Kean campaign may have posted as "ex-Dems" on liberal site

[karynnj]

The Internet postings came from people calling themselves “cleanupnj,” “usedtobeblue” and “AmadeusNJ.” They said they were concerned Democrats, “lifelong liberals,” and they were troubled by the United States senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez.

Mr. Menendez, they said, was up to no good. For instance, did you notice that a Congressional lawyer who Mr. Menendez said cleared him of ethics issues regarding a controversial real estate deal died last year? Wasn’t there something fishy about that?

But the liberal Democratic hosts of BlueJersey.com, the Web log where such comments were posted, smelled something fishy about the postings, and said they traced them to a computer inside the campaign headquarters of Mr. Menendez’s Republican opponent, Thomas H. Kean Jr.

They suspect the person behind the postings, which have appeared on the site regularly since July, is Mr. Kean’s campaign spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker. Ms. Hazelbaker called the accusations “nonsense,” and said neither she nor anyone else she knows of in the office had anything to do with the postings. “I’ve never e-mailed them nor posted on the Web site,” she said on Wednesday. “It’s a blog. You can’t believe what’s posted on blogs.” She declined to make Mr. Kean available to discuss the matter."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/nyregion/21blog.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[babylonsister]

1. Busted! More from that article: (and NOM for dirty tricks!)

The Kean campaign’s technical adviser said that the Internet protocol, or I.P., address that linked the posts to the Kean headquarters was an old one, “from over a month ago.” But an e-mail message Ms. Hazelbaker sent to a reporter on Wednesday shares the same I.P. address.

An I.P. is an address, much like a telephone number, that in most cases is specific to an individual computer. But in this case, the Kean campaign registered a business account with Comcast, and it is likely that the entire office shares the same I.P. address — so the postings could have come from any computer within the headquarters in Mountainside, N.J.

The founder of BlueJersey, Juan Melli, a 25-year-old graduate student of mechanical engineering at Princeton, said on his site Wednesday that these postings appeared to have come not from fellow Democrats but from inside the enemy camp.

[wicket]

2. Too freakin' pathetic!!!!

K & R

:kick:

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. The heck with making Mr Kean available

Let's just make her harddrives available and settle the matter for sure.

[displacedtexan]

4. It's happening in NH, too.

From Election Central:

NH-02: GOP Aide Busted Posing As Liberal Blogger
By Andrew Golis | bio

An aide to GOP Rep. Charles Bass has been busted for posing as a liberal blogger on several local left-leaning blogs. Today's Roll Call reports (subscrition only) that the unnamed aide was unmasked by several liberal bloggers for posting on sites such as Blue Granite, NH-02 Progressive, and others. Bass’ office admitted the aide's guilt and said the staffer would be “appropriately disciplined.” It turns out the blogger -- who posed as "Indy NH" or "Indie NH" -- raised suspicions when he tried to cast doubt on a poll showing Bass tied with Dem challenger Paul Hodes. The lib bloggers tracked his IP address to the House server.

[TayTay]

5. Honestly, these people are the lowest of the low

I really don't think they can shock me anymore. Any underhanded or sneaky thing they can do, they probably already have. Sigh!

[Cassandra]

10. "appropriately disciplined"

How many medals is that likely to be?

[WildEyedLiberal]

6. I wonder how many are on DU right now

I don't doubt that there are undercover moles spreading either Republican talking points or posing as far leftists to attempt to demoralize liberals.

[gully]

9. Indeed, and they always ratchet up the rhetoric before election time.

eom

[lonestarnot]

7. heh heh heh you fuckwads! We're watching you!

[gully]

8. It has been discussed that R's PAY people to disrupt at blogs

etc. Often under the guise of "I'm voting green."

[glitch]

11. They're usually remarkably easy to spot. Must be that moran gene

that trips them up every time.