Talk about ideological whiplash: according to John McCain’s chief political strategist John Weaver, the very pro-War Arizona Senator has engaged the online services of one Nicco Mele — formerly “one of the architects of Howard Dean’s pioneering website.” (Hat-tip to sharp-sighted reader NR).

Apparently, “Mele did not respond to an e-mail seeking immediate comment.” Indeed.

Clearly this is the latest sign of the netroots migrating Rightward: Peter Daou slaps a “Hillary ‘08″ sticker on his laptop, and now Mele opts for a guy who has spent the last three years struggling to get to Bush’s right on the War.

All VDB can say is this: my, my, my.

And expect more of the same if McCain locks up the nomination, my friends. More of the same. From places in the Democratic Party where you’d least expect it.

Late Update, Sunday, August 27th, 1:01 pm:

Scoops are almost always too good to be true. We thought we were out in front of the rest of the Vermont curve on this Mele story, when in fact we were not simply behind but way behind: The Carpetbagger Report had the Hotline story first, and Neil Jensen over at What’s the Point? had apparently done the meditative follow-up (with full-scale literary allusions) well before VDB knew there was a story to follow-up.

Both posts well worth the read.