Well, if you aren’t completely sick of Republican drama, may I direct your attention to yet another cat fight amidst the Franklin County GOP?

This time, it’s senate candidate Norm McAllister accusing fellow GOP candidate Joe Sinagra of “dirty tricks.”  

Only the trick wasn’t all that dirty and primarily succeeded in demonstrating how clueless candidate McAllister is about all things internet.

According to Michelle Monroe’s story in the Messenger,  upon discovering that Mr. McAllister had not taken the precaution of securing the domain name “normmcallister.com” before listing this on his campaign literature, Mr. Sinagra took the initiative of purchasing that domain name himself on August 2, for the whopping sum of $13.

Now, if you enter http://www.normmcallister.com in your browser, you are smoothly transported to Mr. Sinagra’s  own campaign page.

It’s a neat trick; not all that dirty; and hardly the first time it’s been tried.  Think of it as a cautionary tale for neophyte candidates, warning them to get their .com house in order well in advance of declaring themselves.

As Mr. Sinagra  reasonably points out, if he really wanted to fight dirty, he could have linked the address to an attack ad or even to a porn site.

Given that Mr. Sinagra has himself been the target of some rather more damaging attacks on his reputation (as detailed in my diary last week) and on his campaign materials (to the tune of $1,000. in losses); one might even argue that he has shown remarkable restraint.

Be that as it may, Mr. Sinagra’s opponents have succeeded in having the last word, as today’s Messenger not only carried the story of Mr. Sinagra’s website switch-up, but also a total of five letters, penned by local Republican luminaries,  supporting the other two candidates (McAllister and Degree), in tandem.

Several expressed outrage at Mr. Sinagra’s clever ruse.  No such letters appeared on Mr. Sinagra’s behalf when the story about his own targeting was told.  One might almost suspect about the Franklin County GOP, that “the fix is in.”

Another edition of the Messenger will not be in hand until after most of the county that intends to vote in the Republican primary has already done so.  

Don’t we on the left just love it when we get to stand back and watch the GOP snap and snarl at its own ankles?