Last night I found this user IP address on my website: housegate10.house.gov
Interestingly, the ID is described as: "Information Systems U.s. House Of Representatives," from Washington, D.C. The IP went to my site twice, once via this link and the other time through here. Whoever the person was read my Vennochi blog on Lynch and a blog on some media coverage. Big deal, you all say, right?
Well... turns out there's a little added significance to this. While I get visitors from the campaigns for various Governors in this state, I never get them from the Attorney General's office. Tom Reilly's campaign has been known to stop by a few times a week - as well as Deval Patrick's, though to a lesser extent - but it's always the campaign, not the office. Furthermore, I know from a little visit to Ted Kennedy's office discussing various constitutional issues as a part of the Mass Netroots (linked on my 'daily reads'), that the office of Ted Kennedy wasn't even allowed to say TedKennedy.com - I highly doubt they'd be allowed to go research any Kennedy opponent either.
I just think it's interesting. While I'm not well versed in the law and what people in Congressional Offices can and can't do, I can say this: if Lynch's people are really interested in Phil Dunkelbarger, maybe they should show it in other ways than leaving cookies at a blogger's website. You know... maybe he could actually show up to a debate before the day of the primary.
[Note to readers: I'm not chalking up a conspiracy, I just think it's an entertaining little visit. Clearly, it was Lynch's office, which wouldn't be okay if they were doing opposition research and working on elections. However, Andy made the good point that they could have just been keeping up to date with Lynch news - much like they would read a Boston Globe article. Doesn't take away from the fact that Lynch needs to debate Dunkelbarger though - and soon.]
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7 comments:
Hey Ryan! Great CSI work! It's one of those things that make you go "hmmm".
Listening to the Gov's debate last nite, a little conspiracy theory flashed thru my head when Reilly claimed pride in the 9/11 vote to select a successor to Moakley -- and lo, that person wins with less than 40-percent of the vote and comes back to throw his supprt behind Tommy. Hmmm.
Also, on the dunkelbarger blog, we've had a little skirmish with an obnoxious commenter in the last five days (not all those comments are public). Hmmm. :)
Any staffer working at the House offices would show up with that hostname, so it's hard to even guess whether it was the Congressman himself.
oh, I highly doubt it was the Congressman... I'm sorry if I was ambiguous. However, I do know that staffers aren't aloud to get involved in campaign issues - such as Kennedy's office not being allowed to go on Kennedy's website.
One would question why staffers would have that need, anyway, when I'm sure there are plenty of constituent services they could be providing, as well as preparing the Representative for explaining just why he supports a stay-the-course-approach to Iraq.
I think there may be a little too much speculation into this IP address. Just like staffers comb all the area newspapers for reports about their boss I assume that in today's info age they are also checking in on the blogs now for constituent reasons so it is not unusual for the office to go to posts about Lynch.
Oh, for sure -- too much speculation, but it is entertaining speculation! Isn't Ryan allowed to get a little edgy, too, at least in the spirit of "fun"? C'mon, what other IP address, originating in the US House offices, is searching Google and Blogger for terms like "dunkelbarger"? Tell me you're not smilin'.
Good point, Andy, I hadn't considered that. I figured they were just doing opposition research.
In any event, it was just an interesting IP Address showing up on my website. Kinda fun =p
Well, just about anyone who has ever had to deal with Lynch's office knows they're pretty much useless. Maybe if they spent less time playing on the net googling their boss or his opponent, their constituent services would improve.
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