Remember this from Freyne’s column in Seven Days back in November?

The Center [for American Cultural Renewal/Vermont Renewal]‘s stated goal is “to promote and protect traditional values based on the Judeo-Christian ethic . . . Our goal is to renew the promise of America envisioned by the Pilgrims of the 17th Century and the Founding Fathers of the 18th Century restoring our greatest institutions; traditional marriage, two-parent families, community and religious organizations, and civic responsibility for the purpose of renewing our values to fall in line with our most cherished traditions.”

Earlier this year, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Richard Tarrant went to Rutland and spoke to CFACR members in his run-up to declaring his candidacy. Apparently Richie Rich, a good Catholic boy whose charitable foundation has a policy against contributing to pro-choice organizations, made a good impression.

Lest you think as I did, that this is just some small, grouchy, right-wing social group, the bloggers at Blier Watch have made it their mission to get the word out about them (and are now facing a right-wing blogger’s attempt to intimidate them into silence for it…more on that in a bit).

In fact, these folks are so bad that it begs the resurrection of Freyne’s point about Tarrant’s visit. Consider the folks he did such a good job impressing (click on the link for the full story):

Kevin Blier, the founder of the group, keeps fairly busy. He has been in the local press:

…as a frequent Letters-to-the-editor contributor (“As the Court Jester of Congress, Mr. Sanders seemingly struggles to comprehend a document he swears an oath to defend … the U.S. Constitution”)

…Opposing bipartisan transgendered rights legislation (“I’m not sure the legislature should be in the business of giving minority protections and special privileges to people who have a clinical psychosexual disorder”)

…Worked to have Vermont Supreme Court Justices thrown off the bench over Civil Unions (“Justices take an oath to uphold the constitution the way it is written, not an oath to uphold the constitution the way they wish it was written”)

So, basically another John McClaughery with, as some of his saner fellow Republicans have said,  “no Washington presence and little clout with social conservatives outside Vermont”, right?

Well, first of all, the guy is a desperate social conservative ladder-climber. Despite the complete irrelevence of the organization in the right-wing world, a simple Google search will reveal the guy is trying his damndest to position himself among the stars of the right every chance he gets. The Center For American Cultural Renewal pops up on lists like this one (supporting the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts) alongside groups such as the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and the Center for Moral Clarity (chuckle — love that last one’s name)

He’s also got an eye on politics, having just unsuccessfully run for office in Brandon.

Oh, and did we mention how he feels about “fags?” From an article reprinted on his site entitled “Fag Commentary: ‘Rebuke Them Sharply'”

As anyone can see, the meaning of “Hate the sin but love the sinner” has almost been inverted in the 20th and 21st centuries. Now it means indulging the sinner, not offending him, and certainly not punishing him. But loving the sinner, according to Augustine, includes such strong medicine as expelling the sinner as well as milder forms such as reproving — e.g., shaming.

Hate the sin but love the sinner? Of course. And to be precise: Hate the faggotry but love the fag.

You’ll notice the link is from the Google cache, as Mr. Blier edited his site after Blier Watch brought it to public attention. Guess he forgot about caching. Oops!

In fact, his excessive self-promotion and his loathing of gays found expression in his grotesque exploitation of the Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins affair, where one partner in a former civil union became an “ex-gay” and tried to keep her former partner away from their daughter. The case pitted the Virginia Courts against the Vermont Courts (with Blier clearly working against Vermont) and was a particularly heartbreaking and disgusting display of the real anti-family, anti-civil rights, win-at-all-costs agenda of the phony ex-gay movement and the theocratic wing of the Republican Party.

And Republican US Senate hopeful Rich Tarrant made “a good impression” on this crowd. This begs the question as to which scenario is worse: that this is a crowd Tarrant is simpatico with, or that its simply a crowd he felt the need to pander to?

Yuck.

But the Kevin Blier phenom has a new wrinkle in the Vermont blogosphere. The right wing theatrical-blog Will Chamberlain’s Vermont (a winger whose presumptious schtick is to pretend he’s some kind of Vermont Founding Father) claims:

Justice Department sources confirm today that documents pertaining to “BlierWatch”, an anonymous blog that has surfaced in recent months here in Vermont, have been turned over to the Criminal Investigation Division for possible Telecommunications Act violations by the Federal Communications Commission.

Excuse me for a moment while I recover from laughing so hard I sprayed some of my tea out my nose.

Okay, this is so dumb, I have no doubt it’s made up. I’m not sure by whom since WC’s Vermont (‘WC’…heh-heheheh-heh) has no actual living human’s name attached to it, but I doubt there are many degrees of seperation from Mr. Blier, there.

Kevin, look: as a result of all the naked attempts to make yourself into a public figure, you’re now a public figure. That means people can tease you on a blog. Deal with it.

Cathy Resmer, Vermont’s premier metablogger, broke the story this morning, although in a somewhat matter-of-fact way. She finds Blier Watch distasteful because its, well, pretty harsh. It’s hard not to have sympathy though — this Blier guy is a nasty, nasty fellow who wants to be a major player — which would in turn give him greater impact in Vermont. The BW crowd is basically saying, not on our watch and not without a fight. Who can blame them? The guy is irrelevent now, but may not be if he gets a friend…oh, in the US Senate, for example?

Still, I hope Cathy and others will respond to what this is: a naked (albeit crude) attempt to intimidate bloggers out of their free speech rights. An attempt doomed to failure, but bloggers — right, left, and center — should respond in no uncertain terms that this is not okay. In my opinion, Cathy tends to have a reporter’s tendency to judge lefties a bit more harshly and to give right-wingers broader latitude, rather than a blogger’s tendency to throw caution to the wind. Still, this kind of free-speech slam hits us all where we live out here in the blogosphere, and if she hadn’t reported on it, I might have missed it. Nice catch, Cathy.