The pseudo-conservative Washington Post blogger, Jenn Rubin, has decided to label RedState as ‘ultra-conservative’. I can only guess that it is because we advocate hanging the traitor Jonathan Pollard instead of setting him free like Rubin does and also because we here at RedState embrace Jim DeMint as a standard bearer for conservatism while Rubin would prefer to take an exacto knife and excise from the movement those conservatives she does not care for, e.g. social conservatives.So if your definition of ultraconservative is one who believes in conservatism across the board, then I guess we are. If your definition of “conservative” is one who detests most social conservatives and loves American traitors, then I guess Jenn Rubin is a conservative. I’ve always viewed her has a libertarian too ashamed to admit she is a libertarian because of the people we typically think of as libertarians and because one of Jenn’s foremost issues is the defense of Israel, which neither liberals nor libertarians care much about.So in that vein, RedState is ultraconservative because Jenn is fashioning herself as a mainstream conservative to make herself feel comfortable in a group she otherwise doesn’t want much to do with it.It happens.In any event, in calling the Susan B. Anthony List’s pro-life pledge “a mess”, she’s seeking to use “ultraconservative” RedState to prove that even those icky social conservative sites dislike the pledge.It is not only inaccurate to say that, it is absolutely journalistic malpractice for which I insist upon a correction.Speaking for the majority of the front page here at RedState, we embrace the pledge, do not think it is a mess, and for Rubin to extrapolate that “RedState” thinks the pledge is “ridiculous” when it was actually one diarist who got only four recommendations is what is actually ridiculous.You would think people who grew up in the blogosphere would have some sense of how RedState works instead of making the same mistake the New York Times editorial board recently made.See, we “ultraconservatives” here at RedState actually do allow a pretty wide variety of viewpoints between conservatives in our diaries and on our front page. If I or a “Directors” post have not taken a position on something, you can be pretty damn sure the site as a whole has no position, though some individuals here may.The majority of us on the front page, however, support the SBA List’s pledge, and find it perfectly reasonable.Yes, we do think the candidates for President should only pick pro-life appointees in the same way, I am sure, the left wants only pro-choice appointees picked.1 As for the hyperbole over the SBA List’s pledge, let’s be clear on what is happening:Mitt Romney does not like the pledge and has a bunch of sympathetic allies making excuses for why he shouldn’t sign the pledge using the most extreme examples imaginable — examples that neither we here nor, I’m sure, the Susan B. Anthony List are prepared to get worked up about. But Romney needs cover and his faithful allies are willing to throw the Susan B. Anthony List under the bus to give him that cover under a bunch of hyperbole about a very decent and worthwhile pledge.As for Herman Cain’s separation of powers argument, it is honestly the stupidest thing to come out of his campaign. I guess Cain won’t offer up a budget to congress either, since, you know, that’s congress’s job. Saying he will not not “advance” the legislation in congress displays a naiveté about the Office of Presidency I did not think he had. By the way, I would note that Jenn Rubin spends an inordinate amount of time in her section of the Washington Post bashing conservatives. Seriously, I long ago stopped reading her because the hand wringing over what actual conservatives are doing . . . er . . .”ultra” conservatives are doing was no more or less than what the purported lefties at the Washington Post do.With friends like Jenn . . .
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As an aside, any “conservative” who gets a tingle up their leg or developes a case of thigh sweats for Tom Ridge and laments he might be excluded from a Republican administration is definitionally not a conservative.↩
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