July 27, 2005

7/27: So, What Else Is New?

Note for web readers: To go directly to the SCOTUS coverage, click here.

TRACKBACKS: Not Quite At Energizer Bunny Status, But Working On It

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

• Liberal bloggers seize upon a Washington Post report: "Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net"; as the header suggests, the key development is that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known." Most concede that there isn't much new, but more than a few dig for details. Others simply note its' existence, as AMERICAblog does with this header: "New Wash Post story on Rove, Fitzgerald is up."
  
  

  >> Talking Points Memo writes it contains "no explosive quotes or shocking revelations" as further evidence of "an elaborate fraud perpetrated upon the American people" by the Bush admin. · Hullabaloo: "I have to say that I'm not getting my hopes up. Unless he's got a high level witness who's spilling his guts, I have my doubts that this will blow the lid off of the Iraq lies." · The Mahablog: "We can only speculate about where Fitzgerald is going with his investigation. However, it's becoming clear that ... the career spooks have had it with this White House." · Crooks and Liars: "No matter how much of our press wants to run away from this story; the story will run to them."
  
  

  >> The lone conservative to mention it yet is Orrin Judd, who frames it with an American Prowler column arguing that Dems are "strangling" themselves by focusing on Karl Rove. More interesting, in the comments Judd gets drawn into a debate with lefty journalist/pamphleteer Rick Perlstein.

INTEL HEARINGS: The Subhead Formerly Known As "Rove"?

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum criticizes right-leaning bloggers, including QandO specifically, for setting too high a standard for agreeing that Rove should go, criteria Drum says is so loose that they "essentially justify in advance virtually anything that Rove might plausibly have done." On Sen. Pat Roberts' (R-KS) announced Intel hearings into "use of covert protections for CIA agents and others involved in secret activities" (Roberts' words), Drum asks: "Does it sound like Roberts is concerned about CIA agents being exposed in the press? Of course not. Instead, Roberts is preemptively defending Rove by implying that perhaps the real problem is that the CIA overuses clandestine cover for its agents." At RedState, Pejman Yousefzadeh sarcastically praises Drum for his "ability to read minds": "I of course had no idea that Pat Roberts was engaged in 'preemptively defending Rove by implying that perhaps the real problem is that the CIA overuses clandestine cover for its agents.'"

Talking Points Memo finds a New Republic assessment of Senate Intel Cmte co-chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), in which anonymous Dems "say Rockefeller has allowed Roberts to roll over him."

Liberal TPM critic Bob Somerby calls Josh Marshall's reaction to the Roberts hearings (see 7/26 Blogometer) "propagandistic" and defends Roberts from misinterpretation by Marshall and ex-CIA official Larry Johnson.

DCCC's Stakeholder posts text of a letter from Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and other House Dems to the DoJ Inspector General, asking for an investigation into the DoJ's "handling of the investigation" of the Plame leak.

Noting a Washington Post report that Bob Novak was warned off the Plame story by a CIA official before putting her in his '03 column, Daily Kos' Armando surmises, Novak and Rove "may have forgotten the "'don't f--- with the company' rule."

ROVE: And Now Come Attacks On His Personal Life

At Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas picks up on the Radar Online rumor (also reported this a.m. in the New York Daily News) and attempts to confirm the accusation with another anonymous source.

Liberal Loaded Mouth is irritated by the post: "Making wholly unsubstantiated accusations against a despicable political opponent only serves to strengthen them. Stick to the facts, Kos, and lay off the personal attacks about someone's sex life -- You're starting to sound too much like a Republican."

WHITE HOUSE '08: Will We Eventually Say "Romney's Mormonism Is So 2005"?

Conservative Joe's Dartblog thinks Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) "poached a taboo personal fruit" in bringing up MA Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) religion in an interview with The Atlantic: "It is impossible to distinguish between this rather pathetic move and the espousal in recent years of 'outing' homosexual Republicans as a tool in the bag of DNC dirty tricks."

