6/8: It's Kerry Over Dean -- Again!

The Hotline's Blogometer takes the daily temperature of the blogosphere. For more information on the thinking behind this feature, go to the end of the story.

Today's coverage pretty much ipsa loquitur:

TRACKBACKS: The Gloatosphere

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

• For the 1st time since the Blogometer started metering the blogs (if that is what we do here), 2 links that drove most of the blog writing on 1 day (yesterday) are the next day (today) the same 2 top links: to Michael Kranish's pair of stories in Boston Globe on John Kerry's military service and lackluster grades. Yesterday the quick reactions came almost entirely from those whom the news ostensibly helps (here, conservatives), but in a typical pattern, those who ostensibly suffer (here, liberals) join the chatter once the news has time to sink in. Many asked why, if the military records contained no big story, why not release the form? James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal was one of the first to note that the school records story "answers that question"; this seems to be the accepted interpretation across ideological lines.
  
  

  >> Left-leaning Peking Duck sums up the left's disdain for SBVT and frustration with Kerry: "I understand not wanting to kowtow to the Swift Boat Superliars, but it would surely have spared him from a lot of grief." Lefty "Roger Ailes" takes a swipe at a moderate lefty who pushed the story: "Poor Midget Mickey Kaus will now have to find a new chicken to choke." For his part, Kausfiles offers a fast-paced look at the fallout from the news; he points out several bloggers who argued last summer that Kerry wasn't so smart, including moderate Madison-WI prof Ann Althouse
  

  >> At Blogs for Bush, "Unfit for Command" author John O'Neill, saying Kerry's level of disclosure "is hardly what we called for." Meanwhile, Power Line updates a post we linked yesterday to raise a question: "A knowledgeable reader called to say that the Navy would not have Kerry's complete service records; according to the caller, the records are retained by the National Personnel Records Center. He pointed out that the Navy's Web site directs veterans seeking their records to the National Personnel Records Center (click here for the Navy site's instruction). It would have been nice if the Globe had included this information in its story."
  

  >> Blogs linking to the medical records story: Ezra Klein; Kevin Drum; DailyKos; Oliver Willis; QandO; The Anchoress.



• Regarding Kerry's grades, few conservatives even compare their collegiate experience to Kerry's. INDC Journal: "I'd mock Kerry's yearbook photo, but I know that mine is out there somewhere." Clayton Cramer says he can never be POTUS: "My grades in college were way too high."
  

  >> But some are more serious -- BeldarBlog calls on the Globe to do the same: "Perhaps Mr. Kranish's and the Globe's analysis of the new records has been fair, balanced, accurate, and complete. But there's no excuse for preventing the public from seeing the source documents." Hugh Hewitt asks, "why in the world doesn't the [Globe] post the documents on the web site for all to see and read? Answer: A bastion of MSM is playing guardian of the news again, interpreting the docs for the public too limited to understand."
  

  >> Lean Left defends Kerry, writing, "nobody -- least of all Kerry -- ever claimed Kerry was smarter than [Pres.] Bush because he got better grades. He's smarter than Bush because, well, because he's smart, and Bush is ... dumb."
  

  >> Linking to the grades story: The Moderate Voice; Tom Maguire; Brad Plumer; Liquid List; Patterico's Pontifications; The Right Coast; Silflay Hraka; Roger L. Simon; Patrick Ruffini.



• In further demonstration of the principal that gloating precedes analysis, we have yesterday's late-releasing report from the San Francisco Chronicle that DNC chair Howard Dean called the GOP "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."
  

  >> Conservative Alexander McClure: "I have to believe that Dean is doing this intentionally. I believe he wants to be forced out of the position so he can run for Senator in Vermont. There is no logical explanation." Captain's Quarters: "Mad How wants to talk about race again. All I can say is that I've seen the Reverend Al Sharpton, Howard -- and you are no Reverend Al." Right-leaning James Lileks, at his new ScreedBlog (about which more later):" "'White Christian Party' ... plays into another hard-left paranoia: all them Jaysus people are a step away from whipping up a batch o' pointy hats with pillow cases and a can of spray starch, and marching into a field to hold hands around a cross and listen to someone demand that the entire book of Leviticus be made an amendment to the Constitution." Note: No permalinks -- look for "HowDe Ho" on 6/8.
  

  >> Those linking to the Chronicle or otherwise on-topic: Little Green Footballs; Professor Bainbridge; Michelle Malkin; GayOrbit; Le Sabot Post-Moderne; PunditGuy; Political Wire; Scared Monkeys; VariFrank; GOP Bloggers.



• The left has gloating of its own to do: The Washington Post reports that Bush's approval ratings are still falling, that "Americans continue to rank Iraq second only to the economy in importance -- and that many are losing patience with the enterprise." This news is only picked up on the left, where the reaction approaches
  

  >> DailyKos posts graphs of Bush's decline and asks: "NOW can Democrats demand some accountability from Bush?" Richard "Bradley" Blow at The Huffington Post: "The president has devoted an enormous amount of time to his ideologically-driven crusade to privatize Social Security (big problem, wrong answer). In fact, crusades -- whether they involve Terri Schiavo, judicial nominations, the war against Darwin, or the war in Iraq -- are the hallmark of Bush's second term." Liquid List searches for analogies for how bad these numbers are for Bush: "If it were a nomination, it would be Kerik's. If it were a speech, it would claim that Niger sold yellow-cake uranium to Iraq. If it were a job, it would be lost."
  

