November 21, 2005

11/21: The Doors Of Perception

While the weekend itself was on the quiet side, it followed a tumultuous Friday night in Congress and a crazy week in politics before that -- Rep. Jack Murtha's (D-PA) call for withdrawal from Iraq, Bob Woodward's Plamegate revelation, degenerating cross-party relations and even degenerating cross-blog relations. Now the House and Senate have left for Thanksgiving recess, but the blogosphere is right where it always was. They've been debating the issues mentioned above, as well as the possible death of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, 2 of Pres. Bush's 1st-term officials who may have disclosed Valerie Plame's name to the press, the ongoing saga of Open Source Media, and even Bush's recent mishap with a door. Which by itself is a decent indicator that not much happened in the last 24 hours.

CONGRESS: Turning Straw Men Into Political Gold?

As reported by Hotline's own On Call, the GOP called a "Murtha vote" late 11/18 to put the House on record about the idea of withdrawing troops. Markos Moulitsas had suggested Dems "simply disappear for the vote. A 218-0 vote would be pretty useless as a political weapon for the GOP." Meanwhile, conservative Larry Kudlow warned the vote would be a mistake: "It is not serious. It demeans the House. It totally politicizes the debate. It is a ploy and a rather weak one at that." But the vote went forward, 403-3. Some Dems say they voted against the GOP resolution because it differed from Murtha's resolution, including Murtha. Brad Blog shows the 2 resolutions side-by-side. Captain's Quarters and No End But Victory are among those who live-blogged the unfolding mayhem.

Lefty Matt Yglesias is surprised but not at all displeased with the recent silence of pro-war Dems: "I suppose I shouldn't be complaining about this, but I'm a bit surprised by the reaction to John Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq. Where are the 'responsible' liberals lecturing him on how, whatever one thinks of George W. Bush's handling of the war or the decision to invade in the first place, we need to stay as long as it takes to stabilize the situation? Where's the Bull Moose? Where's Wes Clark? Where have you gone Joe Biden?" He adds: "Are people changing their minds? If so, they should say so. The war won't actually end unless people who want it to end speak up." On the other hand, righty Hugh Hewitt sees something else happening: "Many Democrats were emotionally undone by the exercise of having to confront their own rhetoric, and the anti-war left must be stunned this morning: Only three votes? All that work? All those marches? All those posts at the fever swamp bulletin board? For three votes?"

Conservative Lorie Byrd theorizes: "The more I think about it, the more I believe this is just a way to diminish any political goodwill that will accrue to the Bush administration when troops do begin leaving Iraq. I think the same can be said for the timetable Democrats wanted to impose in the Congress." Slate's Mickey Kaus asks: "Someone who works for Ralph Nader once described to me a brilliant technique of his: When he heard a rumor that the government was about to do something, he immediately called a press conference and demanded that it be done. Is that what Rep. Murtha has now done?" Liberal Marc Cooper called the GOP call for the vote "one of the most repellant political maneuvers in recent memory": "Instead of hearing the anguish of a majority of Americans who have soured on the Iraq war, instead of searching in good faith for some reasonable way forward -- or back -- the House Republicans turned instead to a game of playground double-dare." Conservative PoliPundit wishes more Dems would have voted to withdraw: "If Democrats want to be known as patriots, they must do what they think is right; they should vote for immediate withdrawal. Patriots do what they think is right for their country."

One of Murtha's chief critics on the floor was Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH); she is very familiar to lefty bloggers for beating current OH SEN candidate Paul Hackett in the 8/05 OH special (see 8/3 Blogometer). Jonathan Singer, the new weekend blogger for MyDD: "It took Jean Schmidt only three months in office to get publicly upbraided by the President, quite a feat even for a woman of her reputation. The Democrats ought not give her a pass next fall, especially in light of Friday's developments."

Conservative Euphoric Reality posts an e-mail from Murtha acquaintance David Truby, who writes: Have no idea where today's Jack Murtha is coming from and I question that sincerely. ... He has appeared on KDKA to repeat his anti-Bush, anti-Cheney and anti-war outbursts. He sounds quite emotionally wrung out, frankly." Conservative Pundit Guy jokes about Murtha's raise profile: "Knowing how things work, we'll probably see him on the cover of PEOPLE Magazine next week partying with Tara Reid." Crooks and Liars has video of Murtha on "Meet the Press" on 11/20.

