July 29, 2005

7/29: Slow News Day? It All Depends On What You Call News

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

The blogosphere has plenty of balls up in the air at the moment, and we're catching the ones we can. Among them -- liberals are rolling their eyes at the State Dept's concession that U.N. Amb. John Bolton did not disclose being questioned in the Niger uranium case, and by this point a few conservatives are ready to cut him loose; almost no one thinks Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist is doing himself a favor by switching sides on stem cells; a financial scandal surrounding liberal talk radio network Air America is spreading from the right-blogosphere to the left, and bit by bit into the MSM; commentary on CAFTA comes from all corners, and neither side seems entirely happy; the DLC continues to take fire from liberal bloggers, on CAFTA as well as their proposal to increase the size of the military; reactions to the Pentagon's renaming of the war on terror are something short of enthusiastic; and the OH 02 special election is getting more intense by the day.

TRACKBACKS: Memories From The Corner Of His Mind

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

• The Bolton revelation was prompted by a letter from Sen. Joe Biden (see 7/28 Blogometer). It's not the buzziest story today -- there doesn't seem to be a single such story -- but here's what both sides are saying:
  
  

  >> From the left -- Josh Marshall: "Of all the things for John Bolton to forget about, he forgets that he was interviewed for the Joint State-CIA IG Report on the Niger forgeries. ... My impression is that you don't just fill these confirmation disclosure forms out one evening in the den over a cup of tea." · Barbara O'Brien: "Lordy, people in Washington sure do have awful memories, don't they? Must be somethin' in the water. Or else they all live in Bizarro Faux Nooz World, in which everything is just the opposite of what it is here." · Header at libertarian Unqualified Offerings: "That Administration Is Inoperative"
  

  >> From the right -- Tom Maguire: "Is this a State Department press briefing, or have I blundered into a comedy club? Apparently, 'the answer was truthful then' means 'the answer was wrong then...'" · James Joyner: "Bolton's policy preferences are fine but his character and judgment have been called into serious question on a repeated business. It is well past time to withdraw this nomination and choose another candidate."




• Frist's split with Pres. Bush on the stem cell issue also draws attention from both sides; the New York Times version is widely-linked.
  
  

  >> From the right -- Power Pundit: "Not exactly the way to endear himself to conservative primary voters in 2008. But then, Mr. Frist has not been doing very well in recent polling, anyway." · Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds: "I'm with Frist." · Pro-life LTI Blog: "Have you seen Bill Frist's lovely claim that he's 'pro-life' and believes 'that life begins at conception,' but now supports killing embryos for research? Try squaring that gem with pro-life metaphysics." · NRO's K.J. Lopez headlines a Corner post: "You're So Over, Man"
  

  >> From the left -- A Daily Kos diarist observes, "Frist's puppetmaster James Dobson isn't going to be very happy, along with all the other 'culture of life' folks who voted for Bush in 2004." · Running Scared: "Sounds like 'abortion is murder, unless the fetus is sentenced to death beforehand.' It's good to see that he has some scientific reasoning left in him, but I doubt you can stay sane along that line." · AMERICAblog" "Flip flop alert!"
  

  >> On a different note -- center-left poli sci grad student Brendan Nyhan: "The stem cell debate is ... a great test of the hypothesis that abortion politics are so polarized because Roe v. Wade removed the issue from the democratic process and prevented compromise. If that hypothesis is correct, then conservatives should eventually accept the legitimacy of stem cell research. The fact that so many conservatives have already accepted President Bush's original plan -- which allows for the destruction of embryos -- suggests that the Roe theory is correct. Frist's decision may be another step down that road."

CAFTA: What Was Sillier, This Floor Vote Or The '03 Prescription Drug Bill Marathon?

In light of CAFTA's passage, conservative Captain's Quarters holds up for derision a few recent newspaper analyses asserting that Bush is a "lame duck," and "these critics will have to eat a supersize helping of crow."

Liberal blogs Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos make fun of Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) for claiming his voting card didn't work. TAPPED, on Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), who would have voted no but was stuck in traffic returning from the Boy Scout jamboree: "True, it had been an open secret all day yesterday that the CAFTA vote was going to happen around midnight and surely Davis knew that and could have planned accordingly -- but hey, these things happen!"

Dem activist David Sirota approves of a report that Dems who voted for CAFTA may have their cmte assignments "reviewed": "That's absolutely necessary -- why should Democrats who undermine their party be given plum committee assignments over other, far more loyal and principled Democrats?"

GOPer Balloon Juice's John Cole isn't pleased with how it got done: "I really long for the day when we were the good guys. Now we are nothing more than a bunch of arm-twisting thugs, big mouth bully boys, and we simply bend the rules to suit our needs."

