August 22, 2005

8/22: Quiet Riot

The war in Iraq is over and we have lost, say a growing number of liberal blogs. Conservative bloggers too are distressed, with some speculating that the war will be lost if Iraq's constitution turns it into a theocratic state. This is not the only Iraq-related story from the weekend, and bloggers aren't the only ones worried. 2 possible WH candidates, Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), are generating buzz -- both positive and negative -- for their criticisms of the war. Meanwhile, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan is still in CA, having left TX late last week to on account of her ill mother. Yet Sheehan is expected to return. As this week begins, it seems more media, more anti-war activists, and more counter-protesters have decided Crawford is the place to be. Otherwise there have been no significant developments in the Crawford standoff, where the attention seems to be on the amount of attention Sheehan and her supporters are getting.

In other news, the war and domestic issues are costing Pres. Bush even some GOP support; conservative bloggers are rallying around an indie House candidate Jim Gilchrist, whose main issue is illegal immigration; Able Danger takes a tumble and CAP defends 9/11 commish/ex-Clinton official Jamie Gorelick; and much, much more!

IRAQ I: We Knew From The Start / Things Fall Apart

• On the right, there is more than unease about the direction of the Iraqi constitution:
  
  

  >> NRO's Andy McCarthy writes in a post at The Corner that the war will be lost if Iraq is allowed to create an Islamic state instead of a democracy: "When and where militant Islam thrives, America and the West are endangered. That is also a fact. How can we possibly be urging people who wisely don't want it to accept the government-institutionalized supremacy of Islam?" NRO's Michael Ledeen follows up later, mostly in agreement: "I'm also concerned because our current ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, was previously ambassador in Afghanistan and he sat still for a constitution that called the country an 'Islamic Republic,' fulfilling the demands of the Iranians. I hope he's braver in Baghdad."
  

  >> Austin Bay posts a letter from a Sunni friend in Iraq who believes there should be a 5-year waiting period before writing a constitution. Little Green Footballs and Instapundit both link to The Big Pharoah, which calls it a "disaster in the making," and urges readers to call the State Dept. Conservative Belgravia Dispatch is flabbergasted that Defense Sec. Don Rumsfeld and JCS Richard Myers can't cite the number of independently able Iraqi security officials offhand, even as they talk about exiting Iraq. Cunning Realist, who has fast become one of the left's favorite self-described conservative bloggers, makes a similar criticism.




• On the left, there is detectable schadenfreude:
  
  

  >> Toward the end of a long post titled "Slouching toward the Islamic Republic," lefty Billmon writes: "It is increasingly clear, though, that whatever the original face value of Bush's promises of liberation, the American public is no longer willing to pay the price to redeem them." MyDD's Jerome Armstrong: "I'm beginning to believe that the best way to end the war in Iraq is not so much as the Democrats uniting against it (sorta late for that), but for the Republican Party to have a division over staying or getting out of Iraq."
  

  >> Vanity Fair's James Wolcott compares the pro-war/pro-women's rights arguments of liberal hawk Roger L. Simon with AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht, whose "Meet the Press" appearance is attracting plenty of criticisms from liberal blogs. As Wolcott argues, "one of the leading neocon architects of the very war that Simon champions ... isn't that concerned that a new Iraq constitution might roll back and restrict women's freedoms, subjecting them to Islamic law." Crooks and Liars has video and a short round-up of liberal reactions to Gerecht.
  

  >> Inspired in part by New York Times' Frank Rich writing that the Iraq war "is over," a TPM Cafe contributor asks, "shouldn't we as an exercise, be trying to figure out how the conservative rhetoric machine is going to spin the fact that America DID NOT WIN THE WAR?"

WHITE HOUSE '08: Hagelian Dialectic?

