March 31, 2005

3/31: Tears And Bitterness

The "Hotline Blogometer" is our daily taking of the temperature of the blogs. For more information on the thinking behind this feature, go to the end of the story.

Blogosphere reactions to the passing of Terri Schiavo:

Drudge Report headline: "DEAD"; Headline at conservative Jackson's Junction: "Terri's Dead. Congratulations"

Conservative Lorie Byrd from PoliPundit: "I find it almost impossible to believe that with the support of both Republicans and Democrats, with worldwide media attention and with access to both state and federal court systems, Terri's family was not able to save their daughter. They were not allowed to give her food or water. They were not able to be with her when she died. I will post more thoughts on the entire ordeal when I am back home. I am still not quite able to process everything yet. It is almost too much to comprehend."

Centrist Jeff Jarvis: "I'm seeing many prayers but also much anger. MSNBC just reported that Bush will make a live statement about Schiavo at the start of a statement about WMD. He doesn't make live statements about the soldiers who die in Iraq but he makes a statement about this. Her death is political to the end."

Conservative Ed Morrissey: "Out of respect for the family and all concerned, I plan on offering no further comment on this issue today, other than to implore CQ readers to please pray for Terri, her family, and all who mourn her passing."

A regular at liberal DailyKos: "The New York Times is reporting that Terri Schiavo has passed away. May she rest in peace."

RedState: "This is not over."

More reactions: TalkLeft; WizBang; The Corner; Little Green Footballs; Tim BlairPolitical Teen ; America Blog; Damian Penny.

TRACKBACKS: There Actually Are Other Stories Out There

Where the blog swarm is headed, who's taking part, and what they're saying:

• An AP dispatch reports that Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol got a pie in the face at an Indiana speaking engagement. Linking: The Moderate Voice; Corrente; Betsy's Page; Slant Point; Power Line: "The unflappable Dr. Kristol responded: 'Just let me finish this point.' Being smart and funny is a winning combination. And sometimes a good example is contagious. Even the AP reporter covering the incident seems to catch the spirit. Consider the closing line of his report: 'Earlham is a liberal arts college of about 1,200 students that is well-known for its peace studies program.'"
• Instapundit's right-leaning law prof Glenn Reynolds writes at Salon that GOP "leaders have abandoned the traditional principles of small government and federalism -- and warns they may soon come to regret it." Balloon Juice; Unfogged; PrestoPundit; Backword; Outside the Beltway

  Liberal Matt Yglesias doesn't link to the article, but is on the same point at American Prospect's Tapped: "We were just having our editorial meeting at which I wondered why it is that people (including this magazine on a few occasions) repeatedly predict an imminent 'conservative crackup' that never quite seems to happen. I see Jonah Goldberg did a column today on the subject, focused more on libertarians making the prediction, but liberals do it, too. Jonah's pretty much got this right: Any political coalition achieving anything resembling majority status in America is going to involve a lot of disagreements. There's nothing unusual about it, or any particular reason to think such coalitions can't be sustained."

• A column in the left-wing UK Guardian writes that U.S. neoconservative unilateralism is here to stay
  Power Line; Libertarian Scott Burgess; War and Piece.

  In a separate post at Power Line, "Deacon" calls the column "less objectionable than I expected" and adds: "There's no inherent harm in calling the administration's policy neo-conservative. The mischief lies in the implication that the policy is not indigenous to the administrative, but instead results from a 'hijacking' by 'revolutionary' cosmopolitan intellectuals."

  Liberal Pacific Views quotes the penultimate line: "At the same time, there is an absolute belief that the US must maintain such a large lead in crucial technologies that growing powers -- in other words, China -- will decide that it is simply too expensive to try to compete," and replies: "Yeah, small problem with that plan. A tragic weakness in the foundation, as with so many of their other projects. If you don't properly support education, and you start losing the foreign graduate students that fill out your university research teams, eventually your country stops being a beacon of innovation."

SCHIAVO: What They Said Before

"How sad have things gotten" writes right-leaning Glenn Reynolds, in a roundup of bloggers and columnists on how personally distressing the Terri Schiavo case has become; National Review's Robert George claims he's received death threats. Reynolds adds several updates

Included in the roundup, conservative JunkYardBlog: "[L]ittle of the past couple of weeks has been more obnoxious than liberals and libertarians lecturing conservatives on what it means to be a conservative. Some liberals and libertarians have argued that Congress breached federalism in trying to save Terri, thus violating bedrock Republican principles. Well, thank you all for telling us what we believe. Whatever would we do without you?"

