Erick Erickson, a Macon City Councilman, friend of Dick Cheney, nationally known pundit and creator of both RedState.com and PeachPundit.com went hunting yesterday.
While his friend Cheney simply shoots his friends, Erick shot himself full in the face with a metaphorical gun. To cover this mistake up, he does the typical GOP thing and tries to blame someone else.
What had happened is this: he posted this article and after quoting from another article which stated Karen Handel had recieved a GED, he stated “I do think the lack of a college degree coupled with a GED could be a problem for Handel”.
This, despite him being a known supporter of Handel and due to his influence in Georgia Politics I’m sure he has her cell phone number and could EASILY have asked her directly about this – but he did not.
Apparently, this was pointed out to him a bit later, and instead of simply admitting his mistake and moving on, Erick decided to go on a witch hunt and attempt to blame someone else to cover his own tail.
First we see this tweet, followed shortly by this post on PeachPundit.
Finally, Erick unveils his target: a man he used to be decently friendly with – friendly enough to grant him Front Page status at PeachPundit, which is genuinely a somewhat highly-coveted position – but kicked off the front page of PeachPundit roughly 3 years ago – because the guy attacked Steve Handel, Karen’s husband.
Even Jim Galloway over at the AJC picked up this story, but fortunately he was enough of a man to actually call some people and verify first.
Honestly, other than the aforementioned Cheney hunting incident, this whole story most reminds me of the scene from the first Transformers movie where Sam first encounters Barricade and Barricade is demanding to know ‘Are you LadiesMan217?!?!?!’.
Of course, in that scene, Sam was in fact LadiesMan217.
Now, on the subject of editing Wikipedia entries as a political strategy, honestly it is one I find despicable, and I would be genuinely curious to know exactly who it was and what campaign they worked for, if any. Erick says the guy works for the Ox campaign, and that would certainly fit what I know and feel about that campaign, but I await further evidence before making a judgment. If this WAS the work of a campaign operative, trust me, I will be pointing that out and will probably continue to make it an issue to some degree for the rest of the campaign.
I just wish Erickson could be man enough to admit he made a mistake.
If nothing else, just admit that he didn’t do his homework. I’ve been caught in that one before as well. It’s easy to take something at face value and not fact check it. Just own up to it and step up.
Otherwise, Erik’s credibility will take a big hit among many, especially among Handel supporters.
This ain’t his first witch hunt
.-= griftdrift´s last blog ..Housekeeping =-.
Jeff, you write very well with one small small but glaring exception: When you post “he does the typical GOP thing” you express a bias that is annoying. Why not say “like a typical politician he….”.” There are 50 – 60 million Republicans in this country and stereotyping all Republicans as corrupt is just plain wrong. Despite our differences, Conservative Republicans and Libertarians need to be working together right now to save our country from the fascism going on in Washington. The Progressives know if they can divide us, they can defeat us. I too will attack individual Republicans like Mark Sanford when their behavior does not reflect their rhetoric. But I would never write “like a “typical Republican” he supports family values while he cheats on his wife. Sanford and Erickson may be typical lying cheating politicians, but they are not typical Republicans! I encourage you to keep fighting the good fight with your blog, but watch out who you attack and how you attack them.
Attacking “progressives” as a group = okay
Attacking Republicans as a group = not okay
No, attacking an individual Republican is fine with me. I do it all of the time. But stereotyping Republicans as a group as corrupt is not okay. Nor would be stereotyping all Democrats as fascists or all Libertarians as Dope Smokers.
Progressives as a group have a flawed ideology that is destructive to our freedoms so yes, attacking them as a group is ok with me. Republicans as a group do not share the progressive ideology. Many Republicans are progressive, but most are not. Unfortunately those Republicans who are progressive tend to get elected. Politics tends to corrupt. Men of good intention get elected and then somehow the power and notoriety corrupt them.
“Conservative Republicans and Libertarians need to be working together right now to save our country from the fascism going on in Washington”
.-= griftdrift´s last blog ..Housekeeping =-.
Mark, not everyone will agree that Republican ideology isn’t destructive to our freedoms as well. Remember that it was Republicans who pushed through the Patriot Act, which was one of the most destructive measures to date.
If you’re going to argue against painting with a broad brush, and I tend to agree that it’s a bad way to go usually, then argue against all of it and not just when the group you like gets painted that way.
