The Other McCain

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

Jeff Quinton, My Blog Buddy

Posted on | February 24, 2012 | 5 Comments

Waaaay back when, before such a thing as “blogs” existed, back in the day of 3200-baud dial-up modems, when I was still working at a small-town Georgia newspaper, I became an online acquaintance of Jeff Quinton.

A native South Carolinian, Jeff always had a nose for news and frequently had the inside scoop on the bizarre internecine wrangling of Palmetto State politics. After I moved to D.C., Jeff kept sending me tips by e-mail, and eventually developed his own Web site, Backcountry Conservative, one of the first blogs I ever read — before I even knew what a “blog” was. If you’ve been reading Michelle Malkin’s site a while, you may recognize Jeff’s name, as for example in a August 2004 post:

Jeff Quinton is liveblogging the crash of one Russian airplane south of Moscow and the disappearance of another between Moscow and the Black Sea.

Jeff subsequently moved to Baltimore to attend graduate school, married a Maryland girl, and eventually got a job in D.C. Strange as it may seem, considering that I’ve known Jeff since the mid-1990s, I didn’t actually meet him until 2006. When Donkey Cons was published and I spoke at an event at the Capitol, Jeff attended and afterwards joined my family and me for dinner at Tortilla Coast.

Nowadays, Jeff blogs at The Quinton Report, and yesterday put up a post about some of his recent travails: His wife got laid off from her job; shortly thereafter, they learned she’s pregnant; and just last week, his father was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

What should you do? Go hit Jeff’s tip jar — I did.

Category: Quinton Report

Comments

5 Responses to “Jeff Quinton, My Blog Buddy”

  1. Stacy’s Friend Jeff Quinton Gets Piled On
    February 24th, 2012 @ 10:32 am

    […] psych ward, James Joyner lost his wife, so many things—but now there’s another to add. Blogger Jeff Quinton’s wife lost her job after 5 years and shortly discovered that she was pregnant. Well, they would shoulder on. Then, his father was […]

  2. Zilla of the Resistance
    February 24th, 2012 @ 11:24 am

    I gave a little, I hope it helps them. I hope everyone else reading this does too. I know better than most people how a bunch of small donations can add up to change a family’s life for the better. So please, The Other McCain readers, give what you can to Stacy’s friend, no matter how small or big, you can BE a miracle for somebody today! Go now.  Do it.

  3. Quartermaster
    February 24th, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

    I’ve never heard of a 3200 baud dial-up modem. 110, 300, 600, 1200, 4800, and 9600, yes, but not 3200.

  4. JeffWeimer
    February 24th, 2012 @ 2:41 pm

    It’s Stacy. He won’t even run Tweetdeck.

  5. Enoch_Root
    February 27th, 2012 @ 9:54 am

    DOne