April 19, 2005

4/19: This Story's Got (Incredibly Weirdly Skinny) Legs

2 political pundits are drawing comments from other bloggers like Dirty Harry draws his sidearm: quickly, (and in the past 24 hours) frequently. The first everyone has heard of: conservative author Ann Coulter, who graced the cover of Time this weekend. Coulter has complained publicly about her cover photo, and some conservatives have rushed to her defense. Meanwhile, liberals think she got off too light. Both sides are greatly amused that Time fell for a fake anti-Coulter sign at a fake anti-Pres. Bush rally.

The second person is considerably more obscure: liberal Univ. of WI prof/Informed Comment blogger Juan Cole. The New Republic has a lengthy criticism of Cole in their new issue, and having been posted just on 4/19, it's already attracting plenty of attention, at least from the right. They argue, as does the commentary, that Cole is too hostile to the U.S. to be taken seriously, and sometimes veers toward anti-Semitism.

Overlooked in the blogosphere: Tom DeLay, John Bolton, and filibusters, which are all mentioned today, but none seem to be attracting much discussion. The primary reason for this? No major MSM stories to swarm around.

TRACKBACKS: Taking It To The Air

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

• City Journal editor Brian Anderson writes in the Los Angeles Times: "The liberal Air America Radio, just past its first birthday, has probably enjoyed more free publicity than any enterprise in recent history. But don't believe the hype: Air America's left-wing answer to conservative talk radio is failing ... WLIB, its flagship in New York City, has sunk to 24th in the metro area Arbitron ratings -- worse than the all-Caribbean format it replaced." (Note: Anderson cites Radio Blogger, producer of Hugh Hewitt's radio show). Linking: Right Wing News; The Moderate Voice; LaShawn Barber's Corner; The Unpopulist; Viking Pundit.

  >> Ace of Spades HQ: "Right radio is an alternative to the MSM. What the f' is liberal radio an 'alternative' to? Reality?" A commenter at the Brothers Judd writes: "The fact that Clear Channel Communications has a lot of urban, but low-wattage AM stations right now in search of some sort of viable format seems to be Air America's biggest asset, since George W. Bush pal Lowery Mays is willing to give liberal talk a go on those stations, whose ratings were abysmal to begin with."

  >> Liberal AirAmericaLinksBlog responds: "The backlash continues. Another article by a conservative whose approach to fighting back against Air America is to continue spewing the myth that liberal talk radio will always fail."

BOLTON: Today's The Day ... But Where Is Everybody?

Washington Note's Steve Clemons, who has led the charge against Bolton for the left, writes this a.m.: "Today may be the day of the John Bolton Showdown. Democrats have sought a delay in the vote as Senators Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd want more time to interview Bolton victims, to read NSA intercepts, and to more fully understand John Bolton's 'sink [ex-Sec/State Colin] Powell's foreign policy' activities on Iran, Cuba, and North Korea. Apparently, Senator [Dick] Lugar has denied their request and is calling a 'business meeting' of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 2:15 p.m. The Bolton vote would take place during this meeting, unless something intervenes."

FILIBUSTERS: Full Nelson

The Nation's Daily Outrage, on Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE): "Essentially, Nelson is doing [Senate Maj. Leader Bill] Frist's controversial bidding for him, at a time when conservative opposition to Frist's plan is rising ... However, the support of one or two more centrist Democrats could resuscitate Frist's plan at the very moment it is dying. Nelson argues that his party's well-organized resistance to the nuclear option puts red state Democrats in a tough spot. But there's a different between trying to reach consensus and giving the GOP whatever it wants."

Meanwhile, Blogs for Bush picks up on a different part of the above post and comments: "I can't help but observing how fun it is to read left-wing opinion: we're going to "outlaw" the filibuster of judicial nominees... makes it sound ominous, doesn't it? Of course, the filibuster isn't a law... its a mere Senate rule."

COULTER: If Time Wanted To Cause A Stir, Then Mission Accomplished

According to Matt Drudge, conservative "controversialist" Coulter "blasted" her Time cover photo: "Why can't they just photograph conservatives straight?!" The photographer, whom Drudge notes also took Bill Clinton's "infamous 'Lewinsky' power pose," seems to have used a fisheye lens, with the effect of "stretching Coulter's legs and feet -- while shrinking the rest of her body." Libertarian Ed Driscoll: "Matt Drudge and Ann Coulter's attempt to create some sort of controversy over the choice of lens used by Time's photographer to shoot Ann for the Time cover this week seems awfully silly to me ... I'm all for pointing out errors and lies and bias coming from the mainstream media, but this seems like trying to hype a pretty minor issue."

BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis comments: "I find a different conspiracy: Making her the symbol of the right would be like, oh, making Michael Moore the symbol of the left, eh?"

Conservative Michelle Malkin notes, "filtering prominent conservatives through a distorted lens seems to be a bad habit at Time magazine, which airbrushed cigar smoke onto the cover photo of Rush Limbaugh in January 1995." Malkin and Charles Johnson alsonote that Time has neither removed nor corrected supposed anti-Coulter protest signs, which were actually the creation of pro-GOP parody groups Communists for Kerry and Protest Warrior. Eschaton links to a Philadelphia Daily News blog which notices the same. It appears the first site to notice and make hay out of the error were commenters in a 4/17 thread at Free Republic.

