MoDo Covers the Jesse Griffin Scandal

"Gryphen" gets an extension on his 15 minutes of fame courtesy of the New York Times columnist:

Palin is still obsessed with the blogosphere, which recently lit up with a rumor -- started by a fellow mavericky Alaskan, who also no longer has his job -- that she and Todd were Splitsville.

Excuse me, Ms. Dowd, but is Palin "obsessed with the blogosphere" or is it the other way around? And don't you share that obsession? Furthermore, ma'am -- speaking of "Gryphen" a/k/a former Anchorage kindergarten teaching assistant Jesse Ray Griffin -- is it the usual practice of the New York Times to ignore, in its news pages, events which are significant enough to merit commentary from its Pulitzer-winning columnists?

This is from my Thursday account of Griffin's resignation from Trailside Elementary School:

"Sarah is finished with Todd and has decided to end their marriage," Griffin wrote at "Immoral Minority" Saturday morning, saying that "one of [his] best sources" had told him the Palins were divorcing. Griffin's story was immediately promoted by Dennis Zaki's "Alaska Report" site, which claimed that "multiple sources" had confirmed the report.
Jeanne Devon, an Anchorage Democratic activist who had previously blogged anonymously, also promoted Griffin's "exclusive" at the Huffington Post. As a result of this promotion, by Saturday afternoon Zaki's headline, "Todd and Sarah Palin to divorce," was the lead item at the popular Memeorandum political news site, even though it had already been officially denied by Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton.
Griffin wrote on his blog Wednesday, "I stand by every single word" of the original report, which accused Sarah Palin of attempting "to hide a broken relationship" with husband Todd.

You see, Ms. Dowd, how this "exclusive" got boosted up the online food chain so that, within a few hours of an unverified blind-source rumor being posted by "Gryphen" on his Immoral Minority site, it was the hottest story on the Internet. And it was his claim to have an "exclusive" -- as if his sources were more reliable than mine -- that drew my interest.

Given your Pulitzer-winning reputation for thoroughness, Ms. Dowd, I'm sure you'll be interested in reporting the whole story about what "Gryphen" wrote on his blog:

"I think that this trend toward real people having real sex is definitely the way to go. . . . when you see a video of an amateur couple having sex you can tell that they are simply doing it for the sheer excitement of sharing their passion with a bunch of middle aged pervs who are going to wank off to their sexual exploits."
-- "Gryphen," 6/3/07

"If sex is not naughty then it is almost not worth doing. I love kids, but in my opinion they are just a side effect of a healthy sex life."
-- "Gryphen," 6/14/07

"And your penis will respond more readily if you take it out and put it through its paces more often. Duh! So the next time your girlfriend/wife/mother bust you for watching porn on your computer, simply tell her that you are exercising and you would appreciate some privacy."
-- "Gryphen," 7/7/08

Yesterday the no-longer-pseudonym-protected Griffin was back to "just asking questions" mode:

My question is. who pays for this? Who sent money to the websites that attacked me to spend so much time trying to cut and paste bit and pieces of four year old posts together in an effort to "prove" I am a bad guy?

It would be embarrassing to admit that the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy hasn't been hitting the tip-jar with enough frequency lately to keep up with my expenses. So if it suits Griffin's pathological imagination to suppose that Big Pharma or Halliburton are footing the bill, why spoil the illusion?

I'm sitting here in my silk pajamas, smoking Cohibas and sipping Dom Perignon, all of it paid for by GOP fat-cat donors who don't mind my slagging John McCain, dissing Charlie Crist and voting for Bob Barr. Meanwhile, Dan Riehl has spent his VRWC loot to rent a beach house in Ocean City and hire the second runner-up in the 2007 Miss Ukraine pageant to attend to his domestic needs. ("No, Katerina, I said very clearly I wanted my sandwich with mustard, mayonnaise and pickles . . .")

What might arouse the curiosity of a Pulitzer-winning columnist like Ms. Dowd is this question: Why can't Griffin, who claims to have sources who give him the "exclusive" lowdown on the state of Todd and Sarah Palin's love life, get his sources to tell him who's paying Dan and I?

Frankly, despite denials of a Palin divorce, I can't even get my sources to share the intimate details of the couple's romantic activities. (7:04 p.m. Thursday: "Todd gives Sarah a playful squeeze." 8:17 p.m. Thursday: "Sarah sneaks up behind Todd while he's watching ESPN and nonchalantly begins rubbing his shoulders." ) So if I, who am supposedly on the Palin payroll, can't get that kind of dish, why is it that Jesse Ray Griffin's sources are so reliable, so ubiquitous, so omniscient?

Check the timeline of the "Gryphen" investigation, Ms. Dowd, and see if you can resist the Pulitzer-worthy conclusion that Jesse Ray Griffin is a lying sack of crap with less journalistic credibility than Jayson Blair.

Oh, BTW, Ms. Dowd, we've met, although I'm not sure we were properly introduced. When you arrived at CPAC 2007 to cover Dick Cheney's speech, it was I who volunteered to escort you to the media sign-in table. After the speech, my young friend Ian Schwartz asked me to get you to pose for a photo with him.

Since we're already acquaintances, Ms. Dowd -- shhhh! my wife might get jealous -- perhaps I can speak to the funders of the VRWC and ask them to cut you in on this action. Just send Dan Riehl an e-mail and ask for the Griffin dossier, then catch the next flight to Anchorage. Remember to bill it to "Arlkay Overay."

I'll phone the Pulitzer Committee and tell them to keep an eye out for your next big scoop.

(Note to regular readers: "Arlkay Overay" is a notorious cheapskate, so please hit the tip jar.)

UPDATE: Dan Riehl links, and remarks:

Nice try, Jesse. But you don't get to ring the bell to end the fight in this one. There are no referees's arms for you to flee into, no corner to crawl up in and hide. But you'll likely find that out for yourself this week. I'm not done with you . . .

Ruh-roh. And Dan quotes Griffin's latest expedition into Trig Trutherism:

Sarah Palin has used this heartrending diminutive prop with such careless abandon, that even people who once supported her are embarrassed at her apparent disregard for the well being of this baby.
Leaving behind all of the questions about Trig's parentage, the question we must now ask ourselves is how well is he currently being cared for?
I believe that many people have very powerful concerns for this child.We see him trotted out when Sarah wants to make a political point, or create the warm motherly image for the cameras, but who cares for him while there are no cameras to record the event? (Emphasis added.)

And -- who knew? -- Jesse's a huge MoDo fan!

The fact that she wrote about my situation in her column absolutely makes my day.

Stay tuned to RIEHL WORLD VIEW. Meanwhile, the VRWC just sent me a new minion to supervise.

UPDATE II: Now linked at Memeorandum.