This isn't actually new. I signed up for a RedState account, back in the dark days of the Bush administration, so I get occasional mails from various Republican politicians and such. It doesn't, well, hasn't, even count as spam... I asked for politics, I get politics.
Today, I got something a little different, right from "Erick Erickson (red-state@news.redstate.com)" himself.
The headline read, "How to Retire in Comfort Even If You DON'T Work in Government." The body of the mail started with a couple of paragraphs of the usual whining about how Unfair it is that government employees make huge fortunes, while the rest of us are beaten down by private employers, why aren't they properly beaten down too? It's the usual Secret Conservative Greeting Handshake thing, we've all seen it once or twice.
And then it launches into the real pitch-- you should trust some guy named Mark Skousen with your money! He's right about everything! He will help you! Subscribe to his newsletter, and let Mark Skousen tell you how to make your money WORK FOR YOU!
Of course, the "financial adviser" scam is not a new thing. My dad used to blow a few thousand on some stock-picking system now and then, and this pitch looks a lot like the ones he got. The new part is having it come from Erickson, who up until now has stayed with the politics. Three weeks ago I would have said this was more of a Glenn Beck kind of thing.
I don't have a perfectly clear idea of why this, why now. Is it related to his departure from CNN? Very likely; if nothing else, real news organizations don't usually like it when their people out defrauding the public, so he'd be fired now anyway. Still, I don't know; mostly I'm just noticing that this has happened.