Right Wing World: Free Republic Silent on John Ensign Scandal

If you want to see what liberals, progressives and/or Democrats are saying about an issue, you can go to Daily Kos, or to Democratic Underground. If you want to see what conservatives, tea baggers and Republicans are saying, there are a few places to go, like FOX Nation, Red State or Hot Air. But if you want to read distilled, hard-core conservative commentary, you can do no better (or one might say, worse) than Free Republic. FR is not for the faint of heart. Before you go there, dip your toe in right-wing talk radio. Watch a couple days of FOX News, especially Glenn Beck, Hannity and Huckabee. Then you might be ready.

Here is the mission statement of Free Republic (reduced in size due to length):

As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism [sic], feminism, homosexualism [sic], racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our BORDERS, our constitution and our national sovereignty.
 
Free Republic is private property. It is not a government project, nor is it funded by government or taxpayer money. We are not a publicly owned entity nor are we an IRS tax-free non-profit organization. We pay all applicable taxes on our income. We are not connected to or funded by any political party, news agency, or any other entity. We sell no merchandise, product or service, and we offer no subscriptions or paid memberships. We accept no paid advertising or promotions. We are funded solely by donations (non tax deductible gifts) from our readers and participants.

We aggressively defend our God-given and first amendment guaranteed rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION, as well as our constitutional right to control the use and content of our own personal private property. Despite the wailing of the liberal trolls and other doom & gloom naysayers, we feel no compelling need to allow them a platform to promote their repugnant and obnoxious propaganda from our forum. Free Republic is NOT a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our GOD-GIVEN rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of Life.


Our God-given Life, Liberty and freedoms are NOT negotiable!!


For God, Family, Country, Life and Liberty!!


If you cannot live with the above, fine, but keep your mouth shut about it while on FR. Don't fight against us on ANY of our deeply held beliefs!!


DON'T TREAD ON ME!!

Anti Life & Liberty trolls will be ZOT on sight!!  [Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts]

And you'd better believe, they mean it. You won't last long if you sign up, and then do anything to go against that screed, like mention that gays are human, or that atheism is Constitutionally protected. And if there is an issue--big or small--that can make Democrats look bad, Free Republic will be all over it. It can be extremely speculative, with the flimsiest of "facts" to build the story on, it doesn't matter. They'll go for anything that boosts "conservatism" (in quotes, because their idea of conservatism strays so far from what it used to mean), and anything that tears down liberals, particularly President Obama.

So, I've made Free Republic a go-to site, whenever there is a big story that I think they'll be either shrieking in horror about, or having libertygasms over. They rarely fail to deliver the most hyper-partisan take on whatever the story is. But occasionally, they do fail me. While they usually will eventually get their shit together on a unfavorable conservative story, in the early days, they are often utterly silent.  I went there this evening to see what the FReeper take on the John Ensign scandal was. Surely they have something to say about it, right? No, not so much.

My best guess is, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine, Michael Savage and the B- and C-listers must not have the Ensign story on their radar. Or if they do, it must be either very muted, or very muddled. The FReepers don't know what the "official line" is yet, so they're just clamming up about it.

Uncharacteristically, right-wing world went all wobbly about the Osama bin Laden shooting. For once, they must not have taken a meeting to decide what their line would be. Different talking heads had different things to say about it, different people to praise or criticize. It was kind of a mess, other than they tried really hard to avoid giving President Obama any credit. Eventually they settled on "Obama is taking all the credit for himself. He's arrogant. (And did you notice, he's black.)"  Right now, as it pertains to the Ensign story, I think they're doing what they usually do: waiting to see what Limbaugh and the rest decide the storyline should be, or better yet, hoping the story will die out and go away.