Stampede

There is an interesting little story developing in the liberal blogosphere about, what else, Paul Hackett and Sherrod Brown. I call it "the two faced ad" scandal. Let's start with Atrios:

A few days Sherrod Brown took out a fairly big blogosphere buy trumpeting his campaign. This is a good moment to remind people that ads are not editorial, anything roughly work safe and not obviously fraudulent is fine with me. I tend to shy away from primaries for a variety of reasons.

In any case, Brown shifted his ad (see top left) to direct people to Act Blue's general election fund. The money will go to whoever wins the primary and not to any particular candidate's primary fund. That's a class move.

I'll bite. Why is the a "class move"? It's no secret that the netroots were a huge source of income for the Hackett/Schmidt campaign in which Hackett lost....barely. I would guess there is a very large amount of support for Hackett against Brown in the same netroots. As far as Brown? Brown who?

Call me cynical, but it appears to me like Brown is attempting to neutralize the netroots for Hackett. By being a "class act" and committing to put ads up that will go to the general election (let the best man win!), he de facto challenges Hackett to make the same "classy" gesture. And suppose Brown does win the primary. By giving to this "class act" site, Hackett supporters are funneling money to Brown....whether they like it or not.

But hey, it gets better. Democracy guy decides to pile on.

Is it just me, or is this odd? Is Kos raising money from both sides of this primary, through ActBlue, which then buys ads from his network? I wonder how Paul Hackett feels about his face being used to raise money for a PAC which then buys ads at every blog opposing his candidacy, including one that's actually on his opponent's payroll. The more I look at the way money is moving around in this primary, the more I feel I need to take a shower.

Finally, Monkeying around details a very strange turn of events involving Kos and his partner Jerome Armstrong who is a consultant for Brown. Essentially, Kos turned on a dime and began promoting Brown's candidacy after getting a heads up from Armstrong.

Look, I don't care who Kos, Armstrong or Atrios support. What does concern me is how power corrupts. All of these bloggers who were so ferociously supportive of Hackett when he fought Schmidt in the 2004 election have very quickly found all kinds of things wrong with Hackett. Wasn't it Sirota, another Brown mouthpiece, who was just the other day chastizing the netroots for a herd mentality in supporting candidates of their choice? I believe Hackett supporters were specifically called "delirious".

Maybe it's classic old payola that has changed these prominent bloggers attitudes. Or maybe they just think Brown's the better guy. But this is a primary fight. As a fellow Democrat who has played by the rules and run when no one else would, Hackett deserves some respect. If Bush or a Republican candidate pulled a trick like Brown has with the so-called "two faced ads", they'd cover the strategy of it. They need to give Brown that same kind of incisive exposure if for no other reason than liberals have got to stop eating their own.

I for one have grown increasingly suspicious of the "big blogs". In my mind, they are swiftly moving into the same category as "the media" in terms of axes to grind, turf to protect, and the biggie...money influence.

Oh. And by the way. There's a cute little blog valuation tool floating around. It seems to be of questionable validity, but is kinda fun anyway. My blog is worth exactly zip..zero...nada in dollars. But my views are priceless....right? :)

BTW, here's a link to a Hackett's site where you can know you're donating to Hackett.