Has anyone heard Blogging for Bryant's new strategy?I believe it is to see how many people they can offend and make mad.
Case in point, a post from Wednesday entitled "Smart People Support Ed Bryant."
In this post, blogger Jay Bush pointed out the fact that the Survey USA poll, which had Ed Bryant losing by 12 percentage points, showed that "Bryant leads among the most educated and highest-income voters, and in urban areas."
However, Bush took that polling tidbit a little too far in the post, basically implying that everyone who does not support Ed Bryant is...well...dumb.
Lets just say that assumption didn't go over to well with B4B's readers.
Below are some of the more colorful comments going after B4B for the insult:
- "I'd say this is because Ed has a neary perfect track record of representing the wealthiest of the wealthy.
I guess it's a point of pride to taunt Van - "I picked up wealthier wealthy people than you did!"
Meanwhile people are struggling with health care bills, filling up their cars, trying to pay for school - you know, all that asinine blue collar trivia we sub-gentry spend our time on."
- "Way to insult Republican across this state, JB. New Bryant Talking Point: Republicans not supporting Bryant are too dumb to know what's good for them. Way to win votes, JB. Way to win votes."
- "If i was a first time visitor to the site, I would think it was a joke. BUT, no, I think this is serious. Gee guys, with all those wealthy people liking Bryant, why the heck hasn't he seen any fundraising from it?"
- "Too bad none of those "smart" people actually work for Ed. Maybe he wouldn't being getting his butt handed to him in the polls. Instead his payroll is more like a welfare roll for the politically inexperienced and unemployable. And excuse me but back to teh actual results of the poll Van is KILLING Ed."
- "I think it is funny that you managed to pull something out of your butt like this. Van is wiping the floor with Ed's *** and you are bragging about something that is so dumb. East TN is going to decide this race and Ed is losing big. What sya you?"
This is not the first time B4B has managed to cause a firestorm of controversey with their postings lately.
About two weeks ago, The Nashville City Paper/Super Talk 99.7 released a poll they commissioned that showed Ed losing to Van Hilleary by 11 percentage points.
Shortly after they released the results of the poll, Bush published a post on his blog trying to spin the results saying, "Ed Bryant really is in a great position to win this race!" B4B's readers didn't agree with the dishonest spin and let them know about it.
Below are some of the heated comments left in response to this post:
- "You are absolutly unbelieveable. I thought for sure you would leave this poll alone and wait for the press cycle to be over and that would be that. But no, you spin the information once again and turn it into a positive for Bryant. How in the world can you take these numbers and then say it puts Bryant in a "great position to win" the race? It looks to me like Van Hilleary would walk away with it if Bryant wasn't in the race. If he really believed in the true conservative principles he would have dropped out so that Corker wouldn't even be in the picture. But no. Now we have Van Hilleary with the name recogniztion still with a sizable lead and Corker with millions of dollars to pull almost even with Bryant this morning. I'm sorry. I used to think Bryant had a legitimate shot, but after seeing these numbers I'm not so sure anymore."
- "Van and Ed support is equally solid. What is wrong with you if you look at the poll you will see that corker didn't pull a thing off of ed or van. Corker's name id is higher than ed's and ed doesn't have the money to do anything about it.
NO ONE in east tennesse knows who ed bryant is. what about the fact that ed's camapign has been lying about bogus polls for a year. either they are all stupid and beleive whatever sonny tells them or they have been pruposefully LYING to stay in the race to the detriment of the conservative movement.
pathetic attemt at spin. as steve gill said this am lightening would have to strike for ed to win."
- "jb, you are such a liar! Ed is in no strong position to win, this campaign and blog is nothing but lies and it's cathcing up to you now. this race is between van's name id and corker's millions, Ed should get out of thw way!!!"
And it doesn't stop there.
At the end of last week, Van Hilleary wrote a letter to Ed Bryant calling for a conservative truce against Bob Corker.
Soon thereafter, before Ed Bryant could even comment, B4B jumped the gun on and called the proposal "goofy and insincere" while dismissing the idea of a truce. The following day, Ed Bryant wrote a letter back to Van Hilleary accepting the idea of a conservative truce against Corker.
Once again, B4B took heat from fellow bloggers for their questionable blogging. (1,2)
I guess Jay and those at Blogging for Bryant have accomplished their mission of offending everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike.
All I can say is, keep it up guys!
135 Days
Days of Congressional Inaction on Ethics
Above is the number of days that have passed since Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to bribing Congressman.
It is also the number of days in which Congress has failed to pass an ethics reform bill that would limit private travel, ski and golf junkets, and would call for a full disclosure of expenses by lobbyists on members of Congress.
It is time for Congress to step up and pass an ethics reform bill that would do all of the above. In addition, it is time to end the pork barrel spending system as we know it and establish an independent ethics commission that would review ethics complaints against members of Congress.
I am proud Congressman Harold Ford Jr. is fighting for that reform!
Read Congressman Ford's call for reform of the House rules here!
