May 18, 2005

5/18: Furious George

After several days of intense coverage, the fracas surrounding Newsweek's retraction is now no longer the clear top story. This is not necessarily because the furor has dimmed. Rather, the fight over Pres. Bush's jud. nominees comes to a head on the Senate floor today, and that's grabbing some attention. Depending on what happens, this could well dominate discussion on the left and right by this time tomorrow.

Also going 'round the blogosphere: MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty's outreach to bloggers in his state, "Gorgeous George" Galloway's feisty appearance before the Senate cmte investigating his role in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal, and a rift between leading bloggers Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds widens, attracting gawkers.

TRACKBACKS: Judge Not Lest Ye Be Filibustered

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

• The Washington Post evaluates the deal-making process, and is the starting point for a number of bloggers, left and right, to discuss the coming showdown. Others just link to it in passing. Meanwhile, the Village Voice's Nat Hentoff, himself not a strong supporter of Judge Janice Brown, nevertheless mounts a defense of her against criticism from Dems and the New York Times editorial board.

  Among those linking to the Post: Obsidian Wings; Michelle Malkin; Charging RINO; Just a Bump in the Beltway. And those to Hentoff: Shot in the Dark; The Corner; Football Fans for Truth; Laffin at the Left.

  >> Mother Jones' MoJo Blog: "The latest rumored deal would confirm all of Bush's nominees but perhaps the two worst -- Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen -- and Democrats would keep the right to filibuster nominees in the future, including potential Supreme Court nominees. There's no shame in that." Liberal MF Blog, on the Hentoff piece: "What Hentoff misses is a larger point as to why Justice Janice Brown should not be given a lifetime federal judgeship: Justice Brown has a track record of being hyperbolic and crude in her legal reasoning, and has shown a penchant for politically-motivated ideological attacks that are inconsistent with judicial sensibilities."

  >> Right-leaning Betsy Newmark notes that the Post fingers Judge Henry Saad as a likely castoff, and writes: "If Saad became infamous as the one nominee that everyone agreed to throw over, the implication would be left out there that his file was indeed dirty and that even the GOP agreed about that. But, the poor guy doesn't know what is in his file so he can't defend himself against these vague insinuations. That would be truly despicable of the Senate to allow his reputation to be permanently besmirched." Black conservative Robert A. George, on Hentoff's detailed defense of Brown: "Sadly, it's also unfortunate that this information is not promoted more by Republican and conservative supporters of Justice Brown. As noted here, though, they seem more interested in reminding everyone of her 'umble, 'umble beginnings than of what she actually, you know, thinks."

• Left-wing British MP George Galloway's televised appearance before the Senate investigative cmte led by Sens. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Carl Levin (D-MI) is the subject of much talk, and The Scotsman's version is widely cited. And getting some links from the Crooks and Liars posts a video file of Galloway's testimony. Linking: Harry's Place; The Brothers Judd; Instapundit; MyDD; "Roger Ailes".

  >> Libertarian Unqualified Offerings: "It's certainly true that George Galloway's speech yesterday left no wiggle room. He's either a big perjurer or has delivered the most ringing rebuke of Congressional malfeasance since 'Have you at long last no shame, Senator?' But what that means, Senator Coleman, is that it's put up or shut up time for you, now." Liberal Washington Note: "George Galloway just tore the smug triumphalism and conceit of Senator Norm Coleman away in one of the great orations of the year." Captain's Quarters: "The Scotsman notes that Galloway appeared evasive and deceitful during direct testimony and never did provide any answer for the evidence and testimony that has exposed him as corrupted by UNSCAM bribes ... He probably will be surprised that his act failed to fool the people who know him best, even if it did appear to bedazzle American media yesterday who kept repeating his opening statement at the expense of the actual questioning that destroyed it."

  >> Two non-linking but on-topic posts representative of the fight: A DailyKos diarist: "George Galloway is a member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow and stands (falsely) accused by conservative US senators of taking bribes from Iraq in an oil-for-food scandal. His statement before the US Senate is a truly righteous, withering, and devastating critique of the US position in Iraq." The text of Galloway's speech is reproduced in the post. Righty Charles Johnson: "I just haven't been able to bring myself to visit the lefty blogs to see what they're saying about George 'Burn in Hell' Galloway's appearance before the Senate today, but I'd be willing to bet they're doing handstands of joy and singing hosannas in Galloway's name. OK, let's pop over to Markos's Hate Hole [DailyKos] ... yep, just as I thought."

