During the Womens’ Defense League of NH‘s annual Gun Rally, Mark Housell ( now FORMER candidate for US Congress in NH’s CD-1) actively sought me out (not hard to miss – ‘Grok hat on, camera in tow) almost as soon as a “late arrived) to have me do an interview. We tried to do it right then but the volume of the PA system was too loud so he waited until after the event had concluded – which took quite some time. Then he waited as I interviewed several other people first so it was clear that he craved the publicity this Conservative, TEA Party, Bill O’Brien, multiple AFP award winning site could provide him. Yet, this is what he told the Laconia Daily Sun as he exited the race (reformatted, emphasis mine:
Hounsell did say that those pushing a liberal agenda are making “blatant and unabashed attempts to buy New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District with out-of-state money,” while the state’s Republican party “is hog-tied by right-wing extremists passing as conservatives.”
Hounsell disagreed with the “big tent” analogy [of NH GOP Forrester’s big tent analogy -Skip]. “The people who are in that big tent are doing all they can to change it from a big tent to a pup tent,” he said, naming Bill O’Brien and Americans for Prosperity. “If you don’t pass their so-called purity test, you’re not really part of it. I don’t fit their definition of what a conservative is; that is, neo-con, Tea [sic] Party.
The purity test they insist on leaves no room for moderates or people willing to consider compromising on certain points and certain issues, who are willing to meet in the middle for discussions rather standing at opposite sides yelling at each other. The divisiveness of American politics, maintaining barriers that enable people to stay in power, is rigid and unsustainable. Something’s going to snap.”
And this guy thinks that the Progressive Left is willing to “compromise” if he were to get to DC? Hahahahahahaha! He’s been in politics long enough to know better – frankly, I am convinced that every time that Conservatives “compromise” with Progressives, we get screwed. Or he’s that stupid – or wishing to appear to be such.
So my rub with Hounsell should be quite clear – during the Womens’ Defense League of NH‘s annual Gun Rally, he (now a FORMER candidate for US Congress in NH’s CD-1) actively sought me out (not hard to miss – ‘Grok hat on, camera in tow) almost as soon as I “late arrived”) to do an interview. We tried to do it right then but the volume of the PA system was too loud so he waited until after the event had concluded – which took quite some time. Then he waited as I interviewed several other people first.
Look, we’ll talk to just about anyone – including Hounsell even as he has now trashed us with “guilt by association”. No matter – he just afforded me the opportunity to fire back and do a wee bit of an expose of how he sees what he did in the process of winning a brass ring.
“At the very least, we have moved the discussion a little bit away from the unseemly quest for campaign money to the very issues that people care about,” he said. “Hopefully, in a meaningful way, we have served notice that we expect the campaign for the first congressional seat to be issue-driven.”
Er, no, you didn’t. You made it clear that you weren’t going to seek out the now traditional sources of campaign funds – times changed and you didn’t in this regard so your bellyaching is your own fault and no one else’s. You made a bad decision and you’ve now earned the consequences of that decision. Campaigns NEED money and you walked away from it. I’m not saying whether you did right or wrong; I am stating you sealed your own doom.
As far as “we have moved the discussion” is concerned? Ah….nope. In fact, you didn’t earn the right to be a “blip” on the campaign radar. You achieved nothing of substance.
Other than to prove yourself a hypocrite in using us even as you seemingly hate our stances.
On the other hand, were we hypocrites for interviewing him? No – like I said, unlike the Progressives that won’t talk to anyone outside of their own clucking hen-house of “diversity of skin – monoculture ideas and talking points”, we’ll talk and take on the debates with anyone here at the ‘Grok. We know what we stand for and have been doing so for well over a decade now – I can safely say we have been Consistent (typos and bad grammar aside).
Hounsell? Not so much.
(H/T: Laconia Daily Sun)
