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So are news agencies afraid of getting whacked or just getting their ducks in order? And imagine what's going on in the Obama administration, particularly Eric Holder. Will he make a career by prosecuting vote fraud, or become the shlep that backed down from this generation's Iran-Contra scandal?
Will House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers sit on his thumbs until January 21st? According to Wayne Madsen, Connell's firm is also believed to have set up the House Judicary Committee email network to enable GOP snoopers to tip off the White House on all talk of impeachment hearings against Bush and Cheney. Is this why impeachment has remained off the table?
In either case, we'll surely need the best of responsible research and balance in reporting to inform the public on this dicey issue. After reading through Brad/Velvet/ePluribus/RawStory reporting all last weekend, particularly the pre-election installments as they were piecing together this puzzle, it seems like solid election integrity watchdogging, not conspiracy theories.
I encourage others to delve into their work themselves and not take Mr. Edsall's treatment as any kind of comprehensive inquiry into what is and what is not substantiated. Granted, sites that proclaim Rove murdered Connell are premature at best, but the specifics of the King Lincoln Bronzewell v. Blackwell case go way beyond what Edsell has Christmas-wrapped up for us.
Alexandrovna has already mounted a protest to Edsell's coverage at HuffPo.
Further, I'll predict here that Rove, Limbaugh, Hannity or any others that try to suppress or detract from this body of evidence will use the out-of-hand "conspiracy theory" dismissal, the "straw man", as in, they're vilifying Rove by trying him in the court of public opinion, and of course "attack the messenger", in which we'll see everyone smeared from Stephen Spoonamore to Arnebeck to Ohio District Court Judge Solomon Oliver or Federal Judge Algernon Marbley who were convinced Connell should be questioned before Election Day to ensure any systems he might have rigged in 2004 would not effect the 2008 election.
Update: Thomas Edsall wrote the following update on his article. OEN is emailing our kudos to him for doing the right thing.
UPDATE:An earlier version of this story claimed: "Connell's death provoked a groundswell of commentary among conspiracy theorists on the web, including Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, Velvet Revolution, ePluribus Media, and TheZoo."To be fair: Larisa Alexandrovna acknowledged that suspicions that Connell's death was the result of sabotage were unproven, and she urged that empirical evidence be pursued. Her articles and those that she cites and legitimately raised questions that in many cases are worthy of pursuit (See Alexandrovna's letter concerning this story here.) I regret using "conspiracy theorists" to describe Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, and the others.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio pilot who died in a small plane crash was a Republican media consultant who helped operate campaign Web sites for President Bush and former presidential nominee John McCain.
Forty-five-year-old Michael Connell of Akron was killed Friday when his plane crashed near a vacant house in a rural area of Uniontown, about 10 miles southeast of Akron. He was attempting to land the aircraft at the nearby Akron-Canton Airport.
Connell was the CEO and founder of Cleveland-based New Media Communications, which built campaign Web sites for Bush and McCain, according to the company's Web site. The site says the company also worked with the Ohio Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, among other political groups.
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