The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Virginia Feud: Radtke vs. Red State UPDATE: Palin/Perry ‘Proxy War’?

Posted on | August 24, 2011 | 55 Comments

My co-blogger Smitty is a Virginian who first blogged here about Jamie Radtke, the Tea Party candidate in next year’s Republican primary to replace retiring one-term Democrat Sen. Jim Webb. In July, I added my own two cents in support of Radtke, writing:

Her biggest obstacle is overcoming the GOP Establishment’s support for former Sen. George Allen. While many conservatives know and admire Allen personally, Radtke’s grassroots campaign offers an opportunity to carry forward into 2012 the Tea Party momentum that helped Republicans retake the House in 2010.

The blog is therefore clearly in the Radtke camp. However, we harbor no hostility toward Allen or his supporters — whose ranks we will happily join if the former senator should prevail in the primary. Our forthright support for Radtke is a luxury afforded by our independence, a luxury that some others might envy:

Ben Smith at Politico today reports that Erick Erickson of Red State backed off his early endorsement of Jamie Radtke — a Tea Party-backed candidate in the Republican primary for next year’s Senate race in Virginia — because of what Erickson called “the long term relationship” between former Sen. George Allen and Red State’s corporate owner, Eagle Publishing.

You can read the Politico story — based in part on e-mails obtained from Radtke’s campaign — and feel Erick’s pain. He was caught in a conflict between what he wanted to do (back Radtke against the GOP Establishment) and what his bosses wanted to do (support their long-time friend Senator Allen). Now, however, Erickson has doubled down against Radtke — and against Radtke’s campaign manager, Carter Wrenn, a veteran conservative who is legendarily known as a take-no-prisoners operative. There’s already a Memeorandum thread, so it’s time to pop some popcorn if you enjoy a bloody internecine knife-fight.

Erickson obviously isn’t happy that Radtke went public with this controversy, but as I say at The American Spectator, “there is nothing wrong with corporate publishers exercising editorial oversight.”

My bosses at the Spectator are friends with Erickson’s bosses at Eagle Publishing and, for all I know, share their enthusiasm for Allen’s GOP primary campaign. That would not pose a conflict of interest, though, because my bosses have never demanded that I take sides in the race or told me to back off my support for Radtke. They pay me to report the facts, and my opinions here are entirely my own.

JAMIE RADTKE FOR U.S. SENATE

UPDATE: Things are getting incredibly weird now. Erickson is blaming Dan Riehl for the Politico story. Among the several non-combatants who have called me about this escalating weirdness — comments running the gamut from “WTF?” to “Uh, oh — he’s going after Carter Wrenn” — one caller just suggested that this is actually a “proxy war” involving Sarah Palin’s supporters (who are hoping she will endorse Radtke) vs. Erickson’s faction who have swung their support behind Rick Perry.

UPDATE II: Dave Weigel dogpiles, but doesn’t seem to get the nuance and backstory, especially the seriousness of Erickson more or less calling Carter Wrenn’s candidate a drunk.

For evidence of the “proxy war” theory, see Palin’s famous fan Tammy Bruce on Twitterhere, here, here and here, for example.

UPDATE III: “This is about as ugly an event as you could imagine,” writes Tom White at Virginia Right.

Comments

55 Responses to “Virginia Feud: Radtke vs. Red State UPDATE: Palin/Perry ‘Proxy War’?”

  1. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 4:46 pm

    Thanks for remaining independent, RSM. 🙂

  2. Dan Collins
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:18 pm

    I just wish someone cared that much about what I write. 😉

  3. PhilipJames
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:20 pm

    Since Eric Erickson did a post that highlighted a number of anonymous posts claiming that Radtke was “drunk” and “rambling” and made a complete mess of her introduction of Steve Bannon to the people at the Red State gathering prior to watching The Undefeated….   I want Eric to post up the video of that “drunken rambling” by Radtke.
    He can justify publishing a posting by himself pushing that story and not back it up with the video. There has to be video of her speech… there is video of everything else at the Red State gathering.
    I would like to make up my own mind if it was idiotic.
    Since he uses this “incident” as a justification for his flip flopping on supporting her (rather than to preserve his employment at Red State) we all need to see the video.
    Where is the video?