  >> Linking to the Post: Informed Comment; Demagogue; TalkLeft; The Sideshow; The Left Coaster; Political Animal; MyDD.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM I: We're Bigger Than U.S. Steel

At MyDD, Chris Bowers compares the ratings for FNC, CNN and MSNBC with the pageviews counted for 1 week of BlogAds' liberal blogs: "Without any doubt, the blogosphere in general now far surpasses the three cable news networks as a source for news among Americans under 55. Granted, this is probably due to the extreme dedication of many who read blogs, as the six million or eight million or however many million page views probably translate into a much smaller number actual people. ... Then again, that blog readers are more dedicated to political news than cable news audiences, yet still comparable in size, would lead one to believe that the blogosphere is far more responsible for determining the political zeitgeist than anything or anyone on cable news. I guess we are the MSM now."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM II: Leave The Gun, Take The Connolly

On 6/6, the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly said on FNC's "Special Report" that "I believe close to 100" homicides of detainees in U.S. custody have been confirmed -- which raised the suspicion of host Brit Hume, and then conservatives watching. Jackson's Junction posted video, while Gateway Pundit does some digging and finds the actual number is 27. Michelle Malkin then "called Connolly this morning at the Washington Post, informed her that her comments have sparked controversy in the blogosphere, and asked her to explain." Connolly "promptly e-mailed" 7 stories from Nexis to buttress her claim. But Malkin writes, "none of the seven articles she sent provide any substantiation for her "close to 100 homicides" allegation. Two of the articles are irrelevant and two flatly contradict her claim." On the 6/7 show, Hume sided with the blogs and issued a correction; The Political Teen provides video.

Eric Alterman notes the following New York Times headline: "The News Media Is Still Recovering From Watergate"; Alterman comments: "Um, could someone tell the Times copy editors that media is a plural noun. 'Media Are' not 'MEDIA IS.'"

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: The Blogs That Didn't Bite

Left-leaning Loaded Mouth, under the header "Have some a-listers become irrelevant?": "I've been doing some research into the bigger blogs over the past couple of days. My targets have been Atrios, Kevin Drum, Matthew Yglesias, Talking Points Memo, and Wonkette. The reason for my research is to see if they have linked to either After Downing Street or the Big Brass Alliance. Unfortunately, not only haven't they linked to these two groups, but these blogs have hardly even talked about the Downing Street Memo. Folks, this kind of shit just doesn't happen on the right. They have the strength of unity, which is why they are so adapt at spreading their propaganda and placing us on the defensive so often. And it sickens me to think that a story like the Downing Street Memo is all but ignored by the whales on our side of the blogosphere..."

Liberal Why Are We Back In Iraq? agrees, and elaborates. He updates: "Atrios finally blogged about the Downing Street minutes today: "Did Bush Lie? well, no shit." 5 words are better than nothing."

Self-described "so-called liberal journalist" What It Is Today: "The press finally got around to asking Dubya about the Downing Street Memo, and they got a two-fer -- he was holding a news conference with Tony Blair. And there they were, lying out loud."

SENATE '06: By The Numbers

Conservative Baseball Crank presents a "ranking of the Senate seats to be contested in 2006, from most to least likely to change parties, based on adding (1) the incumbent party's percentage of the vote in the last race for this seat (S%) to (2) the incumbent party's percentage of the vote in the 2004 presidential election (P%)..." DalyThoughts provides adds a few more "components," re-calculates the figures, and produces a different chart.

BOLTON: And When The Band You're In Starts Playing Different Thunes ...

Power Line disagrees with itself about whether Sen. John Thune (R-SD) is wise to oppose John Bolton's nod in a protest over an SD base-closing. Paul Mirengoff is not pleased, but John Hinderaker is more philosophical: "Actually, I admire Thune's political instincts. Among other things, I think he's trying to establish a track record that shows he can't be crossed without consequences. If more Republicans did that, it would be a good thing." Mirengoff relents: "I guess South Dakota guys have to stick together."

CAMPAIGNS: TPM Gets Koch-ed Up

Josh Marshall asks: "Who or what is Americans for Prosperity?" He calls upon the "few thousand eyes" reading the blog to help out. He reports later that AfP "is the political arm of Koch Industries (i.e., a front) which the Koch family uses to aid conservative causes in general and stuff the Bush White House wants done in particular." It also leads to CSE and the Indie Women's Forum, where "it's pretty hard to see where one group starts and another stops. They just all seem to lead back to Koch Industries, run by the Koch brothers," sons of Fred Koch, a "founder of the John Birch Society." He announces more will come.

IMMIGRATION: Just Below The Radar

Right-leaning Wizbang notices a story in the Brownsville Herald about a federal judge who is holding illegal immigrants for deportation: "It's a telling sign of the lack of enforcement of our immigrations laws that a federal judge actually enforcing the law is newsworthy."

