Patterico's Pontifications

9/12/2010

O’Donnell Leads Castle in Poll; UPDATE: Levin Calls Patterico an “Idiot”; UPDATE: And a “Jackass” and a “Moron” and an “Ass”

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:02 pm



Public Policy Polling:

It looks like there’s a real possibility of a major upset in the Delaware Senate primary on Tuesday night, with insurgent conservative Christine O’Donnell leading longtime Congressman and Governor Mike Castle 47-44. That 3 point lead is well within the poll’s margin of error.

Meanwhile, Dan Riehl is raising questions about Mike Castle’s record. I’m happy to pass along those concerns . . . for what they’re worth.

Dan also jumps into a dispute between the PowerLine guys and Mark Levin. It looks like a full-on war between the “real conservatives” and anyone with the temerity to question them.

Count me out of the war (for now) — but I will say this. There are people who have devoted themselves to the conservative cause for years. I count the PowerLine guys in that group. I sure as hell would not casually place them in the “traitor” category — and I don’t really care what Dan Riehl or Mark Levin say. People with years of solid conservative blogging deserve some credit for their years of solid conservative blogging.

Some conservatives apparently don’t want to put our reputations behind someone who appears to be a liar. I’m sure as shootin’ not going to jump down their throats for that.

Again: I’m not eager to jump into this fight. Then again, if someone wants to drag me into it, I know how to fight back. Fairly warned be thee, say I.

UPDATE: You know, I finally read through Levin’s Facebook post, and Paul Mirengoff’s post that Levin distorts. I am ready to jump into the war.

Levin’s post is packed with mischaracterizations. Just chock full of them. Expressed with the dripping arrogance of someone who apparently feels that, because he is better known than Mirengoff, he is entitled to say whatever he feels like about him — and the facts be damned.

I suppose caring about the facts probably makes me an inauthentic conservative in Mark Levin’s eyes. I don’t care. I’ll go with the facts, every time.

Every time.

UPDATE: I see Levin just called me an “idiot.” I won’t descend to Levin’s namecalling. Again, I will stick with the facts:

PowerLine supported Toomey, contrary to Levin’s original assertion. In the end, they did not support Harriet Miers, contrary to Levin’s original assertion. Levin said Graham is Mirengoff’s “brand of Republican.” That was flatly false. Mirengoff criticizes Graham constantly. Levin said “Mirengoff starts from the proposition that long-time Republican officials deserve re-election.” That assertion is unsupported and false.

Note well: my focus was the facts, and the way Levin distorted them — and now he is coming after me personally. This is reflective of the tactics of the left that Matt Lewis notes are being used against anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

Levin says he has written about these issues since. That’s nice. However, his original piece — the one with all the distortions — remains uncorrected.

I will note only that my concern was, and always will be, with the facts. If that makes me an “idiot” in Mark Levin’s eyes, I don’t want to be “smart.”

UPDATE: Levin calls me other names too, of course, such as “jackass” and the like.  The one I find most interesting is “just another loser with a keyboard.” Levin claims superiority to me because he has written a book and I haven’t, and he is on the radio while I am not.  Apparently bloggers who hold famous radio guys accountable for their distortions are just losers in pajamas.

Where have I heard this line of argument before?  Oh, that’s right: from our betters in Big Media.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

UPDATE: I have more on the way that Levin’s arrogant disregard for the facts reminds one of Big Media elitism, here.

Weekly Standard: O’Donnell Sued Conservative Group for Millions for Mental Anguish; Falsely Implied She Was Taking Classes at Princeton

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:14 am



The Weekly Standard:

Court documents obtained Saturday by THE WEEKLY STANDARD reveal surprising new details about the gender discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Christine O’Donnell in 2005 against her former employer, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative non-profit based in Delaware.* O’Donnell, who is now challenging moderate congressman Mike Castle in the September 14 Delaware GOP Senate primary, sought $6.95 million in damages. In a court complaint, she extensively detailed the “mental anguish” she suffered after allegedly being demoted and fired because of her gender. And, although she didn’t have a bachelor’s degree until this year, O’Donnell implied she was taking master’s degree classes at Princeton University in 2003.

I recently linked the radio interview where O’Donnell was asked tough questions by a former supporter. For example, he asked her to explain why she said she won two of three counties in a 2008 Delaware Senate race. She replied that she had tied in one and come close in another. She lost in both. In one of those she lost 56.9 to 43 percent. When she wasn’t giving false answers like that, she dodged the questions — suggesting that the interviewer was being paid by Mike Castle.

Looks like Castle got to the Weekly Standard too.

Never Forget

Filed under: General — Jack Dunphy @ 1:22 am



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

It’s been my custom for a few years to post on Sept. 11 a column I wrote for National Review Online back in 2004, “Never Forget.” It was about one family, the Sullivans, who lost their son and brother, Patrick, in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

I’ve stayed in touch with the family over the years, and for this year’s anniversary I asked them to say a few words about Patrick, and about the plans to erect a mosque near the place where he was killed. The column that resulted, “Remembering Patrick Sullivan,” was posted Saturday afternoon on NRO. Here’s how it begins:

Patrick Sullivan would be 41 years old today. By now he probably would have had a family, and he and his wife and kids probably would have spent this summer in Breezy Point, out at the far western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula, where his parents and his two brothers have summer houses. He would have watched his kids playing with their grandparents and uncles and cousins on the beach, the same beach where he and his brothers played when they were young. He probably would have had a great life.

But Patrick never got married or had children, never got his house near the beach. He was one of the 2,606 people who were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, one of the 2,977 Americans murdered by Islamic terrorists that morning nine years ago.

There’s no commenting allowed at NRO, so please feel free to click back and comment here after you’ve read the whole thing.

–Jack Dunphy

UPDATE: Some commenters have reported the links were down, but they seem to be working now. — Jack


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