Hugh Hewitt: "Now that seems to me to be an extraordinarily inappropriate question --like asking a Catholic when they last went to confession. But I fully expect Romney opponents to keep throwing such stuff at him, and in real sense it is better for the questions to come now rather than later. By the time 2008 rolls around, the 'LDS issue' will have been talked to death and it may in fact have the same impact as Kennedy's Catholicism did in 1960."

Right-leaning Skeptic's Eye passes along a report from Political Money Line: "McCain's Straight Talk America registered again as a federal PAC on 7/15. Keith Davis is listed as Treasurer. The phone number on their form is also listed as the fax number on the website of the Reform Institute, a 501c3 organization supporting McCain's goals. The previous Straight Talk America PAC terminated in 2003." RedState's Mike Krempasky: "Straight BS, if you ask me. Keep the bad money out of politics, eh?"

Right Wing News tests out an anti-Hillary ad for '08.

DEMOCRATS: Keeping It On The DLC

At TPM Cafe, DLCer Ed Kilgore defends the DLC from accusations that Al From and Bruce Reed "spend their days attacking Kos," noting that "neither of them has ever mentioned Kos by name in public anywhere, anytime." He adds: "Frankly, I'm very happy to comply with Hillary Clinton's call in Cleveland for a cease-fire in the intra-party wars. I've tried to be reasonably civil since beginning my blogging career, though it's hard to stay civil when people who know nothing about you blithely call you or the people you work with corporate whores or worse..."

IA Gov. Tom Vilsack, in the New York Times: ""We can't afford to be anti-, against everything. America is waiting for us. They are desperate to know what we are for." Atrios puts Vilsack in with "certain" Senate Dems "who imagine that appeasement will spare them from the right wing shit machine," posing the choice: "Tools or suckers, you decide..."

Center-left Mickey Kaus disagrees with multiple reports that HRC's DLC speech exemplified "her now-famous move to the center": "The speech (which you can read here) doesn't sound too conservative to me. For one thing, Hillary avoids completely the obvious hot-button move-to-the-right issue of immigration ... And if reporters are willing to give Hillary credit for being "downright conservative" just because she uses the phrase 'old fashioned values' -- well, reporters are cheap dates!"

Under the header "The Gift That Keeps On Giving," conservative Balloon Juice notices that DNC chair Howard Dean mistakenly blaming the "right-wing" SCOTUS for the Kelo decision, when the Court's 3 most conservative members dissented. Balloon Juice: "Is he this stupid? Did he just get 'caught up in the moment?' Or is he simply lying?"

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Don't Wanna Be Like Mike

L.A. Observed: "That was fast. Michael Kinsley, who just took over on June 14, 2004, will soon relinquish his spot as editor in charge of the L.A. Times editorial and opinion pages." Kinsley will continue with the LAT in some as-yet-undefined capacity. Nation contributor Marc Cooper: "I'm certainly not the only guy who has noticed that Kinsley drew a lot more attention to himself than to any particular changes he made in the editorial sections of the Times." Kinsley "helped import some very mushy conventional columnists" onto the op-ed page, including himself. More: "Kinsley is clearly a smart guy -- but, in fact, he's a smart-aleck. He seems committed to very little except some editorial gimmickry -- his columns always a degree or two removed from authentic human passion and drama." Centrist media blogger Jeff Jarvis: "Michael Kinsley is whining that the internet doesn't operate the way he wants it to operate and so he's taking his marbles and going home. Or something like that."

LABOR: Say, That's A Nice House Seat You Got There

Firefighters Assn. pres. Harold Schaitberger tells labor blog Working Life that his org. will "cut off" Dems who vote for CAFTA [Update: Not NAFTA, as we first had it]: "A Democrat who votes for CAFTA, if we haven't already given them money, will not get a dollar from us." Schaitberger singled out Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL), who "might" vote in favor: "[S]he would not be in this Congress if it were not for the labor movement. And, then, to potentially cast such a crucial vote I think is unconscionable. ... This is a bright line issue for labor. "

SENATE '06: Lefty Bloggers Have Their Targets Already Picked Out

Lefty satire blogger Jesus' General's latest campaign is based on Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) "proudly" declaring his "opposition to Griswold v. Connecticut on CNN: "Call a press conference today and declare that you stand with Sen. Santorum and his efforts to end legal contraception. Contact your membership and ask them to write letters to the editors and to call talk radio shows demanding an end to birth control. We can win this battle with your help." He posts e-mail addresses for female PA GOP officials.

