Josh Marshall and Media Matters are heroically covering the mystery of why "respected AP reporter John Solomon" is working so very, very hard to smear Harry Reid. Sen. Reid, coincidentally Democratic Senate Leader, is said to be Just As Bad as Republicans! for going to a boxing match and then voting AGAINST the (Nevada state) agency which gave him the tickets.

But what about Reporter Solomon? AP has been a substantial voice of virtue throughout the Bush Interregnum, filing Freedom of Information Act suits like hail in Kansas on any number of issues. Why would one of their most respected staffers be doing this?

Go read this piece from 2003 from the Center for Public Integrity and decide for yourself:

WASHINGTON, September 17, 2003 — A month before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and all of the increased government secrecy that has ensued, the Justice Department secretly seized the home telephone records of respected investigative reporter and deputy bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, John Solomon. And earlier this year, the FBI opened and confiscated his mail. Center for Public Integrity executive director Charles Lewis recently interviewed Solomon about it.

This is hair-raisingly horrifying. The question seems to be, did they find something in Solomon's phone records or mail that they're now holding over his head, or has the pressure just gotten to him? God knows we all have our limits, and not all torture is done with physical implements of destruction.