• In a column for Tech Central Station, Univ. of TN prof Glenn Reynolds notes that David Gergen -- "pretty much the standard measurement unit for conventional wisdom" -- has echoed his observation that the Newsweek scandal may be a "tipping point" in the decline of the MSM. This is one of those columns that picks up a number of links, but not much commentary (so far). Among those noting its existence: The Anchoress; 10k snooker; Ed Driscoll; Betsy Newmark.

  >> Rex Hammock: "Glenn Reynolds asks if this is the tipping point in the decline of main-stream media? I see it rather as death by chinese water torture."

NEWSWEEK: Everything You Know Is Wrong ... Or At Least We Can't Prove It

Righty Tom Maguire: "The latest Dem talking point on the "Newsweek Lied" debacle is that Newsweek had nothing to do with it -- why, Gen. [Richard] Myers himself said just last week that the local commander thought the Newsweek article had nothing to do with it. ... Works for me. But having agreed that the military was spinning a bit (or a lot), let's ask a few related questions - (a) what can we make of the Washington Post and NY Times coverage that quite clearly blamed the Newsweek article in their lead paragraphs? Were these biased attempts to further discredit the military, or responsible, accurate journalism?"

Lefty Juan Cole: "It is being yet again alleged that Newsweek has formally retracted the Guantanamo Koran desecration story ... So far this is the same "retraction" as Sunday's, which is that they were wrong to source the story of Koran desecration to a forthcoming Southern Command white paper on Guantanamo. It says nothing about whether the Koran desecration occurred, or whether their government source accurately reported seeing a US government text documenting it.

Centrist Andrew Sullivan quotes WH spokesperson McClellan saying Newsweek should help "repair the damage" and asks: "Does McLellan [sic] really want the press to report more widely on what has been going on at Guantanamo Bay? Does he really want more stories about forced nakedness, female interrogators using panties and fake menstrual blood, and many reports from former inmates about deliberate misuse of the Koran? Well, let it rip, I say. The press's response should not be to whine about the Bush administration pestering them. It should be call McLellan's [sic] bluff."

GOP operative Rich Galen: "If Newsweek were a chemical company, and something it did led to the same number of deaths, I guarantee you Donald Graham, the Chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Corporation would be sitting in front of a Congressional committee by next Wednesday."

Liberal August J. Pollak: "So now there's a bunch of right-wingers who are pitching the desecrated Koran riot story with the line 'Newsweek Lied, People Died.' Get it? It's funny, because it's making fun of what all the anti-war people said when 1,700 Americans were killed based on lies they were warned about but didn't listen to. What, don't you have a f---ing sense of humor?"

Conservative Pejman Yousefzadeh, at RedState: "I probably shouldn't even bother to write this because life is short, but it appears to be important to point out to Andrew Sullivan and his snide and newfound fan [Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum] that in all likelihood, the reason 'conservative bloggers' are upset and angry about the Newsweek screwup is that it cost lives in the Middle East and it could have cost a lot more lives as well."

Instapundit's Reynolds appeared on Hugh Hewitt's radio show with PressThink's Jay Rosen to discuss Newsweek. Afterward, he writes: "Newsweek's admission of ignorance regarding the consequences of its reporting was truly stunning. ... Remember all the talk about the Enron scandal, and how free enterprise was at risk if greedy corporations didn't clean up their acts? Well, I'm afraid that press freedom is at risk if it's seen as a vehicle for out-of-touch corporations to peddle defective products without fear of consequences." Full transcript of their appearance is available at Radioblogger.

JUDGES: The Art Of The Deal

ConfirmThem links to the draft of a Senate compromise (PDF) which would confirm all judges but Saad, Owen and William Myers, the comments: "Dumping any of these nominees would be unreasonable, and would really set a horrible precedent that the minority can complain long enough and loudly enough to ultimately defeat a majority-supported judicial nominee. A deal would be great, but only if it's fair."

Elizabeth Edwards has a lengthy post on the filibuster fight at the One America Committee blog. It begins: "I have had just about all I can listen to of the Republicans and the 'nuclear option' of eliminating the filibuster for judges. So I want to vent, and what better place? I don't particularly want to use the word Republicans to describe Senator [Bill] Frist and those who will vote for him if it comes to that, because there are a good number of Republicans -- enough, I hope -- who recognize that Senator Frist's actions are not a principled stand for the Constitution but are simply a degradation of the institution for a short-term political advantage."

