November 29, 2005
11/29: Duke's Hazard
All afternoon and last night, the big topic of discussion was the guilty plea and resignation of ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA). While the scandal's developments drew attention through the summer (see our previous coverage), it never became a major event of the sort it temporarily is. By far, most of the work following the case was done by Josh Marshall, veteran reporter-blogger at Talking Points Memo and recent founder of TPM Cafe. There hasn't been much to say about him since then, even as bigger news events dominated the early fall. In today's edition, Marshall picks up where he left off, and many others join in.
There was actually 1 other major story in the last 24 hours -- the no-confidence vote of Canadian PM Paul Martin. Because Hotline follow U.S. politics and events that may impact U.S. politics (which we do not expect of this), we don't have any specific coverage of the events to our north. If you're interested, Memeorandum is the best place to go for reax.
Also in today's edition, Iraq withdrawal plans remain the subject of heated debate, Pres. Bush's immigration speech is widely panned, and a few dedicated Plamegate watchers offer their best guesses about what's going on. We also take a look at what we believe is the 1st campaign wiki, and we have our latest Blogger Spotlight.
CUNNINGHAM: Just A Good Ol' Boy ... Never Meaning No Harm?
Cunningham's resignation affords liberal bloggers a chance to ponder just how effective the corruption charge against the GOP could be in '06, or even in the likely special election to fill Cunningham's seat. Conservative bloggers all but throw him overboard, with a few pausing to recognize his military service. Crooks and Liars has video of the speech.
>> Center-left Bull Moose Blog: "Cunningham's tearful admission of guilt was useful for his Republican colleagues. As the Abramoff Congress comes to grip with their manifold sins, Duke was a role model of how to accept responsibility for the outcomes of the culture of corruption. 'The truth is, I broke the law, concealed my conduct and disgraced my office." Those may be the watchwords of ten years of Republican rule." 
Josh Marshall writes, the "Co-conspirator #2" mentioned in the Cunningham indictment was Mitchell Wade, until recently CEO of MZM. Marshall points out that Wade had been a key fundraiser as well for Reps. Katherine Harris (R-FL) and Virgil Goode (R-VA), the latter sponsoring a bill that created more business for MZM. Marshall adds: "But there's no evidence, to the best of my knowledge, that Goode was personally enriched in any by Wade. Personally enriched, that is, as opposed to getting lots of money in campaign contributions." Steve Clemons points out that Cunningham was also "involved as well in the old Tailhook scandal."
>> Conservative Donald Sensing calls it an "admission of corruption of a most serious kind," but also points out: "The dogfight in which he scored his fifth aerial victory has become a classic study of air combat and was recently featured in The History Channel's documentary, 'Greatest Air Battles.'" Belmont Club devotes a little more space to Cunningham's aerial heroism. At Outside the Beltway, the pseudonymous Leopold Stotch acknowledges he is "prone to hyperbole," calls him a "traitor": "I don't care what this guy did in the Vietnam war, this erases that. He should be boycotted in the original sense of the word: before he's put behind bars, no one should even speak to him." RedState's Moe Lane: "Upon rereading that, I feel that I must add: to heck with the trust of your friends and family. It's the trust of the citizens of the United States of America that's of real issue here." Right-leaning Marc Danziger excoriates Cunningham's "betrayal" of the military: "Do you really believe that the soldiers who depend on whatever the hell it is that MZM and ADCS make got the best that could be bought?" K.J. Lopez, at The Corner: "The press is piling this scandal in with DeLay and Frist, which isn't quite fair. But the culture of Michael Scanlon and Jack Abramoff, yes. Get clean or meet your electoral doom, guys."
>> Re: the possible CA 50 special: Swing State Project: "Two tugging forces will likely decide how Schwarzenegger acts: On the one hand, Arnold was widely criticized for wasting state money by calling a special election for this fall. If he waits just 10 days, he can save money by consolidating the special election. On the flipside, some in the GOP might be calculating that a low-turnout special election is better for their chances, especially since CA Dems appear to be energized." With a 45-30 GOP advantage, MyDD's Chris Bowers forecasts the district as "Solid Republican, but not so solid that victory following a big scandal is hard to imagine."