  4. Ladd Ehlinger Jr.
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:34 pm

    I was thinking the ssame thing as I read that post… very curious.

  5. ThePaganTemple
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:34 pm

    Sorry, I got to go with “the establishment candidate”, Allen, on this one. We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to retake the Senate, and I’ll be damned if I want to see it pissed away. I mean come on, George Allen is NOT Mike Castle.

  6. Dan Collins
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:35 pm

    Proxy Lady?  Bweet-doan! Bweet-doan!

  7. Ladd Ehlinger Jr.
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:40 pm

    Even so, the post by Erikson accusing her of being a drunk on stage was just a tad… off-putting.

  8. Steve in TN
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:53 pm

    Were there other witnesses besides Erikson that have spoken up?

  9. Bob Belvedere
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:55 pm

    Pop, pop, pop, pop, SPLAT, pop, pop pop, pop…

  10. Bob Belvedere
    August 24th, 2011 @ 5:56 pm

    Yes.

  11. Rose
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:04 pm

    Dammit! Can we save the pillow-fight til AFTER 2012? How about we schedule a big, knock-down, drag-out mud-wrestling match for the day AFTER the goddam most important election of our lifetimes. You can have at it THEN. Not now.

    Suck it up Dan, Eric, whoever. Get it together and GET TOGETHER. We all have our favorites, but shooting our own is only going to hurt us all.

    STOP.

  12. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:06 pm

    Well, where are these witnesses?

  13. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:07 pm

    Just wanted to say that I’m all in favor of drunk conference speeches. Lots more fun that way, IMHO.

  14. ThomasD
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:16 pm

    Once-in-a-lifetime?  Oh please.  Maybe if you are a fruit bat.

    Six years of an inside-the-beltway-ruling-class squish?  We already have too many of those.  We don’t need more ‘swing vote’ drama queens and the sweetheart deals that come with them.

    Cornhusker kickback anyone? 

  15. Russ Emerson
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:34 pm

    Any time Dan Riehl gets involved in an argument, I am inclined to automatically take the other side.  He’s seems never to have heard of (or simply refuses to believe in) the concept of “good faith disagreements.”  Consequently, attacking others’ motivations appears to be his stock in trade.

    I’d be glad to be shown I’m wrong.

  16. ThePaganTemple
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:37 pm

    Some people just can’t handle alcohol, to the point one or two drinks under the right circumstances-like heat, lights, and speaking in front of a room full of people-can accelerate the effects. I speak from experience, by the way, when it comes to drinking. It’s a mood thing. I would never get behind the wheel of a car after three or four beers. Some people can drink a case and you’d barely notice. I’m not one of them, and maybe she’s not. None of this is a reason to vote against her. I just know George Allen is acceptably conservative when it comes to government spending, and pretty much everything else. Why toss out an almost sure win just because he might have cut a few deals in a previous incarnation.

  17. Bob Belvedere
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:39 pm

    At the beginning of Erickson’s posting:
    http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/08/24/regarding-jamie-radtke/

  18. Virginia Feud: Radtke vs. Red State - The NeoSexist
    August 24th, 2011 @ 2:42 pm

    […] Feud: Radtke vs. Red State Aug.24, 2011 in General The Other McCain reports on a brewing rift betwen Jamie Radtke, the Tea Party candidate in next year’s […]

  19. ThePaganTemple
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

    I think the Senate has changed hands five times since 1932. Usually when it happens its a small advantage going one way or another. In this case, its not beyond the realm of possibility for the GOP to end up with a sixty seat majority. That would definitely be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and again, I don’t want to piss it away. If it was Arlen Specter, I’d go along with you, but this is a man who is a reliably conservative vote the vast majority of the time. I don’t believe in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

  20. ThePaganTemple
    August 24th, 2011 @ 6:56 pm

    @Bob_Belvedere:disqus who was that on the video? Was he actually speaking to her directly at the convention after her speech? It would be helpful if somebody had actually made a video of her speech. I don’t believe in ragging out somebody without any evidence to back it up, but I do honestly think Virginia is better off sticking with the tried and true George Allen. Which may be a moot point, cos if one of the commenters if right he’s leading her ten-to-one in the polls.

