MOVEMENT NEWS

Have we libertarians been duped?

From Eric Dondero:

With the Health Care debate raging, the Obama administration snubbing Israel, and a gi-normous budget deficit getting worse by the day, this may seem like real insider basbeall stuff. And it is.

But this is a libertarian blog after all. And we aim to cover as much movement news in addition to the big stories as possible.

With that said, many of you may have been following the "Coffin on the lawn of Missouri Congressman" story.

A quick summary: Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and some Tea Party plus Pro-lifer demonstrators in St. Louis held a candlelight vigil in front of the home of US Rep. and Democrat Senate candidate Russ Carnahan. (He's in a tight race with Republican Rep. Roy Blount, though the very latest polls has Blount widening his lead to 8 points.) Well, Politico.com picked up on the story spinned from the leftwing blogs, that "Rightwing Protesters leave coffin on Democrat Congressman's lawn." They've since retracted the story. And to their credit at least one leftwing blog, has also admitted they got the story completely wrong.

Weigel officially outed by Democratic Underground

But buried in their retraction is this interesting little note of great interest to movement libertarians, from Cleo Lio, Democratic Underground as relayed from Gateway Pundit

I am posting this because "I" posted the original thread of the coffin being left on Rep. Carnahan's lawn... It came to my attention via Dave Weigel who IS a progressive blogger...

Really, Weigel a "progressive blogger"? With a capitalized 'IS" no less.

I have to tell you, I've suspected Weigel to be a hard leftist for quite some time. He took a particularly rabid anti-Bush line during 2005, 06, 07 and 08 in the pages of Reason. Weigel is still listed as a "Contributing Editor" (bio page for Reason). Of course, in '08 5 of 8 Reason editors, including Weigel, famously backed Obama over McCain, and Libertarian Bob Barr. Weigel was one of those who praised Obama. He later got hired on by the hard left Washington Independent, but has still masqueraded as a "libertarian." He's also a frequent guest on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

If you read Weigel's writings these days they're almost universally anti-Tea Party and/or anti-Republican. Here's a sampling of some of the articles he's written:

"Nervous Tea Partiers See Possible Democratic Win on Health Care"

"Anti-Health Care Reform faces steep hurdles"

"Sarah Palin: Newspapers That I Won’t Talk to Won’t Let Me Talk to Them"

And this little interesting tidbit from a post-C-PAC interview Weigel gave to the far left National Public Radio (NPR) in February:

Weigel says he doesn't have a problem getting access to leaders of the Tea Party movement.

On the Soros payroll?

I've heard from some that Weigel is a card-carrying member of the George Soros-opus. Admittedly, it's all been conjecture and hearsay.

But now a very well-respected and very popular hard left blog is openly calling Weigel a "progressive."

One has to wonder what his true libertarian friends feel about his progressivism. Or, even worse. How they must feel about all the insider information on the libertarian movement and other confidential information they may have shared with him over the years.

But you have to admit, it's a very clever way to infiltrate the Right. Call yourself a "libertarian." Gain libertarian cred by being officially affiliated with the much respected Reason magazine. Use that libertarian cred to gain insider access to the Sarah Palin movement, Tea Party, Bob Barr's Libertarian campaign for President, Ron Paul's Presidential campaign, and even C-PAC.

Weigel now getting a BIG Promotion! in Liberal Media land

And now this incredible news just breaking...

From Instapundit:

WASHINGTON POST HIRES DAVID WEIGEL to cover the right.

And National Review Media Blog reports:

Weigel joins the Post on April 5, and will be launching a blog focused on the conservative movement, tea party activists, and how the GOP's preparing for November.

From libertarian-left Reason, to hard left Washington Independent to establishment left Washington Post, all the while pretending to be a "friend of the Right." That's quite a journey indeed.