IRAQ: Wishin' And Hopin'

One of the biggest weekend stories was one we won't be covering much: Whether al Qaeda's top terrorist in the region, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a blast during a firefight with U.S. forces. Many were willing to publicly state their hopes that it was true, but others were more circumspect, and at this point, most have accepted that the reports were likely erroneous. The Counterterrorism Blog reports on reports that Zarqawi is in fact not dead. The Jawa Report heads a post "Zarqawi Still Alive, The Left Celebrates." Jawa and others point to Armando at Daily Kos as one of those rejoicing, although in the post linked to, Armando writes that Zarqawi's death would be a "boon to the fight against terror," and would force Bush to confront the Iraq problem on "real terms." Power Line is one of numerous conservative blogs pointing out that Zarqawi's family has disowned him. To them it is more proof that "the war in Iraq is steadily being won."

PLAMEGATE: Unreliable Sources

Over the weekend, 2 competing theories emerged from the Times of London and Newsweek about the identity of Woodward's source. The former says NSA Stephen Hadley; the latter indicates it may be ex-State official Dick Armitage.

>> Considering Hadley -- Liberal Kevin Drum is skeptical: "I don't remember if this has been definitively reported before, but Hadley has almost certainly testified in this case previously. He was much too close to the action for Fitzgerald to have ignored him before now." Liberal Barbara O'Brien lists a few reasons why the Hadley scenario is believable. And conservative Mark Coffey is satisfied that it probably is Hadley: "So how big a deal is this for Hadley? No doubt he's all lawyered-up, but he needn't be too concerned at this point. ... After all, neither Libby or Rove was indicted for leaking Plame's name or status."

>> Considering Armitage -- Conservative Tom Maguire tries on the theory from a few angles: "And how about motive? Let's accept" the argument that Armitage had no "motive to discredit Wilson" -- State still "had a strong motive to discredit the CIA," and "the tidbit that Wilson was tapped for the trip by his wife may have been tossed in an amusing bit of supportive gossip intended to discredit the CIA, not Wilson." Liberal Jeralyn Merritt finds several parallels that work for her, too. Conservative Mark Noonan likes it even more, writing that Armitage is "liked by the MSM... and if he was the source, they'll drop this issue like a bad habit for fear of drying up the rest of their sources. We'll be back to leftwingers spinning bizarre conspiracy theories... and Joe Wilson won't be able to get in front of a camera if he stripped naked on Times Square."

Jonah Goldberg, on what he considers the failure of the Fitzgerald investigation: "There's been much handwringing about the chilling effect all of this will have on the press in the future. I don't buy it anymore. A year or two from now -- and certainly in the next administration -- we will see far more leaks. When people demand an investigation, the Fitzgerald inquiry will serve as a useful cautionary tale."

MIDTERMS '06: How The DSCC Got Its Groove Back

Recently Dem-leaning bloggers have called for a blog for every contested House race in the country (see 11/14 Blogometer); At Swing State Project's DavidNYC highlights a few, including Take 19 in Rep. Sue Kelly's (R-NY) district, Dump Mike about Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ), and Say No To Pombo opposing Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA).

Noting a report that SEN '06 Dems have outraised '06 GOPers; a striking development considering that GOPers hold wide leads in nat'l cmte fundraising and House races, Hugh Hewitt speculates the cause is with "grassroots disgust with the Gang of 14 in the spring, and now the Alito delay, the [jud. nominee Bret] Kavanaugh deep freeze, and last week's meltdown over the Warner Amendment have crippled efforts to rally enthusiasm behind the 2006 Senate races in which the GOP holds an opening edge because of the map."

In These Times' Christopher Hayes reports, blogged-up OH SEN candidate Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says of the "rhetorical hand grenades" lobbed at him from the blogosphere: "My wife says it's like when you have a cold sore, you keep running your tongue over it ... I keep telling her, 'Connie, stop reading the blogs!' But she can't help herself."