  21. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 7:46 pm

    I stopped visiting Dan Riehl’s blog a little over a year ago.  Since then I take anything he says with a BIG grain of salt.  Seem’s he felt butt-hurt, because the GOP wasn’t listening to his super awesome ideas for re-taking the House and Senate.  He’s always held strong opinions, but he seemed to become fanatical, and everyone who didn’t agree with his enlightened opinion, was at best stupid.  I don’t mind if someone occasionally twists off.  In Riehl’s case, it’s become his norm.

  22. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

    Agree, completely.

    These intramural spats always seem silly, unless you’ve been directly insulted or marginalized, yourself – but, in that case, you still need to suck it up and wait until the appropriate time for retribution, etc.  

  23. PhilipJames
    August 24th, 2011 @ 8:16 pm

    Come on Bob….  and everyone else who watched that video clip on Red State…  that video clip is from a movie for God’s sake and was just used to poke fun of Radtke.
    Geez… can’t you think to click on the Youtube link and see that?
    Eric publicly trashed a Republican backed by the Tea Party.
    Even if she was drunk… would you have known about it if Eric had not publicly put it out there to justify his flip flopping?
    I asked Eric and the Red Staters for a video of her speech.
    So far nothing.
    Will it be the same as …. ” I heard them yell the N word at least 15 times”???

  24. Dave C
    August 24th, 2011 @ 8:22 pm

    http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2011/02/major-defection-from-allen-camp.html

    Radke knows where a few of Allen’s bodies are buried..  

  25. Zilla of the Resistance
    August 24th, 2011 @ 8:39 pm

    Well considering all the abuse I’ve gotten over the past few days from the damned Perryists, I am going to go for the candidate Perry’s peeps don’t like.  Give ’em HELL, Ms. Radke!

  26. Adjoran
    August 24th, 2011 @ 10:00 pm

    Well, if a candidate appears drunk in public, that’s it.  It’s over.

    So I suppose the matter is now a question of either “Is there video of it?” or “Who do you believe?”

  27. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:05 pm

    The Redstate people should post the damn video or shut the hell up. Really, I very rarely post and haven’t ever posted anything on this site, but it gets tiring. Someone said something that they should back up, if they can, and if they can’t, then they need to keep their mouth shut and that includes RedState. Jesus, it’s bad enough to have to fight the democrats and the made up shit from them, but from your own party? It’s enough to make me want to stay home on election day and let the “elistists” and that includes those who “think” they are in the know (on blog sites), get stuck with what they get. I’ll read Dan Riehl, HotAir (for now) and whatever site I want but I want evidence and if RedState can’t provide it, then they need to apologize and shut up. Accusing someone of being “drunk” is serious. It could affect the rest of their life and it’s not something to be taken lightly just so you can “endorse” a candidate or proof that somehow you are the “man”. Produce the video of the “drunken speech” or apologize. It’s really that simple.

  28. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:17 pm

    Is there any woman that Erick  will ever  support? 

  29. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:20 pm

    putting up inside the beltway idiots is a  great way to piss  it  away.   2010  happend  because it was move  away  from Bush,   running  the Bush gang  again is not  going to  get you  your  magical  senate.  In fact  what it  will do  is dampen turnout  and turn a landslide victory into a tough battle.    Do  you  really  think anyone not of the beltway is  excited  by an Allen run? 

    The elected freaking  Webb  over Allen.   He  brings nothing to the table. 

