As Huckabee Says Romney Running a 'Desperate' and 'Dishonest' Campaign, and a New Hampshire Paper Editorializes: 'He Surely Must be Stopped'...
By Alan Breslauer on 12/31/2007, 12:35pm PT  

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt is a professional propagandist. Any remaining doubt that Hewitt was not a legitimate journalist was removed earlier this month by former White House counsel, Dan Bartlett, who had the following exchange with The Texas Monthly:

TM: Yeah, or what if [conservative blogger] Hugh Hewitt called?

Bartlett: That’s when you start going, “Hmm . . .” Because they do reach people who are influential.

TM: Well, they reach the president’s base.

Bartlett: That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.

But pointing out the obvious fact that wingnut bloggers and talk-radio hosts are hardwired to do White House bidding is hardly newsworthy.

What makes Hewitt an interesting study today is that his overwhelming support for presidential candidate Mitt Romney has exposed his propagandist ways to even his "conservative" listeners, one of whom recently noted on air, before being cut off by Hewitt, the host's apparent "man crush" on the Presidential Candidate...

In the short mashup (above right, 2:15) Hewitt claims that Republican presidential candidates are avoiding him because "they perceive that [he] will ask pointed questions." Right, it couldn't have anything to do with the book he wrote about Romney titled A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney, the "rousing introduction" he gave him at an Orange County family fundraiser or the consistently nasty attacks of candidates not named Romney on his blog.

So ridiculous and incessant is Hewitt's praise for Romney that one radio caller asked the host about his "man crush" on the former Massachusetts Governor before the line was cut. Hewitt then proceeded to insult the caller by saying that his "inappropriate" remark was "very McCain-iac" with the "sudden outburst of anger" and "the growl".

One wonders if even the lockstep Republican base that comprise Hewitt's radio audience will finally see through the propaganda and dishonesty. Certainly Mike Huckabee has seen through Hewitt's "man crush".

In an appearance on Meet The Press yesterday (at left, 1:36), Huckabee calls out Romney for running a "desperate" and "dishonest campaign".

And while there's no telling whether Hewitt's audience will ever wake up and understand the inconvenient truth about the talk radio host and Romney, it does appear that many actual conservatives have. An editorial in the Concord Monitor by the Monitor Staff, in which they write that Romney "most surely must be stopped," is just one such example:

When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

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Article Categories: NBC, Mainstream Corporate Media, Election 2008, Mike Huckabee, Mashup, Mitt Romney, Hugh Hewitt