The American Spectator

When I called Francesca Gage to ask about the error, she referred me, after I began to probe, to a consultant for the DNCC Press Gallery, veteran Democratic flack Lorraine Boles. (She was Director of Communication for Al Gore back when he was Vice President.) Boles told me that over 200 bloggers had applied, and that the Press Gallery had been overwhelmed. “”We feel really badly about it,” she said, calling the situation a “snafu.” The word “snafu,” of course, is derived from military acronym that is particularly apt to the Boston Convention.

Boles adamantly denied any ideological vetting, saying there were “conservative bloggers” approved. But all of the bloggers I could find touting their credentials were left-of-center, leading me to wonder just who these conservative bloggers were.

As it turns out, Patrick Bolton of the prominent rightish OxBlog posted yesterday that the OxBloggers had “just received a very nice call from the DNC, saying very kind words about our blog and inviting us to cover the Boston convention as an accredited blogger.”

Interestingly enough, Belton posted that at 1:45 EDT. I spoke with Boles, according to my cell phone log (which usually runs a few minutes fast), between 12:13 and 12:25.

“CYA” was also, originally, a military acronym, for something that’s obviously not quite as easy a trick in the digital age.