If I were Rick Perry’s campaign manager, I think I’d be worried by the sound of that rumbling engine and the smell of diesel fumes:
“My problem with Perry is pretty straight forward. I’ve been muttering to myself since that third debate, ‘My God. This guy is undefeated?’ “
— Erick Erickson, “I Hate You”
Wasn’t it barely six weeks ago that Red Staters were publicly impugning the “intellect and integrity” of anyone — and last time I checked, Michelle Malkin was still someone — who criticized the smilin’ Texan?
And then there was that newspaper article I missed while I was in Iowa covering the Ames Straw Poll:
Perry’s announcement highlights
RedState’s growing influence
“RedState has emerged as the most influential blog in the conservative movement,” Republican political consultant Matt Mackowiak said. . . .
So if the Perry announcement was a testament to the “growing influence” of Red State, whose influence had indeed grown so overwhelming that they were willing to throw Malkin under their bus, what does it mean when Erick Erickson starts publicly dissing Perry?
Excuse me for thinking that the Texas governor’s strategist Dave Carney — who didn’t hesitate to throw Newt Gingrich under his own bus — probably isn’t sleeping too well lately, tossing and turning while the sound of a roaring diesel engine haunts his nightmares.
And the title of Erickson’s post reminds me of an old Ronnie Milsap song:
When did having an opinion become a marketable skill? Pathetic.
Erickson’s crew is trying to spin like Stalin – but there were plenty of people here and elsewhere who practically accused him of being in the bag for Perry.
The truth is there are some very good bloggers over there, led by Moe Lane, but they have a very low tolerance for dissent. They especially do not allow mocking of their screw-ups and find reasons to ban anyone who annoys them at all. Moe’s not one of those types, I don’t mean to lump him in just because he’s the best writer in the bunch.
I don’t think RedState was ever “the most influential” of conservative blogs. Erickson did manage to figure out a way to get people to travel to a conference and pay him money, so that makes him as “influential” as CPAC, but that’s just influencing a couple hundred people with more money than sense.
Conservatives don’t need blogs to tell them how to think. Liberals have to have their Talking Points Memo or Kos because they just aren’t very bright on their own.
Look, I never had a problem with Red State, and Moe Lane’s one of the great souls of the blogosphere. But when Streiff dissed Malkin — whoa!
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT? There have been times I disagreed with Malkin, but I would never disrespect Malkin, and for Streiff to diss her over a primary campaign — which, it’s worth noting, had itself just dissed the Iowa GOP — was so shocking I can still scarcely believe it.
Even if you have some difference with MM, for any conservative to throw out her towering level of accomplishment for our side and launch this sort of attack over a single issue makes you wonder what the agenda is there… where’s the balance she’s due, anyway
I concur with Adjoran: Moe Lane has remained somewhat reasonable, particularly this past weekend during the 20-hour Palin-hatin’ vigil that has consumed Redstate.
I wonder if somewhere in Internet Land, Markos Moulitsas isn’t one satisfied gawker.
Andrew Sullivan mocks Michelle Malkin. So is Red State like Andrew Sullivan?
Did you notice what I did there?
I’ve noticed a slow change in Erick since he joined CNN… and not one for the better.
Red State. It’s like HotAir. Without the Hot. Or the Air.
But just like it.
I have to agree the RS “hate-Palin fest” was quite irrational. Why do they dump on Palin for this and not Gov. Christie? He has been playing “Will I/Won’t I” just as, if not even more, loudly. Nevermind the fact if he runs, he instantly goes into the same column as Gov. Asterisk and Romney. Namely, “The Make Me Vote for a Third Party Pile.”
They’re not even touching the really substantial dirt on Mr. Pay For Play.
Red State is amazingly shallow and a slave to the mindset that is attempting to “Fix” conservatism and bridge the gap between the parties.
The only things existing in that gap are issues and views approved by progressives.
Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha — to infinity!
Red State. It is like red meat. But without the meat. And without the taste of meat. With no nutritional value. And little humor. And it disses Michelle Malkin. And that is not respectful. And it is less substantive than TownHall. Sort of like Bill O’Reilly, but less gravitas and more bombastic. And with less mojo than Tucker Carlson and the Daily Caller.
