April 12, 2005

4/12: Fudge And The Fudging Fudgers Who Do So

Today is such a "Blogs vs. the MSM" day that the 2 main stories in our "Trackbacks" section would have fallen under that category if we'd moved them down: The first is conservative Bob Novak's 4/11 column about the New York Times asking ex-Rep. Bob Livingston (R) for an op-ed criticizing House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay but losing interest when he indicated his support for DeLay. Bloggers of all stripes (though mostly conservative ones) like to pile on the Times. Today a perhaps-surprising number decline to do so in this instance, noting how editorial pages work. Most left bloggers note the error in Novak's first version, where he failed to mention Rep. Chris Shays' (R-CT) criticism of DeLay.

The second is Chris Suellentrop's New York profile of New Yorker contributor Seymour Hersh, and the unverifiable accusations he levels against the U.S. in speeches but never in print. The Hersh story is actually one that began on the blogs last year, when left-leaner Ed Cone transcribed one of these Hersh speeches. However, if any lefty blogs had serious comment on this story today, the Blogometer missed them.

Also making the rounds: A surprising number of liberals are concluding that they wouldn't mind so much if the GOP did away with the filibuster rule; John Bolton gets some scrutiny, but John Kerry and the AP get more; and, a prominent Dem starts hanging with Lyndon LaRouche.

TRACKBACKS: The Prince Of Darkness And The Gray Lady

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

• The Novak column is attracting plenty of attention. Linking: Betsy's Page; ; The Anchoress; Roger Ailes; Orrin Judd; The Moderate Voice; Small Precautions; Balloon Juice; Here's What's Left; Crooks and Liars.

  >> The liberal blogs are all in agreement with Pandagon's assessment: "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that it was common practice to shop around for voices on editorial pages." ThinkProgress points out that elsewhere in the column, Novak writes that no GOPer had called for him to step down -- though Chris Shays already had.

  >> Some conservatives tend to agree, including Jonah Goldberg: "[Novak's] column today in the Washington Post claims that the fact the New York Times op-ed page tried to get Bob Livingston to write an op-ed calling for Delay to resign just isn't shocking in my book. As David Broder said a long time ago, political journalism is basically a fight-promoting business. The news value in an op-ed from Livingston only exists if he calls on Delay to resign." Goldberg also notes the Novak column is updated in light of Shays' statements.

  >> But a few righties take the anti-NYT tack, including Blog From On High: "The New York Times isn't simply a second-rate newspaper. It is, first and foremost, the organ of the Democratic party. These days, there are examples galore. ... They have gotten their marching orders from the DNC and are working diligently to drum up a scandal that might do damage to the most powerful and effective Republican politician on the national scene today -- save one."

• Suellentrop describes the "two Hershes" -- "Seymour M.," who "navigates readers through the byzantine world of America's overlapping national-security bureaucracies," and "Sy," the pundit who is "willing to tell a story that's not quite right, in order to convey a Larger Truth." Several bloggers seize on this Hersh admission: "Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people. I can't fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say." Linkin' 'logs: Mudville Gazette; The Corner; Romenesko; Instapundit; Ed Cone; Don Singleton; Pejmanesque.

  >> Dough Petch: "Let me see if I have this straight. Hersh tells unverifiable stories. We're supposed to accept the underlying truths in what he says due to his reputation and journalistic integrity. But doesn't his admitted story-telling fly in the face of that very same journalistic integrity? And why should we accept that he would never take the easy way out by engaging in the same subterfuge to make a print story 'work'?"

  >> Balloon Juice: "I propose we call this Eason Jordan Syndrome -- when a titled figure shows a willingness to informally pass off as fact things he/she would never consider stating officially or on record, because, of course, they aren't facts at all. Just vicious lies."

FILIBUSTER: Oh No, Not The Filibuster! Take Anything But The Filibuster!

In recent weeks, a few conservative orgs. have "broken ranks" to support continued filibusters, while liberal opinionakers such as the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg have argued for their end. A number of liberal bloggers have been debating this fiercely, and most seem to conclude: Let the GOP "go nuclear."

