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DAVID BROOKS: MAKING THINGS UP. David Brooks, joining the "kosola" fake scandal brigade over the weekend wrote:
When Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate candidate in Ohio, hired Armstrong last year to help with his campaign, this was also a sign of respect. The Kingpin [i.e., Kos] had instructed his Kossack cultists to support Brown's Democratic primary rival, Paul Hackett. But the Kingpin switched sides and backed Brown over his former anointee.As has been the case lamentably often during this escapade, the person making the allegations here isn't being totally clear on what he's alleging. The "suspicious" pattern of activity, however, is pretty clear. First Kos is backing Paul Hackett. Then Sherrod Brown hires Jerome Armstrong. Then Kos decides to back Brown instead. Suspicious. Only, as Robert Wright points out, this gets the order of events totally wrong. Look at Jim Geraghty's timeline and you'll see that Brown hired Armstrong in April 2005. Then, on October 4, 2005, there's talk of Brown getting in the race (Hackett was already in) and Kos says he's inclined to support Hackett. Then, two days later, Kos changes his mind and decides to back Brown. That's very different and not at all suspicious.
Meanwhile, I should let everyone know that I've been looking into it and I have a shocking revelation that, I think, may shake the magazineosphere to its very core. It turns out that decisions about which articles run in magazines -- and even about which people get hired � aren�t made solely on the basis of abstract merit. No! Rather, it seems to be the case that personal relationships with editors and various forms of networking play a role. Shocking stuff, I know, but it's the truth.
--Matthew Yglesias