Earlier today my colleague Matt Lewis linked to a Roll Call story that said Sen.-elect Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.) would become the newest member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership. Needless to say, I was shocked and appalled.

Having interviewed Corker during this year's campaign, I couldn't believe I was so easily decieved. I spread word to other conservative bloggers, and before I knew it, the Heritage Foundation's Tim Chapman, RedState's Erick Erickson and Townhall's Mary Katharine Ham had gone on the offensive.

Corker was boxed into a corner. But instead of defending his membership, as I expected him to do, his staff said it was a lie. Yes, that's right. The Republican Main Street Partnership made the whole thing up. Roll Call, meanwhile, didn't even bother checking with Corker's office to get the facts straight.

Just so we're clear, here are the paragraphs in question in the Roll Call story:

Sen.-elect Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Rep.-elect Dean Heller (Nev.) will come on board once they are sworn in, Resnick said.

Corker will be one of the Senate's few Main Street members, replacing Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), who lost his seat in November after a brutal September primary fight.

It doesn't get much more straightforward than that.

Don't get me wrong, the thought crossed my mind that Corker felt the heat from conservatives and reneged on his promise to join the group. But then I heard from one of his staffers, who told me of Resnick's claim, "Not only is this not true, Senator-elect Corker only learned of the group’s existence when this story was reported today."

As David Freddoso pointed out in a story last month, the Republican Main Street Partnership and Executive Director Sarah Chamberlain Resnick are challenged when it comes to getting things correct, particularly spelling.

We probably will never know how all of this happened. But at the end of the day, it appears to have worked out in our favor. Corker won't join the moderates, Roll Call will print a correction and the Republican Main Street Partnership looks even more pathetic than it did yesterday.