Posted: October 26, 2007 12:46 PM
Paul Supporters Get Booted from RedState.com
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The conservative blogosphere exploded with indignation this week when prominent conservative blog RedState.com told excitable Internet warriors of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas they 
were now banned from talking about their candidate on the site.
On Tuesday, RedState announced that only members who had been signed up for six months were allowed to talk about Paul.
The message to Paulites: You are annoying and life isn’t fair.
“Effective immediately, new users may not shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion. Not in comments, not in diaries, nada,” one RedState blogger wrote. Paul polls low in the Republican race but boasts an impressive number of intensely loyal supporters who flood text message polls, e-mail boxes and public structures with his name and message. He isn’t popular with most conservatives because he is the only Republican candidate who thinks the war in Iraq was a colossal mistake. He has frequently sparred with front-runner former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the issue and has said that, if elected, he would pull U.S. forces from Iraq immediately.
RedState CEO Erick Erickson told Wired News. that the site made the move because a group of Paul supporters had been posting repetitive messages in support of Paul in the comments section of the site.
“RedState is a private entity and they are free to do as they wish,” Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told Wired via e-mail. “Our campaign is not involved in their decision or the work of independent individuals who use their service. It is ironic, however, that an outlet that bills itself as a clearinghouse of conservative ideas would eschew supporters of the one true conservative in the race.”
The uproar that the ban caused has generated plenty of vitriol toward RedState. One of their bloggers responds in this angry post.
Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan criticized the ban, saying that if anything, the conservative movement needs a wider range of ideas.
“But here’s a simple message to Ron Paul supporters. You’re welcome here. The Dish (Sullivan’s blog) believes in expanding the range of debate among conservatives, not crushing it. And any cursory look at the degenerate state of American conservatism would not lead you to think your problem is too much diversity of opinion,” Sullivan wrote on his blog.
-- By , NewsHour with Jim Lehrer | Comments | Link
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I guess that the Red State people seek to be as relevant as the pajamas media folks who stopped listing Ron Paul on thier polls.
Pablum, Pravda, Red State, it's all the same.
after checking out RedState, I'm not sure I'd care to hang out with them anyway. they seem to take their cue from ann coulter.