Ellie Light Revealed? (Well, Maybe...)

HazZzMat Newsflash! This Just In! Dateline: Cleveland?

The online website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has just revealed the top-secret identity of Obama propagandist "Ellie Light." I think.

Ellie Light, the ubiquitous letter writer whose name appeared in newspapers nationwide praising President Barack Obama, appears to really be a male health care worker from California.

A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he made up the name "Ellie Light" to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks, and used fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.

Reporter Stephen Koff details the paper's contacts with "Winston Steward" and his wife (or maybe not), "Barbara Brooks," who covered for him, apparently, on the telephone early on in this cat-and-mouse game.

The paper appears to have done its due diligence and tracked "Steward" down in California and "Brooks" down in Texas. But the story is as nutty as a fruitcake, and who knows who really established the cover for this whole charade? That includes "Light's" new identity as "Steward," who seems convinced that right-wing crazies will kill or maim him if they find him. Read the rest here. Gawker has a credible alternate version of the story that's the same only different. The site also includes an alleged picture of "Steward" and a helpful link to his wife's (or ex-wife's) Facebook page.

Riehl World has outed "Steward" as a being member of the nefarious HuffPo for nearly a year, proving the alleged indifference he feigns in the PD piece toward hardcore lefties has a faint odor of insincerity about it. Patterico plugs in more details plus a juicy possible connection with the White House--this via a linkback to Riehl referencing the 2050 PR firm (which has magically gone offline save for a revolving globe logo). Oh, yeah, he also mentions that Ben Smith has audio of the "Ellie" encounter.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith (the real one) updates the mess here in Politico, inferring the blogosphere went nuts about nuthin'. Well, hell, Ben, maybe we did and maybe we didn't, but let's follow this to the bitter end, just for fun.

The PD may very well have smoked "Ellie" out, more or less. But there's more to this story than just an eccentric lefty wingnut. Or two. So I'm sticking with the criminal profile I established in one of my earlier followup entries until we get the real final story on Ellie-Winston-Barbara and who he, she, or it really is.