August 17, 2005

8/17: So He Says About 'Able,' He Says

Web readers: To go directly to the SCOTUS coverage click here.

Almost as soon as Slate's contrarian blogger Mickey Kaus noted that conservative bloggers had beaten a "semi-full retreat" on the Able Danger data-mining story (see 8/10 and 8/11 Blogometers) last p.m., a possible "whistleblower" figure had stepped forward: Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, saying he was ordered in '00 to withhold from the FBI information identifying al Qaeda agents in the U.S., including 9/11 hijackers such as Mohammed Atta and unknown others. What seemed a false start hinging on the dubious reputation of Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) is now enjoying a strong resurgence.

Speaking of whistleblowers, reports have ex-FBI agent/MN House candidate Coleen Rowley (D) heading down to Crawford, TX to join anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan and support her request to meet with Pres. Bush. While the left is pleased about tbe attention the story is receiving -- no longer do they complain that the MSM is ignoring them (as Sheehan did during her 8/10 "blogcall") -- a few are starting to wonder if the protest is being mishandled. Yet the most-remarked tangent surrounding Sheehan concerns the miniature crosses her supporters had erected to honor dead soldiers, only to be run over by a local resident. Meanwhile, bloggers play dueling transcripts with Sheehan's latest TV appearances, as she denies some controversial remarks attributed to her, while making new ones.

In today's edition we also debut a new feature rounding up blog news from the MSM and non-blog websites. And if you were expecting to see another installment in our "Communities" series, well, we're working on it.

TRACKBACKS: Put Your Lips Together And Blow

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

• 2 New York Times stories and 1 from the New York Post dealing with 9/11-related failures have generated major buzz in the past 24 hours. The first, from 8/16 by Philip Shenon, identifies Weldon's Pentagon source re: Able Danger as Shaffer, who says he is coming forward despite the damage it could do to his career. Shaffer contends his Able Danger team "repeatedly contacted" the FBI in '00 seeking meetings, but military attys forced them to stay quiet. Conservative bloggers including Power Line and Instapundit are pleased to see the story move forward; many preface their comments with "if true" caveats, but Shaffer seems well on his way to "whistleblower" status on the right side of the blogs.
  
  

  >> From the right... NRO's John Podhoretz: "If he's telling the truth, then the entire history of the last five years needs to be rewritten." Captain's Quarters: "At least we know that Rep. Curt Weldon didn't make up the whole story." Mark in Mexico: "Now I understand the timing and political significance of Clinton's statement yesterday that he would have ordered a hit on Osama bin Laden if only the intelligence agencies had told him that bin Laden was a threat. Clinton knew that the Able Danger program and his operatives' ignoring the information that Able danger unearthed would be political dynamite." Right Wing Nuthouse: "But if the 9/11 Commission staff is lying, don't you think that's something we should know? It worries me that the staffers may have pulled a 'Sandy Berger' and sanitized Commission records when they were in the National Archives last week."
  

  >> From the left... Laura Rozen finds it "disturbing that it's so hard to understand even now that Shaffer has gone public what exactly Able Danger came up with in terms of information on Atta and the other 'Brooklyn cell' individuals they allegedly identified." At Political Animal, Kevin Drum agrees the details are "still not very clear. 'Linkages' between a 'loose configuration' that was 'tied to' an al-Qaeda cell. Still, Shaffer is clearly claiming that they had Atta's name and wanted to tell the FBI about it." Left-libertarian Jim Henley: "I always thought the government was able to identify the 19 hijackers awfully fast after September 11, 2001. I'm not sure the Able Danger story explains how that could have happened, though." Kaus himself thinks Podhoretz and other conservatives are making a mistake by going after Commis. member/ex-Clinton official Jamie Gorelick and her "wall" between the Pentagon and FBI, but says that "doesn't mean there wasn't a mistaken culture of caution and compartmentalization" hindering investigations.
  

  >> Slate's liberal Eric Umansky, a Weldon skeptic, interviewed the Rep. for a post at his personal blog. Weldon confirms that the only copy of the Able Danger chart he owned he had given to then-dep. NSA Stephen Hadley. Weldon explains he found out about Atta being on the chart when he asked Hadley's office if they had a copy of the chart: "They said no. So I asked them to recreate one -- it was only then that they told me they had actually ID'd Atta and had recommended sharing it." Umansky comments: "So Weldon's story seems to have been consistent ... As to whether to join Weldon in his belief, well..."
  