>> Hit and Run's Tim Cavanaugh jokes: "Against that grim bill of goods, I'll just point out that Randy Cunningham took the Eagles to the NFC playoffs five times, something most of his accusers haven't even done once."
IRAQ: The Plan Keeps Coming Up Again
On 11/27, Washington Post's Broder wrote, Dems are finally approaching a "sensible" Iraq policy -- one reducing "troop commitment while shifting security responsibilities to the Iraqis," thereby requiring "a significant acceleration in the training of Iraqi security forces and in the civil reconstruction projects." Conservative QandO can hardly believe this analysis: "So, after 2 years of debating Iraq policy, the Democrats have decided that training Iraqi security forces to take over and reducing US deployments as they do -- 'as Iraq stands up, we will stand down' -- is the best course in Iraq? ... The Democrats have not come up with a new Iraq Policy. They've jumped onboard the Bush administration's existing policy, with the novel new suggestion that we stay the course... but try harder.
Liberal Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings points out that Sen. Joe Biden's (D-DE) WaPo op-ed withdrawal plan "calling for a timetable for Iraq yesterday, and today the White House not only endorsed Biden's plan, but" as per AFP, "claimed that it was actually Bush's." Hilzoy notes the conservative bloggers who scorned Biden's plan -- Captain's Quarters, Instapundit and Hugh Hewitt -- and asks: "Now: imagine for a moment that the bloggers I just quoted actually sat down and thought about Biden's plan, concluded that it was a bad idea, and that this reflection explains their posts. In that case, you'd expect them to respond to today's White House statement with horror and alarm."
- MN blogger Hammerswing75 reports that a family friend of his was among 4 hostages kidnapped in Iraq on 11/26.
- Justin Hart at Right Side Redux has started a page collecting anti-war arguments and rebuttals to them. He launches with a half-dozen argument/rebuttal entries, and invites readers to submit more.
IMMIGRATION: Border Crossing
Bush's immigration speech was largely overshadowed by Cunningham's resignation, and in the blogosphere by the Canadian no-confidence vote. But those who did weigh in don't have much complimentary to say:
A sarcastic Michelle Malkin live-blogged the speech: "Most ridiculous line so far: Introducing his temporary 'guest worker' plan by saying we need to 'bring workers out of the shadows and reject amnesty.'" More: "Here we go. Temporary worker platitudes. They do the jobs 'Americans will not do.' Tepid, tepid applause." California Yankee: "All I really wanted to hear the President say was that in order to be allowed to participate in the temporary worker program illegal aliens would have return to their homeland. Was that too much too ask?"
In a post titled "GOP Gives Up The Hispanic Vote," lefty Oliver Willis says he opposes guest-worker programs and wants both borders secured, but believes the conservative immigration focus is all about racism: "I see 2008 in the GOP being a race to prove who hates the brown-skinned folks the most." Uggabugga's Quiddity writes that Bush is ""still hiding behind the military," giving this latest speech at an Air Force base: "Bush has tended to give speeches about the Iraq War (and terrorism) at military facilities. But immigration?"
REPUBLICANS: Exile On Main Street
Michelle Malkin tells readers that she's received a letter from the Main Street Partnership accusing her of "libelous statements." She includes a link to the letter included. On 11/10, in a post about the "cave in" on ANWR drilling by Main Street GOPers, she wrote: "The group who succeeded in pressuring the GOP to cave in calls itself the 'Republican Main Street Partnership.'" Later that day she wrote: "Guess who is funding the 'Main Street' moderates? George Soros and friends."
In their letter to Malkin, the RMSP' attys say: "RMSP does not, nor ever has, accepted any financial support or assistance from Mr. Soros. Your statements to the contrary are false, misleading to the public, and damaging to RMSP's reputation." Malkin writes 11/28 that this is a "baseless legal threat." "Forgive me for spelling out the painfully obvious, but anyone who clicked on the link that I provided saw that I was pointing to the Soros donation to the Main Street Individual Fund, which funds 'Main Street' moderate Republicans, as well as to the Center's statement connecting MSIF with the Republican Main Street Partnership. ... Ms. Graham mistakenly believes that I asserted Soros gave the donation to the RMSP. Not true." She adds that Open Secrets "completely deleted the 2004 Soros donation from the entry."