THE ALITO NOMINATION: Joe Blow

UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge argues that Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) "mischaracterizes" SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito's views by bringing up the "one man-one vote" doctrine, which Bainbridge contends Alito did not do: "He questioned the reapportionment decisions. As I've explained before, it is entirely possible to endorse one-person/one-vote and still oppose the reapportionment decisions. In any case, I doubt whether the Gang of 14 will see the a one-liner about the reapportionment cases as a sufficient justification for supporting a filibuster ... and, if they do, they'll cave when the leadership threatens to invoke the nuclear option."

PENTAGON: I Can't Believe It's Not Torture!

The split over Pentagon treatment of detainees is far apart enough that critics have been calling this a debate about torture for sometime, whereas defenders generally put "torture" inside scare quotes. ABC News has released a list of harsh techniques used in military interrogations.

John Hawkins appraises the list and finds little of concern. He writes, "torture is smashing people's toes with hammer, hooking electrodes up to their nether regions, and sticking bamboo shoots under the fingernails. It's not 'making them cold' or giving them a 'pink belly.' While these interrogation techniques are undoubtedly unpleasant, none of them rises to the level of torture."

BUSH: And Behind Door #2 ...

Bush's door gaffe this weekend is a media event tailor-made for the Internet; it's short, funny, and captured on video. While we previously might have said the clip was tailor-made for TV, it's better now because viewers can call it up at any time they want. It finds a prominent position under the banner at conservative Drudge Report, and early this a.m. it was the very top item on the liberal Huffington Post: "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work." Crooks and Liars has video.

For a series of photos giving you the gist, see Eschaton. Conservative The Political Teen posts it, too: "Sometimes you just have to laugh."

AMERICAblog: "So this is how desperate Bush is to prop up support for his failed adventure. Sure, it's nice that Bush is visiting Mongolia but to try and make a splash in the news for a country that sent 120 people to Iraq tells me that this is a team eager to grab onto anything."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Beavis And Buckhead

Along with publication of a book on Memogate, ex-CBS prod. Mary Mapes is also pushing back against the bloggers involved by raising questions about their connections. In response, GA atty Harry MacDougald -- better known as Buckhead, the Free Republic participant who 1st questioned the CBS documents -- has set up a page explaining how he recognized so quickly that the documents were likely forgeries. He writes in one section: "So, how did I know? The short answer is that I am 47 years old and I am not a blithering idiot. A more elaborate answer" follows.

Neoliberal Mickey Kaus seconds conservatives critical of the Los Angeles Times' "embarrassing deception in the second paragraph of Friday's front-page, two-column-headline lead story, which seemingly proclaimed that 'no Democrat was a firmer ally'" of the war than Murtha, "when in fact Murtha had been a critic of the current Iraq war in 2002, before it started? Funny how those propagandistic mistakes in the news pages never get made in a pro-Bush direction, isn't it?"

In an essay for Strategy Page, Jim Dunnigan: "The troops can email back their experiences promptly, and this causes a disconnect in many people, between what they see in the news, and what they are hearing from people who are in the middle of it all."

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: Cracking The Source Code

It was a wild end to the week for the 11/16-launched blog company OSM/Open Source Media, which debuted to faint praise, tepid-to-hostile reviews, petty blog-fights and self-outings.

Among several problems with the OSM site, lefty Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas drew attention to the fact that the news feed on the front page displayed headlines from Xinhua, allowing Moulitsas to suggest that OSM is a "Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece." Sometime this a.m., the news feed disappeared entirely, before returning -- with a handful of Xinhua stories included. Crooks and Liars compares OSM's slow start to HuffPo's "65 posts" on day one: "I guess it must be hard to pat yourself on the back and type at the same time." One of the 1st new features to debut this a.m. is a round-up of commentary on pre-war intel edited Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, titled "Look back, in pajamas."

David Corn: "I'm still waiting to see OSM straighten itself out. The debut was hardly that of a powerhouse site, and changes, I'm told, are in the works. I hope quickly in the works." Corn added that he'd given much input, and was waiting to see what next. Reynolds soon seconded his post. Participant Max Sawicky: "The site design is nice and clean and everything works. It's just that there has been so little of interest. If you want Glenn's links, you can get more at his site."

