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Are the media really that desperate to paint arch-conservative ideologues as something more than they are?

The NY Times decided to do some fluffing when it comes to CNN's new conservative pundit, Erick Erickson. By the way, as you read this piece, you'll realize yet again that conservatives can say absolutely anything and not only not be criticized for it, but be exalted to higher planes of existence.

MACON, Ga. — In his seven weeks as one of CNN’s newest contributors, Erick Erickson has made scarcely more than a dozen appearances on the network. But his every utterance — every Twitter message, blog post and radio rant — has been parsed with the rigor usually reserved for a Supreme Court nominee.

Liberal detractors have obsessively cataloged his right-wing rhetorical excesses, from calling Michelle Obama a “Marxist harpy” to a flip accusation that the former Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter molested children and animals. Even the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, criticized Mr. Erickson for suggesting that he would threaten a census worker, saying the comment “should concern CNN.” The Boston Globe protested what it called “one more screamer on cable.”

Except for the "we hang on his every word" beginning, the NY Times exposes some of his more idiotic and typical rants. Good for them, but then comes the usual false equivalency that always seems to accompany a piece done by the MSM these days on the far right.

What critics have not noted is that Mr. Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, is as hard on many Republicans and conservatives as he is on Democrats. He has accused Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, of playing the race card; suggested that RedState readers send toy balls to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, during budget negotiations; and, of late, begun exhorting Tea Party followers (he considers himself one) to move beyond protests and get involved in the nitty-gritty of precinct-level politics.

“I always think there are more people who hate me on my own side than there are on the left,” Mr. Erickson said on a recent afternoon as he went from Macon City Hall, where he serves as a councilman, to his favorite coffee shop.

See, he's so cool because he even attacks Republicans. What Shaila Dewan doesn't do is answer this vital question: Why does he attack his fellow GOPers? The answer: It's not because they are bad-faith players who fail to represent Americans that voted them in office -- it's because they aren't far right and loyally conservative enough.

Get it? When Michael Steele expressed the opinion that because he's black, conservatives and the media might have a problem with him, well that didn't sit well with EE.

Actually, it could have nothing to do with race and everything to do with outsourcing the RNC to the same consultants who have been bleeding the RNC dry for years.

Anything to do with race and conservatives drives them off the rails.

Dewan then states that EE is all about advocacy now and not calling people goat fu*&king child molesters.

With about 4.5 million page views a month, according to Nielsen, RedState does not attract nearly the traffic of other right-wing blogs like MichelleMalkin.com or Hot Air. But Mr. Erickson said his site fell into a different category, one of advocacy, and he said he measured his influence by the number of Congress members who call his cellphone and the candidates who plead for his attention.

See, he's had a rebirth since CNN hired him so all is forgiven.

The conversation provides a glimpse of the new Erick Erickson, the one who says he has grown up since his Twitter message that Justice Souter was a child molester. After CNN was strongly criticized for its decision to hire him, Mr. Erickson was invited onto the network’s media criticism show, “Reliable Sources,” to take his lumps.

“It was about the dumbest thing I’ve done,” he said of the Souter comment on the show.

I guess he should thank me for his conversion because I was the blogger who highlighted the Souter remark which has made him into a new man. Sorry guys, I'm to blame. Maybe he'll send me a box of See's Chocolates for showing him the light.

Erickson also has a very interesting brand of "advocacy": He used his position as a blogger to lead a campaign to strip away eligibility from as many nonwhite Georgia voters as he could by promoting the 2005 Georgia Voter ID law.

The Georgia measure was prepared with the assistance of Erick Erickson, a self-described right-wing political junkie from Macon who is a part of a network of other conservative political activists and groups working to enact similarly restrictive measures across the nation.

Even Bush lawyers said that it was racist.

A team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters, but they were overruled the next day by higher-ranking officials at Justice, according to department documents...read on

Ah, good old Jim Crow.

Erick Erickson is a classic right-wing bad-faith player, but because CNN needed a right-wing voice they probably helped clean him up and put him on the air. Hey, CNN can hire who they like, but his record on voter suppression exposes him for what he truly is.

Now, if he went back and helped reverse all Voter ID laws and bills that are spreading throughout the country, then I might think he actually has changed into a decent guy. If CNN thinks Dewan's piece has helped clean him up, put him in a new suit and turned him into an honest political player, it is sadly mistaken. He's nothing more than your standard movement-conservative operative. Period.