  >> Conservative The Anchoress looks at the 2 stories and recalls an 8/12 post by Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters, asking why the arrest of 2 Iraqi spies in Germany in early '01, as reported 1st by a Parisian newspaper and then confirmed by BBC and Reuters, never made it into the 9/11 Commis. report. Today Morrissey follows up, noting his latest Daily Standard column is about the discrepancy. In the post, he writes: "For a commission that chided two administrations about failing to connect dots, the Omission Commission appears to have left more than a few dots off the map."
  

  >> More: RedState; Brothers Judd; Ohiocore; Right Wing News; Aaron's CC; Balloon Juice; Daily Pundit; The Sundries Shack; Flopping Aces; Junkyard Blog.



• On a related point, this a.m. the Times' Eric Lichtblau reports that the State Dept. told the Clinton admin. in 7/96 that bin Laden's "move to Afghanistan would give him an even more dangerous haven as he sought to expand radical Islam 'well beyond the Middle East,'" yet the gov't "chose not to deter the move."
  
  

  >> From the right... USS Neverdock scos at Clinton telling New York magazine: "I always thought, that bin Laden was a bigger threat than the Bush administration did." Wizbang, too, with this header: "Clinton Ignored Bin Laden Warning During Lewinsky Affair."
  

  >> From elsewhere... Liberal Pudentilla at the anti-capitalization Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: "therefore, bush's iraq war was clinton's fault. rove's exit strategy begins to take shape." The Moderate Voice makes a different point: "The reality is: both parties dropped the ball until the towers were hit."
  

  >> More: Ranting Profs; Bark Bark Woof Woof; The Right Scale.



• Meanwhile, New York Post's Deborah Orin this a.m. calls ex-NYC U.S. Atty Mary Jo White a "Cassandra" figure for pleading with Gorelick to "tear down the wall between intelligence and prosecutors, a wall that went beyond legal requirements."
  
  

  >> Power Line's Scott Johnson: "It is not clear to me from Orin's story exactly what White's memo is addressing. Orin does not include the date of White's memo, which would also be of interest. All issues related to "the wall" should certainly have been explored by the 9/11 Commission and covered in its report. I hope Orin will stay on the case beyond today's story." At The Corner, Jonah Goldberg calls it a "fairly explosive scoop." Betsy's Page says, the wall "was a scandal then and still is. It is the reason why so many have never had any great respect for the 9/11 Commission's supposedly objective and final analysis of the problems that led to 9/11. If they couldn't be fully honest about this part of the history, what else might they have been ignoring or downplaying?"

SHEEHAN I: Her Crosses To Bear

In a diary for Daily Kos, Sheehan herself addresses the damage done to roadside crosses, a component of her protest, which were trampled by a vehicle in recent days: "This man who ran over the crosses thinks he is a better American than we are. He thinks we are more patriotic than we are. Does he really believe that he is honoring the memories of the fallen and his country by running down 500 crosses and about 60 American flags?" More Sheehan: "We are moving to a place that doesn't have much shade and I put out an appeal for tarps and a soldier from Ft. Hood brought some to us that he 'borrowed' from Ft. Hood for us to use. I have had a lot of soldiers from Ft. Hood come out and tell me to keep it up and that I am doing a good thing." Left in the West: "I used to think that some liberals were not really supporting the troops very well, but I know that no liberal that I have met is so indecent as to drag pipes mutilating the crosses of the dead. I am done taking crap from Republicans about liberals that don't support our troops." Conservative agree the cross vandalism is bad, then move quickly to other tangents. Michelle Malkin: "Nice to see the far Left finally outraged about the desecration of crosses." Angry in the Great White North: "For what it's worth, I think the symbol of the cross was desecrated the moment Cindy Sheehan and the Sheehanites started putting them up. But it's a free country, you know."

Dem Bloggers: "The past several days have been rocky for Cindy down in Crawford but now a neighbor will allow Cindy to use his property which will put Cindy about a mile away from the shrub himself!" Of news that Rowley will be joining her: "Heck yea! Cindy has struck a nerve and shes not backing down." Conservative James Joyner snarks: "Surely, Jesse Jackson can not be far behind." MyView: "The whistleblower with no agenda against the Bush Administration is joining the left wing anti-war activists in Crawford, TX. Gee, couldn't be cause she's running for Congress now could it?" Captain's Quarters, who lives in the CD where Rowley will be challenging Rep. John Kline (R-MN): "Will Rowley issue a joint statement of support for these arguments with David Duke and Michael Moore? Will she also stand with Sheehan to promote the notion that this country deserves no sacrifice and stands for nothing but killing?"

