de Vellis Did Obama Ad, Sock Puppetry, Too?

Apparently as I previously suggested, it may not have been Arianna behind the Obama 1984 ad, but a Phillip de Vellis.

Statement from Thomas Gensemer, Managing Director, Blue State Digital This afternoon, an employee at our firm, Phillip de Vellis, received a call from Arianna Huffington of "The Huffington Post" regarding the "1984" video currently circulating online. Initially, de Vellis refused to respond to her requests. He has since acknowledged to Blue State Digital that he was the creator of the video. Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately.

According to Blogometer, de Vellis may have a history of dirty tricks. An IP scan suggested his involvement in a previous Internet dust up involving sock puppetry between workers for Sherrod Brown and a Paul Hackett supporting site, Buckeye Politics - now offline. I remember the incident as it drew some attention in the blogosphere.

Hughlock compared the IP address on the comments to the IP address from e-mails he'd previously received from de Vellis -- and found an exact match. We contacted the Brown campaign ourselves about it, and while they were reticent to discuss accusations made by bloggers aligned with their opponent, they did take partial responsibility for the postings. De Vellis denied being the author, and pointed out the IP address listed on the comments serve the entire staff of about 30, but the campaign has acknowledged that the comments did indeed originate from their office. De Vellis said he was certain no one on Brown's Internet team had posted any of the messages, but said: "We haven't done an in-depth investigation." Rather, the Brown campaign quietly circulated a policy memo: Interns and staffers may no longer contribute to any blog save for Grow Ohio. This is a direction other campaigns will follow, lest they have to learn the same lesson.

Okay, question time. Did de Vellis once work for the Sherrod Brown campaign, as this phone message suggests. The Ohio Democrat Party paid him for something in 03-04 here.

He did some work on the 50 state strategy here and more work for Brown.

He worked with vis numar on Brown's site.

Hmm ... it might be interesting watching this one sort itself out.

Arianna weighs in here.

Comments

[Jeff]

But of course Obama's not responsible... it's anyone but Barrack Hussein Obama's fault. Typical Democrat party stuff.

[Jeff]

But of course Obama's not responsible... it's anyone but Barrack Hussein Obama's fault. Typical Democrat party stuff. Is it too early for me to suggest that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove are responsible?

[Captain Joe]

This guy has a future as a dirty trickster.

[BobinStamford]

Is there a 16 day gap in emails?? Oh wait, wrong story. Here it is

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/21/attorneys.email.gap/index.html

Keep up the good fight, patriots!

[Jeff]

I thought that crap wasn't allowed here? I mod a website, with about 10000 members... and I have a banned a few people for constantly hijacking threads... something to consider.

But does anyone see this? Hannity was saying this HAS to be a Democrat because blah blah, and people disagreed, saying it was a racist hitjob/smear/swiftboat... And now we see, a guy being paid by Obama, loyal to Obama did this. Maybe not under Obama's directive, but still, while he was working for Obama. This kind of reminds me of Foley in several ways. Anyone who might have known about Foley's disgusting emails was called on to be fired or resign... ever if they weren't responsible. Maybe if we are following that model Obama should change firms, fire his COS, and his campaign manager... Obama didn't do anything, like I said in my first post, he didn't even take any responsibility, and I would say that Obama demanded this guy get fired so he wouldn't need to take any responsibility. If this proves anything, it says that Obama may be just out of puberty, but he knows politics. He's the first clean, and articulate black guy (according to the Democrat party, I thoughy I knew a few clean articulate black guys, obviously not). He's going to be a tough cookie... I'm figuring the only chance the dems have is if Clinton and Obama cancel each other out, and Edwards gets the spot... No real Conservative, or borderline lib will vote for Obama over slightly right Giuliani... Edwards is a guy to watch... At least he took responsibilty and let his bloggers go... Obama doesn't ever have big enough balls to do that... thats what makes him a good politician... He's a coward and he can hide his lies better than anyone else.
Kudos to Obama, the best liar in the Democrat party (yes the one that said that pork would be cut down and is introducing 24 billions dollars of it to buy votes)... lies and liars.

Obama could at least have thanked the guy for a nice viral video.

[Zifnab]

"This kind of reminds me of Foley in several ways"

I must have missed the pedophile sexual lust involved in this. But please, Jeff, carry this as far as it will go. And Edwards is most likely dropping out tomorrow, because his wife has fallen ill again. Feel free to snark at that. I look forward to seeing Dan's vile hate really hit the fan at the announcement. Regardless, when the Democrats win in '08, they'll almost definitely be taking the White House with a woman or a minority, unless Gore decides a last minute run.

But, once again, I'm amazed at the "outrage" on the right over a relatively drab campaign video that's been hyped by wingnutters like it was the "Evolution of Dance" video. Jesus Christ, you'd think you'd never seen a Presidential election before. *rolls eyes*

Does the entire left-wing contingent have to mention John McCain's black baby AGAIN? Or is the "Democrats hate each other" meme too deep in play?

[Jeff]

Dan never mention Edwards, but I will. I feel bad for her, and I actually hope he doesn't have to drop out and I doubt he will. Legalize, this is a new low for you (yes it can happen). You put words in people's mouths before they had even thought of it, and assumed the very worst on everyone around you. Sheesh, you make Rosie seem... rosie

"I must have missed the pedophile sexual lust involved in this"

I though lawyers were at least able to read what was explicitly said. It wasn't about the initial action idiot. You know that, you are just a troll though.

[bloodrage bob]

video/youtube/cellphone cams gonna knock out a LOT of candidates before november '08. i suspect the '1984' video will destroy both hillary (droning her meaningless platitudes on a giant screen watched by prisoners: *killer* image. and it's not ever gonna go away), and obama, because hillary's gonna make sure he goes down for it. hillary known to be one SERIOUSLY *vindictive* bitch.

edwards is out even before he's in: just go to youtube and enter "john edwards - i feel pretty" to see a candidate completely ruin his chances in a 2-minute orgy of primping & self-love. nobody likes for a hair-tosser.

mccain's such a hothead, sooner or later he'll throw a tantrum on camera; rudy might too: he doesn't respond well to not being ass-kissed; gore will drone on for hours when asked, "how's it going?", and on & on.

so who's that leave? who out there does the camera *like*?? who comes off on camera looking better than in real life? ladies & germs, i give you our next president: fred thompson, r. tennessee.

[eliXelx]

I hope that Dems in The Clinton/Obama/Richardson camps are not celebrating the illness of Edwards' wife--as they did the illness of Dick Cheney--in the hope that if the worst happens he will pull out and that then there will be some political advantage in it for them, namely the removal of a potentially disruptive wild card!

[Jeff]

On the previous post: Did anyone notice that an assassination attempt on our VICE PRESIDENT got a few minutes here and there. A terrible illness (I am not belittling the gravity) hits a former politician's WIFE, and it gets more coverage. The conservative media bias?