Loathe as I am to stir up the mud here at our wonky, politically-obsessed and generally cordial Café, the post by Sidney Blumenthal discussing Galbraith's new book presents challenges to my concentration in view of the many unanswered questions about the author of said post, if this is indeed the very same Sidney Blumenthal.

As reported by Peter Dreier last May on the HuffPo, Blumenthal, the former critic and heroic exposer of the right wing smear machine against the Clintons, engaged in the propagation of defamatory rightwing talkingpoints meant to tarnish then Democratic presidential primary candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

Writes Dreier:

Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama's character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren't being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers -- including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers -- in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists. One of the recipients of the Blumenthal email blast, himself a Clinton supporter, forwards the material to me and perhaps to others.

These attacks sent out by Blumenthal, long known for his fierce and combative loyalty to the Clintons, draw on a wide variety of sources to spread his Obama-bashing. Some of the pieces are culled from the mainstream media and include some reasoned swipes at Obama's policy and political positions.

Many questions on this story remain unanswered, even by otherwise muck-exposing recipients of Blumenthal's emails.  If light is indeed the best disinfectant then it would certainly be cleansing for all of us and for future generations to know the details behind this upseting story.

If Larry Johnson were to return and begin posting at TPM, I would at least know whom I was reading and what to expect.  The mystery around Mr Blumenthal's activities, on the other hand, are a bit too distracting at this stage for me to seriously focus on the substance of his current contributions.