At the Huffington Post, Salon's Eric Boehlert argues that conservative criticism of Sheehan has gone too far: "For those keeping score at home, Cindy Sheehan is a 'crazy,' 'anti-Semite' 'peacenik' 'kook.' An 'exploited,' 'left-wing moonbat' 'crackpot' whose behavior borders on 'treasonous' ... It's telling that when this story first broke, GOP pundits at least had the decency to preface their smears with obligatory nods to Sheehan's sacrifice. No more. It's war."

SHEEHAN II: What Will Be The Larger Meaning? That's Still An Open Question

Liberal journalist Chris Nolan calls Sheehan the left's Terri Schiavo, and fears that the "media circus" is getting out of hand. Noting that a well-to-do neighbor in L.A. is going out to Crawford, she comments: "Cindy Sheehan is now a Lefty Cause Celebre and the spectacle that's being created around her detracts from her message, just as the religious fervor surrounding Schiavo detracted from that cause." Liberal 1115 notes a pattern in Bush's refusal to meet with Sheehan: "Other than the current situation with Cindy Sheehan, the examples are numerous: Protesters that were separated from Bush with buses or were herded into 'free speech zones' miles away from him. Social Security 'town meetings' and campaign speeches where only hand-picked supporters were allowed to attend. The continuing refusal to speak with to the NAACP." Liberal The Tattered Coat argues that Sheehan could help break through the public's "cognitive dissonance" re: Bush, explaining, "American supporters of the President ... wanted to be duped. The alternative would have resulted in a painful shattering of illusions."

A commenter at TPM Cafe posts a partial transcript from the 8/15 "360" where Sheehan disclaimed comments attributed to her in a letter sent to "Nightline" in Mar. and reprinted by Christopher Hitchens on 8/15: "I do believe that the Palestinian issue is a hot issue that needs to be solved and it needs to be more fair and equitable but I never said my son died for Israel." Last p.m., NRO's Media Blog questioned her denial: "I think that if Sheehan saw the letter and signed off on it, that's enough to make her statements to Cooper dishonest. One of the many reporters documenting Sheehan's every move should ask her about this letter as soon as possible."

Confederate Yankee posts a partial transcript from "Hardball" wherein Sheehan says she oppposed the Afghanistan invasion, saying among other things: "I believe that our troops should be brought home out of both places where we're obviously not having any success in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and that's who they told us was responsible for 9/11." Confederate Yankee: "To summarize Cindy Sheehan: Nothing is ever worth fighting for, and nothing is worth defending, except for my son Casey, and because he died, we should abandon 50 million people in two countries." The Political Teen has the video. Righty Karol Sheinen prefaces a short list of controversial Sheehan quotes by asking: "Can you 'smear' someone by just quoting them?"

NETROOTS: Another Piece Of The Infrastructure

8/16 was the launch of PLAN, the Progressive Legislation Action Network, a project spearheaded by currently MT-based liberal activists/bloggers David Sirota and Matt Singer. The Sirotablog has an announcement. The PLAN website says the org. will "drive public policy debates and change the political landscape in the United States by focusing on attainable and progressive state level actions." Ezra Klein: "For years now, the Christian Right and the anti-tax zealots have focused on the state and local elections no one else was interested by, and it's been key to their consolidation of power. I'm very glad to see Democrats building counter-institutions to fight at the micro level..."

Ex-Spinsanity co-editor Brendan Nyhan writes, "The Internet politics bubble continues" with an article by MSNBC's Tom Curry citing the Paul Hackett campaign as a new campaign model that could make the current one "obsolete." Nyhan disagrees: "Consultants, TV ads and local knowledge are not going away. That's know-nothing hype of the sort we saw during the Internet bubble in business. The lefty blog infrastructure is going to help liberal candidates raise more money, but it's not going to change politics as we know it. ... The problem is that lefty bloggers think the Howard Dean/Paul Hackett phenomena are replicable, and they're not."

PULPIT POLITICS: Sunday Posting Going Up

Conservative Trey Jackson, who attended the Justice Sunday II event in Nashville, TN, is now posting video from the trip, including an interview with Evangelical Outpost's Joe Carter and Captain's Quarters' Ed Morrissey. He also provides video of speeches by House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay and ex-Sen. Zell Miller.

In a lengthy post, abortion-moderate conservative Bill Ardolino at INDC Journal criticizes pro-life conservatives Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt for their "condemnations of RU-486" over a minute number of deaths attributed to it. Righty Dean Esmay agrees.

