Bill Haslam's "liberal endorsement"

Much ado is being made about a Knoxville-area endorsement for Bill Haslam that something tells me that he'd rather not have:
 

That leaves us with Bill Haslam. Even though he's running as a Republican, is he really? The only elections he's won were non-partisan, so who knows? But actions speak louder than words. Or party labels.

Although he recently joined the NRA, Haslam at one time supported more restrictions on gun ownership and only reluctantly allowed guns in parks and playgrounds out of concern that the laws banning them were too confusing. And he's not afraid to raise taxes when it has to be done.

As best we can tell, the only reason he's running as a Republican is because that's what candidates in East Tennessee do to get elected. With recent endorsements by various Tea Party groups and all his anti-federal, states-rights posturing, Haslam is simply running hard to the right in the primary and will govern to the left if he gets elected. Democrats could do a lot worse. (See above.)

While we'll be voting for Mike McWherter and encourage all other Democrats and Independents to do so as well, we endorse Bill Haslam in the Republican primary because he stands alone among the GOP candidates as best representing the liberal Obama-Pelosi left-wing progressive Democratic agenda.

KnoxViews, which is by far East Tennessee's most liberal outlet in the blogosphere, now says that their endorsement of Haslam was "a joke" and some of their commenters are gawking at the conservative Republican response. It has to be said that when one reads the entire "endorsement" as it is written, it is tinged with Randy Neal's trademark sarcasm, and from that we can deduce that there probably is some truth to the notion that the people at KnoxViews were going after shock value.

However, the endorsement does raise questions as to whether some on the Left do feel this way about Bill Haslam, at least to a degree. He isn't their perfect candidate, but they know that a Republican is likely to win in November, so why not the devil they know?

On the other hand, Haslam's detractors should remember that the people who are behind KnoxViews may be in a decided political minority in East Tennessee, but they do know how the political game is played, especially the savvy founder of KnoxViews, Randy Neal. If it has become clear to Neal and his colleagues in their minds that Bill Haslam is going to be the Republican nominee for Tennessee Governor, they believe that their job is to weaken him among his own strong base and keep them from showing up to vote for him in November. If they believe Haslam would be the GOP nominee who would most easily defeat Democrat Mike McWherter, try to shift the votes and give Haslam a harder August race in advance of early voting. What better way to do those things than with a "liberal endorsement."