I’m sorry, is Mack Mackowiac somebody I should have heard of?
BTW: None of my nefarious laughter was directed against Moe Lane.
I officially quit going to MM’s website today. I’m done. Kaput. Finito. Her attacks on Perry are , in a word, “unhinged”. I thought I was reading a fellow conservative’s web site all these years, but I have come to realize I was reading an ideologue, with no thought of the consequences to her words. She might as well put on a cheerleader’s outfit and start doing cartwheels for Romney, the only candidate Obama has any chance of defeating. So, when I see you defending her because of her “towering level of accomplishment”, I had to comment. Note: I read her blog everyday for the past 5 years, so I’m not some plant.
Yeah, streiff going after Malkin like she was a n00b was a serious own goal, and Erick taking the tactics of a common spammer against Palin hasn’t helped any. These coming on the heels of the whole Jamie Radtke debacle has made for three times in three months when RedState collectively has made a nasty gaffe that they won’t even admit were gaffes, which only compounds the problem.
I don’t remember EVER going to Red State to get the word on something. Here, yes, AOS (when Ace isn’t having his ‘friend’ over), Instapundit, Althouse, even the Conservatory more and more, but not Red State. There it is…
“Reports: Documents show Holder was briefed on Fast and Furious in July 2010? The US Attorney General for all intents and purposes is a co-conspirator in the murder of US border agents.
And where is the WaPo on this? Tracking down the history of a fucking rock in Texas — hoping the rock’s palimpsest history will speak to the subconscious racism of a GOP Governor whose most serious problem with his base is that he is too soft on illegal immigration.
Journalism.
****
I have to agree, by and large.
She *is* an ideologue* (and has been since, well, forever?) and has been a card-carrying Mitten since ’08, so it’s hardly news that she’s still pushin’ years-old milk.
*That can be good…to a point. But MM regularly vaults *over* that (very difficult to pinpoint) line, turning *everything* into a life or death struggle. (Her near-insane tirade on Rachel Ray wearing a scarf that Palestinians are fond of (in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial, of all things) is a good example of just going way, way, waaaay past the point of reason and is where, incidentally, I threw in the towel after years of following her.)
Oh but tomorrow reports will be made that Sarah Palin climbed all over that rock in the 1980s and she was “necked.”
I’m not a fan of Redstate. They banned people just for bringing up Rick Perry’s record.
They have a strong record of banning people they don’t agree with. They just shrug it off saying that they aren’t a discussion site and that their view is the only view.
Really? Rick Perry is a poor candidate. It is not Michelle Malkin’s place to hold his campaign’s hand and prop Rick Perry up to be something he is not (i.e. a Conservative).
I actually thought it was a bit funny. One of the few things they have done over there the past few months that has been worth anything.
Perry’s not the Texas Jesus. He’s not even a very good political candidate. Y’all fell too hard for a guy you knew nothing about, he turned out to be an unemployed loser, and now you’re mad at Mama for saying “I told you he was no good”. If you don’t want Romney to win, you need to make up with the Cainsters.
[…] implosion of the once-vaunted Perry juggernaut explains two things:Erick Erickson’s first baby steps toward a walk-back of Red State’s “Perry über alles” totalitarian solidarity motif; andRumors that […]
1. When will Erickson’s employers remind him who butters his bread? I expect a full-on slobbery lovefest for Perry, lead by Erickson himself. Perhaps MM could hire Erickson, and re-introduce him to freedom of speech, thought, and action.
2. Illegal immigration is MM’s litmus test. Perry fails. Perry fails bigger than Senator McCain, and outside of La Raza, no one fails bigger than Senator McCain before. Illegal immigrants, and the Americans who support them and hire them, import poverty – this is both a fiscal and social conservative issue. Call me heartless, but the folks who support this will work the folks worse than plantation owners worked their slaves for the sake of increasing their profit margin. That’s truly heartless, but that’s what Perry supports: modern-day slavery.
3. MM earned my respect, so I pay attention when she says something in the milk ain’t clean.
If RedState is the most influential blog in the conservative movement, I’m the reincarnation of Genghis Khan.
Which I’m not.
