If Ryan O'Doherty is MD4Bush then it's probable that his brother Damian is the "intermediary". Damian is a lawyer and he works for Jim Smith, whose name was on the original email.
I still think another interesting angle to this story will be the identity of the mysterious Steve from the email. If it's Steve Kearney from the Mayor's office then this little soap opera will have come full circle.
Remember the Michelle Lane angle? This may be something or may be nothing.
Michelle Lane was an Ehrlich appointee who was fired from the Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families in June 2004. Four days after the MD4Bush story broke, she sent a threatening e-mail to Governor Ehrlich's office, claiming she'd release information as retaliation for alleged rumors spread by the Ehrlich administration against her. According to press reports, she may have had a romantic relationship with Steffen. Her lawyer, Daniel Clements, denied any romantic relationship. He also denied that she was MD4Bush.
But Michelle Lane was cut out of the picture of Joe Steffen and Governor Ehrlich that was sent to reporters in an
e-mail from smitty_1945@yahoo.com. LITERALLY. Very strange.
Jim Robinson had
this to say about whether he thought Michelle Lane was MD4Bush:
I don't think this is MD4Bush. We can probably rule out about half of the general population and this lady is one. Course, I would have no idea if they were working in concert. Not saying or even hinting they were, just have no idea. Some reporter mentioned in an article a few weeks ago that certain emails were circulated from mddems.org. Doubt the investigation can go there, but that'd probably be a good place to start if they could. I think it should be obvious to all that MD4Bush was a Democrat politcial operative. A dirty tricks communications specialist so to speak.
But what do we know about her lawyer? Daniel Clements has been described in the
Washington Post as "a Baltimore trial lawyer with ties to the Democratic Party". He represents at least three disgruntled former Maryland employees who were fired by the Ehrlich administration. In a 03/28/05 post, FReeper advance_copy
said about Clements:
Michelle Lane's lawyer, Daniel Clements is the top Democratic lawyer in Annapolis whose clients included former Governor Parris Glendening. The personal attorney for a former Democratic Governor represents Lane. Who referred Lane to Clements and why did Clements take the case? His fees aren't cheap.
Among threatening letters the Governor received on behalf of Michelle Lane was one from Gilbert Genn. Genn is a former Democratic Delegate from Montgomery County. Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan is expected to challenge Martin O'Malley for the party nomination in 2006. O'Malley is the subject of the MD4Bush/NCPAC private FReepmail exchanges that got published in the Washington Post. Duncan could only gain from the spread of O'Malley rumors, particularly if Joe Steffen (NCPAC) got blamed for it.
Some Links to FR Michelle Lane Threads:
TU employee, Ehrlich clash over job renewal (MD4Bush/NCPAC) (Towsend University Towerlight)
Ehrlich Alleges 'Blackmail' By Former State Employee (Possible identity of MD4Bush Revealed?) (Washington Post/Matthew Mosk)
Md. Foster Care Draws Scrutiny (NCPAC/MD4Bush)(Washington Post/Matthew Mosk)
FR Keyword: MichelleLane