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WaPo "conservative" Jen Rubin: the establishment GOP's hired pimp?

So suggests Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator.

Me, I’m more cynical still: I believe erstwhile Berkeley liberal Jen Rubin never really changed her political stripes, that she is a 911 Republican (that is, a liberal hawk) at best, and at worst, she’s a plant, a house slave, a legacy media-approved left-centrist advocating for “sane” conservatives who can be readily identified by their willingness to reject conservative principles and pander to “moderates” in order to prove themselves “electable.”

For two election cycles now it has been Rubin’s role to attack the GOP nominating field’s most conservative candidates in order to clear that field for a nomination of the least conservative candidate — which is perfectly in keeping with the wishes of the GOP establishment (the reasons for which I’ll let you all consider).

To insulate herself, she recently lent praise to Rick Santorum’s campaign, confident that having waited so long and stroking a conservative so far down in the polls that he has virtually no chance of rising, her efforts would have no real impact on the race — but just might give her cover from increasingly insistent suggestions that she is little more than a (in this election cycle) a Romney shill.

Personally, I believe if she had her druthers, she’d have mounted the Huntsman juggernaut. But a WaPo conservative’s gotta do what a WaPo conservative’s gotta do…

11 Replies to “WaPo "conservative" Jen Rubin: the establishment GOP's hired pimp?”

» WaPo web traffic is a terrible thing to waste - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion says:

November 18, 2011 at 10:02 am

[…] Jennifer Rubin’s Romneyphilia Under Attack (via Protein Wisdom): But to pretend that Rubin’s continual swipes at others (Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick […]
sdferr says:

November 18, 2011 at 10:08 am

Others at Rubin’s former web outlet, Contentions, are happily doing much the same to the prospective conservative Republican nominees, serially trashing Perry, Cain, and lately Gingrich with gusto, while bemoaning the evils of Obama and Co. The establishment, we see, is the cure.
geoffb says:

November 18, 2011 at 10:14 am

Nice.
motionview says:

November 18, 2011 at 11:10 am

I do like Liberal Approved Conservative, but jg is right, she’s not even a RINO, she’s Weigelian
newrouter says:

November 18, 2011 at 11:26 am

When I announced my support for Romney on the front page, I started receiving a steady deluge of emails from this friend pitching stories that were… well, pretty much exactly like the Newt Gingrich attack piece Jen Rubin wrote today. These pitched pieces always had “NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION” stamped prominently all over them, consistent with the Romney campaign’s pathological fear of actually being responsible for anything that would in the slightest way be dangerous with any set of voters that might potentially someday vote for Mitt Romney.

Now look, nobody is going to criticize the Romney campaign for reaching out to friendly media outlets. That’s what competent campaigns do. But this shopping of cheap hit stories really went to a different level from any other campaign I have interacted with, as was the pathological insistence that the Romney campaign never be identified as the source behind any message that the Romney campaign wanted to filter out. I’m not passing judgment on whether this is good or bad, it’s just how the Romney campaign operates, and there are probably dozens or hundreds of bloggers who could tell you all about it. The hell of it is, Rubin herself has all but admitted that she gets a pretty significant amount of her material this way.

Let us take a moment for grudging admiration for the Romney campaign’s political prowess: they have a competent spokesperson, who they (probably) don’t even have to pay, ensconced as the official conservative voice at one of the nation’s most prominent media outlets. Bravo, team Romney, for learning from the Obama administration’s approach to media relations.

Link
Crawford says:

November 18, 2011 at 11:39 am

As newrouter’s link indicates, what Rubin is doing is the laziest job in media: reprinting someone else’s work, slightly rephrased to avoid “plagiarism”. You can never stop her from doing it, because it’s SOP on both the editorial *AND* “news” sides of the media, and it’s a hell of a lot easier than honest work suitable for her skill set.

Because ditch-digging is strenuous.
geoffb says:

November 18, 2011 at 12:01 pm

, it’s just how the Romney campaign operates, and there are probably dozens or hundreds of bloggers who could tell you all about it.
[…]
Bravo, team Romney, for learning from the Obama administration’s approach to media relations.

So we have a “Romney-list”. Will their names be outed sometime after a Romney nomination but before the election to ensure that Obama is re-elected? Do those receiving the “NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION” pre-written columns realize that it is a certainty that among their lot is one or more Obama moles awaiting the call?

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. Remember, Jen, miles to go before you sleep.”
bh says:

November 18, 2011 at 12:31 pm

Trying to make #JenRubinHeadlines a thing on Twitter. Why? Because work sucks.
happyfeet says:

November 18, 2011 at 2:11 pm

the Macaca Post doesn’t fuck around
happyfeet says:

November 18, 2011 at 2:55 pm

this link is a nice walk down memory lane of what this Jen Rubin propaganda slut is all about

remember this one?

please, Macaca Post whore, take Mitt’s cock out of your mouth and do tell us all about Wall Street Romney’s foreign policy credentials
newrouter says:

November 18, 2011 at 6:28 pm

hey the peggy wants some of this

Later, with an almost beautiful defiance, Mr. Cain told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “I’m not supposed to know anything about foreign policy.” That’s what staffers are for. “I want to talk to commanders on the ground. Because you run for president [people say] you need to have the answer. No you don’t! No you don’t!”

Yes you do. It was as if history itself were unknown to him, as if Harry Truman told Douglas MacArthur, “Do what you want, cross the Yalu, but remember to tell me if we invade China.”…

The purpose here isn’t to slam Mr. Cain but to point out that when Republicans talk like this—no, when GOP voters cheer Republicans who talk like this—it leads their opponents to smile in smug satisfaction.

A central line of Democratic attack against Republicans is that they’re not really for anything, they just hate government. That, Democrats say, is why Republicans speak so disrespectfully of government as an institution, that’s why they blithely dismiss the baseline requirements of a public office, as Mr. Cain does.

The charge that Republicans just hate government carries other implications—that they’re stupid, that they’re haters by nature, that they’re cynical and merely strategic, that they enjoy having phantom foes around whom to coalesce, like cavemen warming themselves around a fire.

Link