Ironically, it appears the first person who applied the proper lesson of the 2006 campaign was the very blogger whose current fame is based in part on so many not learning said lesson.
That lesson being: it’s never a story in the DC suburbs until it hits the Washington Post (or Washington Times), and the blogger that has managed to get the latest blogosphere bruhaha is none other than Ben Tribbett (Not Larry Sabato). I dealt with the crux of Ben’s charges against Shaun Kenney (full disclosure, Shaun is a personal friend of mine) on Friday, but that was before the Post story. However, Ben says nothing in the Post to buttress his claims against Kenney. All he presents is a phone bill showing a call that Kenney himself acknowledges.
Allow me to say it again, as we enter the fifth day since Ben made his accusation against Shaun, he has presented no evidence to back it up. All he has done is make the accusation very specific, and throw in with Mark Tate. Also, he has yet to retract his assertion (since proven wrong) that Russ Potts had endorsed Tate’ primary opponent.
[...] Kenney was part of a campaign to smear Mark Tate? Ben’s logic and accuracy was found to be sorely lacking, but that didn’t stop some people from believing Shaun had it in for Tate and was [...]