Sen. Chuck Hagel's (R-NE) comments on Iraq are attracting some attention. Header at Lean Left: "GOP Rush To Discredit Hagel In 5, 4, 3..." Conservative Tim Graham, at The Corner: "I hate to sound snarky on a Sunday, but precisely where is the 'news' in this story? "Hagel Says Iraq War Looking Like Vietnam." He's been saying that for two years." Liberal The Poor Man: "I suppose the wingnut contingent will soon have to stop complaining about All The Good News You Aren't Hearing About, and start intimating that [the left is] happy that we have failed, and are probably somehow responsible for it, too. F--- you. Seriously: f--- you, and f--- anybody who kind of looks like you."

Liberal Oliver Willis proposes: "In 2008, Democrats need to get rid of strategy and go with their 'gut.' The Democrat who demonstrates the most 'gut' should be the nominee. We'll follow along and see who's got it, and who's gutless." So far, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) appears an early favorite for calling for an Iraq timetable. MyDD's Chris Bowers: "I would like to alert the entire Democratic establishment to something very important that happened within the netroots over the past twenty-four hours: the meteoric rise of Russ Feingold..."

MyDD is hosting a "straw poll" measuring its readers' support for possible WH Dem candidates. Like recent polls held at Daily Kos (see 6/21 and 7/19 Blogometers), ret. Gen. Wesley Clark leads the pack, here with about 27% of the vote. Ex-VP Gore and Feingold are the only others to poll in double-digits. Rounding out the top 5 are NY Sen. Hillary Clinton and VA Gov. Mark Warner.

SHEEHAN: The Only News Is No News

At Huffington Post, Sheehan herself addresses a post to Matt Drudge -- who has publicized some of her more controversial remarks -- saying that she is not "the issue"; the "disastrous war that's killing our sons and daughters" is.

NRO's Eric Pfeiffer flew to Crawford over the weekend, where he will be posting live to The Buzz from "Camp Casey." So far he has a few photos up, along with his first impressions. Liberal blogger/radio talker Brad Friedman is in Crawford, where he will broadcast live early this p.m.

Gene Allen, a reader of Power Line who lives in the area near Bush's ranch, has been filing dispatches for the blog. On 8/21 he reported, a "pro-Bush gift shop with a Ten Commandments monument out front" received a bomb threat, and also that an anti-war protester had been jailed for a separate dispute with a Bush supporter. Photos are said to be forthcoming.

RedState's Josh Trevino recently traded several e-mails with Sheehan spokesperson Michelle Mulkey, in an attempt to clarify the truth behind the 3/05 e-mail where Sheehan is alleged to have said, inter alia, "My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel." Mulkey maintains that a "hacker" changed Sheehan's words later. At RedState and Macho Nachos, Leon H outlines several points where he finds Mulkey's explanation unsatisfactory.

TNR's Jon Chait writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Sheehan also criticizes the Afghanistan war. One of the most common (and strongest) liberal indictments of the Iraq war is that it diverted troops that could have been deployed against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Are liberals who make that case, yet failed to enlist themselves, chicken hawks too?" Kausfiles calls it a start on the "badly-needed liberal case against Sheehanism."

REPUBLICANS: Bailing On Bush?

Conservative UCLA prof Stephen Bainbridge writes in a post that has gathered much notice from conservative blogs: "It's time for us conservatives to face facts. George W. Bush has pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the criminally incompetent. We control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and (more-or-less) the judiciary for one of the few times in my nearly 5 decades, but what have we really accomplished? Is government smaller? Have we hacked away at the nanny state? Are the unborn any more protected? Have we really set the stage for a durable conservative majority?" Guesting at Michelle Malkin's blog, Junk Yard Blog's Bryan Preston objects to Bainbridge's post, allowing he has a point on domestic issues, but disagreeing vehemently on foreign policy. He writes: "It seems that the Summer of Sheehan has everyone a little on edge."

IMMIGRATION: The Passion Of The Gilchrist

Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist is running for SEC chair Chris Cox's safe-GOP House seat in the OC. Almost instantly, he has the support of some high-profile conservative bloggers. PoliPundit encourages readers: "Please give whatever you can. Or the politicians will continue to condone the illegal invasion of America." Gilchrist's donation site is done through his own website, and there is no immediate feedback on how much has been raised, such as the ActBlue.com page used by bloggers to raise money for ex-House candidate Paul Hackett (D-OH).

