Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Blessed Are The Rumor Mongers

Rumor and innuendo have always been tools of the trade in the muck trenches of politics, but few use them as wickedly as Erick Erickson. If you fall on the wrong side of the witch burner's line, beware - fact, fiction and simple decency will matter little. And if you happen to be a member of his party, prepare for the flames to lick your toes as the kindling is lit.

In May, following Florida Governor Charlie Crist's announcement that he would run for Florida's U.S. Senate seat, Erick issued his writ - Charlie was a liberal in disguise and Rubio was the man. But, Erick did not hold back his witches hammer. Why only point out the ideological divide when you can also tarnish the man's reputation with accusations of non-existent scandals.
Will we go with tanned, telegenic tax hikers with dubious personal issues, or young, telegenic conservative reformers who are not afraid to speak up for freedom?
Charlie is many things, but scandal ridden is not one of them. I asked Erick a simple question - 'what personal issues?' He did not reply. Why stick around to clarify, when you can watch the results of your myth grenade from a safe distance?

Now, he has taken aim at Georgia's Lt. Governor Casey Cagle.
If nothing else, there is clearly an undercurrent of desire for people to get him gone on the grounds that whatever was bad enough to stop him from running for Governor was bad enough to keep him from running for Lt. Governor.
Last I checked, the reason Cagle got out of the race was he needed to undergo potentially paralyzing back surgery.

Of course, like Charlie, rumors have always swirled around Cagle. It is often the case with people in power. But also like Charlie, they have remained nothing but rumors. This fact does not matter to the witch burners. In the fevered eyes of the zealot, guilt, innocence, justice, truth matter far less than the need for purification. After all, they have to be guilty of something, right?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

you need to be careful, or you might be next--i have it on good authority that you are a known homo-sapien and that you matriculated quite a bit in your youth...anything you need to ome cleaned on?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone verified Grift's birth certificate?

JUST SHOW US THE DOCUMENT!

delicateflower said...

I've also heard that Grift's epidermis is showing.

Dave Bearse said...

Undermining a moderate proven to be popular with the general (as opposed to GOP base) electorate in a purple streaked state is further evidence of continued GOP disintegration as a via national party.

Pokerista said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sara said...

But he might be teh gay! I mean we have no proof of it, he denied it, and he did marry a woman last year, but still! Look at that tan and his fashion sense! Oh noes!

Unknown said...

At the risk of appearing to defend the journalistic integrity of PP/Erick, I will say that bizarre behavior from a major public figure should generate some questions. Cagle might have done the political calculus regarding the physical stresses of running a campaign for governor vs. one for LG, but in the least it should invite the question of whether he thinks he can walk (so to speak) into the LG office without actually having to earn it, and how capable he would be if he did have to step into the Big Office.

That story about withdrawing because of back problems immediately set off my BS alarms, and I think blogs are as good a place as any to work that stuff out. Some blogs may choose to avoid getting into the mud pit, but that doesn't mean the mud pit isn't there.

I think you are trying to elevate the value of the blogosphere community- which is commendable, but just like the RW, there are sometimes going to be some low-class neighbors.

Maybe we need some sort of zoning for the internet. "This blog is zoned "CN (credible news)", with standards to be measured by. "This blog is zoned "TB (total bullshit)" with appropriate standards (or not).