Matt Manweller, a political science professor at Central Washington University and part of Dino Rossi's brain trust, writes at his blog about what he calls "The Governor and Money Laundering."

Most Washingtonians don't know it, but our Governor has found a legal way to money launder tax dollars to pay for her reelection bid.

At Whackynation, Lou Guzzo -- another of Rossi's Idea Bank guys -- wrote on the same subject, saying:

Washington State citizens have just been made aware of a classic example of manipulation and political control of the state by the Democratic Party -- and it's an example that has been going on for decades, dating from the Magnuson-Jackson era through at least the past 50 years.

Guzzo and Manweller serve on the committee Rossi uses to review submissions to his Idea Bank. (Both also write at Whackynation.) Rossi proclaims the group bipartisan and apolitical and says it is unconnected to any potential gubernatorial run. But Guzzo and Manweller both use news of state raises and increased union donations to Democrats to hit Gregoire hard. Manweller tosses around words like conspiracy, money laundering and prostitution. Guzzo calls it an "insidious political gambit" that robbed Rossi of the 2004 election.

It doesn't add any credibility to Rossi's non-profit -- the one he says is apolitical -- when half the crew reviewing submissions to the Idea Bank are so openly and vehemently attacking the governor.

But there's one thing that Guzzo and Manweller left out. Neither bothered to credit Times reporter Ralph Thomas for the weeks of work that went into the story they both rely on. All the facts in both pieces come directly from this July 1 story by Thomas. But there is not even a hint of attribution or credit. Readers could easily have thought Manweller discovered this "conspiracy" and must have wondered how it was, as Guzzo wrote, that Washington citizens had just learned of this news.

I asked Manweller about this. He said by e-mail:

Yes, Ralph's story was the main source for my blog post. I was actually led to the story by reading Sound Politics, and most of the people over here don't read that blog. To be honest, I just didn't think of citing anyone in my blog. I just have never done it before. But, you raise a good point. I'll add a link to his article today.

The Sound Politics post included a link to the Times story. Manweller added a link to the end of his post after our e-mail exchange this morning.

At Whackynation, they just don't like the media over there so I'm not surprised they couldn't credit the dreaded MSM. As they say:

WhackyNation offers the opinions of three editors who often find themselves at odds with Washington's liberal and often incompetent drive-by media.

Who drove by whom here?