From the Time article: "Coulter has a reputation for carelessness with facts, and if you Google the words 'Ann Coulter lies,' you will drown in results. But I didn't find many outright Coulter errors." Liberal think tanker Nicco Mele responds: "What a joke. Below are just a few of Ann's most recent outright errors, distortions, and lies." More than a dozen links follow, most to liberal org. Media Matters, but a handful to the defunct centrist fact-checking blog Spinsanity.

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum dubs the frenzy "Coulter-Mania."

COLE: If You Don't Read Blogs, You Probably Have No Idea Who This Is

National Review's The Corner points out an article in the 4/25 The New Republic by Univ. of London prof Ephraim Karsh, criticizing Univ. of MI prof/blogger Juan Cole. Karsh writes: "The appeal of Cole's blog is easy to see. It is highly readable, stripped of the jargon common to other Middle East academic researchers. And Cole provides a wealth of information on the Sisyphean U.S. effort to reconstruct Iraq. ... But, unfortunately, Cole suffers from many other common Arabist misconceptions that deeply prejudice and compromise his writing. Having done hardly any independent research on the twentieth-century Middle East, Cole's analysis of this era is essentially derivative ... Worse, Cole's discussion of U.S. foreign policy frequently veers toward conspiratorial anti-Semitism." The piece went live on TNR.com this a.m.; no comment from Cole yet, though he has recently described it as a "half-neocon" publication.

A guest-blogger for liberal hawk Michael Totten: "Although Cole claims to provide informed comment on the Middle East, it's obvious that he does not express the views of the Jews who live there. He also does not express the views of pro-Independence Lebanese, Iraqis, Kurds, Jews, Arab Christians, liberal Arabs or moderate Muslims. Cole, the Arabist, expresses the views of Arab nationalists and their Islamist allies."

Right-leaning Glenn Reynolds, on Cole: "I have no doubt that he's sincere, but I've found his analysis, when I've looked at it, to be too distorted by Bush-hatred to be reliable."

Conservative Power Line says the article casts a wider net: "Karsh's critique of Cole exposes the heart of much of what passes for criticism of the alleged 'neo-con' influence on Bush administration foreign policy."

WHITE HOUSE '08: Just In Case Anyone Thinks Clark Isn't Running ...

Last weekend, UCLA prof Mark A.R. Kleiman attended a Wesley Clark fundraiser, and wrote: "The speech was, I thought, terrific (in stark contrast to the boring emails that have been going out under Clark's name and the so-so website). The message was straightforward: the Democrats are better able to keep the country secure than the Bushites, but they need to "get over Vietnam" and convince the voters of that fact. ... And they need to stop letting the GOP define "faith" and "patriotism" as partisan issues. ... This site rarely offers gambling advice, but the contract on Clark's being the Democratic nominee is trading at 1.7 asked on Tradesports. At effective odds of 60:1, that sounds to me like a good bet."

National Review's David Frum writes about talking with Clark -- "who is by the way running in 2008" -- during the taping of "Real Time with Bill Maher" over the weekend: "It was in one sense a very troubling encounter. When we spoke about anything military, he was shrewd, incisive, penetrating, and eloquent. It's no wonder he was promoted to Supreme Allied Commander. Then the subject shifted to politics. I've written enough talking points in my time that I cannot fairly complain when somebody else repeats those written for him. But I do wonder: What is it about today's Democratic party that foists such leaden talking points upon those who aspire to lead it? Wesley Clark feels he has to defend the absurdities of the Democratic gun obsession even as he safely maintains ownership of 20 firearms himself."

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum: "I expect the 2008 race to be very crowded. For a variety of reasons, 2008 is likely to be a landslide win for whoever the Democratic candidate turns out to be, and I think lots of Dems know it. That's why John Kerry is still sounding like a candidate: he doesn't want to be the unlucky Al Smith watching from the wings while someone else cruises to the presidency because they had the good luck to pick the right year to run."

Ex-Sen. John Edwards' One America Blog blog is updating once every couple days or more, and seems to be getting read. A 4/15 post by Edwards himself has so far picked up 157 comments. And on 4/18 it was announced a 2nd podcast is "right around the corner!" Meanwhile, U.S. News' Roger Simon thinks Edwards' blog leaves out a lot, as he writes in a piece accessible at his online column archive.

DEMOCRATS: About Social Security, At Least Tangentially

Liberal Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo: "The problem Democrats have is not bad tactics or bad strategies or poor framing. The problem is an over-reliance, even an addiction, to tactics and strategies. What the last year has taught me -- both in good ways and bad -- is that this malady isn't limited to the national security domain but applies to Democrats pretty much across the board. ... We hear a lot today about framing or being tougher or being united or dumping the failed consultants. But while each of these prescriptions has some element of merit, each also recapitulates the existing problem -- only dressing it up in clothes -- because each mistakes the disease for the cure."

