Everyone Is MDE

I've been reading Shawn Towle's "Checks And Balances" off and on for years, now.

On the one hand, I have to hand it to Towle, being able to make money (any money) doing a paid web-based political newsletter in the age of the blog.

And I have to hand him more, since he seems to be able to do it with the lowest copy-editing standards I've seen this side of Democratic Underground.

The other day, Towle thought he'd figured out the identity of Minnesota's most elusive pundit, the "Minnesota Democrat Exposer". Much imitated, MDE arouses boundless irrational ire among DFLers. "MNPublius" writes:

If MDE is getting all his information from the Republican Party, then he is being sponsored by the Party in my book. There are two implications to this:

1) MDE is just a partisan hack, and should be treated accordingly.

2) Without knowing what information is coming from the GOP Party itself, and what is original MDE material (we would know if MDE was honest about this "operative" and his relationship with him/her) I have to assume that everything he posts is coming from the Republican Party and therefore that Party is responsible for the rumors, false claims and slander that is a staple of MDE's site.

That seems, of course, to be a staple of the left's response to conservative blogging; cry "Partisan Hack!", and say "that's that".

Recently, MDE published a piece claiming that Senate DFL leader Matt Entenza had hired a private eye to investigate Attorney General Mike Hatch.

The left were not amused.

Towle's "expose":

Minnesota Democrats Exposed (Exposed)

If you google the name Jerome Plagge you will find information on his activity in the blogsphere for Republican Senate District 63 (Richfield). There is also a link to a story from his blog about living a red life in a blue district on something called blogshares.com. As one delves a little deeper you see that in blogshares.com Minnesota Democrats Exposed is one of the most traded blog shares.

So recent information that has come our way is the Jerome Plagge is the person behind Minnesota Democrats Exposed. It will be interesting to see if now the anonymous source behind MDE either confirms or denies this idea. We encourage the folks at MDE to contact us and tell it how it is.

The Minnesota left was not amused by MDE's news...

...but the Minnesota right certainly is getting a yuk or two out of Towle's claim that Jerry Plagge - who writes the SD63 blog - is MDE.

Most of us in the MOB have met Jerry Plagge; he makes periodic appearances at Keegans. Doug from BoGold relates:

This is amusing for multiple reasons. The first is, I have met Jerry Plagge. He's not terribly anonymous, nor secretive about his political leanings or opinions. That's why he already has a blog for writing about them.

Kool Aid Report decided to get into the sleuthing business:

OK, here's the wrap up based on all the cicumstantial evidence KAR has uncovered.

The following people are not MDE:

LearnedFoot
V-Toed Bill
Dementee
Jerry Plagge
MDE

The following people are MDE:

The Head of Alfredo Garcia
Bogus Doug a/k/a Gerry Daly
Mrs. Bogus Doug a/k/a Mrs. Daly
"Conservative Minnesota"
"vikingvx"
Tom Swift a/k/a Ian Mykal
Flash
You

Gary Miller at Kennedy Vs. The Machine, however, has the litmus test figured out:

FWIW, The Millers are spending the Labor Day weekend in southern Minnesota camping and drinking Schell’s beer with the Plagge family. No internet connection will be available at our campsite and, last I checked, no Wi-Fi is yet available at state parks.

If MDE goes dormant over the holiday, the moonbats may just have found their guy! Alternatively, nk2134 [the commenter that "broke" the story of the MDE/Plagge link] may want to investigate how Blogshares work before revealing his/her ignorance.

And finally, Plagge himself:Trust me he is not me and I am not himThe final word? I tend to doubt it.

Posted by Mitch at August 26, 2005 06:32 AM | TrackBack