ROVE-PLAME-MILLER: Bob Dole, Co-Conspirator?

Appraising an op-ed by Bob Dole in the New York Times, liberal David Corn flags him for "pandering" to the Times by complaining about Judy Miller's jailing, and for insinuating there is an "intent to harm standard" in the IIPA, which there is not. At TAPPED, Sam Rosenfeld calls the op-ed "cute" on the Times' part. He calls the part of it "explaining and endorsing" the Pence-Lugar shield law "perfectly commendable," but the rest is "nothing but innuendo and errant speculation, with a few choice GOP talking points ... thrown in for good measure." More: "Passionate support for a colleague in harm's way is certainly understandable. But when the smoke eventually clears, is this really how the Times wants the record to show it acted throughout the Plame ordeal?"

Arianna Huffington notes the possibility that Miller could be charged with criminal contempt after her civil contempt incarceration is over on 10/28: "Was the fear of additional legal steps being taken against Judy Miller the reason for Monday's preemptive PR campaign? Was this why Floyd Abrams went on Lou Dobbs and the New York Times did a glowing pro-Judy editorial?" Daily Kos: "Miller and the Times are desperate for some modicum of high ground to stand on, but they are merely defending that most detestable practice of modern journalism -- the anonymous attack on a political enemy. The more they defend the practice, the deeper in mud they wallow."

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: Sorry State Of Affairs

Patterico's Pontifications: "I'm disappointed in John Cole. His recent rant against Michelle Malkin defends the indefensible. He should know better." For details, see the 8/16 Blogometer. More Patterico: "Cole thinks the divorce isn't news. Malkin disagrees, and so does the AP. ... But Cole has come completely unhinged on the topic, excusing nasty leftists' personal and juvenile attacks on Malkin and her appearance." Reading said pontification, Balloon Juice's Cole decides to apologize: "I want it made clear that I in no way think the racist crap that is heaped upon Malkin is in any way fair, or justified, or deserved." He adds that he still disagrees about Sheehan's divorce records, but adds: "there will be a time for that later, and I don't want this turning into a typical Washington non-apology apology." Damnum Absque Injuria: "I'm all for quaint concepts like privacy and all that fun stuff, but then again, divorces are public records, Sheehan has made herself into a public figure, and news is news, particular when it goes to a person's credibility." [Update, 9/6: It appears as though we missed the overall intent of that post.] Say Anything: "Line up guys! The woman of your dreams is about to be single again!"

IRAQ: Time For A Suellentrop Follow-Up?

Rising Hegemon: "Watching the Daily Show last night, one could not help but notice the pall over a comedy show when [liberal journalist Sy] Hersh is saying his sources within the Pentagon are telling him that their intelligence is showing that a strong possibility of 'Tet-Like' offensives in Iraq in the near future, including a Battle for Baghdad."

BLOG NEWS BRIEFS: Cuban Blogger Crisis

Search Engine Journal reports, IceRocket blog search engine investor/Blog Maverick blogger/referee nemesis Mark Cuban says the day that Blogspot blogs are excluded from itss searches is "drawing closer due to the use of the service by blog spammers." Feedster lauches is the latest to rank blogs with its Feedster Top 500. Top overall blog: Jason Calacanis-owned Engadget. Top liberal blog: Daily Kos, at #5. Top conservative blog: Michelle Malkin at #9. DC's Mayor Anthony Williams (D) launches a blog, albeit without evident permalinks. He writes: "As I welcome you to my blog I'm asking myself the question: What is a blog anyway? Is it a modern high-tech version of the diary logging the experiences and observations of a local public official? Is it an almanac capturing my far flung and scattered interests in fields ranging from ornithology to baseball? ... I'm not really sure. We'll figure this out as we go." CT LG Kevin Sullivan (D) launches his own blog at Blogspot.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Salt Lick

Eric Alterman, on the spate of stories from 8/15 about how Bush is reading Mark Kurlansky's "Salt: A World History": "Guess what people, they're constructed by aides who have no idea -- or concern -- with what the president is reading, or even if the president is reading (or can read). Every year the press falls for them because they think there's nothing more important about which to write in August than some dumb fictional reading list that is designed purposely to fool people that the president is a more serious person, intellectually, than he really is."

