April 05, 2005

4/5: Children Of The Cornyn

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is getting a taste of the new media this a.m., as the left-wing blogosphere buzzes over a floor speech he made on 4/4 in which he said political violence against judges, while "'certainly without any justification,'" are "may be linked to public anger over judges who make politically charged decisions without being held accountable." Virtually every left-of-center blogger is all over this.

The second-largest story of the day is on the conservative blogs, which are questioning the Pulitzer selection for Breaking News Photography going to the AP. In this case, it's an older story returning to the fore -- in 12/04, many in the blogosphere asked if an AP photographer who captured a muderr was tipped off ahead of time by the terrorists. The photo appears again on the Pulitzer site.

Falling off the radar almost entirely: The Pope. Most everyone who's had a tribute in them has made it already. House Maj. Tom DeLay got something of a reprieve, but not entirely, thanks to comments by VP Cheney that some see as a rebuke. And for the first time in a few days, Social Security appears to be making a comeback.

TRACKBACKS: AP Stands For Appalling Pulitzer?

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

• The Washington Post report on the Cornyn speech is especially popular. Linking: Obsidian Wings; Happy Puppy Furry Story Time; Stygius; Real Art; Political Animal; Matthew Yglesias; MyDD; Pandagon. DailyKos has a round-up of links to commentary about this, including a longish post at the blog of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). The DSCC piles on, sending out to reporters links not only to MSM sources but to blogs, including Conyers, The Left Coaster and AmericaBlog. Eschaton has devoted most of the day to this.

  >> Liberal Yale prof Jack Balkin: "In fact, as the Post story explains, violence against judges has generally involved highly unstable people who bear personal grudges against particular decisions against them. It's difficult to see why Cornyn would make so asinine a comment if he had not intended to send the message that federal judges should watch what they do from now on."

  >> Few on the right have yet to respond, but RedState has: "Cornyn's musing, while impolitic, is hardly the danger to Constitutional governance that any of the prior examples were. He's not even endorsing the rhetoric, reasoning, nor actions in question -- indeed, he explicitly characterizes them as 'without justification.' One might therefore expect that his monologue would have all the moral content (if not intellectual content) of a professor hypothesizing on the motivations of al Qaeda."

• A number of blogs take issue with the Pulitzer board's award for the AP's Breaking News Photography, though liberal blogs have bene preoccupied with Cornyn. Some of those linking: Myopic Zeal; Michelle Malkin; Charles Johnson; Blogger Beer; Riding Sun; In The Bullpen.

  >> Conservative Ed Morrissey: "Pulitzer has just endorsed the encouragement of terrorists to kill people fighting for their freedom in order to get reeeeeeally kewl pictures to sell for lots of money." Power Line calls it "The Pulitzer Prize for felony murder" and provides links to Salon and Jim Romenesko, who provide the AP's side of the story, but which Power Line argues only incriminates the AP further.

• Smaller stories still getting attention include the announcement of details ex-VP Gore's new TV network, Current, and the resulting media coverage. Linking: Little Green Footballs; TalkLeft; The Corner; Michelle Malkin.

  >> Moderate BuzzMachine: Al Gore and Joel Hyatt announced their new network and new name at last. ... It's supposed to be TV by, about, and for the people and if it turns out to be that, it could be exciting and new. We'll see..."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Blame Canada

Slate's Mickey Kaus (scroll to "Blogging in Print") notes: "According to de facto MSM Damage Controller Howie Kurtz, WaPo's Mike Allen is apparently now admitting what has been obvious to everyone else who has followed the controversy over those alleged 'GOP Talking Points': the Post's stories were not entirely 'accurate and carefully worded' (Kurtz's words), nor is it true that Allen 'stuck to what we knew to be true and did not call them talking points or a Republican memo.' Instead, he let an early version of his story ship out containing the unsupported claim that the memo was 'distributed to Republican senators by party leaders.'" Kaus ads, Allen "temporarily let his scooplust get the better of him," which is "perfectly forgivable" escept that "the MSM is now claiming that it's somehow better at balancing the urge to scoop with the need to check than non-MSM writers."

Conservative Captain's Quarters has been banned in Canada for writing about embargoed testimony on a scandal in Canadian PM Paul Martin's government. Instapundit provides the best round-up of links, and comments: "I'm kind of surprised this routing-around-censorship story hasn't gotten more play in the United States. Is it just because any mention of Canada puts American editors to sleep?"

DELAY: Dissed By Cheney?

