Ryne on the "Hildebrand Boys" and "Erin"

The following sample is from a huge post by Ryne McClaren, who is weighing in the "Hildebrand Boys" and "Erin":

What to make of all of this? Well, I frankly have no idea. Erin sounds like she's being sincere, and it sounds as though she's received some support from Epp in this saga. A lot of the commenters over at Epp's site have bashed her around pretty good, but given what she's posted I don't think that should come as any surprise.

But there's something that's really been nagging at me since Novak published his column last week, and this is it (quoting from Big Bob's column):

Former Daschle staffers openly run two of the blogs, and two others are anonymous. [Not any more. -- Ryne] A fifth is run by Todd Epp, who did part-time legal work for Daschle's campaign. Epp told this column that Steve Hildebrand, Daschle's campaign manager, learned from Thune's use of paid bloggers in 2004 and now "is kind of behind some of this."

As I stated last week, and I have to say it again, It would be interesting to know what "is kind of behind some of this" means. Well, could it be that Erin is providing us a little insight into what "is kind of behind some of this" really does mean. It seems to me, if we can believe what Erin is saying, that this "perpetual campaign" is really quite the little operation. And is Steve Hildebrand still really in there taking his swings? I had been skeptical about that issue, but it appears that he is. After all, tell me how many bloggers you can talk to and then wind up visiting with a former deputy campaign manager a short while later.

So really, this whole saga just lines up a whole bunch more questions from me. A person with first hand insight into the Dan Nelson Auto "experience" reaches out to folks she thinks can help her (and other consumers like her). After a whirlwind courtship, she feels violated and put upon by the people who she thought were trying to help her. Why? After all of the phone calls, e-mails, requests for personal meetings, the exchanging of photographs? All of it seems a little irregular and strange, no matter which side you come down on.

And the contact with Hildebrand? Well, I guess we might as well remove the quotation marks from the words permanent campaign. It's sounding to me like these guys were looking to score some fast and furious points against John Thune in the Jalopygate "scandal" they've been tracking for a while now (and without much luck), and that at least at some point they thought Erin could provide what they needed to help them further their cause.

How much of this story is untold, do you think? Like I said before, it's time to remove any pretense that the permanent Daschle campaign is only hypothetical.

Ryne has a lot more to say, so read his whole post.