IN THE STATES: Why's Everybody Always Picking On Street?

MyDD's Chris Bowers, on Philly Mayor John Street getting tagged as one of the "worst mayors" in the U.S. by Time: "I don't want to get too nailed to my own cross here, but I suspect the real reason that Street got dumped on for the same things that [Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley got a pass is related to general national feelings about Philadelphia versus other major urban centers. Things that are considered either kitsch or part of the local color in other cities, such as corruption in Chicago politics, are viewed as real flaws in Philadelphia. After all, despite its size, Philly is just that city between New York and Washington, and thus lacks the regional affection that can give other cities a lot more slack."

Ex-IA GOP chair Brian Kennedy has launched a blog covering the IA 01 race (no permalinks; scroll to April 18): "The Democrat Party's attack dogs are back at it. In the past week in Iowa's First Congressional District I have heard a radio advertisements sponsored by MoveOn.org trashing Jim Nussle for supporting the new bankruptcy law and have seen a TV ad from another liberal special-interest front group spreading innuendo against House Republican Leader Tom DeLay. It seems like just yesterday that we reelected President Bush and got a reprieve from the multimillion dollar slash-and-burn negative campaign these groups waged here in Eastern Iowa last year. Now, a full 20 months until the next Election Day, the liberals have started the negative advertising campaign all over again."

Liberal DailyKos, on the fallout from Rep. Henry Hyde's (R-IL) retirement: "On the Democratic side we have Christy Cegelis, who gave Hyde a serious scare in 2004 despite being grossly underfunded. Democrats are already grumbling about her fundraising this past quarter -- a sign that the party may try and muscle in a different candidate?"

MISCELLANY: The Next Cause Of The Social Cons?

Slate's Mickey Kaus notes: "The FCC is coming under pressure to regulate cable TV for decency. President Bush at least temporarily seemed to endorse the idea and the new chairman of the FCC seems to be heading in that direction," and in June "Viacom plans to launch Logo, a gay-oriented basic cable channel." He speculates: "Don't they yield a third likely fact: ... We're in for a huge culture-war battle this summer over whether to regulate Logo (and other gay networks), with cultural conservatives making it a Schiavo-like cause."

Libertarian Megan McArdle, aka "Jane Galt": "Why aren't we doing anything about the budget deficit? Because no one cares that much. Oh, liberals say they care, just like conservatives cared when they were out of power. But what most liberals care about is rolling back the Bush tax cuts, not cutting the budget deficit." Writing that whomever has the power always has "bigger priorities," she adds, "it seems to me that the only way we'll see our budget balanced is if we have the same combination of things that hit us in the nineties: a huge capital gains surge that surprises the hell out of our politicians, and a political system too gridlocked to spend the booty. In other words, I'm not holding my breath."

Conservative activist Mike Krempasky, co-founder of RedState (which is incorporated as a 527), writes in a post-fundraising post: "We've raised about two months worth of hosting fees in the last couple days. Thank you to those who've contributed! At the same time, I know I speak for the board of RedState when I say that we're really committed to getting a year's worth of bandwidth fees in the bank before we start investing in improvements to the site, as well as a whole list of offline political activities."

A post from 4/17 still getting attention is by libertarian Cathy Young at Hit and Run: "What's with all the posthumous adulation of loony feminist extraordinaire Andrea Dworkin?" She cites "glowing" eulogies in the New York Times, Boston Globe and even from the "usually reasonable" law prof/blogger Ann Althouse. Young asks, "if a male writer had written book after book arguing that women were evil creatures whose sole purpose in life is to sexually manipulate and destroy men, would we spend a lot of time quibbling over whether he actually used the phrase, 'All women are whores'?"

Liberal TalkLeft, on reports that alleged 20th-hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui will plead guilty: "My prediction: Even if found competent, Moussaoui will never get through a change of plea hearing. He will never admit to the essential elements of the offenses, or a sufficient factual basis. This will be just a rerun of 2002. Maybe Sy Hersh was right, Moussaoui should have been a witness instead of a defendant."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Video Killed The, Er, Text Star?

Despite criticism from some bloggers, including conservative Patrick Ruffini and liberal The American Street, there's no question plenty of blogs on both sides of the aisle are flattered by the attention from the inside-the-blogs segment on CNN's "Inside Politics." Thanks to video capture and video-blogging technology, many are even posting video of their mentions on the show. Liberal Oliver Willis did so yesterday. Some bloggers have built a reputation on providing video segments (of "IP" and other shows) online, including conservative Trey Jackson; DemBloggers also posts clips from "The Daily Show."

LEST WE FORGET: What's My Name?

A couple weeks ago, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll wrote a satirical column about the "Unitarian Jihad." Not a few days later, the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator was launched by CA-based tech geek Bill Humphries (aka "Brother Rail Gun of Desirable Mindfulness"). If you have trouble with the generator, there is also the First Reformed Unitarian Jihad Name Generator. For the record, the Blogometer's name is "Brother Howitzer of Love and Mercy."

Posted by at April 19, 2005 12:45 PM