The Decembrist defends filibusters writing, "it's tricky to predict the substantive results of any purely procedural change, because a change can have very different results depending on other circumstances," and descibes "the most plausible 'principled' point in favor of the filibuster: that it should always be difficult for a majority, which might be a temporary majority, to bind future majorities. ... On balance, it's hard to really score this, but I think that right now at least, the radical right has a rich agenda of things-that-cannot-be-undone, on the environmental, legal, and economic fronts, and we have much to gain by being able to stop them."

Nathan Newman replies, the "only reason progressives were able to clean up the deficits of the Reagan era was because the GOP could not filibuster Clinton's 1993 tax increases ... Tax cuts will always be more popular than tax increases, so thank the stars that we don't have a filibuster on the budget, or else we would have a continual ratcheting down of federal revenue with little ability to ever raise taxes in the face of grandstanding conservative filibusters. This just reinforces my point that filibusters are inherently more of an obstacle to progressive government than a block to conservative politics."

Matthew Yglesias agrees: "So what the filibuster lets you do, basically, is prevent the GOP from implementing relatively minor, grossly ill-conceived corporate giveaways that can be pretty easily repealed next time the wheels of power switch. What the filibuster lets the GOP do, by contrast, is impede popular structural reforms of American social and economic life that, though controversial at the time (Social Security, Civil Rights) would, if implemented, rapidly become popular unrepealable measures. Ergo, ditch the filibuster."

Kevin Drum adds a condition: "If Democrats were to agree to eliminate the filibuster, the deal should take effect only after the 2008 election and should also include reinstatement of the old blue slip rules. That's a fair trade."

Meanwhile, anti-filibuster conservative Hugh Hewitt notes that liberal activists Nan Aron and Ralph Neas are pro-filibuster, and applies pressure to "wobbly" GOP Sens. John Sununu and John Warner.

BOLTON: After A Slow Start ...

On 4/11 p.m., National Review's Eric Pfeiffer asks: "Did Kerry Out a Federal Agent During Bolton Hearing?" A reader sends him a rush transcript of the hearing, where John Kerry momentarily uses the name Fulton Armstrong to describe a CIA agent Bolton wanted removed from a position, rather than "Smith."

Righty Charles Johnson raised the same issue before revising his post to add: "To be fair, Fulton Armstrong's name appears in numerous documents available to the public." But not before liberal TalkLeft chides him for fanning the flames. Others point out that Armstrong's bio is available on the web. This a.m., Pfeiffer concurs and speculates: "Could it be then that Armstrong simply asked to be referred to as 'Mr. Smith' for his own preference of personal anonymity?"

Arms Control Wonk provides 4 previous media citations for Fulton. Right-leaning Betsy Newmark: "So, what's going on? How come we're only hearing about this now? Or is this guy not the mysterious Mr. Smith? OR is the media making a big deal out of something that didn't happen? We await the Associated PRess's clarification."

But the news is slow to spread -- the latest posts by conservative blogs Signifying Nothing, Blogs for Bush and Ranting Profs. As of 10 this a.m., the Drudge Report had the link in red: "Kerry Blows CIA Agent Cover?..."

Meanwhile, not a great number of lefty bloggers are discussing their specific objections to Bolton. "Atrios" asks: "Isn't the mustache reason enough to vote against him?" Tapped did a round-up yesterday -- mostly MSM stories -- and today they focus more on DeLay and DNI dir.-designate John Negroponte.

Liberal David Corn draws readers' attention to a political ad on his site, a Kerry-sponsored ad imporing Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) to vote against John Bolton. Corn: "Finally, after all those years of toil, the big payoff: I've bagged $60.00 from the John Kerry campaign." Corn offers the "Cuba episode" as a good example of why Bolton is unsuitable for the job, and adds: "I wish progressive bloggers were as fixated upon him as many of them have been on Jeff Gannon/James Guckert. The Democrats on the foreign affairs committee are trying to rough up Bolton. But they could use some bucking-up from the MoveOn gang, on-line Democratic activists, and such."

