It gives me no pleasure to do this, but sometimes somebody tries to pull a fast one on you, and you just have to call ‘em on it.

 

So not long ago, I had heard that Nicco Mele, former webmaster for the Dean campaign, had signed on with John McCain. So I called up John McCain’s PAC, Straight Talk America.

 

You’ll recall that I had asked Craig Goldman, the executive director of STA, a while back if Patrick Hynes was working for McCain. The answer was, “Never heard of him.” Several days later, Hynes put up a press release announcing his firm had signed on with Straight Talk America. I called up Goldman, asked what was going on, and he said that he had heard of Hynes’ firm, but didn’t recognize Hynes’ name. When he had learned of his erroneous statement, he said he had been unable to find my number or a way to contact me.

 

Many folks read this sequence of events in a less charitable manner – contending Goldman lied, the press release from Hynes was a hastily-put-together and direct result of my inquiry, and both had hoped I would forget about this story. But I gave Goldman the benefit of the doubt; we all make mistakes, and my original inquiry asked if Goldman had heard of Hynes’ old firm, Marsh Copsey.

 

So back on July 31, I called up Goldman again and asked about Mele (and, at the same time, I asked about a poster on RedState with connections to STA, John Balbach.) He responded, via e-mail (as well as phone) “Nicco Mele: Has no official role with the PAC and is not on our payroll. He is one of the many people we talk to from time to time asking for advice or opinions on ideas.”

 

I asked again, seeking to clarify further, “From your description, I assume it’s safe to say that Mele has not been compensated for any of his advice or opinions on ideas. (Other than, say, a sandwich.) If I'm wrong, please correct me.”

 

Goldman responded, “Mele (Like the mutiple of others who call and offer free advice) has not been compensated for any of his advice or opinions on ideas (other than say a sandwich).”

 

Then I awoke this morning to the headline on the Hotline, August 23: "Over the past several months, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has quietly recruited for his presidential campaign some of the most influential online strategists in the country, including one of the main architects of Howard Dean's pioneering website.

 

John Weaver, McCain's chief political strategist, confirmed today that Nicco Mele, the webmaster of Dean for America, is among those who have committed to help."

 

"Over the last several months"? There's really no other way to look at this. For the second time in less than a month, I asked a direct question, and I received a direct answer, that was flatly incorrect. One time it's an accident, twice it's a pattern.

 

I can understand that having Dean’s web guy on staff can create some headaches for a candidate for the Republican nomination. But that doesn’t excuse denials to direct inquiries that contradict the facts. Even a “no comment” or “I can’t talk about this because no decision on that has been made yet,” would have been fairer. Instead, I’m told that Mele is “offering free advice” when in fact it’s the other way around, that according to the Hotline account, McCain’s people “recruited” Mele.

 

The clients of Mele’s firm EchoDitto, by the way, include Air America Radio, Barack Obama’s Senate campaign, the Clinton Global Initiative, Democratic gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano in Connecticut, the campaign of Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm in Michigan, NoIraqDraft.com, Rock the Vote, PurpleOcean.org which is the online activism hub of the Service Employees International Union, and Rosie.com, the personal blog of Rosie O'Donnell.

 

I would urge reporters who deal with Straight Talk America to double check and verify everything that they are told; it is entirely possible that what you are told by the organization, on basic matters such as who is working for them, is completely false.

 

I'll let others remark about the irony of this coming from an organization with "Straight Talk" in its name.

 

By the way, after the Balbach posting, a reader asked why I keep writing about bloggers who are working, directly or indirectly, for Sen. John McCain. The short answer is because I keep finding them. If anybody out there knows of other bloggers, working for candidates and writing about their employers and not disclosing it, I’m all ears.

 

UPDATE: The Hotline notes that Mele has posted a statement, including "EchoDitto, the company that I co-founded and am CEO of, has not in the past, does not now, and will not in the future do any work for Sen. McCain in any way."