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Thursday, Jan 24, 2013 10:44 PM UTC

A kinder, gentler Erick Erickson?

Erickson, who once called David Souter a "goat-f*cker," says conservatives have become "purveyors of outrage"

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Topics: Erick Erickson, Conservatives, CNN, Red State, Barack Obama,

A kinder, gentler Erick Erickson? (Credit: Wikipedia)

CNN contributor and RedState blogger Erick Erickson is getting sick of the “outrage pimps on both sides of the aisle whipping the respective bases into a frenzy and fury against the other side,” including conservatives who have become what he describes as “purveyors of outrage instead of preachers for a cause.”

“We’re off key and off message,” Erickson wrote in a blog post earlier this week. “We’ve become professional victims dialed up to 10 on the outrage meter. Who the hell wants to listen to conservatives whining and moaning all the time about the outrage du jour? Seriously?”

But if anyone is prone to “purveying outrage”… Here is a brief history of some of Erickson’s greatest hits:

  • In 2008, he wondered in a blog post:  “Is Obama shagging hookers behind the media’s back?” But, he concluded: “I assume not. I assume that Obama’s Marxist harpy wife would go Lorena Bobbit on him should he even think about it.”
  • In 2009, at the height of the health care debate, Erickson compared White House health care spokeswoman Linda Douglass to the Nazi’s chief propagandist:
  • That same year, he wrote of the President’s bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago:
  • Also in 2009, he wrote of Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win:  “I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news. There is no way Barack Obama earned it in the nominations period.”
  • Perhaps his most infamous quote of 2009, though, was when Erickson tweeted that then-retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter was a “goat-fucking child molester.” After deleting the tweet, he re-sent it, but later deleted it again. He later described it as “about the dumbest thing I’ve done.”
  • In 2010, in response to a Superbowl ad, put out by the anti-abortion group Focus on the Family and starring Tim Tebow, Erickson tweeted: “That’s what the feminazis were enraged over? Seriously?!? Wow. That’s what being too ugly to get a date does to your brain.” He also suggested that “Ugly feminists return to their kitchens.”
  • More recently, during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, he had to apologize for the following tweet:

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

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