April 18, 2005

4/18: Exile On Mainstream

Something the Blogometer hasn't made mention of -- but which you might have noticed by reading through this -- is that a number of popular bloggers are law professors. (Perhaps the best-known is Univ. of TN's Glenn Reynolds, whose Instapundit is one of the longest-running and widest-read of all blogs.) Others are mentioned below, as one big story from the weekend concerns a New York Times Magazine cover story by GWU law prof Jeffrey Rosen.

Meanwhile, the nomination of John Bolton to be the U.N. Amb. remains much-discussed; this a.m. the Washington Post reports on new allegations against him, and the liberal are blogs flocking to comment and -- they hope -- assist in derailing his chances of getting a vote before the full Senate.

Also simmering: Another installment of the lefty bloggers vs. the righty bloggers over which side has been co-opted by the political and media establishment, and more developments in the post-Terri Schiavo debate.

TRACKBACKS: Loco-Bolton Or Loco Bolton?

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

• Washington Post reports that Bolton kept certain info from ex-Sec/State Colin Powell, including one instance regarding U.S. and European negotiation with Iran, and once did the same re: Sec/State Condoleezza Rice. It's mostly liberal blogs linking: TBogg; Obsidian Wings; Basie!; Stygius; Pandagon.

  >> Liberal War and Piece calls it "truly disturbing behavior that harkens back to Iran Contra in so many ways."

  
  >> Conservative Beltway Buzz: "In exchange for postponing his hearings until after the Pope's funeral, the Democrats promised committee chair Richard Lugar a vote last week. It has since been delayed until tomorrow at the earliest," and are "using the broken promise in a vain attempt to dig up 'dirt' on Bolton's previous record. The Washington Post provides an assist."
• Columnist Mark Steyn, a favorite of righty bloggers, defends Bolton in his Chicago Sun-Times column, particularly for placing so much emphasis on Bolton's hands-on-hips confrontational style (see 4/14 Blogometer). Steyn says he was just doing the "Loco-Bolton," or the "Neoconga No. 5," and rewrites lyrics accordingly. Mostly conservatives link: Roger L. Simon; Little Green Footballs; Power Line; Blogs for Bush; Notes of a Nervous Harpist.

  >> Salon's Secular Blasphemy: "I have to say I have no firm opinion on the candidacy of John Bolton, except that my sentiment towards the UN says that the worse the Dems make Bolton look, the more I think the UN deserves him. Mark Steyn, unsurprisingly, has pretty firm opinions. His satirical take on the Dems' reaction to Bolton's hands-on-hips bullying is a pleasure to read."

• One story attracting plenty of attention from both sides is the he death of anti-war activist/U.S. humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka in a Baghdad-area car bomb. There are multiple versions: CNN.com, Washington Post, the AP Linking to at least one of the above: Little Green Footballs; Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler; The Mind Boggles;

  >> Moderate Joe Gandelman: "Nick Berg, who was dreadfully and sadistically decapitated by terrorists ... was another one who was trying to help Iraqis out. They could care less as they sawed his head off and he screeched in agony and unimaginable horror. The car bomb didn't care about Ruzicka's intentions or political evolution, either."

  >> Liberal Josh Marshall, who met her during her time in D.C.: "I was always fuzzy about just what it was she did over in Iraq ... I will leave it at sharing that memory. And may she rest in peace."

  >> Conservative Ranting Profs: "What, precisely, she did of a practical nature in either Afghanistan or Iraq is left somewhat vague, besides caring an enormous amount, and organizing. Were food, or medical supplies, or school supplies, ever actually found, dispersed, distributed? If so, it isn't mentioned."

  >> Others, including Instapundit and the USS Neverdock note that the article contains an update to another story: that a CBS stringer arrested on suspicion of collaboration with insurgents has "tested positive for explosive residue." USS Neverdock: "The investigation isn't over yet but surely this merits more prominence than at the end of a story about the death of an anti-war activist."

JUDGES I: They Fought The Law

GWU law prof Rosen writes in a very long New York Times Magazine on the courts, regulation, and the "Constitution in Exile" movement, which aims to return to a stricter, pre-New Deal Constitutional interpretation. Many law profs, some with personal connections to Rosen, jump into the fray:

At the right-leaning Volkh Conspiracy, libertarian GMU prof David Bernstein writes that the term is an invention of liberal law profs, and that from '95 to '01, "I, as someone who knows probably just about every libertarian and most Federalist Society law professors in the United States (there aren't that many of us), and who teaches on the most libertarian law faculty in the nation, never heard the phrase."

