Well, it looks like it only took Jane Hamsher and her friends at Save the Rich about 72 hours to figure out how to type my name into Google and splash a breathless expose about my identity on their blogs:
By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday April 14, 2009 4:55 pm
The other day a guy showed up at the DC bank rally and tried to cause a scene when Bill Greider was speaking, and the video of me went round the wingnut world.They did a little digging over at Save the Rich and found out it was produced by GOP astroturf specialty firm Frank Strategies. Ed Frank is the former spokesperson for Elaine Chao at the Department of Labor, and is now a consultant for Americans for Prosperity. Frank Strategies is listed as “local sponsors” at the Houston Tea Party site, and they’re organizing the tea parties in DC and the following cities states:
Congrats on the investigative work, guys. I’m sure Woodward and Bernstein are very impressed. And I sincerely do appreciate the free advertising and the traffic you’re sending to my website and blog.
But for the record, you have some of your facts wrong. While I did work for Americans for Prosperity for four years, I’m not consulting with them on any Tea Party activities. That’s why my business’ name is on my Tea Party videos and not AFP’s. Frank Strategies LLC is also not a sponsor of the Houston Tea Party, nor have I organized any other Tea Parties around the country, as Jane claims on her blog.
Of course, Jane also gets it wrong when she claims that I “tried to cause a scene” at her sparsely attended tea party on Saturday. The other day she also described me as “angry.” I suppose those accusations are somewhat subjective, but you can watch the video for yourself here – I politely introduce myself at the 1:30 mark and ask her if I can interview her for my blog and she smiles and replies, “Sure!” It doesn’t strike me as a particularly angry or disruptive exchange, but you can judge for yourself.
Fact is I’m a guy who thought it might be worth the 15-minute walk to the White House and couple of hours of my Saturday afternoon to check out the liberal Tea Party and turn around a quick video in an attempt to market my new consulting business. So, thank you, Jane, for making my very modest investment pay off many times over!
Just one suggestion, though: next time, maybe describe me as “Karl Rove’s former right-hand man in the White House.” That’s not true either, but it would be awesome for my business development! Thanks so much in advance!
UPDATE: 8:45 p.m. – Jane has a follow-up post on the Huffington Post, in which she claims “Ed Frank of Frank Strategies, who sent a videographer after me last weekend, is a consultant for Americans for Prosperity.”
Jane, again, get your facts straight. I didn’t send a videographer – that was me you were talking to! Pleasure to meet you! Oh, and I can’t even count how many other factual errors you have in your post. It’s Phil “Kerpen” with AFP, not “Kern.” It’s not “Newt Gingrich’s FreedomWorks,” it’s Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. And I don’t have the time to document all of your other mistakes.
But again, thanks for the traffic and the free publicity! In fact, please link directly to the video I produced for the Institute for Liberty (again – not Americans for Prosperity) at today’s Tea Party. Because the more views you help me get for my clients’ videos, the happier they are. And the happier my clients are, the more money I make. So please link more often. I’ll send you a postcard from whatever tropical island I visit on my next vacation, paid for with the money you help me make. Again, thanks so much in advance!
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