Left-leaning World O' Crap: "Everybody who has had a boss like Bolton knows how much damage they can do just by being jerks -- and doesn't the UN have enough problems already without inflicting Bolton on them?"

Right-leaning Power Line, on the protestors who broke in with signs saying: "No Bolton, Yes UN": "I suspect that what she really means is 'No USA, Yes UN.' But, as annoyed as I am by these protesters, the Democrats should be apoplectic. This is exactly the kind of publicity they don't need, especially in a context where they are taking a position that many construe as hostile or indifferent toward American interests. If I were running the Democratic Party, I'd do everything in my power to keep Code Pink off the evening news."

DELAY: Where Have We Seen This Before?

Left-leaning "Billmon" of Whiskey Bar, onthe DeLay questions and those that brought down Dem House Speaker Jim Wright in '89: "I realize I'm not the first political blogger to notice that the two stories resemble each other. But I think I may be the first (or one of the first; it's a big blogosphere) to notice just how much they resemble each other -- right down to the fine print, so to speak. This really is one of those cases where you could change a few names, substitute the word 'Democrat' for 'Republican' and 'Republican' for 'Democrat,' and nobody would have the faintest idea which scandal you were describing." Billmon provides a dozen side-by-side comparisons from news coverage then and now, drawing interesting parallels.

Tapped's Yglesias: "I continue to have concerns about the Democratic strategy surrounding the Tom DeLay matter. What, for example, is the DCCC doing trumpeting efforts by vulnerable Republicans to distance themselves from DeLay? They should be emphasizing everyone's ties with DeLay. Rick Santorum is just the Senate version of DeLay. And I'm totally unimpressed with Chris Shays's conversion to the anti-DeLay cause. Abandoning your friends when they get in hot water shows you're a coward, not a principled and independent thinker."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Are The Times A-Changin'?

Conservative Patterico's Pontifications highlights a bylined Los Angeles Times staff opinion piece which sees GOP hypocrisy in currently opposing a filibuster, but doesn't cite the mirrored shift among Dems: "Note to the author: you're writing a clearly labeled opinion piece. You don't have to use the time-worn trick of talking about what 'many' think when you're really talking about what you think. Just say: 'I see a healthy dose of hypocrisy.' Try it; it's liberating. Hardly surprising that the 'hypocrisy' you see is that of Republicans. ... 'Many' see hypocrisy in [Dem statements] too. But the 'many' don't work at the L.A. Times."

Righty Michelle Malkin notes a new column by the New York Times' Nick Kristof in which he "argues that the press needs to take bolder steps to reconnect with the public." Malkin replies: "All well and good, but Kristof himself still has not retracted his unsubstantiated claim that the number of abortions "increased significantly" after President George W. Bush took office in January 2001." Lefty Jesse Taylor takes the opposite point of view: "The major problem with the media is not one of partisanship. They are self-styled ministers of information, who choose themselves not to be informed. It's why they've been getting pushed around like chumps by the conservative anti-media brigade - they won't bother to inform themselves about it, and step in with all the naivete of a 12-year-old told that if their hand is bigger than their face, it means they'll get cancer."

VodkaPundit notes that a number of news orgs. are backing the defendants in the Apple v. Does case where bloggers/indie news sites leaked/broke info about upcoming Macintosh products, and asks: "Let me get this straight. We're journalists when we're taking on a big, bad corporation. But when we're taking on big-name politicians, we're pajama-wearing cranks."

RACE: Strictly For My ... Actually, We'll Leave This One Alone

A number of black conservative bloggers have created a page linking to them each and calling themselves The Conservative Brotherhood.

Wizbang's (non-black) "Jay Tea": "The countdown for David S. Anderson's head to explode and Oliver Willis to start screaming about 'Uncle Toms,' 'race traitors,' 'self-haters,' and the like begins in 5... 4... 3... 2..." Willis, in the comments: "I have never called anybody an 'Uncle Tom' or a 'race traitor'." Anderson comments at his own blog: "Proving Howard Dean was right all along, this still does not provide enough Republican members of color to fill a hotel conference room, but RNC Chair Ken Mehlman just might be able to finally form that first ever GOP Basketball team!"

