The Sestak earmark business that involved Media's own Drew Devitt just took an interesting turn. I was working on a column about it all day.

Sestak spokesman Jonathan Dworkin told me this morning that Devitt had "misrepresented" himself in the appropriation request process which led the congressman to agree to put in Devitt's wind-turbine research idea for funding. It was the same thing Sestak other staffers have been saying since the controversy broke in the Allentown Morning Call.

Devitt applied for the a $1 million research and development grant through the Thomas Paine Foundation, which he founded to promote the writings and ideas of the author of Common Sense and The Age of Reason. Only non-profits are eligible for earmark funding. But Devitt planned to have his for profit company, New Way Energy, get most of the money and do the work. The foundation was nothing more than a pass-through vehicle to skirt the funding rule.

Devitt told me he didn't misrepresent himself or mislead anyone. In his application he didn't specifically mention his connection to New Way Energy but said it would do all the work.

Sestak's people have acted like they didn't know Devitt had any connection to New Way but late yesterday Sestak himself admitted that he wrote a letter introducing Devitt to the Department of Energy as the president of New Way Energy.

I talked to Sestak this afternoon and he said he didn't put "two and two" together after the request went in. But it's hard to believe that none of Sestak's people knew about about Devitt's connection to New Way. If they didn't, it's awfully sloppy staff work.

Sestak took the blame saying it was "my error." But really, it's a staff error. And I bet someone or someones are catching hell for it.

UPDATE: My print column about this is up