The blogs got the story first. The first news story was Mike Magee’s in The Inquirer.
Running a Google search turns up 31 identical letters praising the latest Bush tax cuts in identical language. Every single one denounces Democrats’ “class warfare rhetoric”; every single one praises Bush for “genuine leadership.” Of course, that count misses newspapers whose letters to the editor don’t appear online. Could this be one enthusiastic person sending out a lot of letters? If so, it’s hard to see why that letter got signed with 31 different names.
Furthermore, as Paul Boutin’s excellent blog points out, this letter is only the latest in a series. Gary Stock documents other bursts of identical pro-Bush letters, appearing in journals from the Cape Cod Times to West Hawaii Today: 12 in September (claiming Democrats had a secret plan to raise taxes), 20 in November (praising Bush’s agenda for Congress). The October letter (30 Google hits)praises Bush’s stand against Iraq.
I can’t believe this isn’t front page news in the dead tree papers–doesn’t anyone out there read Blogdex?