PLAMEGATE: Not Only Is It Not The Same Novak, It's Not Even The Same Vivica ...
Confusion is still pretty much the order of the day when it comes to the latest in the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation, and what it means for Karl Rove.
On the right, pondering Fitzgerald's interview with Time magazine reporter Viveca Novak on conversations with Rove atty Robert Luskin, Aquarian Conspirators wonders if Fitzgerald might "be trying a prosecutorial Hail Mary... It would be nice to know that one day all Fitzgerald's mysteries will be revealed to the public. But at this time he is still generating more questions than answers about his not-yet-done investigation." Macsmind's Macranger believes that the one thing "I can tell you for absolute certainty is that Fitzgerald is in no way looking at anything close to a 'leak charge'. If anything (and that's a big 'IF'), additonal charges (if any) would be about the same as what was rendered at Libby. Anyone who is telling you something other than that is well, full of crap."
On the left, Atrios simply wonders, "Um, so Viveca Novak's been covering this story and she's friends with Rove's lawyer?" Needlenose's Swopa comments on a Washington Post story, saying that "if you can't wait to find out what stunning revelations Viveca Novak has to share with Fitz ('Luskin told me Karl was innocent!'), the Post reassures us that she 'is expected to write a firsthand account after she is deposed.'" The Anonymous Liberal ponders the Novakity of the situation: "Given that a reporter named Novak drew Rove into this mess, it would certainly be bizarre if another reporter named Novak got him out of it." Kevin Drum: "I'm not even going to try to speculate about what all this means. There's just not enough data. But one thing is clear: whatever's going on here, it sure doesn't appear to be good news for Karl Rove."
Tom Maguire stays on the case of whether NBC's Andrea Mitchell "had been contacted by Fitzgerald's investigation. Her current denial .... stands in stark opposition to her" 10/29/05 comment on Tim Russert's CNBC show. He asks: "Is she being deeply evasive and deceptive with her current answer?" Maguire provides 3 possibilities: She was mistaken then (as she contends), is now being "Clintonian," or is now lying.
WOODWARD: Blondes Really Do Have More Fun
At Huffington Post, filmmaker/ex-Carl Bernstein wife Nora Ephron comes to the defense of Woodward. She starts with "Truth #1: Bob is not a liar" on the important things, and she believes he did tell Walter Pincus that he knew of Plame's name early. She continues: "Truth #2: Bob has always had trouble seeing the forest for the trees. That's why people love to talk to him; he almost never puts the pieces together in a way that hurts his sources. And that's also why he has so much access: his sources can count on him to convey their version of events. When Bob says that when he was first told about Valerie Plame, he didn't think it was important, you're seeing the perfect confluence of Truth #1 and Truth #2." As for why Woodward "trashed" the Fitzgerald investigation, she offers an explanation: "If you don't talk to Woodward, you'll be sorry. I mention this not because it's precisely true ... but because it's an operating truth in official Washington." In a subseqent post, Arianna Huffington explores why Woodward missed the big story: "Some would say it's because he's carrying water for the Bushies. I disagree. I think it's because he's the dumb blonde of American journalism, so awed by his proximity to power that he buys whatever he's being sold."
CAMPAIGNS: Is There Going To Be An '08 Dark Horse With A Breakout Wiki?
By now, even many non-blog readers know that blogging is important to political campaigns. But what about the campaign wiki? For the uninitiated, a wiki is a website designed to be easily altered by anyone. The concept concept was popularized by Wikipedia, and was briefly attempted by the Michael Kinsley-era Los Angeles Times op-ed page (see previous coverage) Wikis keep track of all page edits, who made those edits, and typically support forum pages to hash out disagreements when they arise.
As far as we know, the 1st campaign wiki belongs to tech exec./UT SEN candidate Pete Ashdown (D), who has both a campaign blog and a campaign wiki. Ashdown's wiki allows participants to edit and extend his policy positions on a variety of issues and his message to voters explaining why he should be elected. The wiki also provides (modifiable) advice to potential volunteers.
