Matt Stoller and MyDD
Just after I started this blog, I got into a tussle with Matt Stoller over his rather bizarre use of something I said at RedState. I said at the time that legal restrictions and a media double standard prohibit the party from creating an ACTBlue-style finance operation. I pointed out that a federal PAC would be required to make it work effectively. He took that to mean that Republicans are racist. Don’t ask me how he got there and don’t ask me to dredge that up again. I mention it merely as prologue.
Today, he’s engaged in what he does best. Stoller has taken some small pieces of information and is trying to extrapolate a worldview. While linking to a post I made less than 30 days ago – a post that explains in great detail the reason we created ABCPAC, our intentions for it, and the path forward – he argues that we have not succeeded in creating an ActBlue of our own because we did exactly what we said we were going to do.
Anyone who looks at ActBlue as it stands today (having raised north of 5 million dollars) and what they have built given those resources, and compares it to what ABCPAC has done in the last 24 days and wonders why we have not overtaken the Democrats just doesn’t have a clue. That seems to be the case with Matt.
I met Matt recently, and he seems to be a good guy in spite of his spastic liberalism. Since the only way to fix the uninformed is to educate them, let me take some space here to help Matt out.
First, ABCPAC never expected to be the equivalent of ActBlue on day one. We do, however, expect to provide a full roster of GOP candidates for federal office, tools for bloggers to create their own list, endorse other’s lists, and see what they have raised in dollars as well as the number of people who gave.
Second, this is not a “top-down” operation. The directors of the PAC have spent a lot of time working for the Party and the bloggers involved with Rightroots have day jobs and/or contribute to other sites. If John Hawkins being a contributor to Human Events makes this “Conservative movement machinery” then my current job must mean we’re all cable guys, right?
Third, Townhall was born of the Heritage Foundation, but anyone who pays even passing attention to online politics should have heard by now that Heritage spun it off a year ago and it was acquired by Salem Communications earlier this year. It is now a wholly owned piece of Salem.
Finally, as political and Internet professionals, we launched this PAC because we recognize the value of a central location for donors to find GOP candidates and help them out. It’s not exactly a mystery that the general population is moving away from old media. That will result in a shift toward online giving rather than through direct mail and telemarketing. While those still play a huge role in the GOP finance efforts, this PAC is laying the groundwork for the future.
I hope Matt will take a moment to read this, and to understand that which he failed to grasp from my post three weeks ago.
Update and Apologies: It seems I owe Matt an apology. The link I followed to get to the MyDD post indicated it was a Stoller comment, and I didn’t check the byline. Matt was very kind in pointing out the mistake. I am now going to do something my wife swears I never do… admit I was wrong. Sorry, Matt.
Share Tags
