Links, have we got links - to the batch of repulsively sleazy, anonymous, blatantly partisan, transgressive Wikipedia edits traced back via his IP address to Morton (Not So) Brilliant, the ex-campaign spokesperson of Washington Governor Christine Gregoire. Brilliant was effectively fired yesterday by his current boss Cathy Cox, a Georgia Democrat running in the July 18 primary contest there for governor. Brilliant's just-uncovered November, 2005 Wikipedia skullduggery included some heavy sleaze added to the Wikipedia bio of Cox's primary opponent Mark Taylor (trying to capitalize on a family tragedy involving alcohol); and major partisan snark surrepititiously melded into Wikipedia bios of two other Brilliant client opponents, Dino Rossi in Washington, and current South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. I'll get to the links and examples in just a moment.

First, for background purposes, here's my post yesterday on the forced resignation of Brilliant. How'd all this come about? Some expanded details. Fletcher Taylor, the son of Cox's rival for the Demo nomination in Georgia, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, was charged with DUI in a tragic 2005 car crash that killed a friend who was riding along. Brilliant in November, 2005 altered Lt. Gov. Taylor's Wikipedia bio to include an out-of-bounds reference to the family tragedy and to Fletcher's treatment program. Some recently-learned Wikipedia sleuthing techniques by Taylor campaign spokesman Rick Dent led to the identification of IP address 69.15.227.237 as that from which the fulsome edit was entered. Then, through the subscription service "Whois.com" came the revelation that address was one used for official purposes by the Cox campaign, and registered to none other than Morton (Not So) Brilliant.

From there, Dent looked at what other edits had been made to Wikipedia pages from the same Brilliant-registered IP address. This Wikipedia user-specific "special contributions" log page shows the history of some other edits to Wikipedia entries by the user of the same IP address. As you'll see, there are partisan edits to the Wiki bio pages of not only Taylor, but also Rossi, and South Carolina Governor Sanford, a third candidate agianst whom Brilliant was employed.

Buffing your own client's Wikipedia bio is standard practice, although extreme puffery or distortion can be and often is weeded out in subsequent edits by other "community" members. So it goes: often messy and contentious, but ultimately fruitful. Like the Internet itself. However, slinging anonymous crud into a political opponent's Wikipedia bio is shameful. In addition, a political operative doing it in two cases when the related elections are already long past, suggests an unhealthy obsession.

In November, 2005, after the Washington gubernatorial election contest, ex-Gregoire spokesman Brilliant still felt the need to anonymously dish snark at Rossi on the Internet's leading community encyclopedia site. What's with this guy? Or was this part of some quiet agreement tied to his expected re-employment by the Gregoire campaign when she is challenged by Rossi again in 2008? Mmmm, 'jes wondrin', see. This page shows the changes made from Brilliant's IP address to Dino Rossi's Wikipedia bio. As you will note, it is snarky, heavily-biased stuff perhaps suitable enough for bloggage or a letter to the editor (maybe), with the writer's name front and center.

Here's some over-the-line Brilliant Wikipedia spin on Sanford, and some over-the-line Brilliant Wikipedia snark on Sanford.

In the Brilliant doctorings of the Rossi and Sanford pages, you'll notice links were used to attempt to substantiate the claims. That's a plus, generally speaking. But a blog, not a community resource such as Wikipedia, is where you challenge and "paint" political opponents - and again, even there, as a content provider, anonymity is beyond weasely.

The Brilliant Flame Out is an interesting and shameful episode in the evolution of the Internet as a political tool. It isn't the first time, and won't be the last, that political consultants anonymously smear opponents on allegedly neutral and objective Wikipedia pages. But there is a silver lining to all this, one that ought to be borne carefully in mind by the whole class of pompous or fatally tepid "us too" journalistas running scared of blogs and the Internet. Wikipedia, like the blogsphere, but even more so, is a self-policing community. B.S. gets uncovered, changes are made, warnings sent, users effectively banned or sent away. Would that the MSM always moved with as much alacrity and thoroughness as the many Wikipedia communities usually do, with respect to self-policing.

The slimy hit on the Taylor wiki bio led the campaign's staff to uncover the opposing spin doctor. Three good lessons here for all campaigns, officeholders, corporations and interest groups.

One: invest in a subscription to Whois.com so you'll know who's saying what about you on the Internet.

Two: Hacks more Brilliant than Morton can set up proxy IP addresses not traceable to a campaign, or interest group, or known advocate, and yet still inflict the same sort of damage that a counter-operative can at a Wikipedia entry, blog, or user group discussion site.

Three: So if you're of any public prominence at all, "they" (in the myriad sense) are already writing about you on the Internet, whether you "get" the importance of it yet or not. You may not want to soil yourself, but sooner or later, you'll have to. Better you should have a frank, pro-active and nimble Web presence, rather than merely tinker around the margins, or ignore it altogether.