Blaska names Wisconsin’s Top 10 conservative bloggers

After the Squire himself, of course.

Here are Blaska’s top 10 Wisconsin-oriented conservative bloggers, his must-reads, his polo-playing, tax-dodging, Koch-owned fellow freedom fighters in the vast right-wing conspiracy, in no particular order. The envelope, please.

Ann Althouse at, simply, Althouse. A deservedly national reputation … spars with the likes of Andrew Sullivan … Hasn’t missed a day of blogging since she started in January 2004 … Often posts a half-dozen or more items a day on every conceivable subject, from her backyard gardens to Citizens United v. FEC … a single post can attract 100 or more comments. Truly a renaissance woman, Ann of Althouse is a prof at UW-Madison Law School … her often-stunning photographs (undergraduate art major at NYU) depict walks in the Arboretum or trips to Montana seen in new light. Eclectic in her reach … Bonus is her husband “New Media” Meade, whose videos of the Siege of the Capitol 2011 are cultural classics. Their brave commentary and reportage subjected both to threats of physical violence and foul calumny during the Uprising … Ann would protest the conservative tag … but perhaps not as vehemently as two years ago.

Christian Schneider, The Yankee Review, one of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Purple Wisconsin” blogs. Schneider is Wisconsin’s George Will … minus the bowtie. Almost invented the form as a state Capitol staffer in 2005 when he blogged as Dennis York … leading to a name-the-blogger’s real name guessing game … also found at NRO and WI Policy Research Center, where he is a senior (but still young) fellow … Also writes for the dead-tree op-ed pages of the Journal Sentinel and Madison’s Isthmus. Hey, he does this full time.

Rick Esenberg, The Shark and the Shepherd. The precision of Charles Krauthammer, the snap and bite of Justice Scalia, and a whiff of C.S. Lewis … incense in the cathedral of ideas … Adjunct professor at Marquette Law School … evokes best traditions of Catholic scholasticism. Blessed are his students; his clients in the Republican Party, and his many readers. Contributor to WPRI and Purple Wisconsin.

Tim Nerenz, Moment of Clarity. Doctor of Libertarianism … essays suitable for framing … but (somewhat annoyingly) presented entirely in boldface and column justified. Professional speaker … Abhors Obama, likes Romney but supports Gary Johnson for president, wants to end the government “war on drugs.” Like I said, he’s a Libertarian … Capital L.

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Lance Burri, the Troglopundit. One of the most visual of blogs. Bite-sized nuggets of snark … often on cultural matters from NASCAR to Brett Favre … Festooned with humorous posters called “Automotivators.” One such, over a photograph of Paul Ryan spreading his hands apart, the legend: “Cojones: No, he’s not exaggerating.”

Kevin Binversie, Lakeshore Laments. The Paul Ryan of bloggers. Wonkish but approachable … blog enlivened by political cartoons … a political campaign veteran but still very young … Not afraid to call fellow Republicans to task. Milwaukee-area based.

James Wigderson, Wigderson’s Library and Pub. The puckishness of Wm F. Buckley … blogging in the heart of Republican land. “Getting all wiggy with it.”

Sunny Schubert, All Wings Considered, part of the Milw Journal-Sentinel stable of “Purple Wisconsin” bloggers. A social liberal but right of Rick Perry on the economy and growth of government. Former WI State Journal editorial writer … the madwoman of Monona … writes a column for the local weekly … reads sweet as lemonade under the shade tree in the village square … with a squirt of Stoli vodka for kick.

Steve Prestegard, the Presteblog, … a rock ’n roll and classic cars aficionado … strong on business matters … Like the Beach Boys, he gets around … does “Presty the DJ” on his music faves from back in the day … blog sometimes so clogged with music videos the pages take forever to load. He’s so good he is featured at In Business/Wisconsin and, also like yours truly, appears on Joy Cardin’s WI Public Radio show, Week in Review.

Charlie Sykes, Sykes Writes … when he deigns to blog … becoming more and more sporadic … still too important to miss. With his books, WI Interest magazine, and (especially) his WTMJ morning drive-time radio program, no one in the fourth estate has more conservative clout that Charlie. If Sykes says it’s important, it becomes important. 

Honorable mention

Brian Fraley at the MacIver Institute. More an online news source than a blog … Wisconsin’s Breitbart … with the videos by Bill Osmulski. Broke the story of the fake doctors’ excuses given during the Siege of the Capitol.

Brian Sikma at Media Trackers. Wisconsin’s Brent Bozell. A prime example: “John Doe probe looks like fishing expedition.” Smells like one, too.

Marc Eisen, not a regular columnist or a blogger at all and not all that conservative but sometimes he hits the sweet spot writing for a variety of publications. Was the first journalist in Wisconsin to point out the complete waste of eight years that was Jim Doyle. And he quoted Democrats!

Missing in Action and sorely missed: Patrick McIlheran of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, gone to Sen. Ron Johnson’s Washington, D.C., staff. He was our James Taranto. We miss Jo Egelhoff at FoxPolitics out of Appleton. Where have you gone Tom Still of the Wisconsin State Journal? (Gone to a bigger paycheck, and who can blame him?) The editorial page was conservative when he edited it … and must reading. But newspapers in general don’t have quite the muscle they did back in the day. Or the “noive,” as the Cowardly Lion would say.

Nationally …

PJ Media lists its top 10 conservative columnists.

Former shrink Charles “the Hammer” Krauthammer is the captain. I can go with that. Big thumbs up on Jonah Goldberg. I’d trade away David Brooks for the wickedly arch James Taranto, or is the list restricted to only print columnists?

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