The comment made by the anonymous poster was clearly ignorant speculation. The dead give away was all that stuff about Harrison running in the general instead, on the WFP line. It all reminded me of something we'd expect from Wallner. Was it Wallner? Frankly, I don't think it came from Vito L or the McMahon campaign--if they'd mentioned the WFP, they'd be bragging about McMahon's WFP endorsement (not that it's anything to brag about--the WFP also backed Maziarz-- but that's a discussion for a different day).

On the other hand, that comment was by some no-name (not even a pseud)imbecile posting on someone else's thread; your's was a diary by a well-known (in this context) blogger on a well thought of (in this context) political blog. So your standards have to be somewhat higher (unless your name is Wallner). And they are, but you were still spreading gossip you couldn't confirm as true. Moreover, because your agenda in the race was so well-known, you owed it to yourself, your site, and your candidate to be even more careful than discretion would normally require.

Did you meet the standard?--I don't know. It certainly wasn't at the level of Rock's publishing that Tish James was under investigation, when the so-called investigation turned out to involve not her, but a staffer with a personal immigration beef, which in no way could be said to reflect upon her, unless one held views on immigrants resembling those of Lou Dobbs or Pat Buchanan (which I assume Rock does not).

Spreading rumours is what people in politics do--and I guess I've done my share, but given that this stuff on the web will probably outlast us, we probably should have a very high standard before we set them free in the blogosphere.

And, as you know, I have a couple of well sourced folks on the Rock with their own take on the matter--but I ain't publishing it.