SDP points out that anti-Thune blogger Nathan Peterson, one of the Hildebrand Boys, has a letter to the editor in today’s Argus Leader. SDP also makes this revelation:
What's interesting about this is that Nathan Peterson (anti-Thune blogger) has received money from, you guessed it, Daschle's political coffers (e.g., A Lot of People Supporting Tom Daschle).
Scorched earth is at work again.
The date of the FEC report is 4/5/2005 and is listed as salary. So Daschle has a paid blogger. What ever happened to the full disclosure beliefs of the South Dakota Democrats? What is Todd Epp going to do about this?
SDP is also noting the falling out being played out on Todd Epp’s web site between Erin, member of the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and a couple of the Hildebrand Boys.
Update, Ryne McClaren has more:
As I stated last week, and I have to say it again, It would be interesting to know what "is kind of behind some of this" means. Well, could it be that Erin is providing us a little insight into what "is kind of behind some of this" really does mean. It seems to me, if we can believe what Erin is saying, that this "perpetual campaign" is really quite the little operation. And is Steve Hildebrand still really in there taking his swings? I had been skeptical about that issue, but it appears that he is. After all, tell me how many bloggers you can talk to and then wind up visiting with a former deputy campaign manager a short while later.
So really, this whole saga just lines up a whole bunch more questions from me. A person with first hand insight into the Dan Nelson Auto "experience" reaches out to folks she thinks can help her (and other consumers like her). After a whirlwind courtship, she feels violated and put upon by the people who she thought were trying to help her. Why? After all of the phone calls, e-mails, requests for personal meetings, the exchanging of photographs? All of it seems a little irregular and strange, no matter which side you come down on.
And the contact with Hildebrand? Well, I guess we might as well remove the quotation marks from the words permanent campaign. It's sounding to me like these guys were looking to score some fast and furious points against John Thune in the Jalopygate "scandal" they've been tracking for a while now (and without much luck), and that at least at some point they thought Erin could provide what they needed to help them further their cause.
How much of this story is untold, do you think? Like I said before, it's time to remove any pretense that the permanent Daschle campaign is only hypothetical.
