Sunday, September 13, 2009

My Run-In With Alan Colmes


A cautionary tale...

Yesterday I was on Twitter sharing thoughts with other conservatives, celebrating the incredible success of the National 9/12 March on Washington. I saw a Tweet posted by NorsU:

MSM - Americans shut down DC today. God Bless America! #912dc http://bit.ly/1alHjA

The link took me to a very nice video of the events of the day, so I shared the message with my followers:

Americans shut down DC today. God Bless America! http://bit.ly/1alHjA #912dc #tcot via @NorsU

Inexplicably, in response, I received a flurry of hateful messages from liberal trolls. An occasional tweet from a bitter liberal is to be expected, but it is unusual to get a batch of them all at once, and I've never gotten that kind of response to such an innocuous message. So I investigated and when I scrolled down to the first liberal tweet, I found this unsolicited message from Alan Colmes:

here's the teabagger mentality rt @RightKlik REAL Americans shut down Washington today. Not liberals...REAL PATRIOTS.

Yes, this was THE Alan Colmes of Hannity and Colmes fame. I checked the account, and it was directly linked with Alan Colmes' Liberaland website.


For those not familiar with Twitter lingo, "rt @RightKlik" indicates that Alan is quoting (or at least faithfully paraphrasing) something I have tweeted. RT means "re-tweet". Somehow Alan read a lot more into my tweet than was ever intended. He had turned a celebratory tweet into an obnoxious taunt.


@AlanColmes is arguing with me on Twitter. Does that make me as cool as Hannity? #tcot #912dc #p2

ChicagoRay jumped in:

It makes you cooler than Hannity, he got paid to hassle and rassle with that loony lib. You're acting as a patriot

...but no response from Colmes. So I tweeted a follow up message:

Sad…Hannity's old liberal sidekick twisted words…mis-ReTweeted me: http://bit.ly/123M5I @AlanColmes #tcot Actual tweet: http://bit.ly/vualR

The links took my followers (and Alan's followers) to my original tweet and to Alan's mangled retweet.

A torrent of conservative vs. liberal crosstalk ensued, but still no response from Colmes. I began to wonder if someone had hacked into Colmes' Twitter account. Maybe Colmes wasn't really behind any of this. Perhaps he had just hired an incompetent ghost writer.

Five hours later, Colmes finally responded:

@RightKlik sorry if I miss-rt'd you

And I said:

@AlanColmes You did misrepresent my tweet. I accept your gracious apology. #tcot #912dc #sgp

Then Colmes revealed the original source of mischief (an anti-Palin spoof-account):

RT @ScnPalin REAL Americans shut down Washington today. Not liberals, not special interest groups. REAL PATRIOTS. Apologies to @RightKlik

...and he apologized once more:

I need to get better at Tweeting. I do apologize. And I'm doing it on my own. It's not a Joe Wilson apology.

The Joe Wilson jab was unnecessary, but Colmes' apology was very thorough and seemed quite sincere.

I have to give Colmes a lot of credit for owning up to the mistake. I'm really impressed. But I learned an important lesson libs can do a lot of damage without even trying!

Be careful Tweeple!
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Update:
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Apology accepted.

Update II:

Apparently I'm not the only one. NewsBusters reports.

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17 comments:

Adrienne said...

Wow - next they'll offer you a job or something (right after they close your twitter account)

Timeshare Jake said...

That's cool he offered an apology, but he still creeps me out. He is often on Mancow's show, and I just wonder how such a little mind ever lasted so long against Hannity. I'd say Hannity was being nice to say the least. He whould have mopped the floor with Colmes years ago.

Z said...

Here's what gets ME; The left has EVERYTHING right now and they're getting angrier and more snide by the day...Do they think we are going to be effective enough at ruining their socialist dream they're THAT scared?

Ducky at my place did EXACTLY what I thought he'd do when I posted pictures of the LA group yesterday..I'd thought "Oh, man this woman looks goofy but I promised her 'you'll be in my blog tonight'as I snapped her pic (as if I'm Michelle Malkin, right? And it matters? but I take promises seriously)...and the comment this morning on the whole subject from Ducky was only slamming a fanny pack she was wearing...as if all the people there were old fashioned so what positive good could THEY do for America!? etc. I found that SO telling!

Colmes, etc..are SCARED!

And, this is the very first time I've ever seen a group that big get NO MENTION that I SAW in the LA local news on TV, radio OR newspaper....they did, however, apparently cover the Wash DC thing on the first page.
I mean, how could they avoid more than a million people? And, of course, how could they avoid using the term "tens of thousands" ..that cracked me UP. the lesser guesses say 'at least a million'!"

Very cool post, RK..that's kind of fun! Even if it was the GHOUL COLMES!

Opus #6 said...

Adventures in Twitterland. That is exciting, at least. I get excited when I get a tweet from Karl Rove (not personally of course, I just follow him) and such. Technology is cool!

robert verdi said...

hey, the fool has nothing better to offer.

Anonymous said...

I don't know, but just on general principles I'd wash my hands... and scrub my keyboard.

RightKlik said...

Adrienne: Thanks for linking this story on your site.

BB: I was always amazed how Colmes managed to disagree with Hannity 99.9% of the time.

Z: Thanks. I agree, I think the libs are very scared. They have good reason to be frightened.

O6: Karl Rove is a great tweeter...and his not afraid to mingle ordinary people. I haven't had an excuse to tweet him personally either.

RV: I guess confrontation is a way of life for some.

NG: Good thought!

Left Coast Rebel said...

Great story RK, I am impressed that he apologized but on the other hand am completely unimpressed with him as a blogger. His constant use of the term 'teabagger' at his site really shows his character and intellectual standing. It also shows that we are making major inroads when you here guys like Alan using derogatory language against us. I guess we should view it as a badge of honor.

DaBlade said...

I share in your celebratory mood. I just can't tweet about it as I don't own a tweeter.

I Want To Set It Straight said...

OY!

RightKlik said...

LCR: Yes, I thing it is a good sign. Libs do tend to get nasty when small-gov't types are succeeding.

DaBlade: No tweeter? Too bad. I suppose you might have to try tweeting the way our forefathers did...over the web.

IWTSIS: My sentiments exactly.

Janie Lynn said...

I especially liked your come-back about being cooler than Hannity! And as much as I dislike Alan Colmes, I have to give him props for apologizing. It's more than you will get from most.

RightKlik said...

JL: Was surprised that he apologized... 3 times!

Anonymous said...

It was amazing to watch the crowd roll by hour after hour.
We were stuck in court because a lad of our group had been arrested the night before and thrown in jail for throwing a picture of Obama in the garbage in a restaurant owned by a rabid moonbat. We spent all day in court tryiing to get her out. Luckily the court was only two blocks from Pennsylvania Ave so during the innumerable delays we were able to go down and take pictures and video of the great tide of patriotism sweeping the nation’s capital.

RightKlik said...

WWOR: Glad you were able to make it. Hopefully, more of us can make it to the next one.

cube said...

I can see the t-shirt now:

I had a run-in with Alan Colmes and HE apologized.

Cool beans.

RightKlik said...

Cube: Funny! Thanks.