Vanity Fair's James Wolcott, on watching "Capital Gang" over the weekend: "[CNN's Margaret] Carlson (how the hell does she have a career?) had been so effusive in praise of them and so abusive in disparagement of Michael Schiavo that Robert Novak commended her after she paused for breath, which is like being kissed by a vampire who's removed his fangs." More: "Joe Scarborough may be a nice guy off-camera, but his performance in the Schiavo case has been one of the most disgusting stretches in cable-news history."

Conservative Hugh Hewitt notes an 11th Circuit judge, in a concurring opinion on the Schiavo case, calls the late night act of Congress unconstitutional: "He is the only judge of the 22 federal judges reviewing the matter to announce such a conclusion, but I have already heard three commentators on television attach great importance to this assertion."

Slate's Mickey Kaus: "What's a sounder basis for ambitious liberal affirmative government -- a) an optimistic desire for often-expensive government action to preserve and extend life or b) a resigned, fatalistic willingness to delegate life-ending decisions to private citizens? If the answer is a), shouldn't left-wingers be pro-tubists?"

From MyDD: "I've been keeping an eye out on the 11% "culture of lifers" at freeperville [FreeRepublic.com message board] that the Bush brothers have lost over this little GOP catastrophe. The MSM and the Republican bloggers might be ignoring it, but the online theocons are having a bit of an identity crisis." It links to a FreeRepublic post featuring a Photoshopped image of the famous Elian Gonzales photo, with Terri Schiavo as Elian and Bush as the SWAT officer.

Conservative Hundred Percenter writes: "In life, a person is often judged by the company he keeps. I apply that principle in both my business and personal life. As far as my blogging is concerned, I generally try to link to websites that share my ideologies." He lists 8 high-profile blogs he is removing from his blogroll (the links along the side of the page), including Instapundit, Little Green Footballs, INDC Journal, and Protein Wisdom. INDC Journal replies: "The subtext of that post: 'Hillary '08!'"

SOCIAL SECURITY: Pretty Much Every Liberal Blogger's Favorite Subject

Talking Points Memo offers a roundup of news stories that suggest personal accounts are losing support.

Liberal econ prof Brad DeLong offers "four off-the-top-of-my-head reasons to oppose the Bush private-accounts plan, all of them very good ones": "As private-accounts plans go, it is a lousy one"; "It is not cost-free for the existing Social Security system"; "It doesn't do a thing to raise national saving"; "The Bush administration has a demonstrated skill at getting the important details of policies wrong."

Beltway Buzz, on the AARP's new poll supporting its position on Social Security: "[T]he numbers behind the new AARP Social Security poll are highly misleading. The majority of respondents were over 55, therefore of an age greater than to be affected by personal accounts. In addition, the language used to describe personal accounts was misleading."

BLOGS VS. MSM: Memogate II?

First Michelle Malkin, then Kaus speculate that the Washington Post's Mike Allen wasn't being truthful in claiming the Post "stuck to what we knew to be true and did not call" the disputed Schiavo memo "talking points or a Republican memo" Scroll down to "Who Is 'Mike Allen'?": "Malkin has come up with a smoking gun undercutting Allen's claim -- a Seattle Times squib, bylined "The Washington Post," which shows that either a) the Post did too put out at least one story saying the memo was "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders," [emph. added] or, more likely, b) the Post's coverage was misleading enough to fool whoever rewrote the Post story for the Seattle Times into thinking it was an official GOP memo." In her post, Malkin asks: "Are we supposed to believe that a renegade Seattle Times copy editor inserted the phrase "by party leaders" on his or her own? Are we supposed to believe that copy editors at the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times and Yahoo! News inserted the exact same phrase on their own?"

DC-based Dem Oliver Willis posts an mp3 of Sean Hannity "slamming a Democratic congressman as an 'asshole' when Hannity didn't realize he was being recorded." Willis doesn't mention the congressman is Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA).

Kos mentions: "Don't look now, but USA Today has been offering some of the best Iraq coverage of any publication." A Monday headline: "Army late with orders for armored Humvees"; a Wednesday headline: "Tanks take a beating in Iraq"; today: "Mental disorders are on the rise among Afghanistan, Iraq veterans."

Centrist Jeff Jarvis: "CJR Daily goes after The New York Times, as I did the other day, for writing about new FCC National Nanny Kevin Martin and the so-called Parents Television Council without going to anyone -- anyone -- who defends the First Amendment against them."

GOPer Matt Margolis links to a WaPo story on MSNBC headlined: "Bush keeps tight rein on Cabinet'Spending time at White House is required." He responds: "Where I work, we call this a 'team meeting'; you know, where we get together and set priorities and assign tasks. But nothing the Bush Administration does is without its MSM report darkly hinting of some nefarious plot."

