(In addition to being profiled on KVUE news tonight in Austin, this story is starting to get national attention. After Cornyn's ridiculous "Big Jooooohhnnn" ad -- which was even spoofed on the Daily Show -- how many more times can we expect Cornyn's staff to run a joke of a campaign between now and election day? Texans deserve better - elect Rick Noriega! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Longtime readers know that in order to register to comment on the site, you must set up an account and provide an email address. It's a way to ensure accountability and prevent abuse in our community. However, we sometimes still have problems with abusive users that create sock puppet accounts to harass and intimidate writers and other commenters.
Many of you have become familiar with user Buck Smith's abusive comments that troll the site, attack and personally insult users and writers, and impugn the integrity of our community, our Democratic candidates and our Democratic values.
We have a policy that our commenters have helped enforce that requires us to disclose our jobs and who pays us. Our commenters have done the same. When political consultants or staffers post on this site, we know who they are and where they are coming from, ensuring that no false representation is being had.
When a staffer for Lt. Col. Noriega made a dumb mistake and falsely represented himself as a blogger to the Cornyn campaign, he was rightfully excoriated. When a Democratic consultant created an anonymous website, he was rightfully questioned. In 2007, user Buck Smith began posting on this and other sites, mainly on threads involving Lt. Col. Rick Noriega or Sen. John Cornyn. He attacked diarists and commenters and provided pro-Cornyn spin on many items. In the interest of full disclosure, and in order to keep everything fair, and since Buck Smith has not disclosed who he is, we thought we would clue you in that he is David Beckwith, John Cornyn's senior staffer.
We found out his identity because Mr. Beckwith's email on file with the site is the same email listed on the webpage for his high school reunion class. (We also have a screenshot in case the site is removed soon.)
You know who we are and who we work for. You know who the Democratic consultants and staffers that comment on the site are, and who they work for. Now you know who is the Republican operative, and who he works for. Keep that in mind every time he leaves comments attacking you for supporting Lt. Col. Rick Noriega. Keep that in mind every time he takes to the site to spin for Senator John Cornyn. Keep that in mind when you realize that all of the staffers for Lt. Col. Rick Noriega have disclosed their day jobs, while Senator Cornyn's staffer lurk in the shadows, using age old dirty whisper campaigns in an online forum.
In fact, Cornyn's own staffers commented directly on this issue:
"If you're going to misrepresent yourself, be aware of caller i.d." Walsh said. "I don't think misrepresenting yourself is in line with Texas values. I just find it somewhat ham-handed."
Interestingly, it was Buck Smith who kicked the story off online on an unrelated BOR post. Beckwith, linked to no outside material but did get the ball rolling using his deceptive user name with this comment.
Today, the Cornyn campaign called and I offered a chance for them to comment directly on the fact that David Beckwith has been concealing his identity on blogs. The Cornyn campaign spokesman Kevin McLaughlin had this to say (no emphasis added):
What?!?! 'Buck Smith' isn't a real person?!?! Are you serious?? People blog under screen names?!?! I am shocked...next thing I know you'll be saying the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus aren't real either. What kind of world are we living in?!?!
To our young readers, we are sorry you had to hear about Santa Claus this way. We didn't want you to know so soon, but I promised to post their quote in it's entirety and completely unedited.
Beckwith has over 80 comments as Buck Smith starting in March. He sets benchmarks for Noriega, attacks Democrats, talks about the Watts vs. Noriega match up, but nowhere does he say who he is or who he works for. Oh and this morning when I talked to Kevin, I told Beckwith I had heard from reliable sources that Beckwith would be fired. He had no response as of 8:10 this morning. |