Liberal atty Jeralyn Meritt finds some agreement with the conservatives. She quotes from Rosen: "Does the Federal Government have the right to ban medical marijuana use and acts associated with the growing of marijuana for medical purposes under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution?" Merritt responds: "I'm hoping the answer will be 'no.' But so are the Exilists, who are the subject of Rosen's article. That's one reason it is important to distinguish between 'activist judges' and 'extremist judges.'"

Centrist law prof Ann Althouse: "I recommend reading the article if you're not familiar with recent Supreme Court case law. If you are familiar with the cases, you might want to skim and then read the last page, which is oddly inconclusive."

Centrist non-prof Andrew Sullivan notices that the piece story includes the line: "Cass Sunstein, who describes himself as a moderate ..." Sullivan disputes that, describing Sunstein a "big liberal (which is his right), an anyone-but-Bush partisan" Dem, and adds: "I wonder if the NYT will expand this practice: 'George W. Bush, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative. Joseph Ratzinger, who describes himself as a centrist. Michael Moore, who calls himself objective...'" Cato's Tom Palmer, who calls the Rosen piece an "attempt at a balanced treatment," adds: "The photographer managed to work extra hard to get Satanic or cadaverous photos of the people on the 'wrong side' of the issue."

More response from Villainous Company, Ace of Spades HQ, JustOneMinute and Behind Closed Doors in Washington, which writes: "The article is a predictable re-hashing of the usual Cass Sunstein-esque stuff: the U.S. was a dystopian, Lochner-esque hellscape until FDR and the Supreme Court expanded the role and scope of the federal government.... I'll be goddamned if I don't hate it when left-leaning law professors frame the issue in terms of a single choice between the 70 year-old New Deal in one corner and the John Birch Society in the other."

JUDGES II: Card Game

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has an op-ed on the filibusters of Bush's jud. nominees in the 4/17 Washington Post, where he writes: "This July will mark almost two years since the president nominated Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Brown started life as the daughter of a sharecropper in the segregated South and through hard work and determination became the first African American woman to serve on California's highest court." Liberal Gadflyer responds: "So tell me, why is it that when Republicans nominate a white person for a judicial or adminstrative post, we're told that person should be confirmed because he/she is qualified and capable, but if they nominate a black or hispanic we're told he/she should be confirmed because of the inspiring tale of obstacles and prejudice he/she has overcome?"

New England Republican writes, "if liberal Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) votes for the rules change, [John] McCain is really going to pegged as a leftist RINO by the right. And rightfully so."

BOLTON: Can He Be Stopped?

Steve Clemons, this a.m.: "Today is the most important day for anyone who is engaged in the effort to send someone better than John Bolton to be America's Ambassador to the United Nations. I will be posting a lot today." He provides phone numbers for the offices of GOP Sens. Lincoln Chafee and Chuck Hagel. He provides a link to other sens' info, writing, "frankly all of them could use calls. But if you have to focus, Feingold remains important -- and all of the Republicans are important and in my view, potential 'gets' with the exception of Norm Coleman and George Allen."

Clemons also calls on the cmte to "read the NSA intercepts" Bolton requested to gauge "what was being said by some of our interlocutors abroad about their conversations and interactions with U.S. officials."

CONYERS: Er, What Else Is LaRouche Known For?

Politics1 (scroll to "LaRouche Redux 2") follows up on its report that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) had spoken at events sponsored by conspiracy monger/perennial WH candidate/ex-con/ Lyndon LaRouche, publishing a statement from Conyers' office. Key excerpt: "After finding your post, we went to your suggested links and pulled up the LaRouche quotes that were, to say the least, antisemitic and racist. We brought them to Mr. Conyers attention. He was shocked and surprised. On his behalf: he unequivocally condemns these statements, and he will not speak before any group he knows to be associated with LaRouche unless they renounce these views."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: One Columnist Dares To Engage The Blogs

Last week, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown wrote a column wherein he wrote: "I don't recall any prewar speeches about delivering democracy to the Middle East." On 4/14, Instapundit points to a passage from Bush's '03 SOTU where Bush talks about "liberty" for Iraqis and Iranians. Readers sent in more examples, which he appended in multiple updates to the same post. On 4/17, Brown responded in his column: "I'll admit those lines from the president's speech didn't stay with me. Even if they had, I wouldn't exactly define them as part of a pre-war, bringing-democracy-to-the-Middle East sort of speech. ... The bloggers were partly correct. Bush has mentioned that a Saddam-free world and a democratic Iraq would have a ripple effect in the Middle East. But let's be honest, he mentioned those as the perks of war, not the reasons for war."