TAPPED's Garance Franke-Ruta suggests that Karl Rove is "actively harming" likely MD SEN candidate/LG Michael Steele (R) by fundraising for him, in part because of the attention brought by MoveOn and other groups.

Daily Kos' Armando notes a DSCC poll showing Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) vulnerable, adding: "Paging Sherrrrrod Browwwwwn!" Moulitsas adds and update: "This is the same poll leaked to me back in early July. Except in their 'official' release the DSCC has omitted the Sherrod Brown numbers."

NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Over And Out

Chris Bowers, on NY Gov. George Pataki (R) likely not running for a 4th term: "Of course, [Eliot] Spitzer would have won anyway. Now, whoever the [NY GOP] throws up will get utterly slaughtered. Eliot Spitzer will be a major force in national politics for years, if not decades, to come."

PoliPundit's Alexander McClure concludes the GOP's only hope is Rudy Giuliani.

MISCELLANY: In The Air

• Conservative radio talker Brian Maloney finds a "tidbit" in the New York Daily News which leads him to do some digging and report back to his blog: "Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in governmental grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network." Club founder Charles Rosen has stepped down as CEO. The story gets a major assist from Michelle Malkin.
• Header by The Left Coaster's eriposte: "Uranium from Africa and the Senate (SSCI) Report: Part 3A-4 (Uraniumgate v2.0)"; in a previous post eriposte gave a preview: "I don't believe the story has been broken by any mainstream media outlet yet." At issue is 1 line from the Senate Intel report on "how the foreign government service collected" info. Eriposte: "As they say, it all depends on the meaning of 'how' and 'collected.'"
• At Sound Politics, WA-based conservative Stefan Sharkansky notes that Seattle P-I columnist Joe Connelly "fell for" a "spoof," or otherwise non-official website supporting GOP WA SEN candidate/Safeco CEO Mike McGavick. The "sexist" joke site declared: "It's time for a man to represent Washington."
• At Alarming News, a gay conservative guest-blogger responds to MA's debate about replacing "Mother" and "Father" on birth certificates with "Parent A" and "Parent B": "Let's not force the 80,000 children of straight parents to choose which parent is A and which is B for the sake of gay community's fragile ego."
• Michael Yon: "The enemy in Iraq does not appear to be weakening; if anything, they are becoming smarter, more complicated and deadlier. But this does not mean they are winning; to imply that getting smarter and deadlier equates to winning, is fallacious."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: How Hillary Could Win Texas?

Liberal BOP News' Glenn Smith, late 6/26: "The GOP majority in the Texas House of Representatives today fell apart, its party discipline destroyed by the stink of corruption that permeates the Bush era in Texas and across the country. If Texas had icebergs, this would be the tip of one. ... I'm talking about the stinging defeat suffered by the Texas GOP on the floor of the state House today. GOP leadership, helped to election by illegal corporate contributions, watched helplessly as the Democratic minority and a few frightened Republicans voted down bills that 1) raised taxes on the middle class; 2) Cut taxes for Big Insurance and other special interests involved in the scandal; 3) Stiffed school children and teachers under the guise of education reform. This is no small matter. It should be pointed out that in the early 1970s, a political scandal called Sharpstown surfaced just ahead of a national political scandal called Watergate. By 1976, Jimmy Carter could carry Texas."

LEST WE FORGET: The Backstroke Of The West

Matthew in Beirut posts screen shots from a Chinese bootleg "Revenge of the Sith" DVD. The subtitles are in English (for some reason), as the dialogue has been translated from English into Chinese and then back to English. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." becomes "Long time ago in the faraway galaxy," which isn't much difference -- but somehow "Jedi Council" becomes "Presbyterian Church."

BLOGOMETER SPECIAL: Stare-ing Contest

What the blogosphere is saying about Pres. Bush's pick of John Roberts for SCOTUS:

ROE V. WADE: To Everything, Overturn, Overturn, Overturn ...

