Several alert commenters have already been talking about this, but I've been slow getting around to writing about it. Sorry about that...

They say that imitation is the finest form of flattery, right? That's what I'm telling myself about the newest political website to focus on Michigan's 7th District, www.TheTruthAboutMark.com. In what may be a conservative response to Walberg Watch, the website is "dedicated to clarifying Senator Mark Schauer's stands on issues of the day."

My first comment will be this: I'm up front and open about the purpose and intentions of Walberg Watch. Right up at the top, it says "Covering and Opposing Congressman Tim Walberg, the Radical Conservative of Michigan's 7th District." I in no way claim to be an impartial source of information. The tagline given by "The Truth About Mark" makes it sound like a public service, deciphering the complicated votes that he might take in the state Senate.

It's clearly a website designed to portray Schauer in a bad light-- "Does Mark believe that Seventh District voters are bigots?" is a headline-- and I'd be a lot more impressed if they didn't try to maintain the facade of "clarifying Senator Mark Schauer's stands on issues of the day."

But that's really just a petty complaint on my part. I also don't like the color scheme or the layout, but none of that really matters.

The information they have presented thus far has some basis in fact, and they do include documentation to support their claims. Everything is heavily biased, obviously, but it's at least one or two steps better than the JoeSchwarzIsALiberal.com website the Club for Growth created in 2006. And hey, they even cite Walberg Watch for one of their pages. I feel so proud.

It's also worth noting that if this is the conservative response to Walberg Watch, I think that my own creation is far superior. Is it because I'm a talented writer? Well, no, because I'm not. Is it because I'm blinded by partisanship, and dislike all things conservative? I certainly hope not. No, the reason their website is inferior to this blog is... you.

I'm proud of the fact that I don't censor or delete comments. I don't approve what you have to say, and, while I might disagree or respond to you, you're free to say whatever you want. (There have been one or two instances where someone crossed the line, but that's only for extreme circumstances and very offensive language.)

But that's not the case for TheTruthAboutTim.com. Here's their editorial policy:

General Policy

This website highlights and clarifies the positions which Michigan State Senator Mark Schauer has taken on important governmental issues.

Because we wish for the site to focus on Senator Schauer, and not on those authors and contributors who supply content, we provide source documentation for all material that appears on this site. Viewers who disagree with any of the items presented here will thereby find it easier to approach the source to register their concerns.

Although visitors are free to suggest ideas for inclusion here, this site will be moderated, and content which the site's managers consider to be offensive or distracting will not be posted.

User Categories

Anonymous users, i.e., those who do not have user names and passwords, are allowed to see the public material posted on the site.

Registered users, who have applied for, and been granted, user names and passwords, are allowed to see both the publicly available information and the comments and posts which site visitors have made, either in response to the public material or to the various forums which we maintain here. Registered users are also allowed to submit comments for approval by the site's moderators.

Trusted users who have applied for, and been granted, more extensive privileges, are allowed to do everything that registered users do, and, in addition, to submit comments directly to the site, without going through one of our moderators.

(Emphasis added.)

Did you see that? You can't even look at the comments without registering, and anything you post has to be approved. More than that, it can be removed if it's too "distracting" from the purpose of the site.

I'm just saying, everyone is welcome at Walberg Watch, even if they disagree. Us left-wing liberal commie folks are tolerant and loving, not authoritarian and repressive.

Oh, and some trivia. I considered "The Truth About Tim" as a name for this blog when I started it, but eventually rejected it as too wordy. Now that I see essentially the same name in action, I feel I made the right choice.

In short, Walberg Watch is better. But I'll gladly admit that I'm a very biased observer. Moving on...

Who's running this, and who's paying for it? That's information you have to do some digging for.

At the bottom of every page is:

Paid for by the Seventh District Congressional Committee with regulated funds.
E-Mail Address: seventhcommittee@seven.provide.net

... and that's the only contact information given. However, the only posts made so far have been by the user wdseelig, and a WhoIs search tells us that someone named Wyckham Seelig registered the domain on October 23, 2007.

Seelig is the chairman of the 7th District Republican Party. I've got to say, it's a little refreshing to see the GOP finally catching on to the power of the internet. A little competition is always good.

But that alone is significant. When the chairman of a local political committee uses his own time and funds to build an attack website, it says something about both how worried they are about the race and how little grassroots energy they have going for them. I don't want to tell you too much about who I am, but I can assure you, I'm not the chairman of the 7th District Democratic Party, nor am I employed by the DNC.

However, the plot thickens...

The e-mail address Seelig used to register the website was with NCMS.org, the website of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, based in Ann Arbor. Seelig had been a program manager and then vice president with NCMS, but apparently retired a few years ago. When Rich at Michigan Liberal posted about this, he got this update from NCMS:

Update 2: I received an email from a representative of NMSC. This person informs me that Mr. Seelig retained his NMSC email because, though he was retired, he still occsionaly did projects for them. But...

NCMS was not aware Mr. Seelig was using his NCMS e-mail account as a contact address for this web site.

After our internal examination we have found no other NCMS property used to support this activity.

The account has been terminated as of February 6, 2008. In no way was he using this e-mail domain in official NCMS business or proxy.

Looks like someone didn't get the memo about using company resources for political work.

Interesting... It's nice to know that NCMS isn't trying to influence politics in any dishonest ways. Just the usual ones like lobbying and the occasional $1,000 contribution.

So what does all of this mean? I'm not sure. It could mean that Walberg supporters will have an online rallying point from which they can attack Schauer. It could mean I'll actually have to do quality blogging, just to compete.

On the other hand, this whole thing seems kind of sloppy to me. My prediction? TheTruthAboutMark.com will be completely abandoned by May. But then, I could be wrong.

I will say now that in the near future, I'm going to spend some time refuting some of the attacks Seelig makes on his website, which, honestly, won't be too hard. I don't want this to become an all-Schauer all-the-time blog, because the focus is still Walberg, but Mark Schauer is a good Democrat and a strong candidate, and, frankly, I like the guy. And I would do the same thing if the Republicans were attacking Jim Berryman, David Nacht, or Sharon Renier.

UPDATE: An anonymous commenter rightly chastised me for forgetting to point something out. Honestly, I thought I mentioned it, but apparently I didn't.

The bottom of every page says:

Paid for by the Seventh District Congressional Committee with regulated funds.

That's important, as the commenter notes:

You are neglecting the fact that the site claims to be paid for by regulated funds, but there are no legitimate reports to show which funds are used.

This is pretty important. If funds are being used to attack Schauer and are coordinated with republican operatives, there are rules which say they should be disclosed. Walberg has a history of sneaky tactics and this may be another one.

There are strict disclosure rules for political spending, especially by party committees spending "regulated funds" in support of or opposition to a candidate. If this website has been registered since October, one would think that it would have shown up in disclosure reports somewhere along the way. I haven't seen anything.

Labels: 2008 Election, Mark Schauer, Netroots, Republican Party