blogger interrupted

So while the Congressman was Twitter happy yesterday, I found a disk.  Let’s review from the Freetimes story a couple weeks ago.

In order to keep Russo’s name off the campaign’s employee list, Russo says, Ryan paid him through a video production company run by a friend of Ryan’s. Russo was paid around $2,000, for “editing” (he sat next to the editing machine and explained how a few campaign commercials should be designed). Russo claims what he was really being paid for was the political consulting he provided Ryan - specifically how to spin the media after Tom Sawyer, Ryan’s Democratic opponent in the primary, leaked info about an illegal loan Ryan had received from a friend. During the campaign, while his court case continued in Cleveland, Russo lived at Ryan’s mother’s house near Youngstown and occasionally crashed at Ryan’s apartment in town.

Now why would a guy paid for “editing” end up with staff meeting agendas, the candidate’s schedule, and a disk with god-knows-what-might-be-on-it, with the address of the “video production company run by a friend of Ryan’s“?  

I was paid to work for Tim Ryan’s 2002 congressional campaign through a back channel called Two Ticks and a Dog Productions, a little company one of Tim’s high school buddies in Warren had started for his own dreams of film school redemption. 

Doesn’t matter, I guess, since Ryan’s office continues to lie about the entire thing.

The Free Times attempted to contact Congressman Ryan for this story. A spokesman would speak only off the record and implied that he was afraid of what Russo might do if he spoke negatively about him. It’s unclear if the congressman was ever alerted to our requests.

Negative or not, all I want Congressman Ryan to do is tell the truth.  That’s all.  Maybe the stuff on that disk can help.  When I told Tim I’d be writing about all this, he asked me if I really wanted to hurt people.  I don’t know what that meant.  But I told him in response that all he needed to do was handle this honestly, and that maybe as a result, one day we’ll have a drink together and laugh about it.  

We’ll see if that happens.

Popularity: 50% [?]