The NRSC is freaking out over an Oklahoma Senate candidate who has a weblog and, according to them:

promot[es] radical, anti-President Bush Web sites while claiming to be a conservative Oklahoma Democrat.

"I think this speaks volumes as to the type of people Carson would associate with if he were to get elected to the United State Senate," said Dan Allen, commu nications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Allen based his criticism of Carson on entries the lawmaker has made on his campaign's official weblog, encouraging supporters to read other Web sites.

He said one Web site by a California university professor, Brad DeLong, suggests that Bush should be impeached, and another, the Daily Kos, attracts users who post rants against the war in Iraq along with claims that Americans, including Republicans and the media, do not care about the troops dying in battle.

I always had the sense that the Republican mentality could not grok the Internet, but to see it demonstrated in such stark relief (they freaked out about Herseth and online fundraising, too) is quite striking. "Encouraging people to read other websites"? The horror! Imagine if he encouraged them to read books and magazines, too! Carson has posted a response on his official blog:

Along this line, I will recommend the following reading material too. For the NRSC's benefit, I will note their political affiliation. Further note to NRSC followers, PLEASE don't read anything that you might disagree with, no matter how brilliantly written.

[...] If you are one of my supporters, please read a varied list of sources, both liberal and conservative, so that you can better understand the world around you.

If you are one of the NRSC's kind of folks, only read material that reinforces your political perspective.

Nicely done. I gave him $25, just for that post. I should also point out that Carson's is one of the few campaign blogs where I get a sense of an authentic voice behind his posts. Points for that, too. (Howard Dean sounded like himself when he posted on BFA, but it was done much too rarely.)