but we just got, *sigh*, another assignment: Henceforth we must start following judicial races. Because guess who's started taking an interest?

Here is where it gets more interesting. The phone number for Scheiderer isn't a Wisconsin one, but belongs to a PR firm called CRC (Creative Response Concepts) Public Relations headquartered in Alexandria, Va.

And who is CRC Public Relations? Hold onto your hat. It's the same public relations outfit that did a lot of the dirty work for the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the sinister organization that sought to destroy John Kerry's military record. Among its other clients are the Republican National Committee, the Christian Coalition, Grover Norquist's National Taxpayers Union, and Regnery Publishing, the right-wing book producer.

It also promotes right-wing blogs, including the one that attacked Dan Rather's report on George W. Bush's sorry National Guard record during the last presidential campaign.

Scheiderer acted surprised when I asked him who was paying his firm. He ducked the question, claiming instead that CRC works closely with the "Federalist Society," a group comprised mainly of conservative lawyers, but not known for shelling out money on election campaigns.

I asked if they were filing campaign finance reports and, remarkably, he insisted that his clients aren't promoting a candidate, merely providing "information" about the race.

This is in Wisconsin; if you're there and haven't read the Madison Capital Times, go look. If you're not there, start keeping an eye out for "information" promoters in judicial races in your area.

Yeah, this is about as exciting as a cookbook of tofu and rice cake menus, but Mordor never sleeps, so we can't either. Or at least, like baboons, we have to do it in rotation so somebody is keeping an eye out for leopards.