the article is both legal and protected by the First Amendment."