April 22, 2005

4/22: The Powell Of One

4/21 was one of those a.m.'s where no big stories were attracting a broad spectrum of commentary, fragmenting the blogospheric debate. Today it's nearly the opposite 2 major stories being hotly debated: 1) ex-Sec/State Colin Powell's apparent involvement in the John Bolton fight, and 2) a report (actually from 4/21) that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) may want the GOP to hold off on breaking the filibuster.

Conservative bloggers are understandably discouraged, the liberal bloggers, understandably encouraged. The conservatives are most concerned with confirming Pres. Bush's judges, and some have been weakening on his nod; the liberals aren't as invested in either fight, and if anything just enjoy seeing the right not get what it wants.

Other interesting things going on: a new pro-Bolton activist blog, an unlikely bipartisan effort in the Senate that brings rare agreement throughout the blogosphere, and cats. Yes, cats.

TRACKBACKS: He's Thinking, He's Thinking!

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

• This a.m., the Washington Post and New York Times both have big stories on Powell. Linking: Hit and Run; Betsy's Page; Brothers Judd; Stygius; Suburban Guerilla; Political Animal; PoliPundit; The Moderate Voice; PoliBlog; The Corner.

  >> The Left Coaster: "Payback is a bitch, ain't it? So much for that GOP and White House bullshit that the opposition to Bolton was nothing more than partisan politics." Liberal Talking Points Memo: "The truth is that Powell is very much not the only Republican foreign policy heavyweight working in private to scuttle Bolton's nomination. But the degree to which he's going public is sort of extraordinary. ... Republican senators looking to deny the White House this nomination need some partisan cover; and Powell just gave it to them."

  >> Right-leaning Belgravia Dispatch: "How typical of the way Powell is apt to handle a difficult situation and end up helping no one: not Bolton, whose nomination he may have scuttled; not Bush ... not Lugar and other [cmte GOPers] who may have just gone through a week-long controversy for nothing; and finally not himself. Powell plays the good soldier by saying nothing publicly, and can't torpedo Bolton without being immediately fingered for it in the Post. He gets no credit either for public forthrightness ... or for swallowing those doubts out of loyalty to the administration he just left." Conservative Beltway Buzz: "A question worth asking is how the Times and Post acquired their Powell stories. Did either [GOP Sen. Chuck] Hagel or [GOP Sen. Lincoln] Chafee's office pass along the scoop ... to add Powell's public credibility to the debate, therefore making a 'no' vote from either of these senators more palatable? Or, did it come from Powell's office, with the former secretary of state desiring a role in the Bolton debate while still appearing to be an honest broker?"

• The Hill's Alex Bolton broke the Santorum story on 4/21, and it is to that story which everyone links: John Hawkins; No More Mister Nice Blog; Whiskey Bar; Wampum; Power Line; Political Animal; Talking Points Memo; The Corner.

  >> Righty James Joyner is somewhat conciliatory: "The Republicans are right on the issue -- the vast majority of Americans support the idea that the president's nominees should get an up-or-down vote -- but they've done a poor job of making their case. The Democrats have tradition on their side here and they've bolstered their position by getting the pejorative description 'nuclear option' to stick." But on the merits he agrees with Captain's Quarters' Ed Morrissey, who writes: "I will not further support this leadership group until they can start demonstrating some basic competence. If the majority of the Republican caucus insists on maintaining mediocrity as the standard, then they can suffer along."

  >> Lefty Chris Bowers at MyDD: "This anti-judiciary narrative has been a staple of the conservative movement since the 1950's. All Democrats have done is finally reveal one of the ugliest underbellies of the conservative movement to the public. If only we had a Noise Machine large enough to reveal the entire thing." Liberal Tapped's Sam Rosenfeld doubts it's the polls: "I suspect something else is going on here: A large number of Republican senators -- far larger than the number who've publicly expressed ambivalence -- simply don't want to pick this fight. They (reasonably, from their perspective) don't think ramming through a tiny handful of judicial nominees is worth the sacrifice of being able to pass more GOP-friendly legislation in the coming months."

BOLTON: You're Nobody Until Somebody Blogs You

In past weeks, National Review Online has arguably led the conservative side of the fight to confirm Bolton via its blog The Corner (much as liberal think tanker Steve Clemons' Washington Note has fought against him). And in past months, web-based GOP activists RedState have maintained the blog ConfirmThem to support Bush's jud. nominees.

As of 4/21 p.m., RedState has launched a new blog -- ConfirmBolton -- and several of its key contributors are writers at NRO, including Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney and David Frum. Also contributing are ACU pres. David Keene and conservative activist Gary Bauer.

A reader e-mails National Review's The Corner: "I was an intern" for then-Chief Dep. Maj. Whip. Denny Hastert in '95, and "I can remember on more than one occasion people being on the phone with our seemingly teddy-bearish, behind-the-scenes, now-Speaker, and let me tell you: he could tear people a new one; I witnessed 30-year-old LAs weeping, and I mean shaking. ... With all my friends doing similar internships at the time, this seemed standard fare."

CAMPAIGNS: Bloggers Of Fortune

We're a day or two late in reporting it, but John Edwards' 2nd podcast is available.

Conservative Save the GOP identifies Blogging for Bryant the 1st pro-GOP SEN '06 blog, and links to a few blogs that had an impact in the '04. cycle. Liberal Micah Sifry at Personal Democracy Forum reports on a few Dem campaigns that have hired bloggers to work for them, calling it a "cottage industry" inspired by ex-Dean blogger Matthew Gross.

