Democratic congressional candidate John Laesch has almost no chance of defeating House Speaker Denny Hastert this fall, so apparently he has enough time on his hands to pick on an anonymous blogger. This is what candidate Laesch wrote on Soapblox Chicago:
It occured to me that in the wake of Joe Lieberman’s loss that I should spread a little party cleansing soap and water around the 14th District.
Before we start slapping Hastert around with some amazing research generated by an amazing and anonymous blogger (digging around D.C), I thought we should spend some time outing Mr. HRC.
“HRC” publishes a blog called “50 Miles Out of the Loop.” HRC has written some incredibly harsh things about both Hastert and Laesch, but Laesch claimed today when we spoke that he ordered the investigation into HRC’s identity to find out if a pro-Hastert person was writing it. Laesch’s statement has zero credibility. If you don’t believe me, peruse HRC’s blog for a few minutes nanoseconds and you’ll see why.
Laesch said he wanted to “send a message to whoever HRC is.” What message would that be? “It’s the same message that we should be sending to Joe Lieberman that it’s time to understand that the primary is over and move on.”
So, what would Laesch do if Hastert used his own blog to out an anonymous blogger who was supporting Laesch? “I don’t care what Hastert posts on his blog,” Laesch says.
So, let me get this straight. Laesch is so riled by what some micro-blogger writes that he has an opposition researcher look into his or her identity, but he doesn’t care what’s on Hastert’s blog?
Meanwhile, the folks who run SoapBlox were so embarassed by Laesch’s post that they removed the item from the front page. SoapBlox is not exactly a hotbed of pro-Lieberman activity, to say the least, so Laesch has been essentially dissed by his own allies.
And a commenter at SoapBlox produced an e-mail from the person Laesch claims writes the blog, Mark Blackman, flatly denying the allegation. HRC also denied the claim.
For the record: I am not Mark Blackman (I don’t know who that is). And I doubt this Blackman fellow is a 38C.
“If somebody is out there attacking you we’re gonna put him down, it’s that simple, especially if it’s baseless and factless,” Laesch said, claiming that HRC has written “slanderous things” about him.
In a deliciously ironic twist, it’s Laesch who relied on an anonymous blogger to make what appear to be “baseless” and “factless” and possibly even “slanderous” remarks.
What a jerk.