Ex-Obama Staffer Charged with ID Theft

Attempted political hit job and personal smear

"A Des Moines man has been arrested after police say he used, or tried to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz in a scheme to falsely implicate Schultz in perceived unethical behavior in office. "Zachary Edwards was arrested Friday and charged with identity theft.

"The Iowa Department of Public Safety issued a news release saying Schultz's office discovered the scheme on June 24, 2011 and notified authorities. "The criminal complaint says Edwards fraudulently used or attempted to use the identity of Schultz or Schultz's brother with the intent to obtain a benefit. No other details were given.

"The case did not appear yet in online court records and no attorney information was immediately available.

"If convicted, Edwards could face up to two years in prison."

It's rather remarkable how little attention this is getting outside the conservative blogs.  Almost as if the media didn't care.  Why, even the Des Moines  paper didn't uncover link to Obama, which was found by the folks at Powerline.

Edwards is a former Obama staffer who directed “new media operations” for Obama in five states during the 2008 primaries. Thereafter, he was Obama’s Director of New Media for the State of Iowa. In the Democratic Party’s lexicon, “new media” apparently includes identity theft.

Edwards now works for LINK Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm with extraordinarily close ties to Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin. Its principal, Jeff Link, has served as Harkin’s campaign manager and chief of staff. Link, too, is a former Obama staffer. The LINK Strategies web site says that Jeff Link “served as a media consultant to the Obama for President Campaign, coordinating branding, all paid media and polling in 25 states, including seven battleground states (VA, NC, FL, CO, NM, NV, MT)….”

LINK Strategies dropped his name off the their website forthwith, but it has been revived using the magic of the intertubes...

Why try a political hit on a Secretary of State of a state?  Because they certify the elections...