The FiredUp Family Tree, Part III

The timeline seems to fit the narrative.  Jack Cardetti and Jeff Mazur seem to be the best candidates as  prime contributors to FiredUp over the last several years, both as the anonymous blogger Howard Beale and as an adminstrator under the General Content name.  With both men starting to work for the Nixon administration, the FiredUp blog was going to need someone to come in and keep the content fresh.

That person was Sean Soendker Nicholson, a political junkie who went to Mizzou and Georgetown, and who worked at a Democratic marketing consultantcy in D.C.  It's an interesting name, Soendker Nicholson.  When you first search it, you can't figure out where it comes from, and there's not much of a record online for Sean.  You see, Sean used to be just Sean Nicholson.

D.C. can be a strange place.  One of the trends most people don't know about is young liberal couples eschewing the patriarchal demands of the right wingers who have women take the name of their husbands.  Liberal women don't like to be oppressed, so what couples in D.C. do is take the two family names and merge them.  Sometimes, they create a brand new name, and sometimes they just stick them together.  The key is for the man to also take the name, so the woman doesn't feel like she's giving up her identity.  Thus Sean Nicholson married Trista Soendker, and the two became the Soendker Nicholson family. 

So in February, faced with the need for a new blogger to replace the content of Democratic operatives who had taken positions with the Nixon Administration,  FiredUp decided to create the position of webmaster.  This coincides with the fundraising on the site and in the emails. They needed money to pay for Sean, whereas before, free content and possibly computer and work time was taken from organizations who employed progressives (thus completely proving the for-profit news site status of FiredUp a complete sham).

So how did they find him?  How did FiredUp perform a rigorous search to locate the right candidate?  We don't get to know the specifics, but we do know Sean is the brother-in-law of Nathan Soendker, an attorney who works for (Drumroll, please), Robin Carnahan.  All in the Family ain't just a sitcom to the Carnahans.  You have to know who you can trust, and you have to reward young liberals.  The tough part for Sean is his writing is a liability for his future political career.  You can't be nasty online for a long period of time without it hurting your prospects.  That's why everyone's anonymous at FiredUp.  If Jack were outed as Howard Beale, it would have been a lot harder to get that job in the Nixon Administration.  If Jeff was writing on government computers, he might have to step down to "spend more with with his family."  Them's the breaks.  Do you think he knows this?

Conclusion:
FiredUp has been a thorn in the side of Missouri Republicans since it's start in 2005, but prior to this year, the main contributors have been out of power.  With the ascension of Nixon, and the current race of Carnahan to replace Kit Bond, the need for a political blog to continue hammering the state media is apparent.  The current media mood and the quickly falling approval numbers of Barack Obama signal a dangerous trend for Missouri Democrats, who couldn't beat the John McCain vote in 2008, despite their best efforts and the best national electoral year they've had in 30 years.  

Recent media coverage of Jay Nixon has not been good.  The Tour of Missouri attacks on Kinder were blatant, and every reporter saw through it.  Russ Carnahan was mocked at his own town hall, and the video was broadcast nationwide in conservative friendly channels.  Claire McCaskill is playing defense on healthcare, and Roy Blunt just raised $1.4 million.  All of this is bad for Missouri Democrats, and so they're going back to the playbook. Use FiredUp to drive coverage.  Part of me thinks that's why Ryan Hobart from Carnahan's office is moving over to the MDP.  They know they need tighter control over the message, and so far it's not working.

The Senate campaign of Robin Carnahan will be to avoid media scrutiny as long as possible, refusing to take positions on any issue, and hoping that running a campaign without strong stands will carry her in 2010.  Using third party attack ads financed by out-of-state interests, the Carnahan family will engage in attacks against Blunt without engaging him.  And using FiredUp, they hope to influence news coverage, browbeating reporters who don't print spin, and providing fodder for nationally prominent left wing blogs and national television shows.

What's disgusting about the whole affair is of course, the underhanded nature of FiredUp and its contributors.  Having beaten back a legal case against them, they no doubt felt emboldened to do whatever they wanted. 

Well it's high time that those of us not paid by political campaigns started shining a light on the people responsible for the nasty attacks. 

Comments

[Aaron Baker]

I knew Sean when I was in High School. We were both in 4-H together. I'm from Macon Co. and he's from Marion, so there's a bit of a distance there. He comes from a nice family. His father is a well known and respected 4-H leader in the area. In 4-H he had a lot of good leadership skills and was quite fun. I looked up to him.

I thought I saw him in the capitol this last session, but wasn't sure and he didn't speak to me, either. I didn't realize he was working for Fired Up. I think the assessment is right that he has ruined his political career, at least back home.

I guess taking your wife's name doesn't mean you are not a Christian. And we Republicans do some pretty unChristian things, too. So, I'm not going to judge Sean on his reporting, etc. That's not up to me. I will say I am surprised and dissapointed. He had a lot of potential.

Sean, I just want you to know I don't hate you because you are a liberal blogger. I think what you write is sometimes based on personalities and not facts, but I've been involved in negative campaigning in the past, too.

Good reporting.

[Learfield]

I'd love to know if you have this right. Or not. If you're wrong, why wouldn't these gentlemen call you on it? Have they denied the connections you've attempted make? Has a reporter put a microphone in front of them and asked? If not, why?

Steve Mays
Jefferson City, MO

[Jim Durbin]

Steve, they won't ever answer this. But they have deleted profiles, and stopped writing during work hours, and if you check the latest posts, different author names are suddenly prolific, almost as if they're, reactivated.

Sadly, these clowns don't realize their writing is easy to match up by keyword, and work done on government computers is permanent. Even erasing it will only make it worse. Time to close the net and send someone packing.