One of Bobby Jindal's aides, and her boyfriend, got beaten up last Friday. There was a rumor that the attack occurred because the pair were wearing Sarah Palin pins. It seemed to have been confirmed by the police. Except not.

Come with us on a journey into the strange world of conservative bloggers, misquoted police spokesmen and right-wing victim mentality. Last Friday at around 10.45pm, just after Sarah Palin spoke at a GOP conference in New Orleans, Allee Bautsch, the chief fundraiser for Republican Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, was assaulted along with her boyfriend Joe Brown. Five men attacked them in the street after shouting abuse at them. She suffered a broken leg.

Conservative bloggers, including some guy on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, ran with a rumor that the pair were beaten up because they were wearing Sarah Palin pins. Pat Dollard, who is a) conservative b) fascinating and c) all sorts of crazy posted on his blog that the NOPD had confirmed this to him. Yahoo News then ran the story using Dollard's reporting. To fully appreciate how ridiculous that is, please read this wonderful Vanity Fair article about Dollard and his myriad antics.

Now, to nobody's surprise except Yahoo News, the Police spokesman, Bob Young, tells Politico's Ben Smith that "the quote was the opposite of what he'd said and "completely incorrect." Though he does admit that the NOPD is looking into the political motivation angle. We wish we could say 'the end,' here, but it's probably got another five blog cycles to run.

UPDATE: The Times-Picayune have got a copy of the police report. The attack was not political. "It should be noted," says the report, based on an interview with Brown, "that other than making reference to the victims being nicely dressed, along with other observations about their physical appearance, Mr. Brown did not hear [the attackers] make any other comments."

Pat Dollard has not yet responded to a request for comment we made through the contact form on his website.