At Tapped, The American Prospect's Matt Yglesias praises National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru for questioning Janice Brown's position on judicial activism, writing: "Good for him. It would be nice if more conservatives would put their ostensible support for judicial restraint to the test in this case. Of course I think it also would be nice if the Democratic line on the judiciary hadn't gotten so extremely filibuster-centric. Obviously, with the nuclear option on the table, they need to talk process a bit. But it's worth keeping the substantive issue -- should people like Judge Brown really be in the federal judiciary? -- as close to the front as possible."

DELAY: The Decline Of Steve Moore?

Liberal Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen, on Steve Moore and Free Enterprise Fund running nat'l ads defending House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay: "I'm not in the habit of giving DeLay's friends advice, and if the right wants to spend six figures on dumb ads I don't want to stop them, but from DeLay's perspective, isn't this message counter-productive? Here we have a nationally televised commercial telling Americans a) that Tom DeLay is facing a series of scandalous charges; and b) the media is taking the charges seriously. Naturally, the ads also help boost DeLay's name recognition at a time when his scandals have started to fade from the headlines. Is it me, or do ads like these actually help Dems bring DeLay's problems to the public attention?"

SOCIAL SECURITY: What's News?

Blogs for Bush's Matt Margolis: "Via the Social Security Choice blog, I learned that "the Cato Institute issued a new advertisement listing 450 economists, including 5 Nobel laureates, from across the country who have publicly endorsed personal accounts for Social Security." That was the first I'd heard of this, because, sadly, the media never reported on it." Libertarian Radley Balko: "My employer ran ads last week announcing over 450 economists -- including 5 Nobel Prize winners -- back private Social Security Accounts. Seems like a story the media should have picked up."

For what it's worth, Rep. Robert Wexler's (D-FL) SocSec proposal has generated exactly zero buzz in the blogosphere Technorati shows no recent mentions of Wexler.

Liberal economist Max Sawicky: "Went to another forum on Social Security this morning. It's a dirty job, etc. etc. ... Comparisons of market returns -- the riskless Treasury securities, bonds, and stocks -- presume some kind of blank slate, as if a generation of workers with no elderly dependents was launching an old age retirement program from scratch. In reality, SOMEBODY pays for existing claims," a "guaranteed minimum" and "transition costs." More: "All of these somebodies' payments reduce the apparent average return in investment accounts (either individual, or collective). The relevant comparison is not between stocks and government bonds, but between a market-oriented investment scheme and the status quo, where the reform calculation contemplated all the ancillary features of the policy partially enumerated in the preceding paragraph."

BLOGS VS. THE WORLD: Pawlenty Of Attention

Conservative Ed Morrissey writes about a visit to the gov's mansion "for a reception intended to honor new media" in MN. Among those invited were John Hinderaker of Power Line and writers for Bogus Gold, Patriot Blog, First Ring, Kennedy vs The Machine and Fraters Libertas. He writes, "this shows that people in power have noticed the effect that we have on debate, and have started to take us seriously. A few months ago, the notion that Governors and Senators would concern themselves with the pajamaheddin seemed fanciful and somewhat self-congratulatory. Now it seems almost an inevitability, and in Minnesota, a reality."

Kennedy Vs. The Machine, on the visit: "The Governor - or someone on his staff - is to be commended for fostering good will among the center-right blogging community. These are the folks who will provide cover during the looming special legislative session during which Pawlenty's 'no new taxes' pledge will be put to the test like never before. And it goes without saying that if there is to be a bid for higher office, it will not hurt to have these folks on board. It would be universally acknowledged by those who had the privilege of attending this evening that we were in the presence of a rare talent."

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS I: Sullivan V. Instapundit

Mickey Kaus quotes a partial post from Instapundit without comment: "Andrew can be excitable. A while back he apologized to me for some of his criticisms during the election, and more recently he has apologized to his readers for his waffling and defeatism on the war last spring. Perhaps he'll apologize for this at some point in the future. But, I confess, I find the question of what Andrew thinks less pressing than I used to."

INDC Journal comments: "Every sweet word a righteous fix of calm, common-sensical, economical, brutal rejoinder punditry, a soothing antidote to Sullivansteria."

