Last week, Politico‘s Ben Smith reported that Red State managing editor Erick Erickson, who had endorsed Tea Party activist Jamie Radtke in Virginia’s 2012 GOP Senate primary, backed off that endorsement under pressure from Red State’s corporate owners.

Erickson responded to the Politico article by publishing anonymous criticisms of Radtke’s Aug. 13 speech at the Red State Gathering, including one calling her a “drunk rambling idiot.” Radtke’s attorney responded with a letter demanding retraction of “false and defamatory statements.” Now I’ve interviewed the candidate at the center of this controversy:

Conservative blogger Erick Erickson has “propagated a lie” against Virginia Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, she said, insisting that the Red State managing editor must make a “full retraction” and “set the record straight.”
“Erick Erickson has created this situation, where he’s called me a drunk and a liar,” Radtke told me in an exclusive interview, “and he has not done a retraction – a prominent, full retraction, admitting what he’s done and setting the record straight in an honorable way.” . . .

You can read the entire interview at my blog.