My Cover is Blown - How and Why I Infiltrated the Republican National Convention

Update: I just want to add that this is pretty standard for the Republicans. As Thomas Frank ably describes in his new book, Wrecking Crew, ever since the days of Abramoff and Norquist, the college Republicans have fought to defund or delegitimize organizations that they perceived as being too far to the left. And in 2004, Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RNC, engaged in a high-profile dispute with Rock the Vote. This is just another extension of those tactics and that fight.
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I've alluded a few times to a big, upcoming story on what I did at the RNC. I'd hoped to have another week or so of anonymity, but my cover is blown, and the College Republicans are attacking one of our own, so it's time to come clean.

Last week, I attended the RNC. I wasn't a credentialed blogger, as I was at the DNC, and I wasn't a protester shaking my fist at the Xcel Center. I attended the Republican National Convention on the dime of the College Republicans, who gave me free housing, free credentials for each night, and access to all their events. They didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts, they did it because I tricked them.

In an effort to increase the number of active users on STORM, the College Republican social network, the CRNC held a contest this summer in which the top 40 recruiters on the network (the "STORM 40") would receive free housing at the Republican National Convention. Myself, with the help of a number of friends, created an account and won a spot in that top 40. It wasn't even all that hard.

Today, the beans were spilled, and the College Republicans finally figured out what went on. Now they're attacking our own Sarah Burris because an article in City Pages improperly identified her as a Rock the Vote employee who participated in this project:

“This sort of behavior from an employee of a non-partisan organization is completely unacceptable,” said Ethan Eilon, Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee. “Sarah Burris’ participation in Connery’s plot is unethical at best, and is possibly illegal. The College Republicans demand that Burris be dismissed from her position, and that Rock the Vote issue a public apology for their connection to this matter.”

College Republican National Chairman Charlie Smith added: “Connery and Burris’ twisted plot of lies and subterfuge is ridiculous behavior in a free and open democracy. Their sad attempt to embarrass the College Republicans demonstrates the liberal desperation to discredit the conservative youth movement. Barack Obama’s advantage with young voters is rapidly dwindling. Several recent polls have shown Obama’s lead among young voters has dropped from 30 points to nearly single digits in only a month. Connery and Burris’ behavior shows that Democrats will clearly do anything to disguise the rapid shift of young voters towards the candidacies of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin.”

To be clear, Sarah is not an employee of Rock the Vote, she is an independent contractor. And at no time did she use Rock the Vote's time, money, or access to promote my infiltration of the RNC. Rock the Vote has zero connection to this project.

If the College Republican social network was at all robust, or if they had done even the smallest amount of vetting, this would not have been possible. It's understandable that they are upset and feel the need to push back, but their attacks against Sarah and Rock the Vote, however, are completely off base and unsubstantiated.

Since this is all finally starting to come out, I also want to be clear as to my own behavior and motives. I did not do this to "embarrass" the College Republicans. I did this in an attempt to discover what the College Republicans really think about their status in the minority position within their generation; to uncover, without PR or spin, what that means for their organizing efforts on campus; to directly compare the youth organizing at the DNC to its Republican counterpart; and to see if the College Republicans, with its $5 million budget, really is an organizing powerhouse or just a paper tiger padding the accounts of Republican consultants. In some of this, I was successful, in other areas I wasn't. I'll write more about that later.

If I wanted to embarrass the College Republicans, I had ample opportunity. There were tons of media at the convention, and my little STORM group (only 15 of who actually came to the RNC), was in the press quite a bit - from MTV to UPI. If I wanted to mess with the College Republicans or the Republican youth message, I could have easily done so.

Instead, I mostly stayed out of the media - I wasn't looking to punk anyone in that way. I didn't goad anyone while I was in St. Paul into saying things they would regret, and I tried hard to lie as little as possible. I even supplied my real name and email address when signing up for this contest. If anyone asked me whether or not I was writing an article, I would have broken cover and told the truth. At no time were such questions raised. If people assume you believe the same things they do, it's amazing how far you can get in conversations by just offering straight political analysis.

More to come.