Speaking of Idiots

The Bass organization should either look to have a more honest tact to addressing blogs or maybe just require IQ tests of the people that work for them.

CONCORD, N.H. -- A top aide to U.S. Rep. Charles Bass resigned Tuesday after disclosures that he posed as a supporter of the Republican's opponent in blog messages intended to convince people that the race was not competitive.

Operators of two liberal blogs traced the postings to the House of Representatives' computer server. Bass' office traced the messages to his policy director, Tad Furtado, and issued a statement announcing Furtado's resignation Tuesday.

"Tad Furtado posted to political Web sites from my office without my knowledge or authorization and in violation of my office policy," said Bass, who apologized to the bloggers and said he referred the matter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Posting as IndyNH and IndieNH, Furtado professed support for Democrat Paul Hodes but scoffed at a poll showing him tied with Bass and suggested Democrats should invest their time and money elsewhere.

"I am going to look at the competitive race list to figure out where to send another mydd.com/netroots donation and maybe help out in other ways," IndieNH wrote. "Maybe CT or NY for me _ they are at least close by. Anyone interested in pooling NH efforts for some of those races?"

Laura Clawson, who runs "Blue Granite," and Michael Caulfield, who runs "NH-02 Progressive," said they were suspicious of IndieNH's postings from the beginning.

What an idiot. Though I'd bet this is more common that people are willing to admit. Oh and I'd contend that both sides of the aisle are playing at this. I'm also dubious if Clawson caught on right from the beginning. Read any blog and unless you are so deep into the fever swamp that the middle-of-the-road readers believe your complete crap, then you will get comments that question any position from any angle.

The funniest thing is that, like most people running around the internet, this guy apparently believed he was completely anonymous.

After tracing the poster's IP address, Clawson posted an article last week on the results, and the postings stopped. The bloggers said they also could see opposition research done on Hodes by the same computer user, under searches such as "Hodes and gay marriage" and "Hodes and taxes."

The least you could do is post from a laptop at the local Starbucks or the like. That way at least the IP wouldn't tell them where you were working from.

Well, at least the idiot resigned.