On the heels of GOP gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino’s claim that someone “hacked” his computer, stole hundreds of sexually and racially explicit e-mails and released them to the media comes a charge by the candidate’s spokesman that presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee AG Andrew Cuomo is behind the leak.

Michael Caputo alleged the Western NY Web site where Paladino’s e-mails first appeared this morning is run by a “hardcore Democrat” who has written a number of critical posts about the Buffalo businessman – including the fact that he not only used to be a Democrat himself, but also contributed campaign cash to the very Democrats he’s now attacking.

Caputo alleged that this blogger is in fact in receipt of  “in depth research conducted by somebody’s oppo research team.” Asked whose team that might be, Caputo responded:

“We think it’s Cuomo and we think this is an indication of how the attorney general is going to go (in the general election). There’s no reason to think it’s (Rick) Lazio or (Suffolk County Executive Steve) Levy.”

“I mean, it’s not lost on me that a story came out on Levy today,” Caputo continued. “The people who are talking most about reform in Albany are getting attacked on smear levels today. We’re talking about reform, and they want to talk about sex with horses and S&M clubs.”

Caputo is referring to my column in today’s DN that reported Levy shared an address between 2001 and 2004 with Ethan Ellner, a former Levy law school buddy who pleaded guilty in a multimillion-dollar mortgage scandal that involved dominatrixes and a SoHo S&M club.

The story was overshadowed somewhat by the Paladino e-mail mess. So, if it is, in fact, true that some Democrat is behind the Paladino leaks, Levy should perhaps thank his lucky stars.

Cuomo campaign spokesman Phil Singer has so far not returned a call for comment.

Caputo’s response – to constantly up the ante in the face of a political crisis until the original infraction gets lost in the shuffle – is a page right out of the playbook of his mentor, GOP consultant Roger Stone.

Recall, for example, the infamous phone call that Stone allegedly made in the summer of 2007 to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s elderly father, Bernard, which got him fired from the employ of the Senate Republicans.

Stone never owned up to the call.  Instead, he launched a series of ever-more outlandish claims, suggesting, for example, that his landlord (Dale Hemmerdinger, a Spitzer donor and now former MTA board chairman) let someone into his apartment – perhaps man of many voices, Randy Credico? – to make the call and frame Stone in the process.

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