Blogging the Hackett Story
News: Was Hackett Swift Boated? Bloggers weigh in on both sides.
February 17, 2006
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Three days after Paul Hackett dropped out of the Ohio Senate race, and one day after MotherJones.com ran a story reporting that the candidate was pushed out by fellow Democrats, the blogosphere was buzzing with rumor and speculation. Even as Sherrod Brown’s camp repeated their denial of any involvement in undermining Hackett’s campaign, more than a few bloggers wondered where the unfounded, unsourced rumors questioning Hackett’s military service--and more--came from, and what role, if any, they played in sinking his candidacy.
A post today on the pro-Hackett Buckeyesenateblog said, “There is only one campaign that stood to benefit from this, and Mike DeWine certainly wasn’t going around passing out photographs and whispering smears in the ears of any Democrat who would listen…I’m sick to my stomach.” Both Hackett and Sherrod Brown were running strong against Republican DeWine, who, said another blogger, “seems clueless and detached right now from the campaign.” They concluded that DeWine “has too much to worry about with his own primary. This seems suspiciously to be coming from possible Democrats.” Another blogger, “Brian,” cautioned, “I think we need to be careful not to indict Brown’s campaign—and more importantly, Brown himself—without some kind of evidence that would support such an indictment.”
The rumor about Hackett had been known since last summer, according Brain Rothenberger of the Ohio Democratic Party. “Who knows where it came from?” he said in a phone interview; but he did say it originated in the blogosphere. “I don’t think it had any credibility. The blogs are fueled by rumor. It’s a perpetuated myth.” The rumor reached a Daily Kos diarist, "Pounder," about a month ago. “I didn’t write about it at the time because frankly I didn’t know what to do about it,” he wrote today.
Commentator David Sirota said today in a phone interview, "The Blogosphere, it seems to be all about itself, and not about issues.” He thinks the bloggers who say Hackett got “forced out” are dead wrong and politically naïve. There were two reasons Hackett quit, he said, “Money, and he saw the polls. This is politics. He knew he couldn’t win and he tried to save face.” Sirota had a post on his own blog today titled, “The Questions that No One Wants to Ask,” he wrote that the speculation about Brown or even Washington Democrats maliciously undercutting Hackett is "all horse-race crap—and it is sad, sad commentary that such a loud part of the supposedly progressive ‘base’ is so comfortable following cults of personality, and appearing not even interested in the actual issues.” Sirota said it all boiled down to one fact, “Paul Hackett was going to get crushed by Sherrod Brown.”
Markos Moulitsas-Zuniga--the Kos of DailyKos--agreed with Sirota. In an email exchange with MotherJones today, he wrote, “Nobody forced Hackett out. He decided to quit when he apparently realized that running for Senate is hard work.” He wants progressives and Democrats to get some perspective. “There are non-establishment candidates running all around the country…Howard Dean got the full brunt of the establishment’s ire, yet he didn’t take his ball and go home when he lost. There are too many crucial races in the country for people to focus on to worry about the guy who dropped out.”