LEST WE FORGET: Who Needs Your Opinion

If there's one thing bloggers love to do, it's participate in surveys. If there's 2 things they like to do, add hosting one's own survey. And if there's a 3rd thing, well, maybe some like to make up surveys out of whole cloth. Last week, conservative humor blog The Nose On Your Face posted the "results" of a "survey" of fellow bloggers. A sample:

Why do you blog?

• Everyone needs a break from internet porn-surfing sometimes. (43%)
• To make the voices stop. (18%)
• For the free punch and cookies. (16%)
• Bush's Digital Brownshirts make me. (14%)
• The ladies seem to like it. (9%)

• Low-traffic Panic Disorder (93%)
• A caffeine overdose (92%)
• Swamp ass (90%)
• Insomnia secondary to stat-checking (87%)

SCOTUS SPECIAL: Is There A "Sandy Berger" In The Bush Admin?

What the blogs are saying about John Roberts:

• Joe Gandelman seems to be the 1st to notice the Washington Post story that some Roberts documents re: his affirmative action work in the Reagan WH recently went missing after a review by WH attys. Gandelman is still sure Roberts will "get on the court," but perhaps "with questions that hurt his image." A few others join him, but the real blog swarm today (see the other Blogometer section) is around Able Danger and the 9/11 Commis.
  
  

  >> CAP's Think Progress: "It's a strange story, but here's what we know so far: 1. No one at the archives remembers the file being returned. 2. It's very unusual for the archive to lose a file. 3. The two administration lawyers are now helping the archives 'reconstruct the file' from their notes. 4. The White House and the Justice Department refuse to name the lawyers involved. Are we supposed to believe that this file magically disappeared?" Conservative La Shawn Barber: "Do they reveal Roberts is anti-skin color preferences, and therefore, conservative? Or did he capitulate and play PC with the other liberal boys and girls? Can't wait to find out which." Jeff Gannon -- yes, that one -- "Sen. Ted Kennedy has requested a Justice Department investigation. How long before he demands a special prosecutor?"

CONFIRMATION: Lots Of Confusion About What His "Equal Pay" Work Is About

• USA Today's report, "Roberts scoffed at equal-pay theory" from 8/16, gets plenty of comment, in particular from liberals who take it as evidence that Roberts is a misogynist.
  
  

  >> AMERICAblog: "The more papers that get released about Supreme Court nominee, the farther to the right he appears to be. Why are the Dems caving in on this fight?" Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte: "Of course, back in the 80s, one could be more open about the piggish belief that women aren't up to speed in ability. Now you have to polish that turd up with some pseudo-feminist bullshit and/or some cheap pseudo-scientific amateur theorizing."
  
  

  >> Markos Moulitsas headlines a post: "Gender equity the silver bullet?" He writes, it is "simply unacceptable ...to ridicule the notion of gender equity in the workplace..." He updates later with a correction based on the Daily Kos commentariat: "Roberts wasn't talking about equal pay for equal work, but "equal pay for different jobs of comparable value, based on factors such as skills and responsibility." That does muddy the issue quite a bit ... If nothing else, it makes this issue too complex to become that silver bullet." At Obsidian Wings, Sebastian Holsclaw explains how "equal pay for equal work" differs from "comparable worth" theory. The former, he writes, is not "radical"; the latter is, as Roberts had asserted.
  
  

  >> Donklephant's moderate Justin Gardener has been mostly pro-Roberts, but doesn't agree here at all. He adds, "another thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that this memo was written 21 years ago. People's attitudes change, and I'm hoping that's the case here."
  
  

  >> Conservative Unalienable Right writes, USA Today's article is "not an honest portrayal of the opposition to a proposed 'comparable worth' policy. The real issue is who decides what an individual should be paid by their employer -- their employer, or some federal bureaucrat in Washington. In a free society, the federal government doesn't tell private employers what to pay their employees." PoliPundit's Jayson Javitz: "And if you believe the partisan-liberal media is starting to go into high dudgeon mode over that nomination -- given the harsh reality, for the far left, of Roberts' upcoming confirmation -- well, you ain't see nothin' yet."

Having read the "hilarious" Washington Times profile of Roberts, DLC's Bruce Reed writes at The Has Been, "conservatives can rest assured that whether or not Roberts is reluctant to overturn Roe now, he would never have voted for it in the first place." Noting Roberts' school newspaper op-ed oppposing coeducation because it would be easier to study without a "[b]londe giggling and blushing behind me," Reed writes: "Anyone who dismissed all women as giggling blondes in 1972 certainly wouldn't have found a right to privacy in the Constitution in 1973."

Posted by at August 17, 2005 12:38 PM