George Allen's Campaign Staff: Treat Bloggers Nicely Then Beat The Crap Out Of Them

You know how sometimes, you read or hear something very good only to realize later that it's happy horse crap? Well, here's this I just read at Think Progress (not TP's fault, as you'll see) which truly sounds just darling:

“To appeal to bloggers, you must figure out what they want – on an individual level — and become a service to them,” said Jon Henke, the official blogger for Sen. George Allen’s unsuccessful reelection campaign. “As the old ESPN saying went, you cannot stop them…you can only hope to contain them. Treat bloggers as the enemy, and you will be rewarded with an enemy; treat bloggers as valuable constituents — with individual interests — and you may be rewarded with allies.”

If you're a blogger or someone who reads blogs, it sounds all too good and reasonable, correct?

But it was at George Allen's various talks and press ops that the blogger Mike Stark, who operates Calling All Wingnuts, was rather viciously assaulted; his head all but shoved into a large plate glass window after being wrestled to the floor. The video was clear: Stark, a constituent of Allen's, merely tried to ask questions. He was pushed away and then, without raising his hands at all, had two old jock wannabes tackle him. I saw a couple of episodes like this.

I guess Mr. Henke never heard anything about that. Plus it seems that Republican (especially really rabid righties) bloggers tend to be paid better; after all, if you're going to sell your soul, you want more than pocket change.