I hereby apologize to Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean: I passed on the mistaken observation that he had improperly benefitted by steering Dean campaign ads to his agency. Fortunately for me, I only told this to Same, of my lawyers on the C-line (where all of my lawyers hang out), who never takes me seriously.

As a penance, I’ll promote Trippi’s new blog, Change For America, where he convincingly explains that the financial arrangement with the Dean campaign wasn’t a conflict of interest. Trippi in fact has picked up where he left off, which was Dean’s Blog For America, with just a small change. Trippi’s makeover came as he was heralded at Monday’s Digital Democracy Teach-In in San Diego at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. Wired News reported that he told the sesion:

“This wasn’t about one guy,” he said. “This is the beginning of the tools, and a platform, to take the country back.”

That may have been news to some people in the Dean campaign.

Earlier in the week, I wrote down some thoughts about the future of DeanSpace. I figured that all the tools still need a figurehead to lead them– it wasn’t Al Gore, and it won’t be Howard Dean. I have a good feeling who Joe Trippi wants it to be.