AG Alberto Gonzales is drawing some attention this a.m. for saying in an AP interview that the SCOTUS "is not obliged to follow" Roe v. Wade. A number of bloggers bring up the legal concept of stare decisis, referring to a preference for letting decisions stand unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

• From the right -- PoliPundit's Jayson Javitz is surprised to hear Gonzales say it: "You know, that putative 'RINO' about which perma-fickle, perpetually-pessimistic conservatives were in high dudgeon mode only two weeks ago?! It's not 1989 anymore, much less 1974." · Captain's Quarters points to Brown v. Board of Education oveturning Plessy v. Ferguson, and more recently Lawrence v. TX overturning Bowers v. Hardwick as better rulings on the 2nd time around: "The notion of requiring a Supreme Court nominee to some blood oath to 'settled law' shows more than a little hypocrisy. If pressed, Roberts should point out that the Supreme Court has a long history of poorly-decided cases..." · UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge points out, "stare decisis is given far less weight with respect to Constitutional issues than with respect to statutory or common law decisions."
• From the left -- Steve Soto: "Read Alberto Gonzales' comments today, and you would think that he himself is auditioning for the next vacancy on the court, by pandering to the American Taliban." He adds, "Gonzales has just unwittingly handed the Democrats a club to insist that Roberts tell them exactly what he thinks about Roe v. Wade." · Daily Kos: "I think we better ask Judge Roberts about this."

THE FIGHT: Things That Make You Go Hmmm ...

Under the header "Racism Evident in 1981 Roberts Memo," liberal MyDD's Scott Shields focuses on paragraph from a New York Times report about a "blistering critique" on affirmative action by Roberts from '81, "saying the 'obvious reason' affirmative action programs had failed was that they 'required the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates.'" He adds: "Just to be clear, it was Roberts' opinion that it was 'obvious' that the minorities recruited under affirmative action policies were, by definition, 'inadequately prepared candidates.' In other words, it wasn't possible for minorities to be anything but 'inadequately prepared.' This was not a position based on research or fact. This was not even a position based on an ideologically conservative reading of the Constitution. This was a position based on prejudice. John Roberts is not fit to serve on the Supreme Court." Responding to a similar story in the Washington Post, Atrios calls Roberts "More Wingnutty Than Ted Olson."

TAPPED's Jeffrey Dubner follows up on the disputed report by atty Jonathan Turley that Roberts told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that he would recuse himself from a case where upholding the law required him to go against his religious beliefs: "If it weren't for Durbin's participation in the damage control, I'd be inclined to believe a conspiracy theory that ... Roberts' reported remark was part of a devious plot to goad Democrats into appearing anti-Catholic."

Lefty Oliver Willis: "Again putting the liberal media meme to death, right-wing loon Ann Coulter explains ... that Bush should appoint a more extreme Judge than Roberts to the Supreme Court because 'we have the media now.'" Willis posts the audio, from Sean Hannity's radio show, in MP3.

CONFIRMATION: Privileged Information

Conservative Beldar Blog's atty William Dyer calls Sen. Pat Leahy's (D-VT) statements that Roberts' papers from the WH Solicitor General's office are not covered by atty-client privilege "preposterous and incorrect statement of the law, and it's not a close question. He's just completely full of crap on this." More: "As for the MSM mouthpieces that have been repeating Sen. Leahy's comment as if it weren't drivel, I'm pretty sure they all have lawyers available to them. Any lawyer with Westlaw or Lexis/Nexis could have found" the relevant cases "in about 30 seconds (which is how long it took me). I'd say 'For shame!' but they're obviously shameless, as is Sen. Leahy."

FAMOUS LAST WORDS: We'll Save You The Cost Of Today's Lunch

Headline at The Onion: "Supreme Court Justices Devour Sandra Day O'Connor In Ancient Ritual." Yale Law Review's Zachary Katz, "quoted": "The ceremony is said to be quite moving. By consuming O'Connor's mortal body, the other justices seek a communion with her transcendent qualities -- her respect for the discretion of the court, her pragmatism, and her refusal to commit to abstract legal principles."

Posted by at July 27, 2005 12:29 PM