Wednesday, April 25, 2007

As was discussed earlier this week, right-wing bloggers (along with Frank Gaffney) created "The Victory Caucus," artificially pumped up its traffic statistics by collectively and repeatedly linking to it, and then excitedly pointed to that traffic as evidence that they had tapped into latent though powerful pro-war sentiment among Americans which was spawning a new online movement. That ruckus, in turn, caused easily manipulated reporters to write articles and broadcast stories touting this new, exciting, surging Pro-War online Phenomenon.

Last week, Tucker Carlson welcomed as his guest Victory Caucus "Board ofGovernors" member Frank Gaffney, and Carlson began the segment by announcing:

Last week's antiwar resolution in the House saw 17 Republican members vote against the president's position. As with any vote of consequences, there is a political price to pay, in this case, for the GOP congressmen who broke from their party.

A new conservative group, the Victory Caucus, aims to hold politicians accountable for their positions, serving as a counterpoint to organizations like MoveOn.org.

The Politico article also described the Victory Caucus as "designed to counter the anti-war Moveon.org" and included passages like this:

In the meantime, the Victory Caucus hopes to shame Republicans into sticking with their leaders on upcoming votes on defense spending. "This is a means of getting out a message," said [Townhall/Hugh Hewitt blogger] Dean Barnett, a member of the Victory Caucus Board of Governors. "We're letting the political class know there's a huge chunk of people out there that want victory."