UPDATE: The Judge Steps Out

Michael Maggio issued a statement that he indeed is "geauxjudge" on Tiger Droppings and exits his judicial race in Arkansas.

 “I take full responsibility for the comments that have been attributed to me. I apologize deeply for my lapse in personal judgment and for that, I have no excuse. The comments posted were not acceptable. These comments are not a reflection of who I am.”

Call it the disassociation effect in reverse.  Just because I used a pseudonym it really isn't me.

Some broader things to consider are how did Maggio end up in this place? Granted, a run though all of geauxjudge's posts made it fairly easy to conclude it was either Maggio or someone extremely close to him.  He opined on too many things that only he would know from his professional life (first rule of message board - no personal details).

Yet on a board the scale of TigerDroppings, seeing this forest for the trees . . . well you wouldn't just need a road map, you'd need Google Earth to back up that far.

Unless you were tipped.

And that is what Maggio hinted at in his statement. That Blue Dog Report, one of Arkansas' more notable political blogs, didn't just accidentally sift through the website.

Regardless, we are once again reminded of the permanence of the supposedly ephemeral digital trail we leave behind.

If you want a recap, Arkansas Times has one here.