Conservatism's Hidden Powerbrokers

Everybody has to make a living, self-designated arbiters of conservatism like Erick Erickson very much included, reported Ben Smith in Politico yesterday:

A leading conservative blogger and commentator, Erick Erickson, said he shifted his stance in a key Senate race because the company that publishes his RedState.com is “socially connected” to former Virginia Sen. George Allen.

Erickson told Allen’s challenger, Jamie Radtke, that he had to moderate his support for her because “my bosses are huge Allen friends,” according to an email he sent earlier this month, which her campaign manager forwarded to POLITICO.

The conservative media powerhouse Eagle Publishing, which owns the venerable conservative journal Human Events and the prolific Regnery Publishing, has published RedState since 2007. ...

This summer, Radtke emailed Erickson to ask if she could speak and network at his RedState convention earlier this month, to which she had not been invited.

Erickson responded in an Aug. 4 email to Radtke, which Wrenn forwarded to POLITICO, with a frank explanation of why he couldn’t offer her a speaking slot.

“My bosses are huge Allen friends, not just fans. They are socially connected,” he wrote. “So I'm having to tread carefully in this. Happy to help, but it's got me in a difficult position. So please come and let me introduce you to people, but just understand that I have to be delicate for now.”

Smith's reporting is fascinating as always, but I'd add one footnote. While Jeff Carneal's name is mentioned here, I very much doubt that he was the person whom Erickson was afraid of offending. That distinction would - and this is pure but not entirely uninformed speculation - go to Thomas L. Phillips, the medical newsletter multmillionaire who is Eagle's ultimate owner. Phillips would be well described as both "socially connected" and also a man around whom a prudent employee would indeed "tread carefully."

I wonder how hard Gov. Perry has been courting Mr. Phillips?