November 11, 2005

11/11: America First?

Though int'l stories like the Jordan bombing and French rioting still draw some attention, today's focus is on, believe it or not, domestic policy. GOP leaders had already drawn the ire of conservatives for "caving" on ANWR drilling. Yesterday, they held off on votes on the entire budget bill itself [in the House], and on extending cap-gains tax cuts [in the Senate]. There's a mix of glee on the left and disgust on the right.

Also, questions persist another day about Judge Samuel Alito's stake in Vanguard, as the RNC hosts another blog conference call. John Edwards admits a mistake on the Iraq vote, and wins back some lefty bloggers (who maybe wish he'd done it in '04). Plus: some movement on the FEC front.

REPUBLICANS: Those Were The Days

Liberal Josh Marshall: "What we're seeing today are the cascading effects of the breakdown of Republican party discipline, beginning with the collapse of the president's popularity ... and echoing out from there. Blanton at Red State: "Let's be clear. This is a fight that the moderates cannot be allowed to win. For the first time in a decade, the House Republican majority is acting like the Contract of America majority we thought we sent to Congress." Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) writes at RedState: "This turn of events stinks about as badly as it gets. ... For weeks the Blue Dog Democrats have been saying we're spending too much and that they stand for fiscal responsibility and yet none of them came out to support these reductions in light of Minority Leader Pelosi making clear she wanted no Dem voting with us." Daily Kos calls the GOP "The gang that can't shoot straight," and writes: "GOoPers are suddenly running as far away from their leadership as they possibly can, so they can claim in 2006 that they aren't DeLay's rubber stamp. Alas, [acting Maj. Leader] Roy Blunt [(R)] is no Tom DeLay. He appears to be closer to the "Bill Frist" school of leadership mismanagement."

Michelle Malkin discovers that George Soros has been helping a 527 the benefits moderate GOPers. She also has a roundup of letters readers have been sending to GOP Reps. lamenting the demise of ANWR. Righty Ace of Spades HQ, on ANWR: "Why doesn't Bush speak to the nation about both reducing the deficit and drilling in Alaska? Make it simple: If you oppose this, you can blame yourselves for high oil prices and ever-increasing dependency on foreign sources of oil."

Conservative John Hinderaker says the budget bill "was bad enough," but the Senate Finance Cmte's pulling of a tax-cut extension bill "may have been even worse." More: "So the Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot once again. The national media are having a field day, recording the party's panic and disarray. What I want to know is, what is the source of the apparent malaise on the Republican side of the aisle?" Liberal Scott Shields writes: "The GOP is now in retreat, doing everything they can to stop the bleeding. Arrogant right wing Bush Republicanism has been repudiated." But his colleague Chris Bowers laments that moderate GOPers and not Dems get the credit. Liberal Max Sawicky documents how recent GOP woes haven't brought much change: "It's all fine to talk to yourselves, whip up the faithful. But look at the Congress. Look at the right-wing media colossus. It's still there."

BLOGS VS. THE FEC: Forget The Becker-Posner Blog, Where's The Shays-Meehan Blog?

More Soft Money Hard Law's Bob Bauer considers H.R. 4194, sponsored by Reps. Chris Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), and criticized by bloggers (see 11/10 Blogometer). On 11/10 Shays and Meehan defended their bill, "their alternative to a broad exemption for the Internet from the regulation of 'public communications.' They are concerned that their measure has given rise to 'misconceptions,' including misconceptions about their true purpose, which they claim to be a largely limited one of avoiding corporate paid advertising on the Internet. The threat of 'campaign ads on the Internet' is the principal 'soft money loophole' that Messrs. Shays and Meehan have found in the full exemption." Bauer writes, Shays and Meehan "did not approve of exempting 'many individual Internet political activities while continuing to regulated paid advertising...' This was not their program at all. It was -- as they were then, if not now, prepared to openly avow -- to ensure that 'this new technology... remains subject to the basic architecture of the federal campaign finance laws.'" At Skeptic's Eye, Allison Hayward posts the text of the Shays-Meehan letter, gives it a fisking, and calls it the "latest screed from Reps. ShayMe purporting to 'respond' to the joint letter circulated" by Redstate's Mike Krempasky and Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas.

The FEC has released a draft advisory [PDF] re: MO Dem consultant Roy Temple's inquiry about whether his blog may qualify as a media entity (see previous coverage). From the opinion: "An examination of Fired Up's websites reveals that a primary function of the websites is to provide news and information to readers through Fired Up's commentary on, quotes from, summaries of, and hyperlinks to news articles appearing on other entities' websites and through Fired Up's original reporting. ... The Commission notes that an entity otherwise eligible for the press exception would not lose its eligibility merely because of a lack of objectivity in a news story, commentary, or editorial, even if the news story, commentary, or editorial expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate for Federal office." At Fired Up America, Temple posts the excerpt and solicits comments.

THE ALITO NOMINATION: On Guard

Suitably Flip and Decision '08 have a good roundups of the 11/10 RNC's latest conference call on Alito, which included RNC chair Ken Mehlman and ex-RNC chair/WH SCOTUS adviser Ed Gillespie. Here's a some of the reaction:

John Hawkins says: "The key thing they were trying to accomplish was to knock down the latest Democratic line of attack on Alito, which is that he may have done something unethical by ruling on cases involving Smith Barney and Vanguard." ProfessorBainbridge says that the WH "did not offer an effective response" to the Dem position. "They need a better set of talking points." Captain's Quarters: "Even if one concludes that Alito should have recused himself from Vanguard on the basis of his earlier promise if not the requirements of the law, he reached the correct rulings as a matter of law, rulings later upheld on a rehearing by other jurists.

