Looks like Sean Hannity has stirred a hornets nest over at Free Republic with his comments from yesterday.

Sean Hannity is promoting his message board and in part compares it to Free Republic. He then tells a story about how years ago he used to follow the Freepers, but left the board (and everyone he knows left it as well) because of “childish, immature personal attacks.” He then alludes that the Freepers have a “propensity to eat their own” and is adamant that his bulletin board will not be taken over by “fringe people” I.E. the Freepers.

Wizbang’s Kevin Aylward says he will give Hannity a chance to respond at CPAC today if Sean’s around.

Pundit Guy concurs with Sean and says “The freepers are freakin nuts.”

Pam’s House Blend has a list of actual Freeper quotes. Nice stuff. And she suggests their new “beacon of democracy” is Michael Savage (author of The Enemy Within).

UPDATE: More reactions rolling in. OTB says:

While “fringe” is an overused word, I would have to concur with Hannity and PunditGuy that FR qualifies, at least in the conversational sense of the word.

But Kevin McCullough has a bit of a different take:

But it is my feeling that Sean is making enmity where it is not needed… If he took some time, backed up a bit, he would discover that Freepers and Bloggers both would be quite generous to his new site and the new “messageboard” feature that he was pumping in the audio bite. That’s part of what bloggers do, generously link and share traffic - based on the idea that the more people who distribute information - the more the public is armed to make informed choices. Blogs are not about crowing over how “BIG” your site is. Bloggers know who is big, and they know better than you do…

UPDATE 2: Pundit Guy has been doing some legwork, trying to get in touch with Hannity, and attempting to post on Free Republic. Check this out:

UPDATE: I registered and posted a message on the topic stating that I was attempting to get in touch with Sean Hannity and would report his comments if I did. Ten minutes later…BAM! My post was removed and I was promptly banned from Free Republic. What’s up with that?

UPDATE 3: Bill, the Pundit Guy, has posted a brief synopsis of Hannity’s radio response today. Check it out.