The Other McCain

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

My Thing, Your Thing, Our Thing UPDATE: Apparently, It’s #WAR

Posted on | April 3, 2013 | 37 Comments

Dana Loesch has a piece at Red State about the controversy that ensued when Ben Howe wrote a piece at BuzzFeed criticizing a video from Tea Party Patriots. I never saw the video and didn’t read Howe’s BuzzFeed piece, although friends made me aware that there was some kind of kerfuffle about it.

What. Ever.

Part of the argument was about the fact that Howe used BuzzFeed — perceived as a liberal site — to attack conservatives, to which Loesch responds: “What does it matter where it was published? . . . Buckley published in Playboy. Other conservatives have published in Huffington Post.”

Politics is a team sport played by individuals, and there is no scientific formula for reconciling team success with individual ambition. The teams are so large, in fact, that it is difficult to determine who is responsible for success or failure.

Ronald Reagan said, “You can accomplish much, if you don’t care who gets the credit,” but it seems there are some people who spend all their time claiming credit for success — or blaming others for failure. If I paid attention to half the behind-the-scenes drama I’m aware of, I wouldn’t have time to pay attention to anything else, and there is lots of drama I never find out about simply because it is behind the scenes. So I ignore as much of it as possible, until it hurts my friends or becomes such a distraction that it can’t be safely ignored any longer.

I could write a thousand words about this, but there’s no time. The “roving new media guru Ali Akbar” is anxious to leave South Carolina today and it’s a long drive home.

Headline at Politico: “GOP frets Mark Sanford could blow it”

Yeah. No more time to worry about that now . . .

UPDATE: OK, we stopped on the way home to eat and I hopped online to see what was happening. John Nolte was leading the Breitbart crew on Twitter in #WAR mode:

Donald Douglas at American Power has the necessary links for understanding this Montagues-and-Capulets feud.

Remember that it all started with an article about a video that showed at CPAC three weeks ago.

Category: South Carolina

Comments

37 Responses to “My Thing, Your Thing, Our Thing UPDATE: Apparently, It’s #WAR”

  1. Paula
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 4:07 pm

    It’s all good, as long as the final result is the Freedom thang.
    FWIW I still think there are some people owe an apology to Ali for the below the belt comments.

  2. texasps
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 4:07 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM My Thing, Your Thing, Our Thing http://t.co/ScAMX2SUb6 #TCOT

  3. Mike G.
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 4:11 pm

    The question remains…are you/we going to get behind Sanford now that he is the winner? Or should we just give up the seat to the Democrats because we can’t have an adulterer from the GOP in the “People’s House?”

    Inquiring minds want to know.

  4. Jackie Wellfonder
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 4:15 pm

    Drive safe you guys!!

  5. Finrod Felagund
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 4:16 pm

    I wonder if Bostic could have caught Sanford if there simply had been more time between the election and the runoff. Ah well, maybe someone in the South Carolina legislature will notice this and change the law to make the runoff later.

  6. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 5:04 pm

    I am not inclined to write Mark Sanford a check. I do not live in South Carolina and frankly there are plenty of races more important to me than this one. But you are free to write him a check.

    I wish Sanford the best and yes, I do hope he prevails over the Democrat opponent.

  7. Mike G.
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 5:14 pm

    I’m not going to be cutting any cutting him any checks either. And I can’t vote for him living in a different district in the state, but that doesn’t mean we can’t support him in other ways. ( Jeff Duncan is my Rep…thank you Lord!)

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 6:18 pm

    War is NoKo flipping the switch. This petty infighting is stupid and crazy, but it sure as hell is not war.

  9. JadedByPolitics
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 6:35 pm

    I think the problem is that it is just extremely painful to have those you consider to be friends to attack anyone on the RIGHT SIDE of the divide and so being humans, with emotions and all that make us who we are, we immediately jump in to give our opinions. Hell I didn’t even know what the blowup was about on Monday and jumped in to defend Howe on Twitter, then as I was leaving Breitbart today I see his name and had to go back to see,

    I could have done without knowing, but I found it sad, pathetic and un-necessary to attack fellow travelers (so to speak). I personally don’t have time for small ball like that so why even follow or give attention to anyone who does feel the need to attack another conservative person or group no matter the reason. Hell don’t WE take enough from the leftist media every single day? Yes.We.Do.

  10. Paul Zummo
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 6:50 pm

    “What does it matter where it was published? . . . Buckley published in Playboy. Other conservatives have published in Huffington Post.”

    As if the Akin kerfuffle didn’t already prove it, Loesch can be a bit dense. Did Buckley take to Playboy specifically to criticize fellow conservatives, or did he do it so that he could try to engage the non-conservative audience? This is what Howe and his fellow Red Staters just don’t seem to understand. It’s not as though he were a regular contributor to BuzzFeed already making a perfectly legitimate point. This was an opportunity to try to preach to the non-converted, and he used to it go after other conservatives.

  11. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:01 pm

    It’s that desire to seem “smart” when talking to idiot leftists that drives this. Too many waffly types think you appear more even-thinking when showing that you’re willing to criticize fellow travelers.

    The left rarely does this. Put a (D) after your name, and you’re good to go; be it racism, rape, support of jihad, public defecation, whatever.

  12. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:03 pm

    Inquiring minds would already be aware that it wasn’t just about adultery.