Reuters reports that the Boston Globe has stopped using freelancer Barbara Stewart because she "fabricated large chunks of a story" about a Nova Scotia seal hunt." Conservative Will Collier asks about the Globe's fact-checkers: "Are they still on the payroll? And why weren't their names publicized along with that of the fired freelance reporter?"

Brady Westwater aks why the Los Angeles Times hasn't covered the news that HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan is moving her HQs from NYC to L.A. Westwater: "So once again, if you want to know what is happening in Los Angeles, the only paper to read... is the New York Times, our true hometown newspaper."

Times of London interviews Matt Drudge, in which he says of blogs: "I don't read them. I like to create waves and not surf them. And who are these influential bloggers? You can't name one because they don't exist." Patrick Ruffini: "Why is he saying this? The reason is actually quite simple. Competition. Blogs are a threat to Drudge's leadership of Internet media. ... They're the Firefox to Drudge's Microsoft."

COULTER: Right Place At The Right Time

Liberal Bill Nosthine: "Time magazine has placed Ann Coulter on this week's cover as "one of the world's most influential people. Coulter is influential, yes, but only in the way that Typhoid Mary was: She poisons everything she touches. As for Time, whatever is left of its claim to good judgment is, of course, gone."

Conservative Ace of Spades HQ: "I hate to be a one-note Charlie, but this is, yes, proof of media bias. The woman should have had a big cover story on Time -- and all the rest of the glossies -- years ago. Not simply because, love her or hate her or love her while wishing she'd eschew her more gratuitously-provocative remarks, but because she will sell magazines."

LEFT VS. RIGHT: Relax, You're Both On The Take

"Digby" of Hullaballoo, writes elsewhere: "Independent bloggers on the right hail from all walks of life, but the leading voices are either part of the political machine itself, like Mike Krempasky of RedState, or closely connected to the conservative media and think tank infrastructure, like Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin and the PowerLine bloggers. The right blogosphere is a reflection of successful top-down Republican message control, and as such these bloggers are welcomed warmly into the fold. ... By contrast, the left blogosphere is populated by 'citizen bloggers,' who work in non-political occupations for a living and blog for reasons of personal interest."

Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson (an L.A.-based web designer) reponds: "This is the worst kind of disingenuous garbage, a complete inversion of reality. Markos Zuniga of Daily Kos is a paid political consultant for Howard Dean and other campaigns. Joshua Micah Marshall, Kevin Drum, and Matt Yglesias all get paychecks from liberal publications. Duncan Black (Atrios) works for George Soros."

At RedState, Krempasky writes: "Well, it only took a few weeks for the lightning fast Digby to rewrite Garance Franke-Ruta's American Prospect article on the great big scary Republican message machine that is the blogosphere," and takes issue with "Digby's" assertions about the right-blogosphere's take on the FEC and conservative activist Morton Blackwell. And back at Hullaballoo, "Digby" responds to Krempasky.

SCHIAVO REDUX: Is This Debate Here To Stay?

Tom Maguire of JustOneMinute follows up on a story that surfaced in the blogosphere last week (see 4/11 Blogometer), the plight of 81-year-old GA woman at the center of a Schiavo-like family disagreement. The reporting has been mostly driven by the unreliable online-only conservative WorldNetDaily. Meanwhile, Blogs for Terri posts a clarification of the original report written by the anti-tube family member, ex-GA Dem legis. aide Ken Mullinax.

Liberal Mark A.R. Kleiman: "If the facts are as stated by the nephew who wants Ms. [Mae] Magouirk moved, the granddaughter decided to discontinue life support after praying over the matter and deciding that Jesus wanted her grandmother to "come home." That doesn't deter some of Jane's commenters from warning that the "militant atheists" want to kill all disabled people. Get a grip, folks!"

And Salon's liberal World O' Crap writes: "Just when the wackos of the religious right got their "Save Terri" machine up and running, Terri died. Bummer. But now they've found the next best thing" -- and gives a lengthy version hostile to the conservative blogs that have kept the story moving.

Maguire, on why the "partisan outrage": "My two cents -- some folks on one side really do think that a portion of the other side has no respect for law or life; some folks on the other side think that some/all of the Religious Right really will intrude into every family decision. Did the involvement of a (former) Dem Congressional staffer confound those calculations? Beats me."

From National Review's The Corner: "I heard this morning that Dean made a speech over the weekend in which he said he plans to make Schiavo a big campaign issue in the next two cycles. If he's serious, THAT's a bonehead move. The seemingly pro-death polls on Schiavo were dependent on two things (a) misinformation spawned by the media about basic facts of the case, and (b) the high emotion of the days prior to Terri's death. A campaign that scrutinizes what happened in Florida is most likely to correct the misinformation -- and may even swing things in the other direction."