Conservative WILLisms posts a chart comparing House GOP and Dem support for NAFTA in '93 and CAFTA this week. GOP support increased from 76% to 87%, while Dem support fell from 40% to just 7%. Noting that the DLC endorsed CAFTA, he opines: "What happened to make the DLC so irrelevant? I have no earthly idea, do you?" He links "I," "have," "no," "earthly" and "idea" to prominent lefty blogs (including Sirota) criticizing CAFTA, the DLC or both.

DLC: Paging Peter Beinart ...

The Left Coaster: "Now comes the new mantra from 'moderate' Democrats and the DLC that we need more troops in Iraq to better protect the troops that are already there. Exactly where are these additional troops going to come from? The Army can't meet its current recruitment quotas. Those quotas are inadequate to keep the troop level where it was two years ago. The National Guard can't supply more and will be hard pressed to maintain the current level of deployments. Do the DLC bozos expect to see lines at the recruitment centers if Hillary is in the WH? ... Watching the newly invigorated DLC has caused me for the first time to consider that Nixon may have ended the Vietnam War faster than Humphrey/Muskie would have."

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum has similar thoughts: "I'm sympathetic to the DLC's proposal that we need more troops -- after all, undermanning has obviously been our biggest problem in Iraq from the very start. At the same time, Iraq is a done deal one way or the other, and a commitment to additional troops in the future won't help us in Iraq now. ... If the DLC really wants to produce some fresh thinking on national security, perhaps there are smarter ways of doing it than proposing that we need more of what we have already. If this is truly a new kind of war, surely we need a new kind of military to go along with it?"

AIR AMERICA: Losing Altitude

This a.m. the Washington Times has an op-ed on the blog-originating story about the diverting of gov't grant money from the NYC Gloria Wise Girls & Boys Club to Air America (see 7/27 Blogometer). Radio talker Brian Maloney, who helped break the story, updates with new developments and a list of questions for Air America.

Conservative bloggers including Ed Morrissey and Kevin Aylward aren't satisfied by Air America's claim that it bears no responsibility. Air America has since released a 2nd statement.

In a diary for Daily Kos, Air America webmaster Adam Mordecai gives their side of the story.

Conservative Michelle Malkin asks: "Yeah? But where did the money go? Was the loan repaid? And was there an agreement between Air America and Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club officials to promote the latter's activities as part of the loan deal? Apropos that last question, take a look here at an Air America host promoting and soliciting donations for the summer camp run by the ... club. The date of this promotion was June 14, 2005. Several sources tell me the possible quid pro quo involved here should be of special interest to the FCC."

Conservative Mark In Mexico titles his post "Al Franken steals money from kids and old folks" and assembles a near-exhaustive round-up of the blogs discussing this case.

MILLER: Remember In "Fire Walk With Me" When David Bowie Said, "We're Not Gonna Talk About Judy At All, We're Gonna Keep Her Out Of It"? Think About It

Right-leaning JustOneMinute, on whether New York Times' Judy Miller interviewed Valerie Plame, or otherwise knew her: "File under 'Stray Thought' -- aren't professional women encouraged to network? And wouldn't folks feel that both Valerie and Judy, as women in a male-dominated profession, really ought to meet? OK, covert agents probably handle their networking a bit differently than lawyers or bankers. Still, don't we think that Judy knows some covert agents? These two getting together seems to be destined."

Centrist Mickey Kaus, on the widely-noted 7/28 New York Times piece by Doug Jehl reporting that the Times "declined to address written questions" about Miller's work on Joe Wilson's Niger trip. "What is Jehl suggesting that his colleague Miller was doing if she wasn't 'assigned' to the Wilson story -- freelance conspiring with Bush aides to prop up the Saddam-has-WMD theory with which she was identified? Surely Jehl knows reporters never do such things!... And why's he casting aspersions on his beloved, incarcerated fellow Timesperson? Maybe Arianna's right [see 7/28 Blogometer] that the Judy-source scenario..."

At TalkLeft, atty Jeralyn Merritt has been "trying to cull down the mass of information" to determine Miller's role, and offers a "shortened list" of what she finds "significant." She writes: "No matter where I start, I always end up at the same place: with Cheney and Libby's visits to CIA..."

BLOGS VS. THE FEC: Fist Of Currie

Atty Ron Coleman calls attention to the blog Currie for Congress, by milblogger Rusten Currie, who aims to unseat Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Coleman comments on the prospect of a proliferation of blogger candidates: "This is going to really, really, really screw up the whole evolving, twisting, oft-times disgusting McCain-Feingold-Anti-Sedition-Act-Special-Priveleges-for-Bloggers calculus, isn't it? You bet it is."