  13. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:12 pm

    It seems the logic selected to justify the airing of criticism of the right on a leftist site is similar to when a guy decides to complain to the assembled at the bar about how bad his wife is in bed.

    “Come on Honey, you keep telling me you want more openness and for me to talk more, right?”

    It’s just a Bad Idea, even if the guy’s wife actually is as bad as he claims, and it’s really not his fault. Some discussions are better had among friends.

  14. Garym
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:33 pm

    My apologies to Ali. I was led astray.

  15. Zilla of the Resistance
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:02 pm

    I second that, watch out for those damned deer, Stacy!

  16. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:02 pm

    That is a good point. Constructive criticism is fine, but it stops being constructive if it is just fodder for our opponents.

  17. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:04 pm

    Anyway know the real enemy*: Anyone with a penis.

    *The World According to Amanda Marcotte

  18. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:48 pm

    The deer better watch out for Stacy. While the KIA bills gave him heartburn, the last one was apparently delicious.

  19. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:52 pm

    And P.J. O’Rourke published in Rolling Stone. But O’Rourke generally did not use that platform as David Frum uses his platform at the Daily Beast. And O’Rourke had a lot more talent than David Frum.

  20. DaveO
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 9:32 pm

    So is this signaling that Howe would like a paying job, like Jennifer Rubin, or David Frum?

  21. Scribe of Slog (McGehee)
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 10:01 pm

    If the criticism is valid and honest, it doesn’t matter who writes it or where they publish it — an honest target has to give it consideration and be willing to either refute it on its merits or declare touché.

    If it’s nothing but a slime-flinging hit piece, it likewise doesn’t matter where it’s published — but who wrote it is worth remembering in the future.

  22. richard mcenroe
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 10:07 pm

    The GOP management has precisely zero incentive to do anything like that.

  23. Adjoran
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:43 pm

    There is no time. Primaries are scheduled so close to the election for a reason, and candidates have had plenty of time to get their message out (and must have done so fairly well to finish in the top two).

    In SC, we don’t change the law on a whim.

  24. Adjoran
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:48 pm

    Actually, Bostic was the Establishment boy in this race, where on earth do you get your misinformation? Oh, yeah, forgot where I was.

    Sanford has been a thorn in the Establishment’s side since he responded to grassroots demands and left his retirement from politics to join another crowded primary race for Governor late, against a former Governor, sitting popular AG & Secretary of State, among others. He won because he is a conservative reformer.

    And if you don’t understand that, at least realize that’s why South Carolinians dislike outsiders coming here and telling us what to do.

  25. Adjoran
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:50 pm

    Yes, Politico says that, and a lot of other leftist propaganda. Ace quit linking them long ago. But if you give credence to Will Folks, I suppose excrement is your favorite flavor.

  26. SDN
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:52 pm

    I bow to your undoubted expertise.

  27. Culture is EVERYTHING | Anthony Abides
    April 4th, 2013 @ 12:01 am

    […] Andrew Breitbart told us that culture is everything. Which is why I find it puzzling some of the Breitbart crew is attacking Ben Howe for following Commander Breitbart’s […]

  28. narciso
    April 4th, 2013 @ 12:08 am

    Howe teamed up with Wurtzel on that attack on Sarah Pac, just the other day, that was picked up by Mediaite, a third time would confirm it’s enemy action,

  29. Paula
    April 4th, 2013 @ 12:47 am

    Amen to that diatribe!! Divided We Fall.

  30. Paula
    April 4th, 2013 @ 12:47 am

    🙂

  31. Quartermaster
    April 4th, 2013 @ 7:48 am

    Yeah. The Dim has been plenty of ammo by the idiotic GOP. There wasn’t an awful lot of thinking going on by those who cast ballots for AWOL adulterer.
    Personally, I’d be willing to give teh seat to a Dim for 2 years just to get Sanford permanently out of the picture. The reason the left has won so much is they aren’t afraid to throw one of theirs to wolves when they transgress. We need to be willing to do the same, or you get the GOP you have now.

  32. Quartermaster
    April 4th, 2013 @ 7:50 am

    Which is why Frum has been reduced to publishing in the places that publish him.

  33. Quartermaster
    April 4th, 2013 @ 7:57 am

    Who on earth was telling you what to do? We ridicule you because you have been so willing to support an AWOL adulterer. Now the GOP is saddled with someone that could well lose the seat. And, if you think that’s not possible, then you need to get off the drugs causing your delusions.
    The SC GOP is obviously willing to go down teh same drain teh Dims have gone. If you want to support that, and it seems you do, then expect us to continue ridicule your stupidity and support of depravity.

  34. richard mcenroe
    April 4th, 2013 @ 2:53 pm

    I was gonna write an article for LA Times entitled “Dana Loesch is a big rightwing poopy head” but they only offered me ten grand for it so I went with principles instead. I’m easy, but I ain’t cheap….

  35. richard mcenroe
    April 4th, 2013 @ 2:54 pm

    Stacy’s worst fears on the drive home came true… http://youtu.be/ePjFAZKWKVo

  36. richard mcenroe
    April 4th, 2013 @ 8:24 pm

    Why pay to watch a car wreck when you get them for free every weekend on NASCAR? Tired of enabling the GOP fossils.

  37. K-Bob
    April 5th, 2013 @ 1:13 am

    I’m with ya there.