California Conservative gives Gilchrist a favorable mention, as does Michelle Malkin's website, thanks to guest-blogger Lorie Byrd (usually of PoliPundit). Conservative Powder Blue attended Gilchrist's announcement, and writes, "illegal immigration is not an issue unto itself. There are literally dozens of other issues that are directly related to ills that illegal immigration causes. ... This country badly needs someone like Jim Gilchrist and I am proud to support him." Right-leaning OC Blog: "Gilchrist does not come across as a wacko. Instead, he displays the plain-spoken eloquence of a citizen-politician. He will indeed make this an interesting race."

Conservative Mark In Mexico, unsurprisingly based in Mexico, posts a very lengthy and frank post on the trouble with Mexico, titled "The last word on Mexico." It includes a "refugee assimilation plan."

BLOGS VS. THE BELTWAY: Debbie Does Friendster

Liberal Chris Bowers issues his 2nd memo to Beltway Dems. His 1st was issued through the NDN's New Politics Institute (see 8/11 Blogometer). He differs from Daily Kos' Moulitsas, who had said at an NPI event in DC that the liberal netroots were mostly non-ideological. Writes Bowers: "If you want to effectively communicate with the netroots, and if you want to effectively harness its power, then you need to recognize that we are ideological as well as reformist."

BOPnews discusses a young woman who uses her account at popular friendship networking site Friendster to help pro-choice causes: "The next world of political organizing is in the person to person space -- whether a replacement" for the declining MeetUp.com, "or in the more creative use of sites like Friendster -- this allows organizations to reach out to real people who have expressed real interests and can build real bonds. In the flesh world someone like Debbie would be a ward captain, or an organizer for a city chapter. It's just that her precincts are in the netropolis."

ABLE DANGER: Saving Gorelick

JustOneMinute's Tom Maguire, upon learning that Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer has changed his story, and apparently did not give specific names of terrorists to the 9/11 commis: "Well, I bet folks have a few oaths for [Rep. Curt] Weldon [(R-PA)] and Shaffer just now." Previously, Mickey Kaus had been speculating that there were in fact 2 Mohammed Attas, and the one picked up by Able Danger was not the one Kaus himself found in a news story from 1991.

Think Progress' Judd Legum posts the e-mail contact info of a few top conservative bloggers, asking readers to repudiate their "smear" of ex-Clinton official Jamie Gorelick. Conservatives have said she helped create a "wall" between the FBI and Pentagon which hindered investigations; liberals say this is not so. The post at Instapundit was written by Univ. of WI law prof Ann Althouse, who defends her involvement in an 8/20 post at her own blog. Instapundit's regular pundit, Glenn Reynolds, followed up later this weekend: "I haven't written anything about Jamie Gorelick and Able Danger, so I guess I'm dropping the ball in the "continual smear" department." In an update at the link above, Legum asserts that Reynolds should still get e-mails, "because he needs to issue a correction to his readers." Legum also follows up with another post, noting that Reynolds has criticized Gorelick for different reasons, and decries his "Instamorals."

CAP's Legum also called calls NRO's John Podhoretz "compulsive liar" for similar statements about Gorelick. At The Corner, he apologizes in part for getting "an adverb" wrong.

ROVE-PLAME-MILLER: Kelly's Heroes

At his Ragged Thoughts blog, New York Post's Robert George assembles a 2-week outline in 7/03, a time coinciding not only with the Wilson op-ed, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove conversations with reporters, and the Matt Cooper column, but also with the misbegotten BBC report on "sexed up" Iraq war justifications and the apparent suicide of UK weapons expert David Kelly. Previously but under-reported are brief correspondences between Judy Miller and Kelly. Miller mentioned a member of the Kelly "fan club" saying that "things went well"; in a terse reply, Kelly wasn't so sure. George asks: "From which side of the Atlantic was that 'fan club' member? Who was it? Keep in mind the context: Kelly's testimony was vital to the Blair government's assertion that BBC reporter [Andrew] Gilligan had overstated the information Kelly had given him. So, what does 'things went well' mean in Miller's context?"

