Attention is turning to "The website that started it all" — the title of Rick Moran's post at Rightwing Nuthouse.

Stop Sex Predators came on line in late July with one post announcing its intention to 'serve as a clearing house for the public to report sex predators and as a resource for concerned parents and citizens.'

The next blog post wasn't until August 17th.

Rick then notices something fishy in the focus on Congress that develops.

More 'political predators' on a site dedicated to sex predators in general? Why? [....]

After a short post giving a link to a safety website on 9/2, there is another Capitol Hill sex story about an issue that stirred the blogs a bit on 9/4; the 'skintern' culture on the Hill that saw young women dressing provocatively in order to get ahead.

Then comes a post on 9/21 that mentions Foley for the first time:

I have been away for a while, so please accept my apologies for the lack of blog posts. BUT....while I was away, the blog has been noticed and some shocking emails have been received! I can hardly believe it! I'm posting each one below. It's proof that the Congressional Corruption of the past is alive and well today. It's up to us to expose it and stop this predatory harassment! Please promote the blog and email any further information to stopsexpredators@gmail.com . Together we will make a difference!

Why would anyone notice this blog? It has posted nothing original in its short existence. The rare postings means that it has not built up any audience whatsoever. The first Technorati reference to the blog is from two days ago. Even a Google search doesn't show it on the first 10 pages when searching for 'Stop Sex Predators.'

And yet, 3 separate people who had contact with Congressman Foley somehow found this website independent of one another and supposedly sent emails to the owner of this site to complain about Foley's inappropriate behavior.

Possible? Yes. Probable? I'll let you decide.

Update:

Alexa.com shows the rather abrupt, shall we say, arrival of Stopsexpredators.com on the web. A two week phenomenon in terms of real traffic.

Hat tip: Steve Gilbert

Update: Tom McGuire smells fishiness:

Apparently the Mark Foley story first broke on this new blog, StopSexPredartors.blogspot.com, which started in July and brought down the Congressional leadership with its sixth, seventh and eighth posts.

 

Color me skeptical.  Maybe the blog author was an unwitting catspaw, but I would want some assurance that this was not simply a successful attempt to promote a story that wasn't quite ready for the Mainstream Media by laundering it through some blogs.  And part of my suspicion arises because the blog posted emails about gay Congressmen in repsonse to a post about "skinterns", scantily clad young women.  Where were the emails about Dirty Old Men and Sweet Young Things of the female persuasion? 

Two hours later [following the first posting of the former page's emails], someone writing under the name 'WHInternNow' published a diary on Daily Kos linking to Stop Sex Predators. The diary was met with skepticism from Daily Kos users, and received only a few largely critical comments. 'This diary makes an accusation,' one commenter wrote, 'a serious accusation, but provides no evidence to back it up.'

In a previous Daily Kos diary about Foley, 'WHInternNow' made an early attempt to draw attention to Foley's peccadilloes.

The story was evidently not quite good enough for the D Kos, but ABC found enough to run with it.

Why was Foley's opponent so sure that he had a solid accusation?  Or was it a lucky shot in the dark?

And how did ABC round up the follow—up reaction so quickly?

And was it the page in Louisiana who sent his Foley emails to an unknown web—site after declining to push this story with the St. Petersburg Times?  Maybe — the St. Petersburg Times would not let him make an anonymous accusation.