Democrats Can Be Such Idiots Online

Allow me a moment to rant. No Democrat, ever, in any way, should ever use Rightclick Strategies to do any Web work. Period. From today's Roll Call (subscription required):

A D.C.-based Internet marketing firm that ran into problems earlier this year with a design pitch giving the impression that the company had done work for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is once again raising eyebrows in Democratic offices.

Pelosi’s office had protested to the company that they had never worked with the firm. But within the past week, sources said Rightclick Strategies made a presentation to the office of Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) in which company representatives displayed Web site designs to staffers that supposedly had been done for other Democratic offices, including that of Rep. Bob Menendez (N.J.).

“In a presentation to Obey’s office they said they had done some work for us,” Menendez spokesman Matt Miller said. “They have never worked for us. ... We have informed other offices that we haven’t done any work with them.”

“We had been informed by a couple Member offices that this company had been representing that they had designed certain Member Web sites and that’s not the case,” Pelosi’s spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said.

Larry Purpuro, founder of Rightclick Strategies — which touts itself as one of the leading Web design companies used on Capitol Hill — said that he couldn’t speak to the specific Obey presentation but he did say that “our guys are up there ... they visit five to 15 offices a week. We have done hundreds of designs, designs for Members that did not engage us but that were conceptual designs.”

Purpuro, who is a former deputy chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, added that “it’s difficult for me to respond to accusations based on hearsay and I’m somewhat suspicious of their origin given my visibility as a Republican and the large amount of work we have done for GOP Members.”

But a few of the company’s conceptual designs have concerned some Members in the past.

Earlier this year, the offices of Pelosi and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) objected to the use of images of the two Members being used in an advertising campaign by American Digital Campaigns, a subsidiary of Rightclick Strategies. At that time, the two offices had asked the Office of the General Counsel to investigate the matter

“They had said they had created a Web site for our office and that was not true,” Crider said of the February incident.

This is fucking ridiculous. First, Democrats should be supporting Democratic firms, not some fucking former RNC chief of staff. Second, this firm is clearly sleezy and underhanded when it comes to its marketing. And finally, they're called Rightclick Strategies for a reason - they're fucking Republicans.

Here's a list of 10 Democratic/Progressive Web firms that are all 100 times more deserving of Congressional business:

• www.advocacyinc.com
• www.bluestatedigital.com
• www.ctsg.com
• www.echoditto.com
• www.grassroots.com
• www.idi.net
• www.julianmulvey.com
• www.mandatemedia.com
• www.netcampaign.com
• www.plusthree.com