Mark Reardon Lobs Softballs, but Gateway Pundit Whiffs Anyway

It was obvious that KMOX radio host Mark Reardon, a self-professed fan of Rush Limbaugh and of Gateway Pundit himself, was not going to ask Gateway Pundit (Jim Hoft) any tough questions as he interviewed Hoft purportedly to "get the facts" about the recent "coffingate" controversy. Reardon was happy to play along with the tea party story that the whole thing was the result of a massive conspiracy between the Left and the mainstream media. And he naturally failed to provide any relevant context for the incident, such as the fact that, according to Gateway Pundit's own blog, the tea party had just the day before set pictures of Congressman Carnahan on fire while chanting "death to the dictator!"

But Reardon made that crucial mistake of actually thinking during the interview for a brief moment, which is the practical equivalent of dumping a gallon of hydrochloric acid on the foundations of any of the tea party's conspiracy theories. Reardon asked Hoft,

Do you think that...there are some people who are going to say you guys, OK, maybe you get away with it going to the office, but you crossed the line when you went to his home. Do you feel like that's a possibility at all?

And check out Hoft's pathetic response:

Oh certainly, I understand that there are people who feel that way. Um....we were...um...I was one who, maybe that wouldn't have been my idea, but I did go along with the consensus of the people I was with...and we made sure we weren't on his lawn...we weren't on the grass...we didn't leave anything there...we were there for 10-15 minutes and left. And there was no one home. And we didn't got up to his door.

Reardon did not follow up and instead shifted the conversation back to the original "Carnahan conspiracy" plot line, but Hoft's answer was revealing for a couple of reasons. First, he provided no explanation whatsoever for why they brought the coffin to Carnahan's house. They had already "said a prayer" at the office, so what was the intention of going to his home? The obvious explanation, from my and others perspective, is that it was meant to send the message, "we know where you live.'

Furthermore, Hoft tries to pass the buck on going to Carnahan's house, and says that, "it wouldn't have been my idea." But this is at odds with the facts. As it happens, the Tea Party, and Jim Hoft in particular, initially announced that the rally was going to be at Carnahan's house, and only later changed it to his office (probably because the media said they wouldn't cover it if it was at Carnahan's house). First, check out the html address for Hoft's original post, which clearly indicates that his first edit was announcing that the rally would be at Carnahan's home:

Second, though Hoft deleted his original tweet, you can see from people's retweets that he initially announced that the rally was going to be at Carnahan's home.


Hoft's attempt to pretend that this was just a last minute decision and that he was just "going along with the consensus" is a complete farce. He, and the rest of the St. Louis Tea Party, are just lucky that interviewers like Reardon aren't willing to ask them any tough questions.