The Washington Post interview with Cheney has drawn some attention from both sides, in particular for his apparent disowning of DeLay's commments re: the Terri Schiavo case.

Liberal Left Coaster: "[Cheney] sawed off the branch behind Tom DeLay when he disagreed with the threats that DeLay has made ... and in so doing, he clearly put a finger in the eye of the red-meat right wing faction of the party."

A commenter at the right-leaning Balloon Juice writes: "Well played by Cheney. He gets to take the popular position with out actually taking a stance on what Delay has said. By claiming not to have seen Delay's comments, he can say that he is only talking about someone else's take on what Delay may or may not have said."

Also on this story: conservative Claremont's The Remedy; centrist The Moderate Voice; and liberal CAP's ThinkProgress.

DEMS: What's The Big Idea?

Yesterday's Ron Brownstein column in the LAT got several mentions around the blogosphere, at righty blogs Beltway Buzz and Pejmanesque.

Lefty Ezra Klein: "He does not -- thank God -- fall on the old and idiotic claim that Democrats lack ideas, instead claiming, correctly, that our ideas are remaining bottled. ... The reason single-party control can squeeze off anything positive or substantive from the minority party is that the media allows it to be so."

But right-leaning Orrin Judd sees it differently; he quotes one Brownstein line about how ex-Sen. Bill Bradley: "suggested that the party faced this problem because it had not developed enough compelling ideas." Judd adds: "Make that any ideas. Even Bill Clinton's legacy -- the positive portion anyway -- is a string of ideas foisted upon him by Republicans: the peace dividend, free trade, and welfare reform."

WHITE HOUSE '08: On A Clark

Ex-WH '04 hopeful Wesley Clark has a new blog up and running at his PAC website. On 4/4 he held a conf. call with lefty bloggers Jonathan Singer, Juan Cole and "Armando" from DailyKos. The right-leaning Little Green Footballs notes this in a post titled "Wesley Clark Hangin' with Moonbats."

SOCIAL SECURITY: Never-Ending Math Equation

Liberal Tapped's Matt Yglesias responds to an argument at NRO for using "infinite horizon" projection of Social Security: "Social Security is not just some kind of complicated math problem; it's an actual government program. It's important to recall that we don't actually have the ability to make binding decisions about what Social Security will look like in the distant future. The program has only just recently reached the end of its very first 75 years and it's already been drastically changed several times. ... These changes make a difference and they're not really predictable."

Conservative One-Handed Economist, on the left saying that Social Security "isn't really in crisis": "These are the same people who claimed that the current budget deficit would ruin the country. I think this is most interesting. ... The lefties have been saying not to worry about [Social Security] because the trust fund is U.S. Bonds. Now, this wouldn't be so interesting, if the current budget deficit weren't funded with exactly the same thing. ... The only difference that I can see is that the bonds in the SS trust fund were sold to one branch of government by another branch of government whereas the bonds making up the deficit were sold to private citizens."

Matt Margolis of Blogs for Bush participated in a conf. call with GOP Sens. Cornyn and Rick Santorum and Adam Putnam (FL) on Social Security, in which Santorum "explained that crowds are still big at [town hall meetings] and people are 'very tuned in to what is going on.'"

JUDGES: It Might Be Easier To Ask What's Not Unilateral

American Spectator's online Prowler column notes that Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid and House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi "refused to adapt the party's weekly radio address to the breaking news that Pope John Paul II was on his death bed." A DNC staffer to the Spectator: "We had a plan in place for a national radio address that would have highlighted the Pope's stand on social justice and equality for all. They wouldn't do it. They said it would look like pandering, that it wasn't helpful to their agenda."

Instead they ran a pre-planned address by ex-Senate Maj. Leader George Mitchell on preserving the filibuster. WSJ's James Taranto quotes Mitchell speech: "All Americans should be concerned about the effort by Republican leaders in the Senate to unilaterally change the rules." Taranto: "The definition of unilateral keeps expanding; now it means at least 51 senators acting in concert. Since the Democrats have only 45 Senate seats, their filibusters aren't even unilateral, by Mitchell's definition. We guess you'd call them 'fractionalateral.'"

Pejman Yousefzadeh at RedState: "Evidently, according to ... Mitchell, Republicans are guilty of "unilateralism' if they consider a rules change in the United States Senate. Of course, I was brought up with the quaint notion that the majority -- and for that matter, the minority -- could propose rules changes and just have those proposals considered on their merits, but evidently, the accusation of 'unilateralism' trumps all."

THE POPE: While TV Is Stuck On It ...