IN THE STATES: OH, This Sounds Like Fun

"Pounder" at DailyKos reports the OH Dems will stage a protest calling attention to Coingate, and adds: "They deserve some credit and support for this, not only organizing it, but also spreading the word via their regional organizers and contacting the Ohio Blogosphere. ... Come along if you live close by or have nothing else better to do ! Should be a hoot and help push the national press into the story."

• He updates later with breaking news: as the Toledo Blade reports, the OH Bureau of Workers' Compensation "admitted today that it lost $215 million in a high-risk fund that few people knew about."
• Swing State Project picks up on the post and adds: "I think this bolsters my speculation of a few days ago, namely that it is a certainty that other similar state funds (pension, workers comp, what have you) around the country are being mismanaged if not looted. The only reasons the Ohio scandal was brought to light was because of the highly unusual investment vehicle in question (coins), and the diligent work of the Toledo Blade. (Nice to have a tiny bit of my faith in the media restored for once.)"

Alexander McClure at PoliPundit sizes up the results of the NJ GOP's GOV primary: "For [Bret] Schundler, this is an extremely painful defeat. It was very close, and I'm sure his advisers feel that their lack of money caused the narrow loss. He could remain a viable candidate in the future if he endorses Forrester and seeks to unite the party. Finally, for Doug Forrester, this is his second opportunity to win statewide. Needless to say, he is the candidate that [Dem Sen. Jon] Corzine does not want to face. He has pockets deep enough to offset Corzine's advantage. Moreover, he has a demonstrated appeal in South Jersey, where Corzine is perceived as weakest."

INTRODUCING: Roxy Lileks It!

Left-leaning Rox Populi comments on ScreedBlog, the new blog by popular right-leaning humorist James Lileks: "Today we examine the strange case of Mr. Lileks, a seemingly normal guy until 9/11. That's when, by all accounts, he lost the plot -- along with Christopher Hitchens, Dennis Miller, and that 2nd rate spy novel writer guy who wears the weird hat [Roger L. Simon], but who's name I can never remember. Mr. Lileks has seen fit to start a new virtual space in addition to his boorish Bleat, where he regularly waxes neurotic about being his child's primary caregiver, gays (in a very revealing me-thinks-he-doth-protest-too-much manner, if you ask me), and moving to the safety of the strip mall capital of the world -- Arizona. His new site is called ScreedBlog. There, it seems, he waxes neurotic about terrorizamenting, all while making an all-too-abundant use of Roget's Thesaurus and hat-tipping LGF."

On 6/7, National Review Online debuted the latest in its expanding line-up of blogs. This one is a media blog, currently called Media Blog. NRO is taking suggestions for a permanent name. The blog's author is Stephen Spruiell. Meanwhile, NRO has altered their lineup in another way: their Beltway Buzz blog is now simply The Buzz, complete with a new URL (although the old page forwards the reader to the new one).

MISCELLANY: De Plane! De Plane?

At Galley Slaves, Vic Matus relays the story from a "friend who saw the low-flying plane over Washington last night." The Blogometer isn't sure which low-flying plane this is (there are no news stories about it, although we know that Reagan Nat'l Airport did stay open late due to the storm). Nevertheless, the friend writes: "That plane came probably within mere seconds of being taken down with the missiles on top of the New Executive Building. This was the closest ever a low-flying big civil plane got to the White House thus far. Even on 9/11, the Pentagon plane was much farther away from it than this one." Matus figures that "the pilot had mistakenly followed Rock Creek Park Valley, thinking he'd been over the Potomac Valley all the time."

UCLA law prof Eugene Volokh notices that according to the KY bar's "Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct," if you're an atty in KY "and you want to blog using your real name, you must pay $50 per post. (Each post is a separate instance of 'furnish[ing] . . . written, printed or broadcast information.')"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Here's To You, Memeorandum And Technorati

Actress Anne Bancroft passed away on 6/7, and the blogosphere chimes in with a round of respectful obit posts. Top blogs leading with some version of the phrase, "Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson," include: TalkLeft; The Corner; Roger L. Simon; Pejmanesque; and L.A. Observed. They are joined by several dozen blogs also using the phrase.

LEST WE FORGET: Berzerkeley's Future -- A P.C. Theme Park?

L.A.-based Roger L. Simon reports that "Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley is no longer named after that notorious slaveholder from Monticello, VA" and has been renamed Sequoia "(after the tree, not the Cherokee chief)." He theorizes: "A secret strategy could be unrolling here. Berkeley is slowly and inexorably turning itself into a Political Correctness Theme Park. This stealth business plan will be actuated on April 25, 2009, on the fortieth anniversary of People's Park when the entire city will be shut down, cars banned from the streets and henceforth admission charged to non-residents the way it is is in Disneyland. Every night parades with fireworks will be held led by over-sized dolls of Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsburg and Jerry Garcia. All streets will be scented with patchouli, meat banned from the restaurants and only tie-dye clothes (or in some instances hemp) be permitted."