Jeff Jarvis: "I can't figure out what OSM think it is or will be in editorial, business, or blog terms. So tell us. Before you do, put it up as a wiki for your editorial board and members to edit ... Then put it out for the world to see." He advises they become a "conservative Huffington Post": "Thank your liberal tokens who were kind enough to join in and give you beard and come out and be right and be proud." Bill Ardolino is also confused: "I'm surprised that they didn't recruit and promote more bloggers to produce original newsgathering rather than straight pundits that rely on secondary material."

The major subplot involved OSM ex-participant/critic Dennis the Peasant made a poorly-received joke about shooting the Simon family dog and drew flak for that. Roger L. Simon, OSM co-founder, wrote: "Recently my OSM colleagues and I have been subjected to all kinds of criticism, much of it well intentioned and warranted. But a fair amount has been surprisingly personal, bordering on the abusive." In the comments, Simon's wife Sheryl (using the pseudonym "SJ") suggested that "Dennis" be outed. Instead, Dennis revealed his own identity as Columbus, OH CPA Kenton Kelly. He joked that his clients had fired him over the revelation, posted unflattering pictures of himself, and one of himself with OSM co-founder Charles Johnson. In a subsequent post, Kelly described his participation in-depth, explaining how he came to be involved in the project, how Simon changed plans without communicating, and announced the creation of Pajamas Media (see 5/2 Blogometer) without telling him. In a follow-up post, Simon confirmed some of Kelly's claims while rejecting his chief complaints, without much detail.

Another subplot involved Ann Althouse, whose latest post on the matter is linked. Dismayed by the gender-specific barbs from the LGF commenters, Althouse sought a defense on feminist grounds, without much success. Libertarian Cathy Young disagreed that the attacks were so gendered, and pointed out that Althouse had resorted to objectionable imagery first. Lefty Atrios is almost sympathetic: "The underlying issue is, of course, a real one. ... Still, the 'I can ignore it until it happens to me' game is annoying."

OSM does have its defenders: Non-member Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind is one. Member Pieter Dorsman at Peaktalk argues the financial backing bodes well -- "any content-based venture that is able to raise a significant amount of early stage financing in the post-internet boom world is pulling off a significant feat." But others agree with Althouse and Kelly, such as Dan Riehl at Riehl World View: "In the end, no one cares about Kelly -- if he is out, he's out. But you have started and are by design now the purported leader of a serious new venture. Might I suggest you start acting like one? Either get serious, or go back to playing around with a less than wealth enhancing blog like the rest of us. This is getting embarrassing for us -- and it isn't personal." Meanwhile LGC, a LGF-affil. site, has taken to diagnosing OSM's critics as suffering from ODS -- "OSM Derangement Syndrome."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Rockefellers, The Astors, The Dentons

Late last week, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington hosted a party to honor Gawker Media's Defamer -- apparently just for being a popular blog. Pictures went up at Huffington Post on 11/17; Defamer has more, too. Maybe it's the Huffington presence, maybe it's the Hollywood setting, and maybe it's just us, but are blog fetes looking more and more like the New York Social Diary?

LEST WE FORGET: It's A Beautiful Day In The Blogosphere, A Beautiful Day For A Blogger ...

With the blog company OSM under fire, Iowahawk offers a FAQ which manages to be both blunt and irreverent, useful to critics and supporters alike. Don't miss his description of the business model. Meanwhile, Riehl World View imagines an eerie, but still compelling, hybrid of OSM and "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

NOTES AND ERRATA: In Other News, Thune May Seek The WH'08 Dem Nod ...

On 11/18 we wrote about Sen. John Thune's (R-SD) appearance at a pen-and-pad session for conservative bloggers with GOP sens. We wrote then: "Thune also noted that he had brought along a member of his Senate staff whom he'd hired from the Daschle v. Thune blog." The immediate following sentence should have read: "It's worth noting that those bloggers came under fire for receiving money from Thune at the time without disclosing it." Instead, we replaced Thune's name with that of his opponent, ex-Senate Dem leader Tom Daschle. In addition to being incorrect, it didn't make any sense. The error has been corrected in our online archives.

Posted by at November 21, 2005 01:10 PM