Archive for the ‘Erick Erickson’ Category

Something to ask yourself today: Is your house, and the land it sits on, worth twice as much today as it was in 2004? Probably not.

In fact, odds are that your property is worth much less.

Even so, the state Board of Natural Resources today will agree to pay $28.7 million for 9,595 acres of Oaky Woods wilderness in middle Georgia — nearly double the cost when the state was offered the land and passed on it in 2004.

Instead, most of the land went to developers – a move that boosted the value of a nearby tract owned by Gov. Sonny Perdue. But plans to create a private city on the land went bust with the housing market. With the DNR purchase, at least the developers, Oaky Woods Properties LLC, will be able to recoup their investment – and still hold onto half their purchase.

You will be happy to know that, according to one board member, no corruption was involved. Just greed. From my AJC colleague Jeremy Redmon, who attended the preliminaries on Tuesday:

Dwight Davis, another …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Oaky Woods at double the price in a down real estate market »

Topics below: Rasmussen poll, Saxby Chambliss, Pledge to America, Michael Thurmond, Ralph Reed, Phil Gingrey, Democratic Governors Association.

Rasmussen Reports is out this morning with the first (automated) poll that measures the full impact of reports on the financial problems of Republican nominee Nathan Deal:

Despite a swirl of questions about his past financial dealings, former Republican Congressman Nathan Deal remains slightly ahead of Democrat Roy Barnes in the race to be the next governor of Georgia.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Georgia Voters finds Deal with 45% support, while Barnes earns 39% of the vote when leaners are included. Libertarian candidate John Monds trails with five percent (5%). Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

This marks a fallback for Deal whose support has been steadily rising from 43% in March to 51% last month. But Barnes is also at the low end of his support, …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Georgia’s race for governor has become an unpopularity contest »

A month and change after the August runoff, the campaign of Republican nominee for governor Nathan Deal pushed out its first TV ad this morning.

The 30-second spot is mostly a soft introduction to the former congressman – those attacks on Democrat Roy Barnes you’ve seen have been the product of the Republican Governors Association.

The Deal ad ends with this effective kicker: “He’ll get it right the first time.” But it also avoids telling voters where the candidate has been since 1994 – in Washington, as a member of Congress.

See for yourself:

***

There’s evidence that U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland may be experiencing a bit of prophet’s remorse.

The Republican congressman from Coweta County became the center of attention at a gathering of Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition on Friday when he spoke of a GOP majority in the House – and a government shutdown.

”If we hold the line, if we get those courageous men and women to be part of our majority. If we …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: A first Nathan Deal ad vows to ‘get it right the first time’ »

The occupational hazard of pontificating in public is that people sometimes actually listen to what you say and write.

CNN has posted the following on its Political Ticker blog:

CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson

South Carolina blogger Will Folks defended himself Wednesday after Erick Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative website RedState.com, accused Folks of lying about having an affair with gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley.

Erickson, a CNN contributor, accused Folks of “pulling the noose” on a “high-tech lynching” of Haley to gin up traffic for his website and torpedo her campaign. Haley is Erickson’s preferred candidate in the four-way South Carolina Republican primary race.

Unless he produces definitive evidence of an affair, Erickson wrote, Folks should “shut the hell up.”

Which is curious, because just six months ago, Erickson wrote a famous post, in the aftermath of House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s fall, to which he awarded this …

Continue reading File this under ‘Blog as I say, not as I post’ »

We’re told that Eric Johnson will become the first Republican in the race for governor to go up on TV, with a small but targeted ad buy on cable outlets in Atlanta, Savannah, Macon and Augusta.

Johnson, the former leader of the state Senate, will be focus his message on Fox, the Weather Channel, HGTV, the History Channel, ESPN, and the Golf Channel.

The ads are to start Tuesday. Next week is the start of the Masters.

Johnson, who hails from Savannah – a relatively small media market, has been finishing in the middle of the pelaton in statewide polls. But the purchase of TV time so early may also be an indication that Johnson has done relatively well in raising money.

Campaign disclosures, which will measure the amounts raised by candidates in the period that ended on March 31, should be out starting next week.

The price of fame: Having those Tweets you sent out, while your judgment was at the dry cleaners, aired again and again and again.

