The Drudge-Romney axis . . .

. . . of online media manipulation isn’t exactly new. In fact, it goes back well before Romney’s 2008 campaign got underway in earnest. It seems to date back to sometime in 2005, when RNC operatives arranged a meeting between Matt Drudge and Matt Rhodes — a highly placed operative in the Romney organization.

Last year, a delegation of RNC officials flew to Miami Beach, where Drudge lives, for a dinner at the Forge steakhouse to introduce the Internet maven to Matt Rhodes, the party’s new opposition research director.

Due to Drudge’s now-close friendship with Romney’s chief aide and longtime GOP opposition researcher, it’s a safe bet Perry supporters won’t have many positive headlines to look forward to from the erstwhile gadfly. Having apparently been fully co-opted by the dread Republican Establishment, Drudge has been feeding the conservative online community a steady diet of pro-Romney headlines for years and, more recently, anti-Perry headlines — just to strike a balance, you see.

Just this week, for example, five of six Drudge headlines about Perry include bad news, from polling to policy: “PERRY APOLOGIZES FOR CALLING GOP VOTERS ‘HEARTLESS’… Iowa: Romney 21%, Bachmann 15%, Perry 14%, Paul 12%…POLL: CAIN ON TOP, PERRY PLUMMETS…PERRY: MY WIFE PRODDED ME TO RUN.”

Romney benefited from similar treatment from Drudge during his last run for the White House, when Drudge went hammer-and-tong against each of his opponents — reserving special scrutiny for Mike Huckabee:

A year ago, Rhodes signed on to Romney’s campaign. Since then, Drudge-watchers have noted Drudge’s consistent refusal to hype–and in many cases to even mention–negative stories about Romney. But now Huckabee threatens to blow Romney’s nomination strategy. Since last week, Drudge has unleashed a torrent of screaming, anti-Huckabee headlines, culminating in today’s “exclusive” (which cites one unnamed Democrat) about the Democrats’ supposed hope that Huckabee will emerge as the G.O.P. nominee.

Rhodes (or Rhoades — the correct spelling is unclear at this time) was brought back on board to head up Romney’s “Free and Strong America PAC” as executive director early in 2015. As Ben Smith noted at the time:

Rhoades, who’s moving to Boston, is a well-regarded guy whose return to Romney pretty much confirms what will surprise nobody: That he’s running in 2012. He’s also, incidentally, been valued for his relationship with a key player in any GOP primary, Matt Drudge.

And by June of this year, Romney had already established a dominant position in what has come to be known as the “Drudge Primary” — which is apparently modeled on the Cuban electoral process:

A survey of the past 13 months of Drudge headlines found only one debatably negative reference to the 2002 Olympics CEO (“Bachmann Outraises Romney”) — and a survey of aides to his rivals found a rising level of frustration at what one described as “favoritism” by one of the most important, if also one of the quirkiest, referees.

“One of the mysteries of Drudge is how he continues to be such a mystery. Never clear how or why he leans for or against candidates. But there is a lot of behind-the-scenes, very quiet and secretive mojo that goes on,” said Mark McKinnon, who, as a top adviser to John McCain in 2008, watched with dismay as Drudge gave top billing to questions about the Arizona senator’s health.

“It looks like someone in Romneyland has figured out the secret code,” McKinnon said.

Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an outlet having a preference for one candidate over the other. Matt Drudge is certainly entitled to support whomever he thinks is the best candidate and for whatever reasons he chooses to do so. At the same time, though, conservatives who frequent the Drudge Report to glean information are entitled to know of his connections to people involved in campaigns irrespective of whether or not he feels his editorial decisions are affected by those connections.

This post is by no means a call to boycott the influential online news source. That would be as stupid as just about all boycotts are. Instead, it’s a simple reminder to those who read this blog that going to Drudge’s site in search of information on any candidate other than Mitt Romney is going to be a discouraging experience the vast majority of the time. So, when you see the bold red headline with flashing sirens announcing some explosion of support for Mitt Romney, or some manner of crippling blow to any other candidate, keep in mind that it’s been placed there with a specific purpose — and that is to further discourage you.

What’s disappointing about all of this, though, is the fact that from Matt Drudge’s earliest days posting Hollywood gossip on Usenet discussion boards, he’s set himself up as the answer to the biased media that refuses to air, and often actively suppresses, information that shows conservatives in a positive light. Since then, it appears that Matt Drudge has become the new boss . . . same as the old boss.

"JMO, but Drudge, Coulter et al have drawn a line in the sand.

This is a full blown war within the party."

You're absolutely right, and like any war of the sort plenty of folks turn out to be something other than what they seemed to be and presented themselves as.

Those who put keeping the skids greased ahead off all else and who have for so long been in control of the Republican Party are in a panic. They're finding out that a great many of the rank and file as well as middle level Party folks are still dedicated to the Reagan Revolution and haven't ever thrown in the towel.

When such folks have no choice, they keep their noses to the grindstone and work to beat fascists in the democrat party. When there's a clear choice, those who thought they were in control and could command the faithful are finding out that their hold on the reins of power has mostly been an illusion. Just consider SC, once the Governor and the party stalwarts with the big bucks weighed in, everyone was supposed to fall in line and be good Party faithful. Senators are supposed to be solid soldiers for the Party, but it didn't turn out that way in SC, not by a long shot. And DeMint is really pissed at even the "Conservative" media reporting that he warned Gingrich to tone down the attacks on others when what he really said was that all of the negative attacks ads were helping the democrats in the long run. So, yet another example of "Conservative" media behind the Party Apparatchiks rather than the voters.

The old beards in the party who were so sure they had total control and could anoint whoever they liked are scared to death the same sort of unexpected things will happen in FL, and if in FL, there's no limit to what sort of "shabby Reaganites" might end up winning the nomination and after that, winning Congressional, State, and Local elections. That's exactly why Romney is spending way more in Florida than is reasonable for this stage of a primary campaign. He knows and the Party big-shots know that they can't rely on the troops the Party has in the trenches and relies on to do the grunt work of keeping a Party running.

Kraut, Drudge, Coulter, a whole crowd who everyone accepted as true Conservatives because they talked the talk as long as it didn't upset the apple cart, are coming out of the woodwork to slander Newt. They know which side their bread is buttered on, and they're quite happy to be in the minority and see the country losing ground because it increase the market for the stuff they're selling. And none of them is now or ever has been selling solutions, only critiques of or counterpoints to what others propose and comments on "how bad it is". If there's going to be civil war in the Republican Party, and there is, they're going to stick with the buttered bread they have rather than bothering with winning the confidence of a whole new group of insiders they depend on for tidbits of information.

The Tea Party and the remaining Reaganites have to take control of the Republican party to build the sort of real Conservative party we have to have. There's no way third party can match the level of organization both national parties have in the time we have left before we lose the opportunity to spare the country what's on the way if we can't beat the combined Fascist/RINO axis now tearing into Newt.

Everyone is scared to death of Newt exactly because they thought they had already buried him. Now, it turns out, rumors of his death have been mistaken and if that's the case, it means a lot of those the Republican Party thought they were in control of have been working against the national RINO cabal all along. This is the last chance to have the sort of Republican Party Reagan and Newt wanted all the way back when Regan was first nominated. If we don't do it now, it won't happen, if it doesn't happen, we get least twenty years of whatever comes from fascists running the government without the consent of the governed,

So, that's my humble and overly verbose take on the situation.

Regards

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.