  30. Dan C
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:22 pm

    Does Erick support the Texas Dream act? Will his man Perry do that on a national level?

  31. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:25 pm

    This reminds me of the attacks on nikki haley.   Underhanded personal  attacks.   Does the gop establishment not have a different playbook?

    not  one red cent to  these fools. 

  32. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:32 pm

    It seems like that, doesn’t it. At least as long as I have been reading him. And that’s been quite a while.

  33. Anonymous
    August 24th, 2011 @ 11:33 pm

    No, Plenty of people are fed up with Erickson. He’s is a wannabe. Most Americans never even heard of the jerk. It’s about time he changed the name of his site to RINOstate because that’s how everyone else refers to it . Let the little worm hang out with the rest of the beta males. Erickson has a misogyny problem and plenty of people are fed up with the little worm.  Obviously that’s his problem, his little worm.

  34. Garym
    August 25th, 2011 @ 12:10 am

    Erickson and his Red State cronies have a tendancy to attack thier non endorsed primary opponents with abandon, and they never seem to understand that they are going to need the opponents supporters to help thier candidate after the primary. For this reason, Red State has lost all and any credibility with me. In other words, I’ll do my own research on candidates and never relie on Red State.

  35. ThePaganTemple
    August 25th, 2011 @ 12:17 am

    Allen is going to be the nominee.

  36. ThePaganTemple
    August 25th, 2011 @ 12:18 am

    At least they got rid of Art Chance, so there’s that.

  37. Tennwriter
    August 25th, 2011 @ 1:09 am

    PT,
    How about we let them fight it out in the primary?   I don’t get what is so bad about a conflict between a soft Right, and a hard Right.

    If both sides play fair and whichever is the losing side supports the winning side, I think it would be good.

    Problem with the  Christine O’Donnell situation was that the RINO losers did not support her after she won the primary.

  38. ThePaganTemple
    August 25th, 2011 @ 2:40 am

    @beddd0ebf1f1d7f0c1561106bdcdfb31:disqus I agree with what you’re saying here, and I was one of the ones that supported Christine O’Donnell. I thought she got a raw deal from the party, and I was especially pissed at Karl Rove. As far as I was concerned, we were better off without Mike Castle.

    But like I keep saying, George Allen is not Mike Castle, by any stretch of the imagination. I remember back in the day which seems like a century ago now, he was touted by many as a conservative darling, and a potential presidential candidate. You never heard anyone question his conservative bona fides, and its a little off putting to see it being done now. Granted, he might not be an ideological purist, but how many of them are there anyway?

    Some people just can’t stomach the reality that before you can govern, you have to win. From what I’ve seen so far, I have serious doubts as to the ability of this woman to win in a state with a strong and growing Democrat electorate. George Allen can and probably will win. Why mess that up? By all means hold his feet to the fire when he does. But my main and only concern is the constitution, my country, my family, and myself. Ideological purity comes in a distant fifth, if that, and the idea of losing the opportunity to retake the Senate, with a veto and/or filibuster proof majority at that, for the sake of ideology leaves me cold.

  39. Tom Callow
    August 25th, 2011 @ 4:19 am

    I have no dog in this hunt except got being partial to the tea party movement. This just flat out seems like a hit piece by Erik Erickson.
    You can go to Youtube and see Radtke videos in some very venerable places, for instance speaking to the Senate this year. Not a huge body of work  but enough to get some sense of the candidate/person.
    She seems like a fairly normal person, and not a politician, definitely NOT establishment type.
    The establishment republicans are using their long time allies and networks and the long knives are coming out is the sense of what I get it going on here.
    Almost makes me wonder about the economics of RedState’s situation and if there is any pushback there over this?
    Time will tell, the establishment may win this battle, but doing it like this might hurt  Redstate in the long run because Tea Partiers are going to have really long memories.
    That would not be a good thing for all the other’s that post diaries there, would it?

  40. Anonymous
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:24 am

    Uh, just for one example, Erick was on the Nikki Haley bandwagon before pretty much anyone.  I saw her speak at the RedState gathering two years ago in Atlanta.

