I’ve been a fan of since it was created; heck, as I just told founder Bob Wright, I happened to have grabbed my Bloggingheads.tv t-shirt (which was given to me personally by sort-of co-founder Mickey Kaus) on the way to the hospital when my sons were born, so the very first pictures of me with them show (faintly, through the hospital gown) the goofball BHtV logo.
Bob is a good fellow but an unapologetic lefty, and so the site guests do tend to slant left. Recently, I noticed a few discussions on the site where the Tea Party was being discussed… by people who had no involvement with or real direct knowledge of the movement.
So I emailed Bob (who I’ve gotten to know) and gently pointed out that he was covering the Tea Party movement as if it were Uzbekistan. I explained my history working with Tea Party Patriots (I was a founding Board member, but stepped down in October before my twin sons arrived) and offered to put him in touch with somebody from TPP who could speak directly about the movement, but despite my urgings, Bob said he really wanted *me* to do it, because he knows me and knows I am familiar with the format of the site.
So, I did. You can watch or download the 67 minute-long video here, with the embed also below.
Great fun, and I hope Bob will have me back on this or other topics. My only complaint was he was probably too nice, and didn’t goad me into saying nearly as many snarky things as I could have (although check the comments on the video closely for a few of those that I added post-facto).
To Rob Neppell,
If your intent was to defend the Tea Party you failed. Did you really not know about 9-12. The 9 principals and 12 values which formed the 9-12 project? The day that Beck wept like an idot on his show was on 9-12. If you watched that show that put him on every liberals watch list he explained that the day after 9-11 on 9-12 we came together as a nation. The whole 9-12 movement was based on this sentiment. 10’s of thousands of Americans came to the mall in DC on 9-12 and you tell Bob Wright you don’t know the significance of 9-12? I’m even more perplexed you contacted Bob to give clarity to the Tea Party movement. Why is it a crime to like Beck? You may not watch him, but you have to know him very well. Wright seemed to have formed a very strong opinion about Beck. Did you not see Beck’s CPAC speech, his NRA speech, his Liberty University speech? I would find that hard to believe.
I wish you would have told Bob that Jessie Jackson Jr. had two flip phones in his hands trying to capture as much as he could the day healthcare passed. How about the fact the
major networks were there with their camera’s. How about the fact the just because John Lewis is a hero doesn’t make him incapable of lying. How about telling Bob that if there was evidence the MSM would have been looping it 24/7. I was disturbed that you were talking about infaltrators. What! First off, why was Pelosi walking through the crowd whith a hugh gavel from Dingel’s father? There is a train that connects the two buildings. Pelosi was taunting the Tea Party folks and she wanted to invoke a response. When she didn’t get one the visious lie that John Lewis was called a N 15X’s — (for Gods sake, who was counting)–emerged?
If you think you are a good spokeperson for the Conservative movement when speaking with the hard left — you are not.
I know you thought you were helping but when you give off the vibe as many conservatives do when talking to the left, that you are ashamed of your values, its not helpful. If you can not debate at the level of Ann Coulter, don’t play with the Left.
Sigh. Ok Carolynn: First, yes, I know where 9/12 came from, I just don’t find it compelling. Compare and contrast: we commemorate 9/11 because it was the worst attack on our nation in 60 years in which thousands of our fellow citizens were murdered. We commemorate 9/12 because… an individual talk show host got weepy.
Sure, he made an impact, nor do I diminish that. I just don’t think enshrining that date with July 4, December 7, and September 11th is necessary to the movement. And I am equally unimpressed with the 9 principles / 12 values: gimicky numerology is for Communist Central Committees (we have a Seven Year Plan!), not conservatives.
With that said, however, I never said or implied it was a crime or even bad to like Beck; I simply said I didn’t pay much attention to him myself.
As for the Capitol slur flap, come now, perhaps there were other arguments & specifics I could have flung at Bob, but I think I slapped him down quite hard enough on the implausibility of the claim given that everyone does have cell cameras. If I didn’t use one particular fact you wish I would have; well, sorry, but I think I made the point.
Re: “If you think you are a good spokeperson for the Conservative movement when speaking with the hard left — you are not.” — glad to have that cleared up. As you have apparently concluded you are the sole judge of such things, will I be receiving some kind of certificate of failure in the mail? Also, if you think Bob Wright is the hard left, you really should get out more.
Re: “know you thought you were helping but when you give off the vibe as many conservatives do when talking to the left, that you are ashamed of your values.” I’ll leave my ‘vibe’ to others to judge, but I’m not ashamed of my values in the slightest. But I’m also not afraid — and in fact, consider it my moral obligation to my values — to point out when those who claim to be on my side violate those very values, or do things I believe to be counterproductive to advancing our cause. We are apparently just meeting, but those who know me can clarify for you that I am not a “my side right or wrong” type: opposing Barack Obama’s policies is great, but if someone is a fool, a racist, or just plain politically dense, I don’t necessarily want them as a political ally. Others approach things differently, but that’s how I roll.
And lastly: “If you can not debate at the level of Ann Coulter, don’t play with the Left.” — which is the comment that makes me think I should have started, and ended with it and not wasted time on the rest.
If you think what the Tea Party movement or the conservative movement generally needs is more voices like Ann Coulter who will Stand Up to the Liberal Machine and Get In Their Face — then we have a very different view of how politics works (and without being too judgmental about it, well, I’m right and you’re wrong).
Ann has her place, although I wonder sometimes where, exactly that should be (not that it’s up to me to decide). But we need intelligent, calm, non-confrontational voices to clearly explain the very, very reasonable ideals and goals that guide the Tea Party movement. We must preserve our base, and we do that by truly adhering to our principles. But we also must convince the independent middle, and we do THAT by having spokespeople that don’t drip venom like Coulter with every sentence, who moderates/independents can listen to and say “Oh, well that sounds reasonable, and darn, kinda what I was thinking myself. Guess these Tea Party folks aren’t the raving racists the MSM told me they were.”
Whether I am a good or bad spokesman of that sort, I’ll leave to others to judge. But that’s certainly the role I was trying to play in that diavlog…