Michelle has her ranting moments, but she has some of the best instincts in the conservative blogosphere. She was right, as was Stacy about Perry. He has problems with his stance on immigration and crony capitalism.
As for Mittens, she certainly was rooting for him against McCain and the shyster Huckabee. Do you really think that Malkin is a fan of RomneyCare?
More like idiotic thing they have done. Don’t forget, you can catch more bee’s with honey than you can with vinager. Does RS think that by tweeking passionate Palin supporters, they will jump on the Perry bandwagon and say all is well?
I never thought RedState was anywhere near as important to conservatism as NRO, and for them to act like the big frog in the pond is just dumb.
That’s one of the most absurd things I’ve ever read. My blog is and always will be the most influential blog in the conservative ‘sphere.
I know this for a fact, because everyone is too afraid to link to it.
They learned that trick from the Master!
Dohhhh!!
Loved the punctuation Stacy.
In order for Red State to be the ” ‘Most Influential Blog in the Conservative Movement’ ” shouldn’t they be, you know, part of the movement?
As opposed to a PR wing of the Beltway Republican establishment?
It’s Ok Dan, we like you.
We really, really like you.
That is a good point.
I’ve found it funny to see Erickson start coming back around to Cain now that Perry has imploded.
Cain did a lot to help Erickson out, but he was all aboard the Rick Perry bandwagon after Perry agreed to go to the Redstate convention. That site went to a serious new low at that point.
I still like the one guy who sometimes blogs about the oil industry, howerver.
Erickson is more of a fraud than Allahpundit. Erickson is a divider. Erick is bought and paid for and his smearing of Jamie Radtke is bordering on libel.
Erickson hitched himself to Perry and trashed Palin in typical douchebag fashion.
Conservatives4Palin has more influence and Michele Malkin has more influence. Breitbart’s Big Sites have more influence. Hotair has more influence.
Moe Lane is the only one at RedStain with any decency. Erick and Neil Stevens are morons. Stevens always Palin attackers to run wild but if you support Palin or call out one of Erick and Neil’s boys you get banned.
Ya know there’s an easier way to break a comment in to paragraphs.
That’s “nekkid”, Joe.
As Lewis Grizzard defined it: “Naked is when you have no clothes on, and nekkid is when you’re naked and up to something.”
Ahh….C4P….I knew there was some reason you were spamming about.
Only if the definition of “crony capitalism” is having the good sense to get government out of the way.
I wonder if a meme went out on Perry causing Erickson to write what he did.
Either way, Erickson and some of the “top” bloggers at Redstate, have a nasty tendency to trash conservatives that they should just be disagreeing with.
He’s eeeaarning that screenname.
I’ve found that you have to be patient to get in at RedState. If you come in there guns a-blazing about something oddball, they’ll just write you off as another loon, or ban you, depending on whether you tick off the wrong person or not. But if you hang out there a little while and post sensible stuff otherwise, you can express all kinds of out-of-the-GOP-mainstream positions and not be banned. Personally, I’ve advocated legalization of drugs, legalization of prostitution, the opinion that the FDA and most of the federal bureaucracy is unconstitutional, stood up for GOProud, and expressed the desire that the Beltway around DC be renumbered to I-666, and they haven’t banned me yet.
I like him, Moe, and the LaborUnionReport. That’s what I read RS for these days. I’ll peek at what EE says, just to know what the next meme will be. But as far as letting it influence me, nah.
Something happened to Malkin ten years ago, with 9/11.
Before that, she was at least nominally libertarian, and at least mildly sensible when straying off the libertarian reservation and into conservative territory.I still haven’t figured out what it was that happened, but it was one of two things:
1) 9/11 shattered her mind and reduced her to a paranoid gibbering whackjob, or
2) She saw a great opportunity to make bank on the paranoid gibbering whackjob market, and grasped that opportunity with both hands.
RedState has officially jumped the shark. I actually like Moe, but the other writers suck and are just plain assholes.
And just look at Erick’s pathetic record of bold predicitions, he told his readers he had inside info that Pawlenty as the VP choice for McCain the day before Palin was announced.
He’s not a real player, he has no real sources, and his instincts are almost always dead wrong. The conservative blogosphere should start calling him out more often.