Despite the SD GOP's lame attempt to smear Stephanie Herseth with her "
secret web page", the NRSC is trying the
same tactic in Oklahoma.
A Republican campaign committee is accusing U.S. Rep. Brad Carson of promoting radical, anti-President Bush Web sites while claiming to be a conservative Oklahoma Democrat.
"I think this speaks volumes as to the type of people Carson would associate with if he were to get elected to the United State Senate," said Dan Allen, commu nications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Allen based his criticism of Carson on entries the lawmaker has made on his campaign's official weblog, encouraging supporters to read other Web sites.
He said one Web site by a California university professor, Brad DeLong, suggests that Bush should be impeached, and another, the Daily Kos, attracts users who post rants against the war in Iraq along with claims that Americans, including Republicans and the media, do not care about the troops dying in battle.
How to respond to this line of attack, as the Republicans desperately try to discredit blogs as a new center of activism and fundraising?
Carson's campaign dismissed Allen's accusation and defended its use of its "blog" as a source of diverse information.
"Our Web site, www.bradcarson.com, links to the best scholars, both liberal and conservative," said a campaign spokesman, Brad Luna.
"Roughly half of the sites we feature . . . are conservative, pro-Bush sites, and the other half are liberal sites that question the administration's policies.
"But they all have the common thread of trying to promote thoughtful discussion and engagement in our political process," he said.
The Carson campaign believes in a robust exchange of ideas instead of a presentation of political propaganda, Luna said.
"Apparently the National Republican Senatorial Committee prefers propaganda," he said.
Among the sites the Carson links is
Real Clear Politics, which is far and away the best conservative blog on the web. I would daresay that Real Clear Politics should be on everyone's daily reading list. Unfortunately, the site doesn't have comments, otherwise it might grow and reach its deserved status as one of the blogosphere's heavyweights.
For the record, Brad is the most blog-crazy candidate in any federal race this cycle. He does his own blogging, reads blogs every day, and is quite the blog evangelist when he's on the road.