Well, Election Central just reached out to the office of registered-D.C.-lobbyist Richard Goodstein, got his cell number, and reached him. When I asked him if he was a Lieberman supporter and was the man in the pic on the front of the Herald-Record, he confirmed that, yes, he was a Lieberman backer and that he was the same man as pictured on the paper's front page.

Then the conversation went south. When I asked him if I could confirm that he'd said what the paper said he had, Goodstein asked me why I wanted to do that and whether I worked for the paper. I said I didn't and noted that I wanted to get confirmation of his quotes straight from him.

After a somewhat abrasive back-and-forth, Goodstein said: "Do me a favor email me the last good story you wrote about Joe Lieberman." When I asked why that was relevant, Goodstein said: "Bye. Bye" End of conversation. Well, at least now we know who the mystery heckler was. But I didn't get to ask him about the nature of the heckling operation, or about the nature of Goodstein's relationship to the campaign. I've got a call into the Lieberman campaign about this. Hopefully we'll have more soon.

It turns out, this recent flap isn't the first time Goodstein's been in hot water. Way back in 1983, Goodstein -- then a lawyer for the doomed Mondale for President campaign -- "surreptitiously took" a notebook from a Philadelphia office in order to hide the nature of the campaign's scheme to use rather flimsy outside organizations to evade fundraising laws. The action was disclosed in a 1985 book and reported in the Washington Post. (The notebook was returned soon after Goodstein took it, the paper reported; the FEC discovered the ruse, and Mondale -- after losing 49 states to Ronald Reagan -- paid over $379,000 in fines.)

As Goodstein told the Washington Post (article not online) at the time of its article on the topic: "It was the middle of a campaign and the stakes were high. . . It seemed to be the thing to do at the moment."

posted by tparty at 2:39 PM