Not to be too casual, but “Doh!”

Late Tuesday I asked an assortment of folks for their insta-analysis of the Lieberman/Lamont primary results (we published the results of the queries here yesterday). I asked a mix of pundits, pollsters, and other smart peeps for their late-night and early-morning 2 cents. Among them was John McLaughlin, who is based out of the tri-state area (that’s what made me think of him). I should have thought – but didn’t – to ask him if he was in any way involved in the New York Senate race, since he commented on it in his contribution. As his website (which we linked to) makes clear, Republican Senate nominee wannabe John Spencer is a client of McLaughlin and Associates — but while we linked to their site as in his bioline, I never actually looked at the site to find the connection (see a clear “our client” release here).

It was late — that’s no excuse — but no one was looking to pull a fast one on anyone.

I belatedly became aware of the ties from our internal “morning clips” here at NRO (which I read late today …), from this item in a local news source:

August 9, 2006 Wednesday 4:13 PM EST LENGTH: 241 words HEADLINE: McLaughlin: Spencer to Give Hillary A Run BYLINE: The Yonkers Citizen BODY: Aug. 9, 2006 (News Copy, New York delivered by Newstex) – Nationally, the biggest victims could be in two neighboring states. In Rhode Island, liberal Republican Sen. Chaffee will probably lose to conservative MayorLaffey in their Republican primary and in New York, Sen. Clinton is about to be put in a real race. In the Democratic primary, a protest candidate will askSenator Clinton how she can continue to support the war. After the primary,Hillary will be put in a real race by John Spencer, the Republican/Conservative-party choice who happens to be a decorated Vietnam combat veteran(and volunteer). Tuesday’s Democrat primary in Connecticut was only the firstskirmish in the political war over the real war on terror. The casualties comein November and the Democrats are shooting at their own. The above comes from The National Review website (scroll down the page abit) and it is written by John McLaughlin of McLaughlin and Associates, who justso happens to be working for the mentioned John Spencer of U.S. SenateRepublican candidate fame (that point missed the article). McLaughlin’s mentioning that Spencer is a decorated Vietnam veteran, and avolunteer to fight in that war to boot, comes right out of the Spencer campaign commercial. Biographically, his service in the military is Spencer’s largestasset. When most Republicans in NY don’t have a clue as to who you are, telling them you are a veteran is always helpful.

I expect more local press (among others) will be enjoying this misstep in coming days. Suffice it to say, I’m — we’re — sorry for the unintentional nondisclosure.