DELAY: When You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It

Liberal Gadflyer: "The best thing Republicans could do for themselves would be to cast [Tom] DeLay overboard and say 'We never really liked him anyway,' like they did with Trent Lott. But now it looks like the fight over the Hammer will just drag on and on, in increasingly prominent ways. This means that DeLay, with his charming combination of apocalyptic fundamentalism, snarling political ruthlessness, and good old-fashioned corruption, can be an issue in every congressional district in America in 2006."

Media Matters' liberal Duncan Black, in a post headlined "Fork Him": "When Howard "The Weathervane" Fineman says DeLay's in trouble..."

Lefty Kevin Drum, blogging for the Washington Monthly, quotes righty Heather MacDonald and conservative prof Stanley Rothman writing on diversity and liberal academia. Drum adds: "Sounds like they've got that whole victimhood thing down pat, doesn't it?"

CAMPAIGNS: An Early Concession?

On news that Rep. Patrick Kennedy won't challenge Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Kos all but concedes RI SEN: "We've lost two of our strongest candidates against Chafee. Rep. Langevin was driven out of the race by the pro-choice lobby, and Kennedy out by family concerns. Rookie Secretary of State Matt Brown is last man standing. With this news, give the edge to Chafee."

Right Wing News on Dems opposed to a photo ID requirement for voting: "As far as I'm concerned, anyone who isn't in favor of requiring at least some form of identification from a potential voters, isn't serious about preventing election fraud."

FOREIGN POLICY: U.N.-Believable

Nation correspondent David Corn recalls John Bolton's involvement in Iran-Contra, writing: "John Bolton is a bad penny. He keeps coming back. As I've written before, there are plenty of reasons why he's a horrible pick to be US ambassador to the United Nations. Even if you believe the UN needs reform, you don't send a pyromaniac to fix a house of sticks."

U.N.-skeptical screenwriter/novelist Roger L. Simon has a source close to the U.N., and has a scoop on documents left out of Paul Volcker's Oil-for-Food report. His first "special report," from the weekend, is here. He writes today: "[D]espite the foregoing, I do not believe that Kofi Annan is necessarily an evil man, or even a bad one. He is just the product of a system that overwhelmed him, one that he is particularly poorly placed to reform."

DOMESTIC ISSUES: PFAW's Excellent Adventure

From Red State, an activist blog for the right similar to DailyKos on the left: "Those living in the District of Columbia media market started hearing a plea from Ted, a "common sense Republican", on their TV sets tonight. After a clip from "Mr. Smith goes to Washington." Ted begs us to "Save the Filibuster" so the Mr. Smith's can try to get Congress to do "what's right and fair." So who is this "common sense Republican" group that's appealing to our better judgment? Nobody other than the People for the American Way ... That's rich."

Conservative Captain's Quarters points out that "Ted" is Ted Nonini, a little-known member of a union that endorsed John Kerry (ellipses in original): "So who did [PFAW's Ralph] Neas find? Brent Scowcroft? Henry Kissinger? Jim Jeffords? The ghost of Nelson Rockefeller? No! Neas found ... Ted Nonini. You know ... that Ted Nonini. Still stumped? Welcome to the club. Ted Nonini, as it turns out, works as a Los Angeles firefighter -- obviously a brave man -- but as a politician, he doesn't have much of a track record."

LEST WE FORGET: Strunk & White & Sanchez

Libertarian Julian Sanchez offers a lengthy list of problems with freelance submissions he reads for Reason: "Remember how in Mrs. Grundy's third grade English class, she warned you against using the first person -- especially the dreaded "I" -- in essay writing? And then someone later on, maybe high school, explained what rubbish this was, how the best writers do this all the time, and how hewing to that rule produces ludicrous workarounds like "this author" or "your correspondent" when it's impossible not to make reference to the writer? Well, they were both on to something."

NOTES AND ERRATA

Hope you enjoyed the Blogometer's 2nd day taking the temperature of the blogosphere! We did. Today we're trying this without showing the links to a printable. Let us know what you think.

Here's a recap of what we're trying to do here, if you missed it yesterday: Typically we will begin with a short summary of the last 24 hours in the blogosphere (today we opted just to do a round-up on Schiavo's passing). A key feature of our coverage will be "Trackbacks," where we will show what non-blog online news stories are getting a lot of attention. The main content of our coverage will be quote a wide segment of blogs to show what controversies are bubbling up.

On style: Boldface and Italics: These represent people and print sources just as in the rest of the Hotline. Boldface-Italics indicate the name of a blog; because a blog is both a person and a publication, and sometimes it's difficult to tell where the person blogging ends and the blogging persona begins.

Questions, comments, reservations? Drop us a line at blogometer@nationaljournal.com.

Posted by at March 31, 2005 12:23 PM