It was a moment during last night's GOP debate almost as odd as Mike Huckabee's Easter Egg reference: During an exchange between moderator Tim Russert and Mitt Romney, a distinct whisper was heard from a third, off-camera voice:

TIM RUSSERT: Governor Romney, you are a big fan of Ronald Reagan. Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Raised taxes...

ROMNEY: I'm not going to raise taxes.

Seriously. As disembodied voices go, this one is particularly awesome. Watch and hear for yourself:

Oh wait, sorry — actually, folks in the blogosphere freaked out as sure as they'd seen REDRUM written in blood on the wall and then screamed bloody murder, positive that Romney had been fed his answers by a nefarious, unseen puppeteer. "Romney Cheats With an Earpiece!" was the early-morning headline on Democrats.com. It was accompanied by a clip which showed the earpiece-less ears of Mike Huckabee (big enough to clearly see that nothing was inside them), plus both of Romney's ears, neither with apparent earpiece or telltale curling cord snaking behind the neck. Blogger Stewart Rhodes called it a "puppet show" and said, "listen for the clearly audible whispering voice, telling Romney what to say." NYU professor and media critic Mark Crispin Miller posted a blog post called "Romney wired like Dubya" (referring to President Bush's mysterious bulge during a Bush-Kerry debate in fall 2004, a comparison that was made elsewhere as well), also posting another which read "We know almost certainly that somebody just cheated in this latest debate." Mused Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone: "The only innocuous explanation I can figure out is that one of the other candidates had a live mike and whispered it to themselves." Well Tim, if you can't figure out another innocuous explanation then there must not be one!

The Raw Story at least acted like journalists and, you know, asked. Said MSNBC spokesperson Jeremy Gaines: "We heard the same thing you heard...there was obviously an open mike which picked up the whisper, but we have no way of knowing who did the whispering." We, too, acted like journalists, and asked the Romney campaign point-blank if he'd been wearing an earpiece; a spokesperson said that was "nonsense" and referred us to MSNBC, saying that the campaign assumed it had been a production issue.

Okay, so: Who was mic'd? There were Brian Williams and Tim Russert, the moderators. Then there were the candidates — five of them. Then there was Paul Tash, editor and chairman of the St. Petersburg Times — sitting in the audience, mic'd. Around him sat other people. Funnily enough, none of the accounts I've seen mention him; instead of pointing out a clearly-visible person in the audience who did have a mic, the focus instead was on earpieces that the candidates didn't have. (Supporting details were also created to buttress the conspiracy theme: Rolling Stone's Dickinson says that Romney looked "a little non-plussed" until the whisper came to save him. I would describe Romney's expression as "listening to Russert with a hint of his usual little smile on his face." Check out his unmoving virtually expressionless face for yourself and decide.)

Even Brian Williams professed not to know what the hell had happened:

With the benefit of an earpiece on stage, I distinctly heard what some viewers apparently heard. Someone said in a whisper, but audibly:

"He raised taxes..."

I remember looking around the stage with a start - scanning the faces of the candidates, trying to figure out who had just said that. Apparently, others heard it, too. We're actually polling all of our folks (those who were anywhere near an open mike) and watching all of our iso tapes (where we record camera angles that isolate individual candidates) to see who the whispering bandit is. Its not as if anyone committed any offense - in fact, whoever it was was both fast on the draw and correct about where Tim was going with his question. It was just an oddly disjointed, not-immediately-identifiable voice, thus the mystery.

Here's a germane point: Brian Williams and Tim Russert had earpieces, so they heard the audio that was being broadcast. So did all of us at home. However, the candidates themselves didn't have earpieces (for obvious reasons) so had no clue that the whisper controversy had even happened. Could it be possible that Romney had come up with the "raising taxes" answer on their own? According to one NBC insider, any politics wonk (i.e. everybody in that room) "mentally finished Russert's question. It would have been so easy for someone to say it audibly without even realizing it." It's probably also germane to mention that Romney — who was credited with his best debate thus far — mentioned a whole lot of other details that probably would have required prompts exceeding three words.

Well, I will spare you all the suspense: Earlier tonight, MSNBC confirmed that it had reviewed all the tapes and concluded the following:

After reviewing the tapes, NBC determined that an open mic picked up a whisper from the audience. It is unclear who it is that says it, but it was not said by any of the candidates, was not heard in the hall and, more importantly, not heard by the candidates.

I will also note that a source at the network confirmed to me that there was no live mic in the control room. (Astute viewers would have noticed a guy with a headset next to Paul Tash in the audience; mic though there was, it was actually a two-way radio to the control room, which was on a different frequency and not meant or used for broadcast.)

Okay, so, what's our takeaway here? I think it's safe to say some parties may have overreacted somewhat. Yes, it was a perfectly-timed moment and could not have been more dramatic had it been the ghost of Reagan himself, piping up from the Great Conservative Beyond. Even so, there have got to be higher standards for making such accusations — like basing them in fact as opposed to wild, excitable conjecture. I don't care if you're a blogger or grizzled print reporter or a talking head — the de minimis standard for credibility should be no less. I think we can all agree that in this case, there were many that fell far short.

There is, however, a silver lining: Without this kerfuffle, I never would have reviewed the tape myself to meticulously study the ears of the participants, leading me to this shocking discovery: The GOP candidates have PHENOMENAL ears. Huckabee's could wind-power a small town. McCain's are enormous, like giant hanging slabs of beef. Romney's, not surprisingly, are small and neat and perfect. Coincidence? I think not.

p.s. One other point of intrigue here: A post about the whisper on NBC's "First Read" blog mysteriously disappeared earlier today. Scandal! Or, not: The entirely satisfactory explanation for that is here.

p.p.s. If you don't believe me about the candidates' ears, check 'em out for yourself in the video below. I s it us, or does Huckabee look like an alert little woodland animal here?

Nothing To See Here, Folks:
That Taxes Whisper [NBC - First Read]
About Last Night [NBC - Daily Nightly]

Conspiracy-Mongering 101:
MSNBC covers up for Romney (and Bush) [News from Underground]
Romney Cheats With An Earpiece! [Democrats.com]

At Least They Phrased It In The Form Of A Question*:
Was That A Whisper In Romney's Ear? [Crooks & Liars]
Did Romney Get A Helpful Prompt At The Debate? [Say Anything]

*NB: Both these posts conclude that it was probably not a nefarious conspiracy. Not that you can tell from the headlines!

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