DEVELOPING…
If you are a Virginia blogger, chances are that the Webb campaign has an opposition research book on you. Bloggers that made the cut include Chad Dotson, Jim Hoeft, Ben Tribbett, Waldo Jaquith, Josh Chernila, Lowell Feld, Jim Riley, J.C. Wilmore, Jon Henke, and a host of others. These are not your typical background checks either… a significant amount of money was spent crafting the kind of opposition research one would typically find on a candidate running for public office.
It seems as if the Webb campaign made a strategic decision to unleash this opposition research if something damaging came out against their candidate, simply to personally slander the blogger making the claim.
Once source for this information described it as “Nixonian”. Not only were Republican bloggers thouroughly researched, but Democratic allies of Webb as well, in the event they turned on the Webb campaign.
UPDATE: NLS is confirming the opposition research as “having some truth behind it,”, trying to find out how deep this story really is. So folks on the left aren’t happy about this either.
UDPATE x2: From Not Larry Sabato:
What I have been told by some reliable sources is that Shaun’s report is very close to reality. However, I am hearing that the list of bloggers researched is “smaller” than Shaun’s list, while the amount of information compiled on those bloggers chosen is “very large”. My source also assures me that this talk of credit reports that others started (notice Shaun never mentioned them) is totally false, and that the information gathered, while broad, “did not violate anyone’s privacy”.
I’m adding two toupees.
Webb staffers are now flip-flopping as to the number of oppo reports done, and even if they existed.
To clear up the comments below, what makes this particularly atrocious isn’t the fact that research was done. Rather, that it was done (1) on Democratic operatives and volunteers, (2) that it was done to slander bloggers who broke with potentially damaging stories, and (3) the reports are reportedly fairly extensive and deep, designed to tear a reputation down rather than constructively deal with the issue potentially presented.
It also suggests there was something the Webb campaign was concerned about emerging via the blogs — something that might spook Democrats from supporting Webb — and they were prepared to go to extreme lengths to control the damage.