  41. RedState, Erick Erickson and Jamie Radtke Have Explosive Breakup | Virginia Right!
    August 25th, 2011 @ 5:56 am

    […] The Other McCain has some good coverage and updates on this story. And Stacy McCain linked to this post! Thanks, […]

  42. Bob Belvedere
    August 25th, 2011 @ 12:49 pm

    Pagan / Philip: I’m not taking sides here [I should have made that clear], but Stacy asked for the evidence of my answer to Steve’s question.  Also, in my haste, I was not referring to the video clip at the beginning of Erickson’s post, but what followed immediately after — which quotes, BTW, Erickson does not provide any links to.

    My feelings are summed-up in my comment from 1:55 PM yesterday afternoon, although I should have added the sounds of the pouring of a stiff bourbon.

  43. Radtke, Red State and Riehl : The Other McCain
    August 25th, 2011 @ 12:35 pm

    […] var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The fallout continues from yesterday’s eruption of an online knife-fight between the campaign of Jamie Radtke, Virginia’s Tea Party candidate for Senate, and Red […]

  44. Piney
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:02 pm

    Read these posts and all the related (links here and on Red State)…and my conclusion is: 

    Radke sounds under the influence, of what, I can’t say, but certainly a failure in what should have been her big splash appearance and was instead ruined by her own ineptitude, unpreparedness, substance-or-no but certainly emotionally and intellectually questionable. 

    Erickson simply wrote what he observed, included his opinions on the results of that bad act by Radtke…AND RHIEL (and Tammy Bruce) SHOULD HAVE STAYED OUT OF IT (they made this situation far, far worse and MUCH MORE TACKIER AND RIDICULOUS than it ever should have been or was to begin with),

    Some on the Right who associate with Ron Paul are, indeed, fringe, but it looks to me that many of those same people are now associated with Palin and work to ruin GOP candidates who may not be “as fringe” as some want them to be.  There’s nothing wrong with GOP candidate George Allen, as far as I can see, as to the Senate seat in question.  And many of the people Palin has endorsed have turned out to be failures at elections and at leadership, so, just saying, this disagreement here should have been allowed to rest between disagreeing bloggers and not have been fanned into flames by gossipy Palin discontents.  These situations are why I don’t support  her for any public office and it comes down to her ‘fan base’ that is entirely presumptuous with and about others.

  45. Piney
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:10 pm

    I wholeheartedly agree as to Dan Riehl.  He has a history of being an intrusive gossip.  He should never have even been involved in this but apparently, couldn’t pass up another opportunity at Drama Queen 101.

  46. Piney
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:13 pm

    Back to the original mishap, however:

    If Radke WASN’T “drunk” or otherwise under the undue influence (of something else). what was her problem?  Why her weird behavior?  Is that her “normal” behavior from a podium or otherwise in public? What exactly was her problem?

  47. Piney
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:15 pm

    You really can’t stand Republicans/the GOP, can you?  I’ve never read anything from you that suggests your fidelity with anyone in or about the GOP and you relentlessly malign “the gop” as you refer.

  48. Piney
    August 25th, 2011 @ 6:17 pm

    Next you’ll be writing more flaming lies about the man accusing him of being some drug maven or flying carpet salesman.  I’ve read your smears before about other Republicans and it seems you function from a very, tiny,  cowardly perspective.

  49. Anonymous
    August 25th, 2011 @ 8:34 pm

    Why would anyone have fidelity with a party that attacks it’s own.

    Erick Erickson Seems to have become another inside the beltway talking head. He admits that he is doing his boss’s bidding and supporting a candidate who chose Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey.
    The Republican Party better understand what’s coming their way.

    TeaParty 2012

  50. Anonymous
    August 26th, 2011 @ 2:28 am

    No we can’t stand RINO’s. Ericdumb should change the name to RINOstate because that’s what everybody calls it any way , beta male.