Some commenters object that the site has a racial requirement, which is antithetical to the melting pot, even racist.

At her own blog, Baldilocks responds: "Perhaps the reaction to the Conservative Brotherhood has a far simpler explanation; in the minds of some, anything that is all-black brings unconscious negative connotations. Hence the 'cutting yourselves off' assumption and the totally ridiculous assertion that we were equating race with writing ability. No ethnically Hawaiian or Dutch-American association would ever have to contend with such negative stereotypes."

Also linking: Booker Rising; Joe Gandelman

TAXES: On Second Thought, Just Give Me Death

Liberal Left Coaster: "'It's your money' exclaims king George. And yet, he's got his hand out for more of 'my money' than the 25% I'm supposedly paying! ... I know that I am on the edge of having to pay AMT, just like many have discussed for a while now. I was pondering this situation while trying to sleep. I think I now understand why Bu$hCo claims 'deficits don't matter'! They are going to tax them away without raising taxes!"

Conservative Captain's Quarters: "Tax simplification makes enormous sense on many levels, even if it doesn't mean going to a complete flat tax, which I'd prefer. Treating all income equally and reducing deductions to a bare minimum would not only make tax preparation easier, it would also make enforcement a breeze."

DWORKIN: Goodbye, Sour Princess

Anti-porn feminist Andrea Dworkin died over the weekend; the UK Guardian obit leads most of the coverage. Reason's Tim Cavanaugh, at Hit and Run: "Elaine Showalter once said nobody would wake up at 4am to watch Dworkin's funeral, but looking over the range of people from the left, right, and center who came together to despise her, we begin to see Dworkin's real legacy: She was a uniter, not a divider." This is not entirely the case, as "Athena" at DailyKos defends her: "She invited much hostility because of her views, but I regard her as a truth-teller. The vehemence raised against her only verified the power of her insights." More to Cavanaugh's point, Outside the Beltway is typical: "I should offer some compassionate words of grievance for someone passing so young. But it's hard to generate much sympathy for such a vile, contemptible bitch."

IN THE STATES: The Conyers-LaRouche Connection Is No Conspiracy Theory

Politics1's Ron Gunzberger posts an exclusive: Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is "now consorting with LaRouche. On March 23, Conyers was the featured speaker at an event in Detroit sponsored by the LaRouche Political Action Committee ... This wasn't Conyers' first interaction with the LaRouche group, but it is his most overt move." Gunzberger even posts a photo of Conyers at the event. In 12/04 he "invited LaRouche's group to present political testimony of alleged GOP voter suppression before an unofficial panel he chaired -- and LaRouche in return praised Conyers for doing so." Writes Gunzberger: "Is it appropriate for any Democratic officials to attend LaRouche-sponsored events? I think the answer is pretty clear. Perhaps it is time for Congressman Conyers -- after serving 41 years in the House -- to consider retiring in 2006."

Dem-leaning TX blog Politico posts the names of 13 GOP state reps. the Dems will target in '06.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Onion Strikes Again?

On 4/11, many conservative bloggers noted how Kerry said over the weekend: "Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you've ever had a parking ticket, you're not allowed to vote." The WSJ's James Taranto quotes a pre-election article where Kerry "probably" got the idea: "With the knowledge that the minority vote will be crucial in the upcoming presidential election, Republican Party officials are urging blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities to make their presence felt at the polls on Wednesday, Nov. 3." And Taranto adds: "Before Kerry embarrasses himself further, someone ought to take him aside and explain to him that the Onion is a satirical publication -- as is ScrappleFace.com, which came up with the idea first."

LEST WE FORGET: Mullets Galore

The "America We Stand As One" video. The Blogometer offers no comment, but Metafilter puts it well: "Can't stop watching. For all the wrong reasons." And there's already a remix.

Posted by at April 12, 2005 12:57 PM