But Tom, the fight that needs to be fought is within the Republican Party, not outside of it. We need to hold Republican politicians to their campaign promises. It isn’t Republican ideology that is destructive, it is the progressive ideology within the Republican Party. The Republican politicians got elected on conservative values and had total control from 2000 – 2006. They grew government instead of shrinking it as they promised. As a result, they lost big, and they should have lost. And Republican politicians will continue to lose until they stick to the conservative principles they campaign on. We need to fight to reform the Republican Party, not abandon it. The Progressives will own this economy by the next election. Conservatives and Libertarians have a golden opportunity to work together. What we are lacking is leadership. We need a Ronald Reagan clone to emerge from what is left of the Reagan/Gingrich wing of the Republican Party that gave us two decades of prosperity by cutting taxes and balancing budgets. Unfortunately, I haven’t discovered him/her yet.
I won’t argue with the idea that truly conservative Republicans and Libertarians can unite on economic issues and form an alliance. However, Republican ideas on gay marriage, abortion, drugs, and a host of other issues puts most Libertarians in a mind that the (R) Party has little concern with our actual freedoms, just the freedoms that you agree with. Right or not, that is the perception among many. The same is true for Democrats and any other party. Hell, some accuse Libertarians of the same.
But you must bear in mind that I have no real interest in the Republican party “reforming” itself. You do, and I wish you the best. Several good men I’ve been fortunate to meet are trying to do the same. I applaud you all. But I’m a Libertarian for a reason. We are not extensions of the same philosophy, though some members of your party sound more like us, and some members of our party sound more like you guys.
My point had nothing to do with Republicans in particular, but had more to do with what I perceive as hypocrisy in painting one group with a broad brush yet objecting to someone else doing the same.
“We are not extensions of the same philosophy, though some members of your party sound more like us, and some members of our party sound more like you guys.”
Bingo
.-= griftdrift´s last blog ..Housekeeping =-.
On a bright note, that subject on Peach Pundit and AJC Insider was when I learned where Handel when to high school and as a person who once lived in D.C., I decided to write the following on PP and my blog:
May I just say that I am impressed that Handel went to Frederick Douglas High in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Really, that is saying something because that area is like Atlanta North—the place to be for the up and coming Black middle class in the DC area.
If she went to high school there she likely has a comfort level around a diverse group of people that could be more beneficial than standing around on a manicured lawn in Athens or North Avenue with a red cup..chilling with the Tri-Deltas or KDs and figure out who will marry a KA. Wow, could she actually have more cred than me. Get the popcorn because this thing is going to be Bo Ginn v. Joe Frank Harris interesting.
I still remember Ginn standing on the wing of that plane in his ad while talking about bring international business to Georgia but folks connected with Harris’s country nature. Do like Jim Marshall and play down the fact you went to Princeton while the future first lady gets slammed for attending the same school.
.-= Slyram´s last blog ..Real Obama Change and Black Professionals =-.
Tom, Thus is the problem. Libertarians have their principles to stand on but they don’t have the numbers. Conservatives have the numbers but don’t have the principled leadership within the Republican Party to uphold the conservative standards.
You libertarians continue to “stand on principle” while the progressives take over the country. Will that get you the freedoms you seek? That actually plays right into the Progressives hands to divide both sides over minor issues like drug legalization and gay rights while ALL of our rights are under attack.
We are going to wind up with ONE PARTY RULE instead of two party rule if the progressives succeed.
I am not asking for Libertarians to help reform Republicans. Republicans should reform Republicans. What I am asking is for Libertarians and Conservatives to quit knocking each other and to work together to defeat the Progressives (wherever we find them) once and for all.
As Benjamin Franklin said: If we don’t hang together we will most surely hang separately.
This reminds me so much of the Hillary Hysteria from a few years ago. Phone calls asking for money for the Republican Party and all they had to say was “you don’t want Hillery to be President.” Well, she isn’t President, and it had nothing to do with the Republicans.
We Libertarians are Libertarians because of what we believe. I’m not about to stand with people just because they are progressives. I’ll stand with Republicans on what I agree with, and yes…I’ll stand with progressives on what I agree with them on as well.
As for ending up with one party rule, we already have that. Take a look at what Congress has been like for the last eight years.
Mark:
The solution for the divide is simple: Y’all need to accept the fact that people should be free to do as they wish so long as another is not harmed. Then you can work with your churches and private organizations to get people to CHOOSE to live the way you’d like them to, rather than government FORCING them to live the way YOU would like them to.
As for One Party Rule: We already have that. The only difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties is that one wants government to be your mommy, and the other wants government to be your daddy. Me, I choose to be an adult and just want government to get the HELL OUT!