TX GOV candidate Chris Bell (D) announces his bid at his campaign blog and at MyDD. The announcement gets plenty of attention, from (among others) Political Wire, Off The Kuff, and Drudge Retort.

OHIO 02: Ooooooglay!

OH 02 House candidate Jean Schmidt (R) aide Eric Minmayer posts an update about the military service of Dem candidate Paul Hackett (see 7/26 Blogometer) to his blog: "Was Paul Hackett in combat? Yes, on October 21, 2004 traveling from Ramadi to Fallujah."

Ohio 2nd blog posts an appeal for Hackett volunteers by ex-Sen. John Glenn.

Meanwhile, Swing State Project's Bob Brigham posted allegedly libelous claims about the Schmidt camp, then removed it upon complaint. Steve Gilliard defends the original posting.

Democracy GuyTim Russo: "Nothing would make this Ohio Democrat happier than to see" Hackett win the race, but "It ain't gonna happen, and the irrational exuberance of the lefty blogosphere over this race is a good study in just how irrelevant the loud, lefty blogosphere makes itself." Noting that "nothing gets the lefty blogosphere revved up like a soldier Democrat running on an anti-Iraq war platform," he writes: "He's a soldier returned from Iraq, who now criticizes the war. If that strikes you as a caricature of the rationale that governed the entire 2004 presidential primary process for Democrats, you're right."

TERRORISM: What's In A Name?

Counterterrorism Blog's Steven Emerson reports, the widely-reported a fatwa issued by a group of American Muslim leaders against "terrorism and extremism" is "bogus." Emerson writes, "Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world." Moreover, officials of the groups FNCA (which issued the fatwa) and CAIR (which got the word out) "have been linked to various terrorist organizations."

Matthew Yglesias, on the gov't designation changing from "Global War On Terrorism (GWOT)" to "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism (GSAVE)": "Why the goofball semantic shift? Nobody really knows. Ostensibly the point is to emphasize that combatting terrorism isn't really a war in the sense of something you accomplish by sending armies around the world. But that can't be right, since when John Kerry made this point he was savagely attacked by the very people responsible for this new policy."

Liberal Bulldog Manifesto: "Apart from being completely ironic that an extreme ideologue such as Bush would be struggling against idealogical extremism, the term is laughable because it is a thinly disguised attempt to confuse us all into believing that this 'war' is something that we can all live with. I can see it now, 'The Struggle in Iraq.' ... Jihad also means 'struggle.' Oh brother..."

Michelle Malkin notes that NRO contributor Michael Graham has been suspended from WMAL-AM radio for writing in a JWR column: "Islam is a terror organization." Malkin calls Graham "clumsy," but like Rep. Tom Tancredo (see 7/19 Blogometer) he "raises fundamental issues that need to be tackled head on..."

IRAQ: Withdrawal In Disgust Is Not The Same As Apathy

Center-right OxBlog's David Adesnik criticizes the media for "oversell[ing] the Pentagon's caveat-laden talk of a partial" '06 Iraq withdrawal: "Undoubtedly, some Republicans would prefer to get out of Iraq. Yet there was speculation across the board, starting in mid-2003, that Bush would cut and run rather than face a tough re-election fight with our soldiers still in Iraq. But Bush refused to compromise and won the election decisively. So what makes anyone think that 'top Republicans' have much hope of persuading Bush to pull out now?" Instapundit: "One question is where U.S. troops will go from there: Syria? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Or elsewhere? I suspect we want to keep people guessing about that, too."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: As Opposed To Non-Internet Bloggers?

USA Today reports on missing Philly woman Latoyia Figueroa: "Internet bloggers appear to have played a role in pushing Figueroa's case into the spotlight. Starting last Friday, Philadelphia-area writers of Internet weblogs, or blogs, organized an e-mail campaign and coordinated their blogging efforts." As the Blogometer mentioned yesterday, Philly bloggers were working to push this into the MSM -- and they've succeeded. And while her name doesn't appear on Technorati's top searches, there are about 176 posts mentioning her name as of this hour (with misspellings, surely more).