Centrist Jeff Jarvis on "Pope OD": "We've long since passed the point of too much with the pope story. The world has not stopped. But media has."

Conservative John Hawkins includes the Pope's passing in a post about the things he's "not interested in writing about": "I'm not Catholic, he's not American, and while I do think some of the MSM coverage is kind of silly, especially polling Catholics about what sort of positions they want the new Pope to take, as if the Holy Father is a politician, it's not worth doing a whole post on the subject."

Righty Hugh Hewitt, on the Pope and Terri Schiavo, in a post "guaranteed to make zero sense to the non-believers": "The election of an American as pope is quite rightly ranked as the most improbable of outcomes of the conclave, but not so improbable is the selection of a new pope uniquely equipped to speak to this culture. God knows we need it. Terri Schiavo's death underscored that need in a way that cannot be understated. It is an old story in Christianity -- in fact the oldest -- that apparent disasters and outrageous injustices lead in fact to the brightest displays of grace."

IN THE STATES: Upcoming Election Edition

In a post titled "Why Joan Fitz-Gerald Can't Be Governor" at Colorado Pols writes, "[D]espite her legions of fans, [Dem] Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald has an equally large number of enemies. ... Fitz-Gerald has a reputation for looking for primary candidates against legislators who go against her will, and the threats are silly and wasteful."

Pro-ex-Rep./TN SEN candidate Ed BryantBlogging for Bryant speculates: "With no end in sight to the media scrutiny over [Rep. Harold] Ford's uncle State Sen. John Ford the official announcement from Ford could be delayed much longer. ... TN Dems have been having fun talking about the "bloody" primary on the Republican side. If Ford backs out, all hell is going to break loose for TN Dems."

Linking to a BBC report, right-leaning WA-based SoundPolitics notes: "Of course the Democrats support vote-by-mail. It's easier to commit fraud that way, as turned out to be the case in Britain, where an election "won" through a conspiracy of vote-by-mail fraud was just set aside."

Pro-Rep. Mark Kennedy (R)/MN SEN candidate Kennedy vs. the Machine (formerly TBKADVK): "Minnesota -- remember what it was like to have two effective U.S. Senators? Me neither, but for the moment we can bask in the national spotlight shining on Senator Norm Coleman and his Oil-for-Food investigation. ... Just don't tell the Star Tribune that. The largest cog in the 'machine,' the Strib blasted Coleman's continued insistence on [Kofi] Annan's removal, calling his position 'extreme.'"

MISCELLANY: Gosch, That's Creepy

In her web column, The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel points out: "We live in a brave new world of blogging, with the iPodization of news, and kids plugged in everywhere. ... Progressives use new technologies like BitTorrent--a filesharing program--that let them create websites like CommonBits.org that allow kids to watch clips from television news programs like the 'Daily Show with Jon Stewart' and 'Democracy Now.'"

The Personal Democracy Forum post about the potential regulation of blogs by the SF Board of Supvs. (cited in yesterday's Blogometer) is taking off in the blogosphere, starting with righty Bill Quick (coiner of the term "blogosphere." Quick adds links to other blogs following the story, plus contact info with SF officials. Calblog notes there is some "controversy as to whether or not this ordinance includes bloggers. My take, after reading the ordinance, is that it does indeed include bloggers who blog on behalf of candidates for office."

Noting that oil is up to $58 a barrel, lefty economist Brad DeLong writes: "It's been a while since I envied Alan Greenspan and his successors. But it's looking like the life of a central banker is going to be even more exciting than I had imagined."

Lefty Eschaton links to the Jeff Gannon/Johnny Gosch story in the Des Moines Register with the cryptic and creeped out comment: "What is this Crap? Jeebus." Several commenters are familiar with the story from conspiracy sites -- including one variation on the story involving the late Hunter S. Thompson -- and blow it off. One commenter writes: "This is a Rovian-style disinformation campaign designed to marginalize left-wing bloggers by portraying them as being nuts."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Lost In Transition

While "Ace" of Ace of Spades HQ claims to be retiring (though you can't be sure), Marc Cooper celebrates his 1-year blogiversary, and reflects (ellipses in original): "If there's one lesson I have learned over the last year ... or better said ... the one life lesson most reaffirmed by this experience is that any given individual's professed ideology usually tells us next to nothing about the him or her."

LEST WE FORGET: Final (Four) Thoughts

Libertarian Radley Balko shares some "insider knowledge" about how various public intellectuals make their NCAA Tournament bracket picks. For wonks only.

Posted by at April 5, 2005 12:15 PM