The Washington Post runs an article by two of its prime DNC megaphones (Weissman and Eggen) accusing Arizona Congressman Renzi of self—dealing in a land transaction. (A brief  respite from the paper's naked  and failing effort to defeat Senator Allen in nearby Virginia.)

You have to read the article carefully to see how thinly (and partisanly) sourced this charge is:"The inquiry was revealed by two liberal Arizona blogs last weekend."

Sound familiar?

It's the same tactic used to hide the fact that in the Foley case the mysterious blog spot that first floated the Foley allegations was surely working with his Democratic opponent.

And it is not dissimilar to the smear on Harman and AIPAC (also carried in today's paper). Make a charge through a third party, forward it to the FBI, then leak there's an investigation against the candidate underway.

Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general who is Renzi's lawyer on the matter, said neither he nor Renzi has been contacted by law enforcement officials. He ascribed any inquiry to political gamesmanship by the two—term lawmaker's Democratic opponent, lawyer Ellen Simon.

"When I was attorney general, we dealt with this all the time in the last 30 days before an election, when candidates came to us with an accusation. We had to look at it, but it was designed to use politically," Woods said.

Yup. Only now the third party cut out is often a blog site.

Clarice Feldman   10 25 06