The Smoking Gun reports that trash gossip website Gawker paid the anonymous author of a smear story involving Christine O’Donnell to tell his story.

Asked if he was involved in the preparation or brokering of the Gawker story, Kurisko declined comment. While denying that he was “Anonymous,” Kurisko refused to identify the story’s author, claiming that TSG was “asking me to throw someone under the bus.” He also refused to answer a question about whether he received money in connection with the story (Gawker’s editor told a Yahoo reporter that the site paid in the “low four figures” for the O’Donnell story).

The slimy dude responsible for the widely-slammed article has now been identified as Dustin Dominiak, a 28-year-old graduate of Albion College. The Smoking Gun reports that Dominiak has previously worked as an auditor at the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia.

For their part, the O’Donnell campaign has responded harshly to the hit piece:

Christine O’Donnell’s campaign says an anonymously penned account of a sexual encounter with the Republican U.S. Senate candidate three years ago posted on Gawker is nothing but “sexism and slander that female candidates are forced to deal with.”

“From Secretary Clinton, to Governor Palin, to soon-to-be Governor Haley, Christine’s political opponents have been willing to engage in appalling and baseless attacks — all with the aim of distracting the press from covering the real issues in this race,” said O’Donnell spokesman Doug Sachletben.

Even the National Organization for Women, which decided to endorse Jerry Brown shortly after audio revealed a campaign aide calling Meg Whitman a “whore” and Brown agreeing, came out with a condemnation of the article.

“NOW repudiates Gawker’s decision to run this piece. It operates as public sexual harassment,” said NOW president Terry O’Neill. “And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O’Donnell, but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere.”

It takes a real special douchebag to pull NOW and Christine O’Donnell together. Congratulations, anonymous slimy dude. You’re that special kind of douchebag.