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Tag: 2014 elections in texas
Fox News Hosts Punish Sexist Colleague — By Making Him More Famous

Fox News Hosts Punish Sexist Colleague — By Making Him More Famous

Former executive director of South Carolina’s Republican Party/troll Todd Kincannon has been getting a lot of attention for his sexist attacks on the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, Wendy Davis. But he’s an amateur compared to RedState.com editor-in-chief Erick Erickson, who is also a paid contributor to Fox News.

Erickson has been calling Davis “Abortion Barbie” since she made national news for filibustering the Texas GOP’s new abortion restrictions. When Republicans began attacking the state senator about her biography, the blogger led the charge, accusing Davis of having a “Sugar Daddy Ken.”

His comments crossed the line for Fox News’ host Greta Van Susteren.

“I don’t care how much you disagree or agree with Texas’ Wendy Davis, you have to agree that this guy, Erick Erickson, is a real jerk and is really lousy at being a spokesperson for his views,” she wrote in a post on her blog GretaWire. The host also claimed that she wasn’t familiar with her colleague’s work, though she had blogged about him once before.

Erickson loved the post, shared it and claimed he had “won the Internet.”

He clearly has visions of what happened the last time he offended a female Fox News host by saying women are not meant to work. Megyn Kelly had him on her show to defend the comments and humiliated him — but also made him more famous in the process.

There’s no sanction for being offensive in the right-wing media; rather, it’s a business opportunity. And that’s a good thing for the left, says New York magazine’s Frank Rich.

“The more that Fox News viewers are duped into believing that the misinformation they are fed by Ailes is fair and balanced, the more easily they can be ambushed by reality as they were on Election Night 2012,” Rich writes in a new piece chiding liberals for taking the channel seriously.

Erickson’s defenders point out that Rush Limbaugh made nearly identical attacks on Davis without raising Van Susteren’s ire. Limbaugh is a regular guest on her show and, besides, he’s already famous enough.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

The Right’s Embarrassing Attacks On Wendy Davis Are Too Much For This Conservative

The Right’s Embarrassing Attacks On Wendy Davis Are Too Much For This Conservative

Did you hear the big news? Wendy Davis wasn’t divorced at age 19.

She was only separated and briefly living alone with her daughter in a trailer before she was divorced at 21. OMG. It gets worse! It turns out she had a pretty great ex-husband who supported her and her child as she went to law school. OMFG!

For some reason, Republicans think this is a huge story and a great excuse to call the likely Democratic nominee for governor in Texas a “bad mom.”

At least one conservative recognizes this attempt to shame a young female law student as ominously similar to the attack on another young female law student — which helped galvanize women in support of President Obama.

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Gabriel Malor, who posted the tweet above, is certainly no mild-mannered moderate. He’s a contributor to the virulently anti-Democratic site Ace of Spades, and his commentary has been cited positively by Glenn Beck and Twitchy.

When Red State’s Erick Erickson posted about how Davis’ child support agreement said she couldn’t use drugs before seeing her kids, Malor — an attorney, according to his Twitter profile — pointed out that this was a “boilerplate” custody agreement.

So why is Erickson going after Davis in such a haphazard, easy-to-classify-as-misognynist way? It could be that it’s just how he rolls. Or maybe he recognizes that her candidacy, even if it isn’t successful, could build up the registration of the exact voters who could turn Texas purple.

Malor has his own hypothesis: “Erickson needs clicks?”

And for his sanity, Malor was attacked by noted right-wing troll/nobody Todd Kincannon.

 

Photo: The Texas Tribune via Flickr

WATCH: Cornyn Slams Obama, Ignores Stockman In New Campaign Ad

WATCH: Cornyn Slams Obama, Ignores Stockman In New Campaign Ad

Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) released a new campaign ad on Friday that blasts President Barack Obama, while completely ignoring his own primary opponent, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX).

The ad — titled “Astonishing” — covers most of the standard Republican complaints against the president, displaying images of the Benghazi attack and anti-health care reform signs while labeling Obama as “astonishingly liberal.”

“An administration that has squandered our trust, using backhanded methods to change the very fabric of American life. Who stands up to him?” the ad’s narrator asks. “John Cornyn. Conservative. Pro-life. Lives the Second Amendment. Fights for truth from a dishonest administration. He stands up to Obama every day. Pushes back. John Cornyn’s for us — for Texas.”

“Astonishingly liberal” is also a term that Rep. Stockman might use to describe Cornyn. But Cornyn seems determined not to engage his primary challenger; the ad does not mention Stockman a single time. The incumbent Republican, who is already burying his opponent in the polls (and has no compelling reason to assume that Stockman can mount a comeback), apparently sees no incentive to break Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment. That task has been left to Texans for a Conservative Majority, a SuperPAC supporting Cornyn’s re-election.

“Astonishing” — which warns that Obamacare is “to DIE for” — fits well with Senator Cornyn’s history of over-the-top campaign spots. But for sheer ridiculousness, the minority whip may never be able to match the “Big John” ad from his successful 2008 re-election campaign:

The Republican primary in Texas will take place on March 4.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr