From Tea Party Central

Otherwise known as the Westin Hotel, where I've come to eat dinner and file a brief report. Thanks to Barbara Espinosa, Rick Moran and VodkaPundit for helping me cover the Tea Party live. More reports at The Sundries Shack, GayPatriot, Nice Deb, Weasel Zippers and Instapundit
Will have full coverage later. Now, dinner. I've left Myers The Blog Intern alone with Barbara, which could be dangerous . . .

UPDATE: Dan Riehl showed up at the Westin hotel bar, and Matthew Vadum is expected soon. Right now, I'm blogging from Barbara Espinosa's room. NTTAWWT. IYKWIMAITYD.

Meanwhile, VodkaPundit did a telephone interview with Barbara -- on my cell phone. And Vodka also responds to a particularly idiotic attack. A week ago, I wrote:

Ace finally lost patience with LGF's Charles Johnson over the Van Jones controversy. In exasperation, Ace's cri de coeur was: "This is like arguing with a woman of the more irrational sort."

If you're too crazy for Ace, you're just too damned crazy. CJ tried to purge both Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. You can't build a coalition by the process of subtraction.

UPDATE II: BTW, the "particularly idiotic attack" is the same kind of attack that is being made on Joe Wilson, whose left-wing enemies get a rebuttal from Stogie at Saberpoint and also here and here.

Meanwhile, the friends of liberty keep gathering in the Westin Hotel bar. Darlene Thornton of Savannah, Ga. -- who traveled more than 800 miles for the rally -- was wearing a T-shirt with this motto: "I'll keep my guns, freedom and money. . . . You can keep the Change."

Nancy Jo Taylor of Highland Village, Texas, drove 1,500 miles to attend the rally. "I wanted to represent my mother, who is 98 . . . We're upset with this administration, and the lies, and the overspending."

Well, my friends await me downstairs at the bar, so you'll excuse me. I am a social conservative . . .

UPDATE III: Alan Colmes, you suck. "Corporate push," my left butt-cheek. I'm partying with the 9/12 people tonight and they are the heart and soul of grassroots America.

UPDATE IV: Well, I just got home from D.C., and might as well finish what I've started. Demonstrating that the best "conservative" comments are always from anonymous a-holes, let's look at "MPH" in the comment field at Vodka's:

Well, Stacy McCain does write for Taki Magazine and VDare…two absolutely disgusting (and racist) publications. McCain is openly friendly with the editor of Taki Mag, Richard Spencer, an avowed white nationalist (Spencer proudly told me this himself the one time I was disgraced to meet him – the guy is a f-ing lunatic and anyone who calls themselves a friend of this creature has serious issues of their own).
…and never mind that Stacy McCain is a member of the League of the South. What else do you need to know? Come on Stephen…you are one of the great ones. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. Don’t close your eyes to this filth.
-- MPH, 3:41 p.m.

Richard Spencer, as I have written before, is a young radical intellectual who has read too much Nietzsche. Should he be shunned therefore? He was a graduate student at Duke during the lacrosse-team "rape" hoax, and I suppose that might radicalize anyone. VDare.com is run by Peter Brimelow, author of the excellent book, Alien Nation, and the site has carried Michelle Malkin's column for years. More "MPH":

But you owe it to yourself to look beyond the interactions you’ve had with McCain at the DNC and CPAC. While Charles is being unfair to the tea-partiers as a whole, he isn’t far off in his assessment of McCain. For the credibility of PJTV and PJM, you owe it to the institution you are helping to build to know which people are leeching off your success for their own desultory means.
League of the South…League of the South! The “reformed” KKK (or maybe they’re just in remission). Taki Magazine. VDare. Sick Sick Sick.
I look up to you as a rational classically liberal commentator (like a Glenn Reynolds with great comedic timing). It is painful to see this defense of what seems so obviously indefensible.
-- MPH 4:15 p.m.

"League of the South! League of the South!" Don't you love these "conservatives" who get their talking-points from the Southern Poverty Law Center?

Notice that anonymous a-hole "MPH" tells Steven not to judge me based on actual acquaintance. Nor should you talk to people who actually know me and know anything about the background of this controversy. You might talk to novelist Tito Perdue, who has known me for about 15 years and is familiar with the background, or you might talk to Pierre-Rene Noth, who was my editor at the Rome News-Tribune from 1991-97.

Is Stacy McCain crazy? Oh, yeah. Is Stacy McCain, dangerous? Well, there's his firework habit, but . . .

Is Stacy McCain racist? Define the term. That's exactly the problem, as I've been saying for years. "Racist" has been re-defined to mean, "Anyone who disagrees with a liberal." And the accusation requires the accused to prove a negative, you see?

These attacks against me are made by people who don't know who my friends are, who don't know who has partaken of my hospitality or benefitted from my assistance, who don't know my children or my children's friends. They are, in other words, completely ignorant, and so arrogantly stupid as to repeat the ignorant accusations of others, based purely on some sort of ideological litmus test which they -- in their imagined superiority -- feel qualified to administer.

Why engage with people who think that way, except to point out that they think that way? Why should I be compelled to defend myself against such "ransom note" smears? And who is "MPH," except an anonymous a-hole trying to recycle old left-wing attacks on me?

Meanwhile, the commenters are telling me that Charles Johnson himself has now attacked me by way of responding the Vodka, so I guess I'll deal with that now. So much for turning in early so I'd be well-rested to write my 800-word news article due tomorrow afternoon . . . sigh.

Remember: There are five A's in "raaaaacist."

Unlike Ross Douthat, Ann Coulter isnot a stuck-up Harvard douchebag

Last night, Myers The Blog Intern found an interesting clip of an Ann Coulter appearance on the Glenn Beck show in March, when she described George Soros as a "Nazi collaborator."

Some liberal commenter (who may or may not be just another Media Matters hack) complained about Miss Coulter's characterization of Soros. And indeed, it is a serious accusation, since being a "Nazi collaborator" would make Soros worse than Neville Chamberlain and as bad as postmodern philosopher Martin Heidegger, although certainly no worse than France.

The liberal commenter seemed to feel that I was obliged to pass judgment on the accuracy of Miss Coulter's assessment, prompting my reply:

I think that if you have a problem with Miss Coulter's description of the wartime adventures of George Soros, you should take that up with Miss Coulter.

Far be it from me to assume that she is unable to defend her own prose. However, if my assistance were required, I would certainly provide it. I would similarly assist Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin or any other conservative who (a) doesn't apologize for being conservative, (b) is willing to "put skin in the game" in the fight against liberalism, and (c) isn't all stuck-up like they're better than everybody else.

This explains why I've got no use for douchebag snobs like Ross Douthat and other members of that elite crowd, The Republicans Who Really Matter. A very simple test: If you think you're better than those Pennsylvanians who stood in line on a cold windy evening for a chance to see Sarah Palin, you're a douchebag.

Ann Coulter is not like that. Say what you will about her, she doesn't mind talking to Ordinary Americans:

Seated on the patio of a D.C. restaurant (note the margarita in the foreground) Ann Coulter has a conversation with an enthusiastic Obama supporter. At left is Jeff Carneal, president of Eagle Publishing, who is probably not quite so enthusiastic about Obama.

Ann Coulter poses with Alyssa Cordova of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute.

Ann Coulter poses with Evan Gassman and Evan's girlfriend. Evan gave me a business card, so I remembered his name. His girlfriend didn't have a business card, but she was sweet.

Ann Coulter poses with investigative journalist Matthew Vadum (right) and some blogger dude who can't even remember the name of Evan Gassman's sweet girlfriend.

So you see the difference between Ann Coulter and a certain Harvard douchebag who expects everybody to be impressed by his SAT score and skinny-dipping with Bill Buckley.

Also, Ann Coulter links my blog, unlike a douchbag.

'They have a Nazi collaborator -- literally'

So said Chairman Ann, in reference to left-wing Sugar Daddy George Soros, during an interview with Glenn Beck, when the subject was Rush Limbaugh's CPAC speech:

"Right-wing and conservative power has always bubbled up from the bottom. . . . It's always been bottom-up. Not with the Democrats. Oh, no. They have a Nazi collaborator -- literally -- international financier George Soros funding their phony 'grassroots' organizations."
-- Ann Coulter, March 2, 2009

This video was turned up by Myers The Blog Intern, while he was researching a post about "Death Panels," Pelosi's "swastikas," Limbaugh, Robert Gibbs, et cetera. Myers also just dug up this quote from Chairman Ann's interview last month with Sean Hannity:

"You can see [President Obama is] becoming unhinged because the media has totally, totally built this guy up . . . He swats a fly, and they're all, you know, hyperventilating. Now, meanwhile, look how he acted to his critics, to you, to Rush Limbaugh. He lashes out at Rush Limbaugh and tells Democrats don't listen to this guy. . . . [I]f this guy is so upset by criticism from people who are on the opposite side of the spectrum, what's going to happen as these polls as inevitably will happen start to fall on him as Americans realize that oh, he really is a liberal, it's not just a charming speech maker."
-- Ann Coulter, July 22

A thorough fellow, this young Myers. Friday night, he survived The Electric Kool-Aid Blog Intern Acid Test -- dinner with Miss Coulter -- and Sunday, he survived an even more important trial, dinner with Mrs. Other McCain.

What's weird is that this guy wasn't the intern I asked for. I was quite specific in my memo to VRWC-HQ that they should send me a Christina Hendricks lookalike. However, considering Myers is willing to work for nothing but the occasional Klondike Bar, I probably shouldn't complain.

As long as the tip-jar hitters fork over enough cash . . . this dude can really put away the Klondike Bars.

The First Post on the First Dayof the Rest of an Intern's Life

By Myers, the Blog Intern

• 1230 Hours: First Contact of the First Day of the Rest of an Intern’s Life.

Mr. Other McCain makes contact with myself, the unsuspecting Blog Intern, to meet him at an undisclosed location somewhere North of the Mason Dixon Line. While to some this may be unsettling I accept the location and agree to meet him at 1400 hours.

• 1430 Hours: ETA?

Mr. Other McCain inquires to my whereabouts, as I am still nowhere to be found. I subsequently apologize for the inching socialism that had required me to utilize the WMATA. The question becomes, why would we want the Federal Leviathan to run health care when they can’t run a train. After waiting for over a half-hour for a train, I am notified halfway through my trip that the train I was riding was out of service. In keeping my rationality that I am thinking therefore I am this cannot be logical. The government is telling me the train on which I am currently riding is out of service, yet it is clearly moving forward. I cannot wait to hear that line from a doctor one day, but I guess I won’t worry to much as I aspire to be a lifelong senator someday!

• 1445 Hours: Rendezvous

Mr. Other McCain and the Blog Intern have rendezvoused at an undisclosed location North of the Mason Dixie Line on file to confuse the liberals as to the whereabouts of our vast right wing safe houses in hostile areas.

• 1500 Hours: Two conservatives in a car . . . we must agree on everything?

The conversations on the drive are indicative of the Conservative movement as a whole. While agreeing in large part that government is the problem not the answer, there is the occasional debate that occurs between the two of us. One such debate is over how to solve the immigration problem within the USSA. The final decision between the two of us is that regardless of the outcome, amnesty for any female rating over a 7.5 should be incorporated into any true "reform." Possibly Obama could make this suggestion at his two-day vacation . . . excuse me, two-day summit with Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara. (Mr. Other McCain recommends the "donkey show," whatever that is.)

• 1530 Hours: Arrival at the undisclosed location of the vast right wing conspiracy.

The mansion within which we sit is the epitome of a hard workingman living the capitalist dream without the impediment of the federal government. The wine flows like water here and the air is soaked in the aroma of rum-infused cigars.

• 1600 Hours: Getting down to work.

What does an intern for Mr. Other McCain do? Whatever the Man Says! This sounds eerily familiar to the exact opposite of what my public, leftist education told me. Working for free meals and the occasional drink is slavery! Am I a mere slave working here as the Blog Intern? Logic would tell me yes! Logic would also tell me that the economy and its very visible hand drove me to this dire situation. Was not the purpose of my liberal education to advance me within society by providing security, knowledge, and work? Yet any work I would get, if there were high paying liberal jobs to be had working in community organizations such as ACORN, would be a losing prospect with the constant printing of currency at the Fed. In the end, I realize working for absolutely no money is about the same as currently working for a devalued currency that is worth less with every Cash for Clunker traded in. (Mr. Other McCain advises that the 13th Amendment said nothing about white-boy interns.)

• 1700 Hours: The harassment file . . .

Mr. Other McCain is constantly glancing at this blog post like our Congress reads bills. He demeans me constantly with a barrage of insults that would make the NAACP represent a poor white boy. I will record such insults to possibly bank on them one day much like a California tax credit for a future lawsuit. I contemplated the filing of a complaint just now as Mr. Other McCain asserted the superiority of his wisdom over me, but isn’t the whole point of internment . . . excuse me, I mean interning slavery? To prove slavery dead don’t forget to tip that jar so I can stop the utilization of government controlled trains!

-- MTBI