The strange case of the Stone/Caputo Spitzer-bashing, Joe-Bruno-lauding emails has been exercising us of late, because there are some things that simply do not add up. Unless, of course, there's a missing piece of information, one which we may have now found. Actually, make that two. First of all, Michael Caputo is getting email addresses from Roger Stone, and we have proof. Phil Anderson of The Albany Project signed up for Roger Stone's web site, StoneZone - and guess what, he's now getting emails from SpitzerFile.com, which Michael Caputo runs. Wait, here's the screenshot of the email from Spitzerfile.com... and here's Phil's confirmation email from StoneZone... Here's Michael Caputo denying the connection to Stone:

Look, folks - I am not being paid. Not by Sen. Bruno, not by Roger Stone, not by anyone. I am just a conservative activist and I take orders - and money - from nobody on this.

Really? Because you're definitely taking email addresses.

Unfortunately, I have nobody taking orders from me on this, either. I'm doing it all myself. If I can do it, any dope can - but it does take some time out of my day. Honest to God, I wouldn't know Sen. Bruno if he boarded my boat. But I graduated from SUNY, I've been in the arena nearly 30 years, I read the news, and I have computers. So why is it so impossible for the media and bloggers to believe I can handle NYFacts and SpitzerFile on my own?

In short, Caputo and Stone are lying about their association. They are working together; and of course, Stone is working openly for Joe Bruno, which ties the Majority Leader directly to NYFacts.net and SpitzerFiles.com. Check out Phil's piece on TAP, as well. The question is why the association is being kept secret; and we may have the answer to that as well, after the break. The Caputo/Stone email list is curious for several reasons. First of all, it contains non-public emails, such as mine. Second, it doesn't contain several New York bloggers of note, such as Liza Sabater. And there may be a very simple explanation for that. On January 23d, Ben Smith announced his shift from the Daily News to the Politico, the Washington-based news blog, with an email to a part of his contact list, the second half of the alphabet, to be precise. He sent this email in a way that allowed every recipient to see every other recipient. In short, he inadvertently produced a media contact list. That list seems to be the one that the Caputo/Stone emails are going to; it contains my non-Daily Gotham email, and features several people whom we know to be getting these messages - Matt Stoller, Phillip Anderson, Yoda of Room 8, myself, Azi Paybarah, and others. It notably does not contain the people who are not getting the emails, but logically should be. Such as, say, Liza. [Update]: Ben confirms that Roger Stone was on that email blast. Gotcha. So that's how he got that email list.