Netroots Nation

Netroots Nation Strives To Keep Right Online Away From Next Year's Convention

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 22, 2011, 12:24PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Political Columnist S.E. Cupp

The organizers of Netroots Nation 2012 are doing their darndest to keep the conservative Right Online conference from horning in on their action.

Netroots is headed to Providence, RI next year -- offering attendees a chance to be close to major cities on the East Coast for less bucks, organizers say -- and, unlike this year's conference in Minneapolis, RightOnline won't be able to crash it.

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry Implores Conservatives To Follow Him On 'Tweeter' (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 21, 2011, 8:58AM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who's been publicly considering a run for the White House in recent days, will probably want to outsource the social media component of his presidential campaign if he does decide to run.

In a video address recorded for attendees at the Right Online conference in Minneapolis this weekend, Perry offered up more of the anti-federal government rhetoric that's made him something of a rockstar among conservatives eager for somebody to shake up their boring presidential field.

He also reminded them "you can always follow me on Tweeter."

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Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart: I Saved Anthony Weiner From Blackmail (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 20, 2011, 1:05PM

Conservative Blogger Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart says he saved Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) from an inevitable extortion scandal when he helped publicize the graphic tweet that led to Weiner's downfall.

Breitbart gleefully took partial credit for Weiner's resignation in his speech at the RightOnline conference in Minneapolis this weekend. In an impromptu interview, Breitbart says that he holds all sex scandal-plagued politicians in the same negative light, regardless of party.

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Herman Cain

Herman Cain Walks Back His Rhetoric About Muslims

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 18, 2011, 8:04PM

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain

MINNEAPOLIS -- On the one hand, Herman Cain is prepared to tell anyone who asks that he'll take "extra precautions" to assure that a potential Muslim appointee is not, in fact, bent on the destruction of the United States.

On the other hand, he doesn't mean that at all.

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Right Online

Hijab-Wearing 'Flash Mob' Invades RightOnline

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 18, 2011, 5:42PM

MINNEAPOLIS -- A group of around ten women in Muslim headscarves crashed the RightOnline conference for about ten minutes Saturday, protesting what they said was an incident targeting Muslim women Thursday night.

The event was the latest spark kicked up by the proximity of Netroots Nation and RightOnline. The two conferences are blocks apart -- RightOnline is being held in a hotel many Netrootsers are staying in -- and interaction between the progressives at Netroots and the conservatives at RightOnline has been inevitable.

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Michele Bachmann

Gay Activists Glitter Michele Bachmann At RightOnline (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 18, 2011, 2:30PM

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)

MINNEAPOLIS -- A gay rights activists threw glitter at Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) as she left the stage at the RightOnline conference here Saturday. The "glittering" is not the first glitter-related stunt pulled on a Republican running for president this year.

Get Equal, a California-based gay rights group, claimed responsibility for the glittering, which did not hit Bachmann. A previous glittering aimed at Newt Gingrich was more successful in reaching its target.

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Anthony Weiner

Breitbart: 'I Loved Every Second Of It, Congressman Weiner'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 17, 2011, 10:42PM

Andrew Breitbart

MINNEAPOLIS -- Andrew Breitbart didn't talk much about Rep. Anthony Weiner at his RightOnline keynote here Friday night, but the disgraced New York Democrat was never far from his mind.

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Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart (Briefly) Crashes Netroots Nation, Commotion Ensues

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 17, 2011, 2:59PM

Andrew Breitbart

MINNEAPOLIS -- There will be no Weiner-style gatecrashing from Andrew Breitbart at the Netroots Nation conference here.

That is, unless Breitbart wants to pony up $355 for a ticket.

With the annual conservative Right Online conference just down the street from Netroots Nation, it was inevitable that some sort of shenanigan would occur in Minneapolis this week. And so it did, early Friday afternoon when Breitbart, camera crew in tow, showed up at Netroots unannounced and uncredentialed.

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NV-SEN

Silver State Showdown: Reid And Angle Barnstorm Las Vegas For Conventions

Christina Bellantoni | July 25, 2010, 1:24PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)

Harry Reid and Sharron Angle were the boogeymen in the backdrop of this week's political conventions in Las Vegas, with activists on the liberal and conservative side of the spectrum setting their sights on defeating the other. Reid (D-NV) and Angle (R-NV) each spent less than two hours addressing their respective groups -- Netroots Nation and RightOnline -- but their electoral showdown was high on the agenda at each.

Reid barely mentioned Angle during his remarks to Netroots Saturday, promising instead that he'd keep fighting for progressive agenda items like the public option and immigration reform. (Reid faced little overall pushback even though progressives are frustrated with the progress of his Senate Democrats, but was confronted by Dan Choi over gay rights.) Other Netroots speakers did most of the attacking when it came to Angle, highlighting her positions on Social Security and accusing her of inciting violence by referencing "Second Amendment solutions" to get Reid out of Washington.

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NV-SEN

Angle Backtracks On Social Security: 'I've Never Said' I Wanted To Scrap It (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | July 24, 2010, 4:10PM

Las Vegas -- Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) revved up a conservative crowd today, even as she denied her pre-primary win statements on phasing out Social Security.

Addressing the conservative convention RightOnline at the Venetian casino this afternoon, Angle was hailed for pledging to "permanently repeal the death tax" and for saying she stands with Arizona's new immigration law. She has become a conservative darling in her bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

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Right Online

Conservative Counter-Event Boasts Bigger Size Than Netroots (But It's Not)

Christina Bellantoni | July 24, 2010, 12:35AM

Las Vegas -- Organizers of a conservative convention designed to counter Netroots Nation tonight declared they'd put together a larger event for the first time, mocking the progressive activists also in town as "angry and bitter."

"Netroots Nation going down faster than Mel Gibson's career," Erik Telford of Americans for Prosperity told a laughing crowd at the Venetian casino gathered for the third annual RightOnline.

AFP started RightOnline to counter Netroots Nation, celebrating its fifth anniversary and holds the event each year in the same city as the progressive event.

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