It is not unusual for an inferior boxer to engage in dirty and illegal tactics in order to distract and possibly defeat an opponent. We have seen lesser football and basketball players pick fights and attempt to injure opposing players when they know they cannot win playing by the rules. Applying sports analogies to politics, one has to wonder if the recent anti-Muslim video has right wing fingerprints all over it.

Lost in the justifiable firestorm stemming from Mitt Romney’s inane and woefully wrong 47% soliloquy is the fact that the recent release of the absolutely hideously and grotesque anti-Muslim video was released less than sixty days before the election and that it has precipitated death and crisis in the Middle East.

What we know so far is that some non-descript Egyptian Coptic yahoo named Nasouli Nasouli managed to put together video that had no purpose other than to inflame tensions in the Middle East. We know that Reverend Terry Jones, the maniacal Koran burner from Florida has somehow become a “promoter” of this video. And for those keeping score at home this would be the same Terry Jones who publicly burned the Koran in 2011 which resulted in dozens of deaths in Afghanistan.

But what we also know is that this Nasouli Nasouli character may be a non-descript Egyptian Coptic yahoo, but he is not a stupid non-descript Egyptian Coptic yahoo. With no track record in the film or entertainment industry, he was able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars with which he hired actors, built sets, obtained wardrobes, had a script written and scenery designed and constructed.

What we also know is that Nasouli Nasouli was a man with a plan. He deceived the actors and most of people associated with this video monstrosity by filming with a non-offensive script in English and then dubbing in the intentionally inflammatory language in Arabic. In furtherance of his plan Mr. Nasouli, knowing that his video would never get mainstream exposure, put his video on YouTube and other social media sites virtually guaranteeing that his video sewage would spew into the Middle East.

What we don’t know is what motivated Nasouli Nasouli to engage in this rather complicated scheme that has resulted in so much death and destruction. As an Egyptian Coptic Mr. Nasouli might be harboring some resentment of Islam. But his entire life does not reveal any particular political activism. Indeed, the only item of note in his rather skimpy life narrative is a one year prison term for bank fraud – in California.

What we do know is that the resultant firestorm in the Middle East was treated like an all you can eat buffet by Mitt Romney and his fellow Teapublicans. Before the body of slain Ambassador Chris Stevens was cold Mr. Romney was front and center decrying the “disgraceful” conduct of the Obama administration in the midst of the crisis.

What we do know is that Paul Ryan and John McCain and a whole host of Teapublicans have seized upon this sordid affair to proclaim the “weakness” of the Obama administration in the Middle East. This would be the same Obama administration that decimated Al Qaeda and killed Osama bin Laden – but the Teapublicans never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Still, what we don’t know is who paid for this nonsense? Are we to believe that Nasouli Nasouli and Reverend Terry Jones have acted alone? It costs money to hire actors and build sets and write scripts. Neither Nasouli nor Jones seem to have access to that kind of capital.

And isn’t the timing of the release of this anti-Muslim film more than a bit suspect? Less than two months before a close election President Obama suddenly finds himself putting out fires all throughout the Muslim world – a thankless proposition that is filled with the potential of more death and disaster.

The Teapublicans and the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson have made it clear that they will do anything to insure the defeat of Barack Obama on November 6th. Certainly it is plausible that some denizen of the right wing of the right wing would finance and orchestrate this dirtiest of dirty tricks to give the miserable and increasingly pathetic Romney-Ryan team a chance.

We can only hope that major news organizations with the necessary resources will get to the bottom of this. When Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were investigating the Watergate fiasco Deep Throat told them to “follow the money”

When it comes to Nasouli Nasouli and Terry Jones and the anti-Muslim video it is time to follow the money.