Ethics in politics may be entering a whole new era

Shaun Kenney has recently discovered that some Webb campaigners may have done some less than ethical research on many of Virginia's bloggers. He lists many of the more well known ones, but seems to suggest that the range of bloggers hit may be greater than just Chad Dotson; Waldo Jaquith and even Lowell Feld were included, in case they might turn away from Webb (Waldo, maybe, but Lowell, I seriously doubt it) and some of the smaller conservative blogs may have been targeted as well if his tone is any suggestion. NLS, another target, suggests that this accusation holds water.

If James Webb was aware of this, I am very concerned of what Virginia can expect over the next six years. If not, I hope that he either pushes the responsible party (or parties) to apologize or apologizes for them.

Is there much to find on Virginia bloggers? My guess is no; despite my opposition to the tactics used by some bloggers, I do not believe that there is any reason for us to concern. We should not have anything to hide, but undertaking such an effort to discredit those who oppose (or might someday oppose) James Webb is disgusting.

Should this gain more attention, it would be nice to see some campaigns clean house to avoid similar problems in the future.

On a side note, NLS's post suggests that the Webb campaign controlled the use of the so-called m-word. Disturbing, but somehow, unsurprising.