When Washington, D.C. blogger Michael Rogers posted a story claiming to have confirmation from multiple sources that S.C. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is a closeted homosexual, he didn’t expect the mainstream media to pick it up.

But they did.

Since he posted it, Rogers’ Aug. 31 story on Blogactive.com has been reported on by WIS-TV, Free-Times.com, CNN.com, The State newspaper and the national politics web site Politico.com, among several others.

The story angle in South Carolina now is that Gov. Mark Sanford is behind the allegations, speculation that has been stoked by Lexington Republican Sen. Jake Knotts, a close Bauer ally, in a letter that he has circulated to members of the General Assembly.

“This attack was orchestrated on behalf of Mark Sanford, either directly or indirectly, and financially subsidized by him or one of his many ‘front-groups,’” Knotts wrote about Rogers' post in the letter.

Others believe Sanford is behind the blog post as well.

“Everyone I’ve talked to thinks there is some connection to the governor,” said State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, in a story on Politco.com.

But Rogers calls the claim that Sanford had anything to do with his post on Bauer is an “absolute untruth.”

“I don’t know anyone in Mark Sanford’s office,” Rogers told Free Times Sept. 3 while in a Washington, D.C. taxi cab. “I don’t know anybody on Mark Sanford’s political team. I don’t know anything about Mark Sanford except what’s been out there in the public and in the press.”

Rogers says he has a 100 percent record with outing closeted politicians with anti-gay agendas, and he works his sources like any reporter would. “I know where these people work who are my sources,” he says about the ones regarding Bauer. “They don’t work in any political realm.”

Some South Carolina politicos believe it was the timing of Rogers’ post that has heightened allegations that Sanford may be behind it. The post came shortly after Bauer publicly asked Sanford to resign.

Rogers says that claim is unfounded.

“The general timing with me is that when I have a story in the can, I report it,” Rogers says, adding that he often gets increasing tips and more sources come forward around election time.

When questioned about the timing of his post, Rogers says he didn’t even know Bauer had called on Sanford to resign.

Also, Rogers is irked that no other reporters who have written about his post on Bauer have bothered to call him.

“How do you let somebody call [this] a ‘smear job’ … and then not call and ask if it’s true?” he says. “Nobody wants to talk to the guy who knows what happened.”

As for whether it is possible that any of Sanford’s current or former associates could have pushed the Bauer story on him without him knowing it, Rogers says he just doesn’t think it’s possible.

“I’ve never been duped before,” he says.