Georgia political blogger holds nothing back

“The GOP deserves destruction in Georgia if it does not clean its own house immediately,” he wrote on Peach Pundit, decrying a sordid atmosphere of “strippers and scotch.”

“Put simply,” he continued, “while breaking out the guillotine to chop off Speaker Glenn Richardson’s head, the Georgia Republican Party needs to line up (Speaker Pro Tem) Mark Burkhalter, (State Rep.) Ben Harbin, (Lt. Gov.) Casey Cagle, and a few others behind him. Do it all at one time.”

Cagle, the main target of Erickson’s harangue, chose not to comment. Spokeswoman, Jaillene Hunter, responded to the AJC in an e-mail: “Political blogs play an important and growing role in the discussion of issues facing our state, but often it seems rumor and speculation are reported as truth.”

Erickson’s impact is beyond question. People who matter at the state Capitol read PeachPundit each day and talk about it. Likewise, RedState has become popular by mixing real-time information with enough attitude to keep the conservative faithful enthused and coming back.

“They can take on a subject no one else will touch,” said Chuck Clay, a former Marietta state senator and ex-chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. “Sometimes it’s not comfortable. Sometimes it’s not fair. Sometimes it’s dead on. Sometimes it’s not. But he has earned a sense of influence.”

Former state Sen. Rusty Paul, another ex-head of the state GOP and now a lobbyist, said Peach Pundit is “invaluable to those of us involved in the political process.

Political blogs “play a huge role providing information and give those with an ideological bias a frame of reference,” said Paul. “But blogs aren’t hampered by accuracy and ethics. That’s the downside.”

Asked about his role in the political process, Erickson responded, “I’m a rabid partisan. But I don’t want to be a partisan shill. I’m an activist, not a journalist.”

Erickson, who supports Secretary of State Karen Handel’s 2010 campaign for governor, said his recent strong stance was necessary to address the “elephant in the room” before the conservative movement in Georgia suffers massive damage.

“I don’t want to do harm to my own side but just because you have an R after your name doesn’t mean I like you,” he said. “I never set out to be the Roman Censor but I have somehow become that person.”

Drawing attention

A 34-year-old former lawyer with a doughy face, friendly demeanor and a razor wit, Erickson is still getting used to being a player. His growing importance through RedState.com, one of the most popular conservative sites on the Web, has led to regular visits to Hannity's TV show, frequent mentions on Limbaugh's radiocast and a recent invitation to appear on "The Colbert Report" comedy show Jan 4.

“I’ve always considered this as just a guy with a laptop chatting with friends,” Erickson said. “I think it’s remarkable I can sit in Macon, Ga., write something and then hear Rush Limbaugh reading it three hours later. It’s surreal.”

Erickson is one of the few earning a living in the blogosphere, although he is anxious now because his wife last week left her job to stay at home and raise their two small children.

He helped start PeachPundit.com because arguing politics was his golf. He came to RedState.com because his Georgia blog was attracting a following. His day job was at a Macon law firm but estate planning and business transactions didn't cause him to jump out of bed whistling. And it wasn't making him rich. He never made more than $50,000 as a lawyer.

So when Eagle Publishing bought RedState in 2007, the reluctant attorney had a road to his dream job: He would oversee a cast of 20 regular — and unpaid — bloggers and monitor the pulse of conservatism. Soon, he was invited by staffers in the Bush White House to stop in for a visit. Now makes more than he did as a lawyer.

Though he has been in the White House, Erickson is not an insider. Last year, he helped spur an insurgency movement that opposed a moderate Republican congressional candidate in New York, instead supporting a third-party “Conservative” candidate. The Democrat won in the Republican district.

Erickson said his “grassroots movement” is often not detected by the establishment he is trying to overthrow. “We started writing about (the election in mid-July),” he said. “Then reporters (from newspapers and TV) came, then talk radio.”

He does not apologize for the effort, saying, “Some of these guys need to be beaten.” (At the polls, one assumes.)

“One of my goals for 2010 is the conservative movement needs to go against the Republican establishment,” he added.

Watching the watchdog

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog organization that tracks right-leaning media, was succinct when asked about Erickson: “He’s nuts.”

RedState is “part of the Republican noise machine,” Boehlert said, “RedState is a celebration of anti-reason and anti-intelligence. He just makes stuff up, a hodge-podge of wholesale conspiracy theories that he makes up at night.”

Media Matters’ Web site has a blog entitled, “RedState, so dumb it hurts.”

Told of Media Matters’ take on his sanity, Erickson chuckled and said, “I’m flattered.” He’s amused the other side takes time to dispute “a 34-year-old guy from Macon with a laptop.”

Erickson rises each day at 4 a.m. to fire off e-mails to several radio hosts after monitoring sources and political sites until late in the evening. He gets 2,000 e-mails a day and sometimes finds himself on 24-hour work jags.

While he doesn’t pretend to be a journalist, he said accuracy is vital because if he is wrong too often, people will go elsewhere. “It’s a free market; the credible sites rise to the top,” he said.

To that end, he banned supporters of Ron Paul’s longshot presidential bid from his Web site along with “birthers,” people who say President Barack Obama was not born a U.S. citizen.

“We don’t want crazy people left or right on RedState,” he said. “We like passionate people.”

Part of Erickson’s cachet is he is not in Washington or New York, although he travels to both cities each month. It gives him a regular-guy authenticity, he said. “I don’t have a ‘me wall’ with pictures of me shaking hands with important people,” he said.

He sees his constituency as 42-year-old middle-class men who are married, have two kids, like sports and are frustrated with the political environment.

The Supreme Court justice quote, he acknowledged, “wasn’t my finest moment.” But, he said, “it did a world of good” because the angry backlash reminded him he was a person with influence and that outrageous statements could hurt his credibility.

Erickson hopes the blogging will lead to more radio talk gigs and enhance his ability to marshal the conservative masses.

Two years ago, he won a seat on the Macon city council and quickly found himself crossways with Elaine Lucas, a Democrat with decades on the board. The two have waged a battle, some of it in public, some of it in e-mails that, of course, became public on Erickson’s blog.

“You can throw punches but you cry like a little girl when someone hits back at you,” Erickson wrote. “City employees bow in front of you and laugh behind your back about you. I may be small, but you are a joke and your own punch line.”

Lucas fired back that Erickson was a “cowardly liar.”

“Since you think I am pathetic, let me tell you what’s pathetic about you,” she continued. “Your service on council is pathetic. Your blog is pathetic and crusty. You are a SMALL man.!!!”

Asked about Erickson last week, Lucas laughed, saying “Erick doesn’t discriminate, everyone is subject to his attacks.”

She noted Erickson brought a roast beef dinner to her family after the Lucases were burned out of their home and lived in a motel.

“That Erick warms your heart,” she said. “But there’s the Erick you don’t like at all and disagree violently with. You have to remember that he has a niche, a job. He pays his bills like that, takes care of his family. You have to separate the person from the right-wing blogger.”