Okay, I’ve been here less than a year, so I suppose I didn’t fully appreciate just how sinister and far-reaching is the conspiracy between National Review and the House Republicans.

But I’ve just been briefed by the secret conservative message-coordination board known only as “The Pentaverate” and it turns out we were laying the groundwork for this Pledge to America “inside job” for more than four years.

See, as The Daily Caller so fearlessly insinuated, NRI honchos Kate O’Bierne and April Ponnuru “prearranged” the NRO editorial with “top leadership aides” in the House Republican caucus.

But we were careful with the cover-up. In January 2006, when April was working as a senior adviser to Rep. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) during his bid to succeed Tom DeLay as Republican majority leader, we wrote an editorial endorsing long-shot conservative challenger Rep. John Shaddeg (R., Ariz.) against both Blunt and the eventual victor in that race, Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio).

At the time, we couldn’t be sure that intrepid reporting would catch us colluding with House Republicans four years later, but now we had an insurance policy against just such an eventuality. For how could NR and April Ponnuru be said to be in the pocket of the “Republican establishment” when we declined to support both April’s boss, and the man who would eventually lead the very “establishment” that would issue the Pledge?

It’s called plausible deniability, folks. And it’s Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy 101.