If you are a Virginia blogger, chances are that the Webb campaign has an opposition research book on you. Bloggers that made the cut include Chad Dotson, Jim Hoeft, Ben Tribbett, Waldo Jaquith, Josh Chernila, Lowell Feld, Jim Riley, J.C. Wilmore, Jon Henke, and a host of others. These are not your typical background checks either... a significant amount of money was spent crafting the kind of opposition research one would typically find on a candidate running for public office.

It seems as if the Webb campaign made a strategic decision to unleash this opposition research if something damaging came out against their candidate, simply to personally slander the blogger making the claim.

Once source for this information described it as "Nixonian". Not only were Republican bloggers thouroughly researched, but Democratic allies of Webb as well, in the event they turned on the Webb campaign.

UPDATE: NLS is confirming the opposition research as "having some truth behind it,", trying to find out how deep this story really is. So folks on the left aren't happy about this either.

More later...........

What I have been told by some reliable sources is that Shaun's report is very close to reality. However, I am hearing that the list of bloggers researched is "smaller" than Shaun's list, while the amount of information compiled on those bloggers chosen is "very large". My source also assures me that this talk of credit reports that others started (notice Shaun never mentioned them) is totally false, and that the information gathered, while broad, "did not violate anyone's privacy".