Posted on 09/03/2011 9:14:48 PM PDT by Moseley
Radtke: Red State’s Erick Erickson Must ‘Set the Record Straight’ After Making ‘Reprehensible’ Accusations Against Her
Conservative blogger Erick Erickson has “propagated a lie” against Virginia Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, she said, insisting that the Red State managing editor must make a “full retraction” and “set the record straight.”
“Erick Erickson has created this situation, where he’s called me a drunk and a liar,” Radtke told me in an exclusive interview, “and he has not done a retraction – a prominent, full retraction, admitting what he’s done and setting the record straight in an honorable way.”
Radtke’s attorney has threatened legal action against Red State, a division of Eagle Publishing, unless Erickson retracts charges that Radtke was “a drunk, rambling idiot” during a conference speech and also retracts unspecified “other false and defamatory statements” Erickson made about her.
A furious online controversy erupted last week when Erickson, in response to a critical article in Politico, lashed out at Radtke. He called her speech at last month’s Red State Gathering an “act of self destruction” and published anonymous accusations that Radtke – a Christian home-schooling mother of three – was drunk during the speech.
It was “absolutely repulsive” for Erickson to have published such accusations, Radtke said, when in fact her speech was well received and praised immediately afterwards. She cited complimentary remarks by the wife of Red State contributor Ben Howe and from documentary film producer Stephen K. Bannon, whom she introduced at the event. Radtke said she understood that some in the audience may not have expected her speech to last 20 minutes, but said that was the time Erickson told her to speak.
Erickson had endorsed Radtke in January but an Aug. 24 Politico column by Ben Smith reported that Erickson was pressured to back away from that endorsement by Eagle executives because of their friendships with Radtke’s GOP primary rival, former Sen. George Allen.
In the telephone interview (see transcript below), Radtke said she believes Erickson’s accusations against her were an attempt to divert attention from the substance of that article: “So I think the issue is that he was confronted by Politico about [backing away from his earlier endorsement] and he didn’t tell the truth and now this is a dodge game for him: ‘So I don’t have to deal with the real story, let’s totally defame Jamie and throw her under the bus and say complete lies about her so I don’t have to deal with the real situation.’ And it’s absolutely reprehensible.”
Because Erickson has failed to fully retract his accusations, Radtke said, ”that story is not done, and I’m still waiting for him to make it right.”
Erick has “issues”.
Erick Erickson is a first class jerk.
Erickson has come up with some head-scratching stuff during the past year.
Maybe somebody has pictures...
When George Allen was a Senator his office was quite well known as the “gayest office in Washington.” And that was the homosexual activists who called it that.
George Allen doesn't need to drink to sound stupid. He comes by it naturally. Dumb jock who owes it all to his father's fame.
Erickson is an asshat of the first order. Neil Boortz is a an idiot to let the guy sub for him.
>George Allen doesn’t need to drink to sound stupid. He comes by it naturally. Dumb jock who owes it all to his father’s fame. <
Tell ya what. You can keep Blumie and Lieberman and if we Virginians need any advice on whether to vote for 3% Radtke to oppose Tim “The Eyebrow” Kaine instead of Allen, we’ll ask you.
We do NOT want Tim Kaine as a US senator. Radtke will insure we’ll get him.
When candidates threaten to sue bloggers for unflattering posts, I think they have gone over the edge.
Further, Erickson never said she was drunk, he quoted people who attended the event, some of whom said she looked drunk. He then publicly stated that he had no indication she was drunk, and that she had denied being drunk.
Ratdke could clear up this whole thing if she would release a video of her speech to prove that it was a good speech, and not a rambling wreck of a speech. For whatever reason, her campaign either failed to film her making the speech, or refuses to release the film if they made it.
No argument there. I would vote for Allen too. But he is a pathetic doofus all the same. I wish you could have Cuccinelli instead.
Who knows if EE is Gay or not however I’ve watched as the RS blog has started to become more like Little Green Footballs as they seem to swarm any poster that has the nerve to deviate from their brilliant conclusions on all things ‘conservative’. RS is like a lot of right side blogs, immersed in boot licking the RNC/GOP.
Point taken.
Like a good establishment Republican, Erickson does what he's told.
Unflattering is one thing, slanderous is another.
May I assume the "you" in the sentence above is generic? I've not made it a habit to do any of the nasty, unfair stuff to which you refer.
In the last presidential campaign, Allen got put on the defensive first by an all-out attack by the Dems and their media lackeys on his MOTHER, of all subjects, being, gasp, Jewish. Now I don't know about you, but I consider that some of the most nasty, unfair and decidedly over-the-top behavior a political opponent could have used.
We all know the fatal blow that erased Allen's chances to be the GOP's nominee to run against Obama. Did he make an unforgivable mistake? Then and now, quite frankly, no. The word he used was in bad taste, but we republicans allowed the Dems and, again, the godforsaken press, to utterly destroy a worthy candidate. History was changed at that point, we ended up with the worst possible choice out of a lackluster republican group and oh joy, we currently have an avowed communist in our White House.
Virginia's choice for senate rests with the voters of our commonwealth and I really resent out-of-staters bashing the frontrunner (in front because of his popularity with VIRGINIA voters) in favor of a candidate about whom they know very little.
>In the last presidential campaign, <
Correction. These events took place in the US Senate race pitting Allen against Jim Webb.
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