Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

This last two weeks saw a major flexing of the muscles by local bloggers in NY State, bringing down a sleazy Republican operative who has been active since the Nixon years. This is all about how bloggers are the real investigative journalists of the 21st century. I mentioned last week the very strange battle going on in NY State that the MSM has largely been showing only one side of. The MSM told a story that Governor Eliot Spitzer has abused his power to have Republican Joe Bruno followed by state troopers. But it turns out that this may be another Whitewater fraud. The troopers were there at Bruno's request and there is a suspicious campaign by a particular pair, Michael Caputo and Roger Stone, to smear Spitzer. The question that the Albany Project and Daily Gotham is raising is whether Joe Bruno is behind this campaign. Michael Caputo, the frontman of the smear campaign, swore up and down that he had no ties to Roger Stone and Joe Bruno. Roger Stone, who was once a Nixon operative, worked for Joe Bruno. Turns out that Roger Stone is INDEED behind Michael Caputo in a scandal called "emailgate". Here are the stories I posted last week which now are background to the REAL story that broke since then on The Albany Project and Daily Gothm:

The Strange Case of Michael Caputo

Bruno, Stone and Caputo: Emailgate

Caputo Responds

Caputo Speaks

Caputo's comment in response to a posting on Daily Gotham

And a related story.

NOW we come to the meat of it. Michael Bouldin and Liza Sabater of the Daily Gotham traced the precise connections that link Michael Caputo and Roger Stone, showing both of them are liars. Read through it...it really shows how blogging works at its best and what the MSM SHOULD have caught.

Very soon after the Roger Stone/Michael Caputo connection broke on The Albany Project and Daily Gotham, Roger Stone apparently went into a rage. And who did he take it out on? Eliot Spizter's elderly father. Stone called Spitzer's father and threatened him viciously. Stone then claimed that he had not been home at the time but rather had been at a play. Problem is, the play he claimed to be seeing was closed that night, showing him to be not just a liar...but a really, really bad liar. Some think that once his link to emailgate was revealed, Roger Stone may be losing it.

Roger Stone was subsequently fired by Joe Bruno...though this leaves unanswered the question as to whether Bruno knew what Stone was doing. There are also some legal issues that may soon be raised by all of this...but more of that later.

So three cheers for the people who uncovered this! Now, for those familiar with my work, I do write for Daily Gotham, but I wasn't involved very much in this story. But my collegues at DG did!

Now here is this week's newsletter:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS: The Year of Tree Planting

COWARDLY REPUBLICANS RUN AWAY: Too afraid to face their constituents

THE ARTICLES THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE 2

NY STATE FOCUS: Chickenhawk Republicans dissing our Veterans

WASHINGTON STATE FOCUS: Electing True Progressives

CALIFORNIA FOCUS: Jerry McNerney Speaks Out About Iraq

MICHIGAN FOCUS: MI-7 and MI-9 heat up