February 25, 2008 - 4:27pm
Former Hodes chief-of-staff emerges as Daily Kos blogger
By Brian LawsonDana Houle, the former chief-of-staff to Congressman Paul Hodes, has emerged as a front-page blogger on the website "Daily Kos," where he has been writing for years.
Houle managed Paul Hodes successful Congressional campaign in 2006. Houle then became Hodes chief-of-staff.
Houle became the center of controversy after he and Hodes opposed Ray Buckley's candidacy to become Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Resentment continued until Houle resigned. At the time, former New Hampshire Democratic Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan told The Concord Monitor "I think that somebody on Paul Hodes's staff badly served both Paul and Ray Buckley."
When PolitickerNH.com e-mailed Houle's Daily Kos account last week to confirm his identity Houle denied he ever worked for Hodes.
"If this email came to Dana Houle, former Chief of Staff to Congressman Paul Hodes, he would reject the accusatory question you posed about posting on Daily Kos, as it is predicated on a ridiculous and false assumption that one is precluded from journalistic writing and blogging because of past employment on Capitol Hill," the e-mail read.
But appearing on XM Radio's "The Agenda" last week Houle talked in the capacity as a Daily Kos blogger. He also confirmed the profile of blogger DHinMI on the site was him.
"Now Daily Kos was started in 2002 it now has 600,000 individual visits a day, you arrived a year after its launch, is that right? What was it like when you got there and did you ever anticipate that it would be the force that it is today," the hosts asked.
Houle responded "No, I discovered it after the 2002 election. I was frankly underemployed for a while and just sort of goofing off. I discovered it actually in the run-up to the war."
According to his biography on Daily Kos, Houle "is a political professional now living in Washington, DC.," and "misses Tiger stadium." Houle is a native of Michigan.
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Angry Little Bucklings
I can see that Ray Buckley and his little band of flunkies are out in force. They are still sour about the factb that Houle and Hodes were the only pols to have the guts to stand up to Buckley last year.
Interesting to see DHinMi/Dana Houle's
claim that his identity as a political operator was always known even while he was a 'contributing editor' at DK. In fact, it was not.
Mr. Houle neglected to say that to most members of that blog, his connection to the Hodes campaign was NOT known, and for years his role as a political operator was not disclosed either.
Maybe he will be honest enough now to state when exactly the page he refers to, the one that discloses his real name and part of his role in politics was actually posted on the blog, DK. Airc, it has been there for not more than, and maybe even less than a year. He has been a member of that blog since 2002.
During those years, he has been one of the most unpopular members of the site as a result of his personal attacks on ordinary citizens who dared to have an opinion contrary to the party line. His behavior on that site was and is a disgrace earning him a reputation that he well deserves.
A bit disingenuous of him to imply that his role in the Democratic Party's political machinery was known during those years. It was not .... when it was revealed, because he could not hide it anymore, his bad behavior on the blog began to make sense, but also called into question why the Democratic Party would hire such a thug, because that is how he behaved, as a thug.
He consistently attacks people for better informed than he, his latest attacks being on such well-respected writers as David Sirota, Brad Friedman, Greg Palast eg, and the blog has banned, often with his approval and participation, such well-known and respected liberal writers as Chris Floyd, activists such as David Swanson, and many, many more.
In fact DK has long been viewed by many as nothing more than a gate-keeper blog and Mr. Houle and his abusive associates as nothing more than lower-level party bullies, hired to shut down any kind of dissent that might try to hold the party accountable to its base. That seems to have been borne out to a great extent, now that his ID and that of others at the site, have become known ....
He's now disturbed that people on other blogs were unaware of him. Well, DK doesn't have much influence except with party loyalists. So it's not surprising that until he attacked other respected writers no one had heard of him, he doesn't particulary inspire with his writing contributions, mediocre at best, except members of the site, which I once was, but walked away from because of the behavior of the owner of the site and those he chose to represent him.
But asking for honesty from anyone who represents DK is really not going to do much good, as thousands who once were members there, lured because of its pretense at being a 'progressive blog', well know ...
Hey Houle -- You go From The Hill
to blogging in you underwear. LOL. Jerk. Not only a jerk, but a KNOWN Jerk. In Politics. Smaaaaaahht. What are you Committeman now somewhere in Ann Arbor? LOL. Way to go whee the ACTION is..LMAO. What's that whoosh sound above YOUR head? The Landlady with a broom saying its time to get off the computer in her basement??LOL.. Mom? Is that you?? Payback's a b****.
Houle is a lightweight poseur,
Truth be told, like all of "the bloggers." He just whined his @ss off for Hodes to bring him on...Frankly, we'll take their money, the rubes online, stroke 'em but really laugh our asses off when through with the drag of working the rooms at one of their loathesome Star Trek-like "conventions"..
You know you've pissed off you boss when you get the nod to work outreach with these amateurs...The funny ones are the courthouse case jockeys who fancy themselves as writers or talk show hosts and the demi-published untenured @ss kissing types from academia...That said, Josh Mashall is an exception..Markos operation is really a joke , nice kid, nice buzz, but no there /there, really..So easily Star Struck, most of them...
They're our version of local affiliate Limbaugh impersonators..Guys like Houle will be lucky to get a patronage job in the County Parks Department somewhere in Michigan...He really was WAAAy in over his head in DC.. How long did he last as Hodes COS? 9 months? LOL. It really was quite amusing...
Do You Not Post Corrections?
Is there some reason why this post has been up for almost 24 hours, and has been wrong the entire time?
I'm confused
Is here or isn't he? Tony
Wow
Did you hear a whoosh sound above your head?
Here's the entire exchange:
Dear DHinMI,
My response:
Who, you may ask, is Wally Edge?
As for the reference to disreputable sites, Mr Lawson's email to me arrived shortly after I was attacked on a site called BradBlog, which is a site committed to propagating theories about election fraud which, which has viciously maligned the vote and recount of the New Hampshire primary. Because I was a vocal critic of the nutter theories that the NH primary was rigged, and instead defended New Hampshire for having one of the cleanest and most transparent election systems in America, I drew the wrath of those who seek to cast doubt on all elections. I'm intrigued that Mr Lawson apparently reads Brad Blog.
Stepping back from those specifics, I assumed it would be clear to just about any reader of the entire email--which Mr. Lawson only selectively quoted--that the irony [Defintion one
Definition two (pay especial attention to the discussion at the bottom of the page)] would have been obvious, that I rejected your silly and accusatory notion that because I was at one time a chief of staff to a member of Congress I am somehow bound and prevented from exercising my right to free expression. Apparently I assumed too much.
As for your statement about me being the "center of controversy," I had no vote on Ray Buckley's campaign to be NHDP chair. It's odd that anyone would believe I did. My public comments were as a representative of Congressman Hodes.
But I will note that Raymond was "blown away" by my knowledge of New Hampshire voting patterns.
Finally, I didn't "emerge" as a contributing editor at Daily Kos. My name has been on the about page at Daily Kos for some time, as I recently discussed. It's hardly a secret, and to treat is like a scoop is amusing.
Apparently things are sleeping in NH these days, if what passes for news is that I managed Paul Hodes successful campaign, I was his Congressional Chief of Staff, and I'm a longtime Contributing Editor at Daily Kos.
I'd point out that a more breaking story is that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. But I won't, because you might put up a post about that as well.
Sincerely,
DHinMI
Sorry, that wasn't supposed to be anonymous.
How on earth do you identify yourself here?
- Laura Clawson
You think that was a denial?
It was perhaps elliptical in its tone of arch mockery, but not a denial. It's difficult to see how you read it that way.
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