Fresh Loaf

Erick Erickson, editor of Peach Pundit and RedState, has gotten all Lawnmower Man up in this and rappelled into the darkest depths of the Internet to do some good-ole fashioned sleuthing.

Erick Erickson

For several days, Erickson’s had a sneaking suspicion that someone close to state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has been vandalizing Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s Wikipedia entry. Handel and Oxendine are considered front runners in the race that’s still more than a year away.

A few readers — some of whom it’s safe to assume are supporters of Das Ox — questioned Erickson’s motives. (It’s worth noting that he’s a fan of Handel.) But now he’s uncovered some more evidence.

So while I realize the Oxendine supporters will use this as a forum to go after me again for daring to speculate based on the circumstantial evidence at the time, as the Oxendine campaign seems intent on doing, the Oxendine campaign is not out of the woods by a long shot.

I now have the IP address from which RomneyGingrich12 made the changes to Karen Handel’s biography.

That IP address is a State of Georgia IP address that, I understand, connects from the Sloppy Floyd building. Unfortunately, it is also my understanding that it is pretty difficult to tell from there which computer, in fact, uses that particular IP address or it may rotate.

Read a list of more clues over at Peach Pundit.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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On Tuesday, Red State/Peach Punditeer Erick Erickson complained the hubbub surrounding Gov. Mark Sanford’s disappearance was a trumped-up phony hit-job non-issue:

First, we need to be clear on the facts — not the media speculation:

• Sanford did tell his staff and family where he was going.
• Because he was traveling without a security detail, it was in his best interests that no one knew he was gone.
• His political enemies — Republicans at that — ginned up the media story.
• When confronted by a pestering media, things went downhill.
• Again though, at all times there was no doubt that Sanford’s staff and family knew where he was.

Now, here is all you need to know about this whole entire story — the reaction from the erstwhile Republicans angry at Sanford for not being a fiscal squish and from the media all go back to their core belief that without Sanford manning the barricades of government at all times, the government will collapse and people will starve, die, and forget how to read and write.

That’s it.

Maybe not quite it.

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ERICK ERICKSON: The conservative pundit for people who think Ann Coulter is too demure. (Photo by Joeff Davis)

On Friday, Peach Pundit Poobah and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson twice called retiring U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter a “goat fucking child molester.”

Believe it or not, it wasn’t even the most insane thing Erickson has written in the past three days.

If I’m going to keep demanding Time retract its absurd claim that Shirley Franklin is one the best big-city mayors in America, its only fair I retract my 2007 claim that Erick Erickson is a bright light in the local blogosphere.

My bad.

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In Washington State, there are good Cascades, and bad Cascades.

Peach Pundit/Red State maestro Erick Erickson is angry because Washington State just banned dish detergents containing phosphates.

“Angry” doesn’t quite capture it.

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

At what point? Probably not this point.

(Hat-tip to Andrew Sullivan)

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The New York Times, with much gravitas, and Gawker, with much faux-condescension, are reporting that, in politics, the South no longer matters.

Says Gawker:

Good news, Fake America—we’ve marginalized The South! The New York Times reports today that based on the totally conclusive 2008 election results, no longer will The South have any impact whatsoever on National Politics, and we can safely ignore them.

Best Gawker comment:

Well, if Florida is America’s penis, it’s the “balls” of the Redneck Riviera that has the rash.

Most reasoned Gawker comment:

This is not the south that went Red. This is the really, really, really racist part of the south. Missississippi, Ga and SC went more blue.

Most obvious display of Deep South stereotyping by a Times photographer:

This guy.

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ERICK ERICKSON: Hitching his sled to Palin's snowmobile

Peach Pundit and Red State poobah Erick Erickson has caused an e-hubbub with a post on Red State titled Operation Leper.

In it, Erickson declares war on McCain campaign staffers who criticize McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin:

We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you’ll see us go to war against those candidates.

It is our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.

Since Tuesday’s loss to Obama, several McCain staffers have been doing their darnedest to toss Palin under the wheels of the Straight Talk Express.

The most damning revelation (assuming its true) came yesterday, when Fox reported that Palin thought Africa was a country.

The New Republic’s Christopher Orr suggests Erickson’s militant defense of Palin will drive conservatives away from the G.O.P.:

The tent grows smaller by the day.

Andrew Sullivan, a conservative critic of Palin and her wing of the Republican Party, mocks Erickson:

Let’s have a beer soon, Erick, shall we?

I know Erick and am, frankly, surprised by the carelessness of his attack.

If you turn wayward McCain staffers into lepers, Erick, you’re only gonna make them more popular with the party’s evangelical, WWJD-types.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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