A story by the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein attracts the attention of a few conservative bloggers, including the widely-read Power Line. Gerstein reports that Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) brother-in-law, Raymond Reggie, tape-recorded conversations with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) finance chair David Rosen. The also-widely-read Instapundit wonders if the story will have "legs," and adds: "The Sun is certainly punching above its weight."

Pro-Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) blog Kennedy Vs. The Machine posts the text of a "possible push poll from (presumably)" the SEN campaign of ex-Sen. Rod Grams (R). The poll touts Grams' accomplishments and downplays Kennedy's.

Meanwhile, conservative blog The First Ring notes that the MN CD GOP convos begin 4/23. Kennedy will be there; Grams likely will not. One reason: "While I was at the Minnesota for Marriage rally on Wednesday, I overheard a few activists say that Rod Grams may be contemplating a run against the current GOP chairman Ron Eibensteiner. This isn't the first time I've heard this rumor."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: The FCC Is Our Mortal Enemy

Whiskey Bar's "Billmon" cites a WSJ piece indicating the NAB is concerned about new FCC chair Kevin Martin. Regarding the Ann Coulter cover story, "Billmon" writes: "I argued that the limo liberals at Time Warner were essentially offering protection money to the conservatives," but this "makes me suspect that statement might be more literally true than I originally thought."

Liberal Blah3: "I just watched a debate about the legislation that passed in Texas that would bar gay men and lesbians from adopting children, and I took note of the graphics that were shown while each side of the debate was talking. While the representative of the GLBT community was speaking," the chyron stated: "Texas House Passes Bill That Would Ban Gay Foster Parents." Blah3 continues: "And when his opponent, a woman from the Texas Eagle Forum spoke," it put under her the words: "A Fit Parent."

Centrist Jeff Jarvis quotes from B&C's blog, on the "Catch-22ism" of changes to the FCC complaint process: "[I]t's now EASY to file complaints with our national nannies -- damn, just what we needed: a way to make it easy for the prudes and prigs to kneecap the First Amendment and waste bureaucrat-lawyers' time and taxpayer money every time somebody says "damn."

Righty Don Luskin provides links to several econobloggers' "refutations" of New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman's recent column on "stagflation."

Classical Values explores the ethics of what NYTimes.com will and will not allow to be published in its online forums, and considers the ethics of deleting comments from blogs.

BLOGS VS. THE WORLD: But Wait -- The FEC Is Also Our Mortal Enemy

RedState's Mike Krempasky: "Very, very good news to report on the keep-your-hands-off-our-interweb front" -- i.e., defending bloggers from FEC regulation. 1st, Rep. Jeb Hensarling's (R-TX) HR 1606 has its first Dem co-sponsor in Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH). But the "real gem" is that Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid's S 678 is being co-sponsored by "RedState favorite Dr. Tom Coburn" (R-OK). Krempasky: "Repeat after me, 'Hi, I'm calling to ask the Senator to support the Reid-Coburn bill to protect freedom on the internet.' You probably won't hear a sentence like that again in your lifetime -- let's make this one count." Power Line links approvingly. DailyKos links to RedState and comments: "Ha ha, crazy bedfellows and all."

MISCELLANY: When George Met Grover

Tapped's Sam Rosenfeld: "If I'm wrong and the Senate Republicans do proceed with the nuclear option next week, we'll get to watch as this fight turns into an amazing one-stop shop for shameless displays of modern conservatism's New Left-style identity politics," including Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist delpoying "anti-Christian bigotry" and deployment of the "conservo-race card" re: African-American nominee Janice Brown.

DLC's Marshall Wittmann notes that liberal financier/activist George Soros addressed ATR pres. Grover Norquist's Wed. meeting on 4/20, a fact which the Washington Times "buries" in its 4/21 Inside Politics column.

Right-leaning Balloon Juice picks up on the TNR article we mentioned yesterday: "A pretty perceptive piece by Andrew Sullivan about what I have been feeling as of late regarding the GOP. Sullivan creates a new dichotomy for discussion- conservatives of faith and conservatives of doubt."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Truth About Cats And Dogs

For those unfamiliar with the blogosphere, it may be worth mentioning (though it certainly may also not) that a popular end-of-week blog topic is one's own cats, known as "Friday Cat-Blogging". (The linked text goes to a Google search for the term, which turns up nearly 33K results.) The blog search engine Technorati has even set up a "tag" specifically for tracking such posts (though it is not in widespread use). A couple of Friday Cat-Blogging from this a.m.: Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum's cat, in a graveyard; liberal Earl Bockenfeld cat-blogs and provides a number of links to more cat-blogging.

As per Google, "Friday Dog Blogging" is nowhere near as popular, with just 266 results.

LEST WE FORGET: Equal Time

For the edification of our left-leaning readers, Greg Beato, the sometimes-Wonkette, shows where Google Maps finds the most "assholes" in DC. And for our readers on the right, Tim Blair does a brief fisking of a brief letter from John Kerry.

NOTES AND ERRATA

The 4/19 Blogometer mistook liberal activist/blogger Nico Pitney for ex-Dean adviser/blogger Nicco Mele. Won't happen again.

Posted by at April 22, 2005 12:39 PM