On Point of Clarification on My Friend Chad's Absence

I posted below that I would like to hear from Chad, and Todd Epp posted this:

Some of my Righty pals are either wanting those of us in the Left Blogosphere to investigate the Hildebrand Tewes embezzlement rather than the IRS or to see if we can get Chad Schuldt to talk about it...

And while it would be great to hear from Chad, if I were his lawyer and if he were under suspicion, I would tell him to say nothing to no one except to perhaps the IRS in the presence of counsel.  If he wants to contact me on or off the record, that’s fine and I’ll follow up on it, but I wouldn’t bet on that happening.  So, I doubt very serenely that we’ll be hearing from Chad anytime soon until this thing is resolved, for better or for worse.   

As a point of clarification:  Todd writes as if it's clear that Chad is somehow involved in Hildygate.  This is more than I know and true or not, I hardly expect Chad to S.D. Watch or SDP an exclusive interview on the matter. 

Chad's disappearance from the South Dakota Blogosphere family table is another issue.  As the flattering comment I reproduced below lays it out, the conversation of bloggers in the state is, if not exactly an eccentric family, at least an eccentric community; and Chad was a conspicuous part of it for a long time.  Anyone who read the many exchanges between myself and The Clean Cut Kid may have noted that I almost always referred to its author as "my friend Chad." 

The reasons for this go way back to the Elsworth Airbase crisis.  At that point Chad and I maintained very cordial manners in our exchanges with one another.  And for a long time thereafter, both of us took pains to maintain at least an attitude of respect.  Eventually that largely broke down.  It is my view that Chad became increasingly shrill and intolerant, while I strove heroically to maintain the original decorum.  But of course that is how I would see it. 

I think it obvious that Chad went a bit off the rails; but even if that were true, he still served a valuable function in the local conversation.  No one took us to task so often over so many things we wrote here.  Responding was good for us and good for our readers.  These days I have to rely on Anna, but though she is easily as sharp and considerably more eloquent, her interests are more narrow than Chad's were. 

So I honestly do miss Chad, and I hope for his return.