Maybe Maryland Dems should put MD4BUSH back to work. The state party seems to have lost the art of political cyber-sleuthing.
Last week, the party sent out a long news release that opened with this claim: "Evidence is mounting that former Governor Bob Ehrlich and his new North Carolina law firm's Maryland-based staff are the driving forces behind a totally anonymous and controversial smear website."
Later in the release, the party referred to "the confirmed connection" between Team Ehrlich at Womble Carlyle and the site, www.omalleywatch.com.
What's the proof?
The party attached an e-mail that Ehrlich's once-and-current spokesman, Henry Fawell, sent during work hours to a reporter. It outlines "a very odd land deal" that the O'Malley administration had proposed, involving 74 acres of industrially zoned land in Queen Anne's County. "Hours later, the same details and identical criticisms were posted on www.omalleywatch.com," the release said.
Sorry, but all that proves is that Fawell isn't the only one who thinks the deal is fishy. By that reasoning, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp could be omalleywatch, too.
Martin Watcher - the pseudonymous force behind the site - posted a joking response that Fawell and omalleywatch had the same tipster: Ehrlich. "Who else would have both Fawell's and omalleywatch.com's email address?"
In an e-mail, Martin Watcher would only reveal this much about his identity: "i am not Henry Fawell."
Fawell's e-mail - sent before 5 p.m. on a Tuesday - suggests that he spent at least part of one Womble workday on O'Malley opposition research. Fawell told me a "whistleblower in government" dug up all the info, and he just passed it along to a reporter.
He acknowledged that he was on the Womble clock but noted that he used a private gmail account. (Hey, Martin Watcher used gmail, too. Now there's proof!)
Fawell also said his workday at the firm is not consumed with plotting an Ehrlich comeback. (Even if it were, I guess that would be between Fawell and the bosses back in North Carolina, though it would raise the question: What the heck is Womble getting out of it besides, perhaps, a future friend in Annapolis?)
"I am too busy enjoying the private sector," Fawell said. "As hard as it may be for folks in Annapolis to believe, we are too busy with our work at Womble Carlyle to cause them headaches."
Of the GOP, by the GOP, for the GOP
A video on a new Web site called mdforfred purports to show the average "man on the street" in Bel Air singing the praises of presidential hopeful Fred Thompson, The Sun's Justin Fenton reports.
Turns out almost all of the interviewees are Republican activists who, come to think of it, really are the average men on the street in Bel Air.
One is Mike Geppi, chairman of the Harford County Republican Central Committee. Another is Scott Gibson, the county director of human resources, who was appointed to the $100,000-a-year position at the age of 24, after working hard on County Executive David Craig's campaign last fall. The only one whose GOP credentials are made clear is state Sen. J. Robert Hooper.
Connect the dots