Last night, Comedy Central’s Jon …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Eric Johnson to be the first candidate for governor on TV? »

On Tuesday, the House passed a bill to limit public access to crime scene photos.

Here’s the take from today’s Athens Banner-Herald:

With little debate, the House quickly approved House Bill 1332, legislation drafted in response to Hustler magazine’s request for copies of crime scene photos from the 2008 murder of Meredith Emerson. The recent University of Georgia graduate was kidnapped while hiking with her dog two years ago; her nude and dismembered body was found several days later.

House Speaker David Ralston assigned Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, to sponsor the legislation because in previous sessions she has championed giving the public more access to government documents.

The legislation has made the state’s newspaper publishers slightly queasy. Not because they’re eager to put readers off their Cheerios, but because measures like this can be interpreted very loosely once they become law.

But the Georgia Press Association might want to pay more attention HB 1386, …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Private negotiations for local governments »

CNN announced today that Erick Erickson of Macon, editor of RedState.com – who is making a name for himself as a conservative provocateur and rabble-rouser – and has joined the ranks of that network’s contributors.

Erick Erickson, conservative provocateur

The downside: Far fewer steak dinners with Sean Hannity.

This from CNN:

Erickson will appear weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22, as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across the network.

“I grew up in Dubai and then in rural Louisiana as an obsessive news junkie. CNN was the only place to go for nonstop news,” said Erickson. “Joining CNN is like coming home and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family.”

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.

Continue reading The RedState guy lands a gig at CNN »

Ever since U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland flunked a pop quiz on the Ten Commandments, “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central has been uncertain ground for hard-core Republicans.

Stephen Colbert’s faux-Reilly schtick can be thoroughly baffling.

Nonetheless, last night, Erick Erickson of Redstate.com, the conservative provocateur from Macon, agreed to become Stephen Colbert’s first victim – er, guest – of 2010.

Here’s the official version:

The Colbert Report
Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Erick Erickson

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor
Economy

Much of the interview was a lesson in responsible Twittering:

Colbert: You, sir, have put me to shame. You have Twittered the following things: You said of Justice [David] Souter that he was a goat-[bleep] child molester.

(Erickson nods.)

Colbert: You said Linda Douglas, the White House health care spokesperson, was the Joseph Goebbels of health care.

Erickson: Yeah.

Colbert: And you …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: There’s nothing like a ‘Colbert Report’ grilling to start the new year »

You’ve probably heard the cries of outrage from Democrats – particularly women – arising out of the inclusion of abortion-funding restrictions in the health care reform bill voted out of the House on Saturday.

Planned Parenthood condemned the Stupak/Pitts amendment as “unacceptable.” NARAL has called it “unconscionable.”

What’s been unexpected is the public worrying from Republicans that they may have just blundered in a major fashion.

I was monitoring my Tweet Deck on Monday afternoon when a logic-defying message rolled in from Erick Erickson of RedState.com.

Translated out of abbreviated, 140-character form into English, the message went something like this: “I’m really tired of debating the Stupak Amendment. It is what it is. The larger point is that we fail if we make the health care debate about abortion.”

Erickson is building an Internet-based activist site for conservatives, based in Macon. So the Twitter was significant. I picked up the telephone – which, …

Continue reading Worries about abortion and health care reform — but from the right, not the left »

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that that special election to fill an upstate New York congressional seat has prompted a full-scale schism between the GOP base and big-tent Republicans.

Newt Gingrich and national party regulars are backing Dede Scozzafava, a veteran state assemblywoman handpicked by the local GOP. Scozzafava backs abortion rights and gay marriage – it’s that kind of district.

Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty – both presumptive 2012 contenders – are backing a third-party, alternative candidate, Doug Hoffman. As has Dick Armey. Erick Erickson of RedState.com, the Macon-based web site that concentrates on rallying hardcores, has also declared the 23rd District race a hill to die on.

A few minutes ago, Erickson sent out this paragraph from the Los Angeles Times that both acknowledges his presence in the conflict, and sums up the Republican identity crisis very nicely:

“Her positions on a lot of issues are reflective of the electorate here,” said …

Continue reading On whether all Republicans should look like Georgia Republicans »