RALSTON’S FATWA
The Las
Vegas Review-Journal’s Ed Vogel has
a story out this morning on Citizen Outreach’s poll in the GOP primary race for
lieutenant governor. You can read it by clicking
here.
I
found the last two paragraphs in the story quite interesting…
“In this poll, supporters (of Sen. Mark Hutchison) were asked whether they would back Hutchison knowing that he voted for the driver authorization card bill and for continuing the taxes. More than 80 percent said no.“Hutchison said he finds it interesting that ‘everyone thought I was conservative enough when I was fighting the health care legislation pro bono for the Republican governor. Now, suddenly I am not so conservative.’”
Of
course, the reason for that is Sen. Hutchison sued to block ObamaCare before he
was elected. But now he has an actual
voting record on a whole host of issues other than ObamaCare. And from a conservative standpoint, it’s not
so hot.
Liberal
blogger Jon Ralston also wrote about
the Citizen Outreach poll yesterday, threw a fit over it, trashed me and our
CEO, Dan Burdish, and issued a fatwa
to his media colleagues…
“Of course these folks have not accomplished anything substantive in, well, ever. But do people really listen to them? Or not see through this nonsense, obviously designed to show Hutchison is not well known, which is - well known. (I’d like to hear the “non-profit, nonpartisan purpose.) If an outreach occurs in a forest and no one’s there, does anyone care?“Gentlemen, give it up. Please. (And the media should stop giving this group any credence.) (And, yes, I hesitated to write about this nonsense so as to not give it any oxygen. But I decided exposure was the better part of silence.)”
Well,
there he goes again.
1.) That a liberal blogger declares that a
conservative organization hasn’t “accomplished anything substantive” doesn’t
mean jack. Frankly, we don’t gauge our success
on Ralston’s approbation.
2.)
The true significance in the poll results – which Ralston missed – weren’t the
overall results which obviously favored the better-known candidates over the
relatively unknown candidate (duh). No,
it was the dramatic drop in support for Hutchison once self-identified
Hutchison supporters were told about some of his votes.
Ralston
might not like it because Ralston loves Republicans who raise taxes, but Hutchison
has some problems on his hands if a credible conservative candidate jumps into
that race in the primary.
3.) The “non-profit, non-partisan” purpose of the
poll is the same one we’ve had for years.
Every election cycle we’ve conducted surveys in races featuring
conservative candidates facing moderate candidates and reported on the results
to our conservative supporters and readers.
Not Republicans; not Democrats; conservatives. In other words, non-partisan.
4.) Will Ralston’s media brethren abide by his
fatwa that they no longer cover any of the activities or opinions of Chuck
Muth, Dan Burdish and Citizen Outreach simply because Jon Ralston told them to?
Doubtful. Now that he no longer has a
column in an actual newspaper, Ralston’s influence over his media colleagues in
Nevada has waned considerably.
5.) If there’s one thing consistent about Ralston,
it’s his uncanny ability to say one thing and do another while applying his
rules to everyone but himself. Like how
he called for a media blackout of Citizen Outreach in a blog post in which he
wrote about…Citizen Outreach. But in
typical Ralston fashion, Ralston found a way to make Ralston the exception to
Ralston’s rules.
And
he was right back at it again later in the afternoon after Citizen Outreach
released the names of the recipients of our 2013 Conservative of the Year
Awards. Get this…
After
the names of this year’s honorees were announced, Steve Sebelius, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal (yes, a real columnist for a real paper,
not just a blogger like me…and Ralston) good-naturedly ribbed us in a tweet:
“Another year and I failed to win the Conservative of the Year award from @ChuckMuth's Citizen Outreach. Really thought this was my year.”
Now
that’s funny. Steve may be a
self-described liberal, but at least he has a good sense of humor about him.
Anyway,
others immediately re-tweeted Steve’s tweet and made comments about the award
recipients. Which apparently really
pissed Ralston off, because instead of honoring his own self-proclaimed boycott
not to write anything about Citizen Outreach, he took to Twitter to vent his
spleen once again…
“Love how folks are tweeting about Citizen Outreach's "Conservative of the Year" award. @GLawNPRI is thoughtful guy, but don't forget..(1/2) Citizen Outreach is same group that gave Elizabeth Halseth the same award after undistinguished session, then viciously turned on her. (2/2).”
Actually,
at the time Halseth was presented the award she was, in fact, fully deserving
of it. She was a conservative who
challenged a RINO in a primary…and won.
She went on to win in the general election despite the odds and
registration numbers being heavily against her.
And she chalked up a truly conservative voting record during her first
term in the Legislature.
Where
Halseth went wrong had nothing to do with her conservative record, so Ralston’s
really grasping at straws to knock us on that one.
But he
still wasn’t done. Yet another follow-up
tweet…
“Citizen Outreach is a shell of a group. It's a faux nonpartisan actor that shills for its favored folks. It should not be taken seriously.”
So
proclaimeth King Jon!
A “shell
group” of thousands of conservative supporters and donors that “shills” for its
favored conservative candidates that no one should take seriously and write
about…even though Ralston himself just can’t help but keep writing about?
It’s
actually pretty funny. I mean, this poor
guy has no self-control whatsoever.
The
bottom line is this…
The
very fact that the very liberal Jon Ralston hates us and can’t stop blogging
and tweeting bad things about us – and if he still had a column, he’d be writing
about us there, too - means we’re obviously doing something “right.”
That,
in itself, is an “accomplishment.” Maybe
even “substantive”!
Countdown
to the next Ralston rant begins in 10…9…8…7…
TUBE TIP
Speaking of Steve
Sebelius, he and Rikki Cheese
are scheduled to interview Sen. Harry
Reid next Friday night, August 9th, at 7:30 pm on Mitch Fox’s
Nevada Week in Review program.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“(Nevada
state Sen. Michael) Roberson has been targeted (for a GOP primary challenge) by
the Ron Paul/libertarian wing of the party because of a dramatic shift in some
of his views from the 2011 session to today. In 2011, he was named ‘Rookie of
the Year’ by the conservative group Citizen Outreach. This year, he was given
the organization’s ‘Rat Head in a Coke Bottle’ dishonor for allegedly
tarnishing the Republican brand.” – Columnist
Steve Sebelius, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/30/13
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