In the world where Web hits rule, there's no disputing that the founder of "The Dirty," Hooman Karamian (a.k.a. "Nik Richie"), knows how to milk a situation to the fullest.
As painful as it is to even write this guy's name -- lending legitimacy to someone who's essentially a junior high school gossip queen -- "Richie" has thrust himself into the spotlight by outing Congressional candidate Ben Quayle's ties to his gossip site.
We have no problem with that -- nor do we have a problem with Richie's Web site. Exposing Scottsdale douche bags and publishing pictures of hot chicks is something we can really get behind. However, in exposing the douchiest of the bags, Richie has become a douche bag himself (see photo after the jump) and now won't shut up about his brief brush with a somewhat-legitimate news story.
Richie, and his "Dirty Army" are now claiming to be responsible for Quayle's victory in the District 3 Congressional primary and news outlets are actually running with that story.
KPHO ran a story on its Web site this morning with the headline, "TheDirty.com Takes Some Credit for Quayle Win."
Check it out here.
"Who knows if he would have won the election without TheDirty.com," Richie says in the article.
Get real, dude. Outing Quayle was a smear job. You'd have to be an idiot to think linking a candidate for Congress -- who touts family values -- to a sleazy gossip Web site did anything to help his campaign.
That kind of "news" does boost Web hits, though. And continuing to beat that drum with the outrageous claim that it helped Quayle's candidacy even had us check out "The Dirty" yesterday.
At the end of the day, Richie's really only proven one thing: he's such a creep that he has the power to make anyone around him sleazy-by-association.
