Right Wing “RINO(kugel)” Hunting is Fierce

Wisconsin's right wing didn't waste much time forcefully attacking Dick Leinenkugel after he made his official announcement about running in the Republican primary. It really isn't that surprising, only the most politically out-of-touch person would have thought that the reaction would be any different. The only thing that may be slightly surprising is just how fierce and quick the right wing reaction has been to the former Commerce Secretary.

For example, Badger Blogger did a post declaring "Stop this RINO" and "Dick Leinenkugel is the very definition of RINO (Republican In Name Only), and must be stopped. Defeat Dick RINOkugel!"

Brian Fraley of the MacIver Institute sent out a tweet reacting to a Leinenkugel interview with Charlie Sykes and made this 140 character observation: "Dick Leinenkugel's @SykesCharlie Interview will haunt him for the duration of his campaign. Train Wreck would be polite." The tweet then includes the tag "#noleinie".

Conservative blogger Kevin Binversie retweets Fraley's sentiments that Leinenkugel's interview with Sykes was a train wreck.

Then there is the new Twitter feed, "RINOkugel", which not only tracks the other right wing attacks of Leinenkugel's candidacy, but it also offers its own original commentary. One that stood out to me was the following tweet from "RINOkugel":

"leinenkugel kicks off campaign at 4x drunk driver business?"

It appears that this is a reference to him making his official announcement at Helgesen Development Corp. in Janesville. When I saw this tweet, I did a quick check of CCAPS and I did find several OWI cases listed for a Jeffrey W. Helgesen, which is also the name of the President of the company. I don't know much detail beyond that but obviously someone else does and they are using it to question Leinenkugel about where he chose to kick off his campaign. If this tweet and the general right wing reaction is any indication, a "RINO(kugel)" hunt is already in full season and it has been noticeably fierce right from the beginning.

UPDATE: Blogging Blue takes a look at more reaction.