I just wanted to update you on one story we were on this afternoon.
As some of you have probably already heard, shortly after Senate Republicans prevented a vote on repealing DADT this afternoon, a commentor identifying himself as “Jimmy” left a derogatory comment (“All fa–ots must die”) on the Joe.My.God. website, a popular LGBT-focused blog.
Other commenters on the site quickly traced the IP address of the comment to a senate.gov IP address located in Atlanta, Georgia near the local offices of the state’s two senators.
That certainly raised some eyebrows. So a gaggle of IT geeks and reporter (geeks) hit the IP registries and phones trying to find out who was behind the comment. A spokesman for the state’s junior Sen. Johnny Isakson told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the senator’s staff had determined that the comment did not come from their office. But Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s office was not so certain.
Early this evening Chambliss’s office sent the following statement to several news organizations, including TPM: “We have seen the allegations and are moving quickly to understand the facts. This office has not and will not tolerate any activity of the sort alleged. Once we have ascertained whether these claims are true, we will take the appropriate steps.”
Our reporter Rachel Slajda worked on this story this afternoon and this evening. And that’s where it stood as of mid-evening. I’ve been checking the news wires and no new news appears to have surfaced as of midnight. We’ll bring you and update tomorrow morning.
