Hung out to dry, state IT official is reeled back in

Just in case you missed it, a top Romney official now says the head of the state's IT department did nothing wrong in going to conferences on open-source software. Seems Eric Kriss approved all of Peter Quinn's travels - but didn't bother to tell anybody when the Globe Spotlight Team (or Stephen Kurkjian, at any rate) began asking questions about it. Charley says:

... And so much for the outrageous Globe hit piece on Quinn -- muckraking, not nitpicking, please. The real issue in this is campaign finance: Who's paying for Romney and Marc Pacheco to shill for Microsoft? Who's making the phone calls and making veiled threats or non-promise promises? Follow the money, guys. ...

Speaking of the Globe coverage, the initial story that raised allegations about Quinn ran on page 1. The follow-up, which cleared him, ran on page B1.

My standard newspaper disclosure. Bonus disclosure: Last week, I wrote an editorial for Network World calling the charges against Quinn ludicrous.