Sullivan, on Reynolds writing extensively about the Newsweek story as "the press' Abu Ghraib" but having not expressed much "admonishment" for the actual Abu Ghraib scandal: "Instapundit's coverage suggests that he believes that the erroneously-sourced Newsweek story is actually more offensive and important than what happened at Abu Ghraib."

"Ace" at Ace of Spades HQ writes, Sullivan "seems to have found a whole new group from whom to curry favor. Again he cites a Daily Kos contributor as authoritative. Shocking? Not really. As I have said from virtually the first day of this blog: the man has always been a self-absorbed solipsistic narcisstic huckster. So am I, of course. But I'm admitting it, you know?"

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS II: Cornered

Lefty James Wolcott notes the "helluva shortfall" in National Review's recent fundraising drive (collecting about $25K of the $100K goal) and comments on new developments at NRO's The Corner: "the introduction of a new primate -- John Podhoretz -- has upset the delicate ecosystem of the NRO's Corner that has metastasized into the site. Before everyone knew his role. K'Lo [K.J. Lopez] was the drafty Bride of Christ. Andrew Stuttaford was the English correspondent who relayed news from Britain no one cared about. John Derbyshire was the Evelyn Waughish eccentric. Jonah Goldberg was the aging frat-boy fun guy, surfer cable TV with his Star Trek phaser remote control and hyping his upcoming college speaking engagements at Roy Cohn Community College."

SlantPoint posts a weird picture of Arianna Huffington and Jeff Jarvis.

IN THE STATES: V Is For Villaraigosa

Marc Cooper: "The landslide election of a Spanish-speaking liberal Latino to preside over America's second largest city carries huge political symbolism especially at a time when the national immigration debate is simmering. And before [Mayor-elect Antonio] Villaraigosa even takes over his new office, it makes him an instant player in the future battle for Arnold's state house."

The Los Angeles Times maintained an election blog during the final week of the mayor's race. Conservative Hewitt, who contributed "The three reasons I am pleased Antonio will win" for the blog, complains at his personal blog that the newspaper didn't update its blog all day long on 3/17: "This race was over when the polls opened, and the refusal of the Times to blog the race during election day reflected the paper's old media values of pretending to be objective and a pretentiousness that is wildly amusing. As though they lacked the staff to make it work or that a Times' blog would impact a landslide."

WHITE HOUSE '08: Tim Vs. Tony?

Captain's Quarters' Morrissey, on Gov. Pawlenty (R-MN): "John [Hinderaker] and I both want to see Governor Pawlenty consider a run for the ticket, which may be not just viable if he wins re-election here in 2006, but may be more probable than some will think. He has a natural gift for winning the center, a skill which allowed him to turn Minnesota red in 2002 and later on give him formidable approval ratings."

Hewitt, in his comment on Villaraigosa, cross-posted to his own blog: "Let me be the first to mention Antonio as a possible vice presidential candidate in 2008. Mickey Kaus take note."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: On Blogging And "Blogging"

Cathy Seipp interviews Andrew Breitbart, former Drudge Report contributor and now producer for the Huffington Report, on the term "blog": "On one hand, it is kind of patronizing for mainstream media types to play that term up, but most bloggers don't seem to mind. So I guess I'm agnostic on the nomenclature. That said: over the last 5 or so years I've been drawn into the emerging blogosphere more than Drudge. I not only like reading blogs. I like meeting bloggers of all stripes. I think that the bloggers as a collective are helping to build a media future that undoes so much of the problems that have made the public so skeptical of journalism."

LEST WE FORGET: Fake News Is Almost More Popular Than Real News

IowaHawk's Onion-esque treatment of the Newsweek flap is a popular one with a number of right-leaning blogs. Headline: "Newsweek Lutefisk Story Sparks Fury Across Volatile Midwest." Lead graf: "Decorah, IA -- The debris-strewn streets of this remote Midwestern hamlet remain under a tense 24-hour curfew tonight, following weekend demonstrations by rock- and figurine-throwing Lutheran farm wives that left over 200 people injured and leveled the Whippy Dip dairy freeze. The rioting appeared to be prompted, in part, by a report in Newsweek magazine claiming military guards at Spirit Lake's notorious Okoboji internment center had flushed lutefisk down prison toilets. Newsweek's late announcement of a retraction seems to have done little to quell the inflamed passions of Lutheran insurgents in the region, as outbreaks of violent mailbox bashings and cow tippings have been reported from Bowbells, North Dakota to Pekin, Illinois."

Posted by at May 18, 2005 12:53 PM