That’s probably happened already since his exposure this past spring so….now he’s trying to make money suing the guys who exposed him.

I encourage all to read the long version, especially his activities prior to his conviction in the Speedway bombing case. This guy is a con man extrordinaire and will continue to be for the rest of his life. The other two clowns? Well Charlie Manson had his followers too. “Svengalis” always find them.

Only later did suspicion grow that the girls were fake…and later yet did we find out that pre-existing Patterico adversaries might be involved.

Recall when suddenly “Hi Neal!” appears, written by Patterico, in his Weinergate reporting…in perhaps the 20th or 30th blog post, weeks into it?

I’m all for Patterico in all of this, but I won’t pretend that he was wise to it all, all along. And it was a shocker to find that his old enemies might have set him up in this way.

So suspicious was high, and beaten back by Tommy, and his Van-helsing style waving of the Jcard and his declared certainty.

Early reporting on “the girls” was rooted in belief. That all blew up after Preston’s article.

For example, read this and stories in the days surrounding it… http://patterico.com/2011/06/05/more-weiner-messages-to-young-girls-evidence-the-media-was-duped-into-dropping-the-investigation/

“More Weiner Messages to Young Girls? Evidence the Media Was Duped into Dropping the Investigation” – by Patterico, June 5, 2011

I don’t think there was ever a time when Patterico “believed in” the Reids, although initially he was open to the possibility they might be real. Those are two very different things.

No mention yet of Kimberlin’s 1988 claim to have sold pot to Dan Quayle when Quayle was in law school. In 1988, Kimberlin was in federal prison and Quayle was George H.W. Bush’s running mate in the presidential election. The claim drew immediate attention but dissipated quickly.

Comment by eteam — 7/12/2012 @ 11:09 am

It was the canceling of an announced press conference at his federal lockup about his Quayle allegations that made Kimberlin a cause celebre. The warden suddenly put the kibosh on the presser, and Kimberlin was put into solitary confinement (ostensibly for security reasons) until after the 1988 election was over. This rankled many reporters ready and willing to put fresh poisonous stuff about Quayle into circulation, primary among them NPR hack Nina Totenberg.

Mark Singer waded into the controversy by suggesting (with reasonable suspicion) that the Justice Department was running interference to keep Kimberlin away from MSM mics and cameras. He penned a New York Times op-ed titled “Quaylegate,” which bought him points with Kimberlin. That led to their later collaboration for Citizen K, during which Singer realized he made a mistake in putting his eggs in Kimberlin’s basket.

After the election, Kimberlin was made available for interviews after G.H.W. Bush and Quayle were safely in the White House. But according to the Times, CBS News sent 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer to investigate Kimberlin’s charges to see if there was any there there. The result: Kimberlin’s only corroborating witness melted down in tears under Safer’s questioning, admitting that his entire story was fabricated.

This version tells the highlights. Good job, Pat.

A word of suggestion to the bloggers knee deep in this: Don’t worry about your moments of disagreement with each other. Sometimes there are legitimate issues between writers about unrelated matters. With so many strong personalities and so many lawyers involved, that’s bound to be the case. (No insult to lawyers. You guys can pick nits with the best of them.) I’ll bet Kimby and Roughauser love that kinda stuff.

Just cause you speak up for a blogger in distress, of course you are not endorsing everything he/she has written. Fact is, y’all know that if the good guys don’t win this thing, then porn, spam and popups will be the only things left on the intertubes.

Oh, and since this story broke, I’ve been reading a lot more blogs, and learning a lot about the people behind them. (Even those who would prefer to be anonymous.) Ali Akbar really is a guy named Ali Akbar. Huh. So tell me, is Allahpundit a muslim from Iraq?