It has been noted elsewhere that the press release announcing that Alabama AG Troy King was John McCain's Alabama campaign chair disappeared from the McCain website last Friday, after a number of blogs linked to it. I'm posting this here because I don't know enough about the workings of websites and search engines to figure out if it's plausible to chalk that up to accident or not. The semi-official Alabama GOP story is put forward in the comments at Doc's Political Parlor -- this is just accidental damage from a remodel of McCain's website.
That seems awfully convenient to me. I know the page was there on Friday morning because I looked it up and linked to it. Fishbowl America says it was there as late as 2:30 Friday afternoon. The Troy King gay sex rumor was extremely active on Friday and I'm pretty sure a lot of bloggers linked to that page to crow about the King/McCain relationship. Then suddenly the McCain press release disappeared. Which looked very much like the McCain campaign was trying to distance itself from Troy King and his problems.
Now GOP sources are pointing out that lots of things have disappeared from the McCain website and the Troy King PR was an innocent casualty in a planned remodel.
... Google shows results for pages with other names that are also not found. For example, search Google for pages on the McCain site with "Bob Riley" that do not have the name "Troy King," and the first three results (at this moment anyway) are for pages that are now not found. The next three link to newspaper articles on the McCain site, not press releases. Search for "Dax Swatek" (without "Troy King") and the two results link to pages not found. The two results for Scott Beason (without "Troy King") also link to pages that are now not found.
The point to be made in this update is that while the pages on the McCain site with King’s name are no longer availabe where Google says they are (or were), neither are at least some other pages on McCain’s site, for example some that had the names of Bob Riley, Dax Swatek, or Scott Beason. Without more information, I would be hard pressed to substantiate the original point that King in particular had been removed from the site. As likely or more, a makeover on the site moved or removed the pages, and Google has not yet caught up.
Is this plausible? For what it's worth, the January 29, 2008 PR in question no longer appears on the chronological list at the McCain website, either. Were we wrong about McCain? Does he fully intend to stand by Troy King through thick and thin, no matter what rumors are out there? I have a call in to the McCain campaign to find out if Troy is still the McCain Chairman in Alabama, but I'm not holding my breath for a call back. If anyone has better sources within McCain's campaign, please feel free to ask them exactly who is their Alabama Chairman these days.
Update: Our researcher just got a return call from the McCain campaign. The only thing they would say on the record is that there has been "no change" in the McCain campaign's Alabama chairman -- so Troy King is still John McCain's go to guy in Alabama.