FIGUEROA: Too Late, But Don't Blame The Blogs

Liberal All Spin Zone reports that the body of Latoyia Figueroa has been recovered, and her boyfriend is in custody. The search for Figueroa received nat'l media attention earlier this month, thanks to mostly-left-leaning Philly-based blogs such as All Spin Zone.

ConservativeRedState notes that the boyfriend will be charged with the murder of Figueroa and her unborn child, on account of the so-called Laci and Connor's Law, and comments further on the perceived "turn in the bend in this country in regards to respect for the unborn."

MISCELLANY: You Breit And Risen Angels

• In the Los Angeles Times' "Outside the Tent" column, the usually-anonymous author of Patterico's Pontifications, Patrick Frey, has an op-ed criticizing the Los Angeles Times for failing to report information reflecting poorly on Sheehan.
• Fishbowl LA notes that many wire stories linked by the Drudge Report now go through Breitbart.com, a website owned by author/ex-Drudge collaborator Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart.com features AP and Reuters wire stories with no ads and a nearly black-and-white design.
• In a post at Wizbang, WILLisms' Will Franklin decries the abuse of blog carnivals, and defends his implementation of a ratings system for his hosting of "Carnival of the Vanities" (see 8/18 Blogometer).
• Conservative The Jawa Report hosts a "Left and Right Bloggers Military Service Survey," asking a number of top bloggers about their service. On the left, Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas and One Good Move's Norm Jensen have served. On the right there are a few more, including Kim DuToit, James Joyner, Blackfive and John Cole.
• NJ-based Jeff Jarvis: "The Lower Manhattan Development Association is waiting until Sept. 23 to decide the fate of the IFC at Ground Zero. I agree with Take Back The Memorial: We must not wait until then. To have this hanging over the memorial events on the fourth anniversary of the tragedy would be an insult to the memory of those who died that day." For more, see the 6/27 Blogometer.
• TalkLeft posts photos and local news reports from the Hunter S. Thompson funeral at Woody Creek.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The War On Politicians

Andrew Sullivan guest-blogger Walter Kirn: "My problem has nothing to do with the drugs themselves, though, or the use of them, but by the hypocrisy. How come candidates get to admit to crimes that, when they're elected, they put others in jail for but have not been punished for themselves? ... The next time a presidential candidate makes his ritual drug confession, I think they should be given a choice: serve out the prison term or pay the fine that applied when they offended or recuse themselves and their administration from enforcing the same laws. Better yet, let them commit to changing the laws that they were fortunate enough not to have been caught breaking. Fair? I think so."

LEST WE FORGET: Purple People Eater

Washington Post's Joel Achenbach complains about writing his Post-sponsored blog this weekend. The piece is somewhat amusing, but the accompanying cartoon is definitely worth a look.

SCOTUS SPECIAL: Boxing Day

What the blogs are saying about John Roberts:

On 8/19, radio talker Hugh Hewitt looked at the massive Reagan Library document dump and decided to "organize a division of labor for blogger review of these files," encouraging people to "'adopt a box' of Roberts documents for careful review and analysis," then posting results to one's blog.

Hewitt's producer, blogging at Radio Blogger, keeps track of which bloggers have signed up to read through each box, out of several dozen boxes. Captain's Quarters is the largest blog signed up, with 2 of its writers reading at least 3 boxes. After that there are dozens of smaller blogs involved, including Tapscott's Copy Desk, Brainster's Blog, Kennedy V. Machine and FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog. Some sign up to read through entire sections of boxes.

Later, Hewitt announces there are "no headlines" in his box. But Captain's Quarters finds grist for a possible Dem "smear" against Roberts in a foreign policy memo.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS: Anti-Monarchist?

Right-leaning Bittersweet Me was on the fence about Roberts, until learning of the WH memo where he recommended that Reagan not give an honor to Michael Jackson: "I was undecided on Judge Roberts but this new development has me well in his camp. ... You have to love his candor."

Posted by at August 22, 2005 01:09 PM