RedState’s Meghan McCain parody too close to home

Everyone loves a good parody. Except sometimes the person being parodied and especially when it's too much like the real thing.

RedState.com agreed to remove a blog post Tuesday in which the fake account "Totally Meghan McCain" mimicked the writing style and "voice" of Meghan McCain after receiving a threatening letter from McCain's lawyer. The letter said RedState acted "in reckless disregard" and portrayed McCain in a "false light," according to Gawker. The site's editor Erick Erickson clarified the reason he agreed to remove the post in a separate blog entry. He even republished part of the offending material:

Firstly in the first place, some people had a question about my very obvious statement, “I don’t necessarily agree that Rick Perry is George Bush on crack, but he could definitely be described as George Bush 2.0.” The question, I have most often, been asked, is why I did not include literally anything in the piece to back up this claim or point out, the places where Perry and Bush are similar, the reason for that being simple. Hello? They are both from Texas. I guess I should apologize for, assuming that most people knew that already, but I guess they don’t. Well I am here to tell you in case you didn’t know: both George W. Bush and Rick Perry are from Texas. Now, in the entire time I have been paying attention to politics, there has only been one President of the United States elected from Texas. And if electing someone, from Texas was a winning strategy, then obviously, there would have been more.

Some ignorant jerk, clearly who doesn’t know about the young people, pointed out that George W. Bush 1.0 won, two elections, which is two more than my dad did. Let me just respond to that jerk by saying that George W. Bush only won those elections because he didn’t have to go against my dad either time. FACE!

At the request of McCain's lawyer, Erickson wrote:

[The] posts were not written, submitted, or authorized by Meghan McCain or anyone associated with her. For those of you who were confused, we apologize profusely that you could read those posts and think any reasonable person could write them. We’re actually stunned that any reasonable person could read those posts and think a living human being wrote them.

For anyone unfamiliar with McCain's writing style (and for scientific purposes), here's a sample from her interview with Donald Trump:

Is The Donald serious? As his poll numbers continue to soar, it’s starting to look that way. On TV, Trump headlines The Apprentice, but on the telephone with me he sounded like he was considering a presidential run. He even invited me to his press conference later this spring, where he could announce his decision. One of the biggest obstacles for the Republican Party is they’ve yet to find a candidate with the same mass appeal and charisma as Barack Obama. If Trump runs, he’ll dominate the airwaves. He could actually pull it off in the same way Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised the pundits and became the governor of California.

Similar? Maybe a little.