MISCELLANY: Health Care Gets More Ink, Er, Pixels Than Social Security These Days

Highlighting a Health Affairs paper (PDF), Washington Monthly's Political Animal notes that U.S. citizens "fairly or very satisfied" with their health coverage number 45% of the "poor"; 61% of the "elderly"; and 34% of "everyone else," and adds: "It's hard to know what to say about this. Americans in general are highly dissatisfied with their healthcare system -- the one that's supposedly the "best healthcare in the world" -- and yet they've been conned into thinking that a national healthcare system would be even worse. This is despite the fact that people in America who are enrolled in a national healthcare system ... like it better than the working stiffs who have private coverage. .. In addition, as we all know, national healthcare systems cover everyone, produce better outcomes on average, and are generally cheaper than the weird pseudo-free-market system we insist on clinging to here. So when does everyone wake up?"

Liberal OurCongress notes that separate polls conducted at roughly the same time show differing generic cong. ballot outcomes -- Dems fare better, but only slightly in one poll, adding, "I wonder why the Dems didn't perform as well in this poll as in the other one, and why they've slipped in a month when the GOP hasn't exactly been doing well."

NM blogger Joe Monahan writes a FAQ of sorts, answering readers' questions about his perspective covering politics as a "reporter/blogger."

IN THE STATES: Californication

Recalling the late OR Gov. Tom McCall and the "Don't Californicate Oregon" slogan, an envious BlueOregon writes: "Boy, are those days ever over. Today, California wants to be the state of livability. And like Oregon in the 1970s, probably foremost among the reasons for California's leadership is their maverick Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Whatever you think of the Terminator's politics, you have got to admit that Schwarzenegger is a smart, gutsy and interesting politician. He's a guy who bucks his ever more conservative Republican party with his moderate positions on a regular basis. And while Schwarzenegger definitely has some crackpot ideas about budgets, borrowing and public employees, he's helped California shine in the national spotlight since his election."

Right-leaning blogHouston: "The Chronicle has spilled quite a bit of ink on its news and editorial pages agitating in favor of House Bill 1348, which is broadly characterized as campaign finance legislation. Interestingly, the bill would also curtail political speech. ... If such issue-oriented political advertising is that bad, then it should be banned outright, not in the final 60 days of a campaign. ... A far preferable approach would be simply to enhance disclosure laws, not ban political advertising/speech."

Liberal Evergreen Politics: "We appear to have picked up our first troll here at Evergreen Politics, who writes under the handle 'AnalogKid.' ... Now, I got a little curious who might be interested in trolling us, and so I looked up his IP address and found that it traced back to Waste Management, Inc," which owns a "highly polluting waste incinerator" in Spokane, and is "one of the country's leading environmental criminals." More: "Now, why on earth would Waste Management be paying an employee to troll on a progressive politics websites? Or, is AnalogKid just a goldbricker who's blogging at work on company time? Either way, a troll's a troll. And either way, it's pathetic. And I'm not going to indulge it."

Conservative Kennedy V. The Machine notes that General Mills heir James Bell (D) is in the SEN '06 race: "Bell's worth is not publicly listed, but I think it's safe to assume the grandson of the founder of General Mills isn't struggling to get by. That ka-ching sound you heard was the price of the DFL race for Senate going up."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Limits Of Washington Fandom?

TNR's Noam Scheiber, having attended the Nats' home opener, notes that most coverage "lauded" the D.C. fans' enthusiasm. But Scheiber disagrees: "From where I was sitting, though, the Washington fans looked pretty suspect. Livan Hernandez, the Nationals ace, had an absolutely heroic outing. He managed to take a one-hitter into the 9th inning ... Unfortunately, as one of my friends pointed out, probably half of RFK stadium had cleared out by the end of the seventh inning. No one seemed to care about the kind of game Hernandez was having. Apparently being fresh and tanned for that 9 o'clock meeting with the assistant deputy under-secretary of agriculture was more important than watching history being made."

LEST WE FORGET: Popish Plots

"Giblets" at the liberal Fafblog seems to think he/she/it has become Pope, or rather, the "first and only Gibpope." Giblets plans accordingly. Meanwhile, conservative IMAO makes a series of predictions for the new pope's 1st 100 days: "Catholic Bishops will be replaced by more valuable Catholic Rooks."

Posted by at April 18, 2005 12:47 PM