John Huppenthal wants the furor over his anonymous internet scribblings to just go away. He publicly renounced his online comments. He repudiated them. He apologized for them. He even said, cryptically, he "sought counsel about it." (Could be psychological, religious or legal counsel he sought. He didn't specify.) But he hasn't said if he commented on sites beyond the list we've read about or if he's used pseudonyms (pronounced "sway-do-nyms according to Huppenthal) other than Falcon9 and Thucydides.
Huppenthal has been asked if there are internet comments out there we don't know about. Blog for Arizona's Bob Lord, who uncovered the Falcon9/Thucydides/Huppenthal connection and exposed it in his blog posts, contacted Huppenthal but has yet to receive a response.
It’s now two weeks since I requested additional information about the aliases John Huppenthal used and the sites at which he commented. A week ago, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now, it seems, he may be ignoring my questions.I’ll go out on a limb here. I think Huppenthal’s aliases went beyond Falcon9 and Thucydides. On our blog, we had one comment from a Socrates that tracked to the same location as Thucydides and Falcon9, and was made after the last Falcon9 comment and before the first Thucydides comment.
Bob is probably right that Huppenthal used other aliases. "Socrates" and "Socrates1289" are close to a certainty. And I've found comments which I'm reasonably sure are Huppenthal's on a few websites that haven't been mentioned. No one should be surprised if it turns out he's even more promiscuous with his commenting than we know of. Anyone equipped with a Google Alert for "John Huppenthal" is privy to every article published on the web about him anywhere in the world. And given Huppenthal's late night, sleep deprived, shoot-from-the-hip commenting, there's a good chance he's dropped a stray comment or two on websites all across Arizona, and possibly around the country.
Huppenthal should answer Bob Lord's question and make a clean breast of it. Otherwise, we have every right to wonder if there are more jaw-dropping comments out there beyond what we've already seen. If Huppenthal were a private citizen, this would be none of our business, of course. But he's a public servant who hopes to serve for another four years superintending our children's educations. His views are an important part of the decision Republicans have to make in the primary, as well as the all voters in the general if he gets past his Republican challenger Diane Douglas. Huppenthal has been caught publicly with his verbal pants down. We have a right to know what else he might have written in the dark of night using one of his many aliases.
