No Pro-Giuliani Freepers Allowed! Robinson calls Rudy "a dagger in the heart" of wingnutism

[BurtWorm]

Courtesy of Lindsay Bayerstein:

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/05/free_republic_b.html

The conservative website Free Republic has banned supporters of Rudy Giuliani, according to the New York Observer:

<Free Republic has> experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support.

At the heart of the latest controversy: the fight over the conservative bona fides of Rudy Giuliani.

Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.

In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale purges to speak of – until now.”

This does not bode well for Giuliani's chances with the Republican base.

The fight began one month ago, when site founder Jim Robinson posted an anti-Giuliani manifesto titled: “Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee would be a dagger in the heart of the conservative movement.” Then the virtual ax started to swing. Longtime posters to the freewheeling discussion threads, used to serious no-holds-barred web etiquette, were still stunned by the intensity of the anti-Rudy activity; conservative blogs buzzed with the development.

Imagine if every conservative voter in America knew as much about Giuliani as New Yorkers and Freepers.

[asthmaticeog]

1. Eh, this could change.

Before Bush clinched the 2000 nomination, RimJob was very much against him, specifically saying that he could never support a drug user. Either way, who cares, let the lunatics eat their own. :shrug:

[BurtWorm]

3. The NYO story notes that FR was forced to swallow its pride and get behind Bush boy

Which probably means it would get behing Giuliani if forced to by events in 2008. (I'm with Bayerstein, though, in thinking Giuliani won't make it that far with the GOP as it is.)

[ronnykmarshall]

4. Rimjob might need to rethink this.

Shouldn't his motor home need some tires soon?

[William769]

6. "let the lunatics eat their own".

Be careful what you wish for.

[asthmaticeog]

8. Touché. nt

[BOSSHOG]

2. Imagine the trauma - being purged from FR for supporting a republican

Imagine robinson purging the urchins like purging a crawfish, forcing water into it until it pukes up the dirt inside, then boiling it alive with potatoes and onions and garlic, then chucking their dead and red carcasses on a picnic table to have humans pick them up and twist their bodies in two, first sucking the fat from their heads then eating the meat from their tales then chucking the remains in the bayou for trash fish to clean up. Oh my, the imagination has run amuck.

[ComerPerro]

9. or imagine being the subject of scorn on DU for supporting Democrats

[pepperbear]

5. one woders where that leaves Ron Paul supporters

if they have a problem with rudy, they'll definitely have a problem with paul.

[tanyev]

7. Ah, time to roll out the purge strategy.

That'll work.