SENATE '06: Dogging Byrd

Conservative WV blogger Don Surber is very pleased by the NRSC's new ad hitting Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV): "The ad is cool. No sheets. None of that KKK crap. It never worked before and not bringing it up shows some class. The ad gets to issues people care about without distortion. He's changed, is that good? That is what the election should be about." The ad itself is available at The Political Teen.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: So I Says To Mabel, I Says

Ace from Ace of Spades HQ tackles the dilemma of many a blogger -- how to write when one really has nothing to say: "A lot of times I don't link big stories because 1, I imagine everyone knows about them, so why should I waste your time linking a story you already read? and 2, because I have nothing to add. I mean, they rounded up nine bombing suspects in London. This is great news. And that would be my comment: 'Hey, guys, this is great news.' The suspected bomb-master has been detained in Zambia. Again: 'Hey, guys, this is really super news. I hope they hang him. That would be even more super.' So, nothing to add. Unless I could pull a Wretchard [of Belmont Club] and analogize the capture of nine terrorist suspects to Darius' defense of Athens or somethin'. Which I can't. Was Darius even the king of Athens? I have no idea. So, right there, strike one. Anyway... just letting everyone know, they're catching the terrorists. Yes, I know about it, and I'm not mentioning it because I figure you all do too."

LEST WE FORGET: To The Many Innovative Uses Of The Blog Format We May Now Add Mash Notes

Someone is hoping for attention from CNN's Inside the Blogs segment, and from CNN producer Abbi Tatton in particular. Someone going by the handle iluvabbitatton. This is from the latest entry on the blog I Luv Abbi Tatton: "It's time again for the Wonderful World of Abbi Tatton. For those of you airheads, Ms. Tatton is the co-host of the segment Inside the Blogs on CNN's Inside Politics, and she's something to see. You should tune in. Seeing Ms. Tatton now is like listening to Edward R. Murrow during the Blitz. Some day, you can pull your grandchildren up on your knee and say, 'I used to watch her back when she hosted that show about blogs!' And the wee ones will say, 'Ooooo!'" More: "The segment got underway shortly thereafter (here comes the reason why today was notable). I was distractedly lounging and watching the tape when I saw something that literally made me leap up: Ms. Tatton had a new necklace on!" Here's one more: "I know I said I wouldn't do this (and I'll have something to say about that soon), but I couldn't help noticing Ms. Tatton and [CNN blog reporter] Jacki [Schechner] dressed similarly today: similar blouses and with necklaces. Like stylish bookends.

BLOGOMETER SPECIAL: Stratego

What the blogs are saying about Pres. Bush's pick of John Roberts for the SCOTUS.

At Bench Memos, NRO's Ed Whelan writes, because the left has been "unable to embrace" either a strategy of painting Roberts as a moderate to set up the next fight or inflicting political damage on the WH by fighting hard against him, their default strategy -- "whether it deserves the label of 'strategy' is dubious" -- has become "using document demands and other maneuvers to try to delay the Senate's confirmation of Roberts, in the hope that ammunition to use against him will develop in the meantime. This strategy gives every promise of backfiring." Whelan predicts the public will support the Roberts nod, the Dems will oppose him, and the public will conclude that Dems "are not reasonable and will discount their screeching about the next nominee."

At TPM Cafe, contributor Elizabeth Cavendish laments the "strenuous legal and policy efforts John Roberts undertook [in the Reagan WH] against the interests of African-Americans, women, immigrant children, and prisoners, typically in the name of some other principle like 'judicial restraint'..."

THE FIGHT: Who Says The Art Of Letter-Writing Is Dead?

The Dems have put up a web page soliciting questions for Roberts. A number of liberal bloggers take notice, including Tennessee Guerrilla Women, Air America's Majority Report blog, Lucky Spinster and othes. MyDD's Chris Bowers posts his submission, a question asking what's the truth behind Roberts' Federalist Society association.

GOP-leaning Confirm Them: "If the past is any indication, groups on the Left will inundate the Committee with letters opposing Judge Roberts or raising questions about his record. And at some point during the hearing, we can count on [cmte Dems] whining that they have hundreds or thousands of letters from lawyers, academics, organizations, and individual Americans expressing concerns about Judge Roberts' nomination. It's critical that [cmte GOPers] be able to respond in kind..."

RELIGION: Church And State Eye Each Other Warily From Across The Room

RedState's Mike Krempasky posts the text of an AP headline: "Roberts would be fourth Catholic on Supreme Court; impact unknown"; he asks: "Anyone ready to deny that we'd see a protest march on AP headquarters if that headline had read, 'Roberts would be fourth Jew on Supreme Court; impact unknown'"?

Power Line posts the text of a letter sent by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) re: Roberts's Catholicism. Hyde: "'Practicing Catholics need not apply' cannot become a rallying cry of modern day religious bigots who would seek to drive from the public square all federal office candidates of faith."

Posted by at July 29, 2005 12:26 PM