Though the registration was presumably private, somehow Rep. Hoekstra’s staff was able to out the owner, Ben Pardos Padnos, a longtime Internet entrepreneur who claims to own thousands of domains, including those belonging to other politicians.

Padnos said he was spurred to snatch the domain, which previously belonged to a soccer player, after Rep. Hoekstra’s fundraising campaign in the aftermath of the failed underpants-bombing incident:

The first thing I thought when I saw the Grand Rapids Press coverage with my name was, “Hmmm, being on the Intelligence Committee must come with some privileges!”

Secondly, I said to myself, “So much for anonymity with private domain registration!”

Somehow, the Hoekstra Campaign tracked down that the owner of the domain is me, Ben Padnos.

I want to start with one important point regarding anonymity. I intended to be anonymous purely to avoid any possible embarrassment for my family members, who live in Pete Hoekstra’s district, and have a business in West Michigan. Anything written on PeteHoekstra.com represents ME, personally, and not any of my other family members.

You’ll note that even though I perceived myself as having anonymity, everything I posted I’d feel completely comfortable looking the Congressman in the eye and saying to his face. The Internet purist in me – I’ve been involved in online industry since 1996 – doesn’t like the low-brow level anonymity sometimes provides. We’ve been hard-hitting, but not vulgar or profane. People often hide behind anonymity in “Cyberspace” and take it to a very low, crass, disrespectful level. I don’t like that.

The Grand Rapids News, to whom Rep. Hokestra’s staff tattled on Padnos, is silent on how Hoekstra’s staff found Padnos in the first place.

The post Rep. Pete Hoekstra not behind PeteHoekstra.com…but was able to out the guy who is appeared first on danwin.com.