From our brief perusal of the site earlier today, the issue-oriented pages would be interesting if it was clear Ashdown was paying close attention to them. If he's not, it's just an innovative timewaster. If he is, we wonder if that's not being a bit too responsive to supporters (even Howard Dean circa '03 never let his campaign volunteers write his plaform). But the strategy pages beneath the list of issues is definitely something interesting. There is not a great deal there now, but already it provides resources (and as noted, advice) for supporters that once might have been sent out in e-mails or posted to less-dynamic campaign web pages. There's a page for oppo, for advertising, fundraising, volunteer sign-up and more.
PENTAGON: Bringing A Whole New Meaning To The Word "BritPop"
Crooks and Liars' John Amato follows up on the "trophy" video depicting someone shooting at cars in Iraq, writing that he has "learned through sources close to the investigation that the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for 6 years. After the incident the Regional Director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis held an 'inquiry' into it. A letter was sent by one of the members of Aegis up the chain after he quit. It was read by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer, who is investigating this incident and interviewed the author. That was about 8 weeks ago and nothing has been done since. Our sources believes Spicer -- who appeared in this Telegraph story -- is covering up for Aegis at this point."
WHITE HOUSE '08: A Matter Of Course
In a post for The Moderate Voice, Justin Gardner is plenty pleased with outgoing VA GOV Mark Warner's (D) opposition to setting an Iraq withdrawal date: "Now, this position will certainly upset the KOSsacks, but who cares. We need to do the right thing in Iraq, and even though that doesn't seem to be lining up with the American public's opinion of what we should do, it doesn't matter. And I certainly give Warner credit for putting a stake in the ground and speaking truth to power." Indeed, head Kossack Markos Moulitsas finds nothing good to say about this: "I like Warner, but this position is untenable and increasingly obsolete. The debate has shifted from whether we should get out of Iraq to when and how we should get out. Even Bush has admitted as much."
MIDTERMS '06: This Buckeye Stops Here
Earlier this a.m. at Buckeye Politics, Tim Russo wrote: "We're hearing that Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman is dropping out of the governor's race today at 3pm. We're also hearing that State Senator Eric Fingerhut is getting into the governor's race. Not sure if the two are related. Stay tuned." Later in the a.m., the Columbus Dispatch posted a report confirming Coleman's forthcoming depature from the race.
Political Wire's Taegan Goddard puts the question to National Journal's Charlie Cook: "Are retirements a reliable leading indicator on forecasting a change in control of the House of Representatives?" Cook responds: "In and of themselves, the number of retirements that a party has is not a particularly good leading indicator of seat changes. But, a large number of retirements from incumbents in vulnerable seats can result in a large number of seat changes. ... Obviously, the current bleak political environment and the prospect of a bruising campaign may force some entrenched Republican incumbents to reconsider another term. But, where those retirements come from is still not clear."
BlogKC, on why Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO), "from the whitest suburbs of St. Louis," is visiting the "urban core" of Kansas City: "The answer is that he's shoring up support in the face of a strong challenge from Claire McCaskill. ... It looks like Senator Talent is following the game plan that's served his colleague Kit Bond well over the years. ... While urban core and black leaders in St. Louis are generally solid Democrats, their counterparts in KC are more open to schmoozing and generous helpings of tasty federal pork."
BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: One Down...
Pajamas Media ed board member Tim Blair announces at his personal blog: "As of yesterday, Pajama Media's editorial board is missing one member. Me. Simple decision, really. PM needs people who can devote themselves full-time to rescuing the project after a launch that was, to say the least, problematic. It would be wrong for me to continue any involvement without being able to help to that extent. Hopefully PM will turn things around; I'd love to see it succeed." At Althouse, Pyjamas Media (note the spelling difference) and Right Wing Bob, there is detectable schadenfreude. Pajamas-affil. blogger Laurence Simon: "Baldilocks announced that she was taking on a new gig called 'Blogger Relations' at Pajamas Media on the 22nd. It is now the 29th. One week later. No email announcement. ... No sign of 'official' forums on the horizon. I have one word of advice to Baldilocks: cash the checks they send you quickly."