Lefty bloggers continue to focus on the Vanguard issue, and Alito's defense. Patridiot Watch: "He made promises to get confirmed, then broke the promises. That's the Alito Record, and it is in writing and in the Official Permanent Record." Crooks and Liars: "He's using a technicality to justify his actions. If you're a judge you can't even hint at the possibility of something like this." AMERICAblog: "How can any Senator trust a single thing Alito now says during his confirmation? Sure, Alito said the other day that he has "great respect" for the precedent of Roe v. Wade. But just wait until after he's confirmed."

Captain's Quarters separately noted the New York Times's description of a subdued tone at the Federalist Society's convo, and opines: "I think the mood is appropriate to the occasion. After all, despite what appears to have been two very successful nominations (sandwiching a mystifying third, failed attempt for a political operative), the truth is that Bush has mostly played on home turf with the Supreme Court."

IRAQ: Johnny Come Lately

Edwards is getting some important street creds from the lefty blogosphere for admitting he voted the wrong way on Iraq, led by Daily Kos. MyDD's Chris Bowers: "Kudos to Senator Edwards. I could definitely support him in a primary now (not that I am saying I will)."

Liberal Oliver Willis made a prediction about Bush's speech: "If it's anything like the other 3,422,612 speeches he's given on Iraq I don't expect anything new or substantive."

A number of blogs, mostly on the right, point to this new Web site, "The Other Iraq," which includes an ad thanking the U.S. and U.K. for what it has done.

IN THE STATES: Looking Back, Looking Forward

A mix of '05 reflection with '06 speculation today.

Daily Kos writes about talk of the DSCC looking at VA in '06. "While we could argue that Dems should've been thinking about targeting Virginia's Allen next year before Tuesday, let's just be happy that they're thinking about it now." He notes somewhat excitedly that James Webb (D?) "wasn't just a Secretary of the Navy, but served under Ronald Reagan."

Conservative Hugh Hewitt reads this LAT story on a possible CA GOV bid by Warren Beatty and titles his post: "Please, God." At PoliPundit, Jayson blames low turnout in GOP areas for Gov. Schwarzenegger's defeat. "For Pete's sake in Iraq they got 60-plus percent turnout."

Swing State Project looks at sinking poll numbers for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and says: "I would not be at all surprised if the Republican Party is looking to 'pull a Torricelli' here and replace Santorum with a more likeable candidate."

Josh Marshall takes a "just in case Dems still lose" approach: "We're still virtually guaranteed twelve months of watching Republicans furiously working to find ways to stab each other in the back. So, really, even the fall-back is pretty decent."

WMD INTEL: Swarmin' Norman

In the 12/05 issue of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz challenges liberal "distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications" about Bush's promotion of the war, in a piece titled "Who Is Lying About Iraq?" You won't be surprised that supporters and opponents of the war take opposite points of view about the piece.

In the "support" column -- John Hinderaker: "Podhoretz demolishes the canard that the Bush administration lied about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, not by offering new evidence, but by succinctly and persuasively laying out the facts that demonstrate the absurdity of the charge on which the Democratic Party has apparently decided to risk its fortunes." Roger L. Simon: "If I were an Iraqi citizen thankful for my freedom from dictatorship (the vast majority, I imagine), I would despise Senator Harry Reid. Reid is either hugely immoral or butt stupid. Take your choice." Cold Fury calls it a "thorough debunking"; Austin Bay quotes large chunks, and writes: "Podhoretz destroys the 'Bush/Blair lied' meme."

Representing the "oppose" side -- Kevin Drum: "Unless you think that going to war is no more serious than planning a marketing campaign for a new brand of toothpaste, all of this contrary evidence should have been publicized and acknowledged along with all the evidence that went in the other direction. It wasn't." Matt Yglesias notes that Podhoretz joins a "suspiciously large number of conservative pundits have been offering out-of-context quotations" from a 1/04 Atlantic article by ex-Clinton official Kenneth Pollack. In the article, Pollack does question the WH's use of WMD intel. Writes Yglesias, surely "we can all agree that you can't cite an article that calls Bush a liar as evidence that he did nothing wrong."

MISCELLANY: From The Extremes

INDCJournal has some fun with Pat Robertson's crazy outburst of the month. And if you are wondering what Ralph Nader has been up to lately, Mark in Mexico has an update.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Our Latest Export

Campaign blogging is a recent development in U.S. politics, but we're not alone. In the Chilean presidential campaign, at least 2 of the 4 serious candidates maintain blogs on their campaign sites -- socialist Michelle Bachelet and conservative Sebastian Pinera. Both are stripped-down affairs with no blogroll or evident RSS feeds, but they are professionally designed, and Bachelet's is licensed under terms set by Creative Commons (common on many left-leaning U.S. blogs). What's more, both sites allow readers to comment on the posts. If the blog is any indication, Pinera has the edge here -- he's had as many as 150 comments added to some recent posts, whereas Bachelet's average number of comments appears to be zero.

LEST WE FORGET: A Special Edition Of Reader Mail

"Sam Alito" writes: "First, let me thank you for the mention in the blogometer last week. It was a great boost at a time when this could have been seen as a dumb stunt to capitalize on the Harriet Miers blog's attention. In case you were wondering, there are a number of these things, of varying degrees of success. I'm sure you are already aware of patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com (whoever registered the name without the "j" middle initial did a terrible job, and this guy took over). But you may not have noticed that between the Miers withdrawal and the Alito pick, the following names were also registered (in what appear now to be failed blogs):

• janicerogersbrown.blogspot.com
• edithhollanjones.blogspot.com
• priscillaowen.blogspot.com
• edithclement.blogspot.com

"Sam" continues: "there is also a karl rove blog and a scooter libby blog, though both seem to be inventions of the patrickjfitzgerald blog, where they frequently post comments." Thanks, Sam.

Posted by at November 11, 2005 12:42 PM