The wingnut techies continue their seige at Castle Steele! Yet, why so much drama over such bullshit?
Dare I speculate? I DARE!
A few days ago, Erick the Red and The Earl of Clue, Dale Franks, launched flaming arrows into Michael Steele's Request for Proposal (RFP) to revamp the GOP web presence.
It sure wasn't pretty and ain't getting prettier!
I am very, very concerned about the direction we are headed in with technology in both the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Frankly, I am profoundly disappointed....Based on the lack of substance in the RFP, we can conclude that they either do not get it or they are back to playing the preferred consultant games and the RFP is just for show.
For show, indeed...but doth we be projecting a bit too much, Sir Erick?
Who, exactly, was promised what? Hmmmm?
Now, I have seen over-detailed web RFPs in impossibly fat binders containing goals that had easily become obsolete by presentation time. I have also seen the "best we could do" two-pager RFP revealing a company's severe lack of web dev knowledge coupled with a hasty desire to "get something up there".
Steele's RFP easily falls into the category of the latter. But, that is what you deal with in this biz and you do your best to work with various clients' levels of expertise. They have to start somewhere and you certainly don't blow your chance of winning the bid by scoffing at them or bemoaning their ignorance. And to do it publically, well, that's just moronic, bad business and clearly retaliatory.
See where I'm going?
Here's a glowing excerpt from a February post reporting on "Teh Summit" via Next Right:
The RNC’s Tech Summit, led by Steele, has become a premiere model of peer production at its finest, engaging thousands of ordinary grassroots Republicans and having them peer produce great new ideas for the future of the Republican Party.
A far cry from what Dale Franks wrote in response to the RFP, no?? Hmmmmm....
Here's a feel good Redstate post (with video)about it, as well:
Got Tech Recommendations for the RNC?
The GOP TechSummit Grassroots Working Group was formed to determine how to best reach out to the ordinary people of the nation who comprise the main potential body of the Republican Party. Ultimately, the Working Group will prepare a comprehensive plan for grassroots outreach for submission to RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
Then comes the rub:
Please note that participation does not imply or guarantee a contractual relationship with the Republican National Committee. This is a public event, and as a result, any and all ideas shared by participants are considered public domain.
Erickson and Frank's terrible two moments are an interesting glimpse into what may be going on in wingnut tech and it smells like (also terrible) payback for a scuttled sweetheart deal between Steele and some right wing bloggers.
I ask you to consider a scenario where little Erick, Dale and other eager bloggies were patted on the head by Steele in Feb for their extraordinary toob work and offered coveted techmaster roles as rising stars of the GOP webosphere.
Then, ponder what may have transpired in Steele's mind when the screeching wingnut blogs eviscerated him on the Internets during the whole Limbaugh fracas, forcing him to Kiss the Cyst® and continuing to roll around in his mangled remains thereafter, like so many proud hyenas.
Steele shafting (no pun intended, but recognized) Redstate and Co. by opening up competition to possible outsider commie web developers is pretty delicious, isn't it? Yummy! Did he do it via an ineptly-cobbled RFP possibly containing bad scraps and notes from meetings with the scorned techies in question?
MEOW!
Well, you reap the astroturf you sow...