In an interview with Right Wing News, Michelle Malkin comments on the troubles: "I admire and respect a lot of the other bloggers (involved) and I think there has been an admission that they've made some errors, you know, with respect to at least the name. I think going back to Pajamas Media is a good idea. I never had a problem with it in the first place, I thought it was fun, it's easy to remember, and they had a good URL. So we'll see how things go from there."
BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Anotherway Inefay Esmay Ou'veyay Ottengay Usway Intoway
Today the Blogometer talks to Dean Esmay, who blogs at Dean's World.
What is your full name?
Dean Esmay
What is your age?
I was born July 15, 1966.
Where did you grow up?
El Paso, Texas, Chicago Illinois (south side baby!) and the Tidewater area of Virginia one fine long summer as a child.
Where do you live now?
Near Ann Arbor, Michigan.
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
Network engineer and freelance writer. I have written for a number of publications. I have never worked professionally for any campaign.
When did you start blogging and why?
I first started in the late 1990s, before there was any such word as "blog." I had a series of essays I wrote that I pasted on my old domain syndicomm.com before I sold it to another company and took the pages down. I first started working with blog software in early 2002.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
My favorite post is "The Brainteaser that Changed My World." I have posted this a few times, the last time here. I love it because most people, even very bright people, get it wrong. It's a stumper that had me puzzled for a long time, and proved to me that sometimes no matter how sure you are about something you have to work it out empirically to get the right answer.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
I typically post about a half-dozen items in the early morning, then perhaps 2-3 later in the day. I use the timing feature of the Powerblogs software so that the things I wrote in the morning will appear at different times throughout the day, so you'll usually find new stuff constantly appearing on the site even if I'm not around.
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
My favorite political blogger is probably Bill Quick of Daily Pundit -- we disagree on many things but he's always interesting to read and to argue with.
My favorite non-political blogger is Professor Rudy Rummel at Democratic Peace -- it may seem cheating because he's a political scientist who occasionally discusses modern politics, but he's more a political science who writes about history and what is probably the most important scientific theory today: the Democratic Peace Theory.
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
James Taranto. The guy's a scream!
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
"Special Report with Brit Hume."
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
news.google.com
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
But believe it or not there is no blog I visit daily but my own, and my wife Rosemary's blog at Queen of All Evil. Instead I pick random blogs off my own copious blogroll and just cruise around looking for something interesting.
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
At this point almost never. What's the point? Most of what's in a printed newspaper is out-of-date by the time it reaches the store. For lengthy in-depth features, what's online is as good as what's in print.
How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?
The "old media" is going to have to become a lot more like the blogosphere. Fewer and fewer people believe in the supposed "trained objectivity" of journalists. Reporters and news editors are going to need to become more honest about their own political views and prejudices, and instead of trying to get rid of those prejudices they should just admit them and pledge to try to be fair anyway. The "old media" also needs much greater transparency about how they persue a story and what they choose to put in and leave out of a story. The news needs to be far more of a two-way conversation than it traditionally has been. The news media also needs to be much quicker about acknowledging mistakes. Most people don't mind mistakes, but they do mind stonewalling and denial.
Bloggers will also have to remind themselves occasionally that there really is a difference between editorializing and reporting, and to remember that working journalists are just people doing a job, a job that is important and that most bloggers can't do themselves. Bloggers and journalists should see each other as natural allies. If they do, they can work magic together.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: TimesRecept?
Frequent TimesSelect critic Mickey Kaus compares the pay-website model to cable TV, suggesting the way to profitability may be bundling: "If you get the premium package you get dozens more. The potential revenue raising equivalent, for newspapers, would come if they banded together in some sort of consortium ... The goal would simply be to charge a low enough fee and feature enough content so that the vast majority of Web users would feel like they had to pay the fee or else they'd be out of it, Internet wise -- the same way most TV users now feel they have to at least subscribe to basic cable to be part of things. "
LEST WE FORGET: I, Kegbot
Whoever says drunk blogging is a bad idea obviously never had access to the Linux-powered Kegbot. If you're not persuaded yet, let The Inquirer and Gizmodo help.
Posted by at November 29, 2005 12:35 PM
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