December 22, 2005

12/22: The Year Of Blogging Dangerously

For your entertainment and edification, we present our year-end edition, a review of the year that was in the political blogosphere. For the sake of brevity, it's nowhere near as comprehensive as we might have liked. But then, that's what our archives are for. The Blogometer will resume publication on Tuesday, 1/3/06.

If 2004 was the year that blogs broke into the mainstream, 2005 saw an acceleration of this trend -- even without a presidential election to focus on. Unlike 12 months ago, the word "blog" itself is almost a household name. Those annoying wire stories that reiterate the fact that "blog is short for web-log" are definitely on the way out.

As a tool, blogs are merely the best-known aspect of "Web 2.0," a buzzword commonly used to describe post-dot com bubble innovations that are rejuvenating the Internet, and re-wilding the "wild west" of the Internet, as it was once known. Count RSS, folksonomic tags, wikis, podcasting, companies such as Google and concepts such as the Long Tail as part of the trend. Blogs are closely related to them all. If the above sounds unfamiliar, well, let's see in another 12 months.

As a community, blog participation appears to be growing at an exponential pace. Professional ventures continue to join the trailblazing amateurs, and some of those amateurs -- the elite bloggers you are most likely to see quoted in the Blogometer -- are seeing their influence grow along with it.

Take media professionals, who have a tortured relationship with the blogosphere: Many check in with a few favorite blogs regularly, others know what's being said but keep them at arms length, and not a few write for blogs. In the blogosphere, they can say for free what their employers would never consider paying them to write. (Count the number of MSM writers who are gainfully employed but also contribute to Huffington Post.)

Politicians are jumping into the blogosphere as well, although their reasons are quite different. To elected officials and candidates, blogs can help raise money. Blogs also can serve as an end-run around the establishment media, calling attention to issues and pressuring the MSM to follow up. But the embrace is even less easy than between bloggers and the media; politicians cannot count on even sympathetic bloggers to jump on command, and positive buzz can turn negative on very short notice.

Since our debut in late 3/05, the Blogometer has followed these events day in and day out. In this special edition, we'll try to summarize the major events, big debates, and overlooked stories that characterized the political blogosphere in 2005.

EARLY '05: A Close Schiavo

The fight over Terri Schiavo reached its height just as we launched; our 2nd edition covered her death and the extremely emotional responses. The right split hard -- more than over any other issue this year -- between pro-life advocates who saw removal of her feeding tube to be euthanasia, and those who thought the law was not on the pro-tube side. We quoted the now-defunct Hundred Percenter, who de-linked 8 high-profile anti-tube conservatives, including Instapundit and Little Green Footballs. INDC Journal's Bill Ardolino, one of the delinkees, responded: "The subtext of that post: 'Hillary '08!'"

Beyond Schiavo, the other early event that set the stage for Pres. Bush's long, slow decline in the polls was his abortive attempt to overhaul Social Security. In the end, there was too much reticence about dramatically altering the program and not enough support outside of business and conservative activists. Caution carried the day. As Matt Yglesias wrote at the time: "It's important to recall that we don't actually have the ability to make binding decisions about what Social Security will look like in the distant future. The program has only just recently reached the end of its very first 75 years and it's already been drastically changed several times."

Just a few months after the story known to some as Memogate and others as Rathergate, conservative bloggers seized on another apparent memo fiasco: The Washington Post reported that a GOP memo had declared the Schiavo case to be a "great political issue." Michelle Malkin and Mickey Kaus were among those who suspected another hoax or at least overzealous reporting by the Post's (now Time's) Mike Allen. Crosstown rival Washington Times gave this interpretation with a front-page, above-the-fold splash: "Was the Schiavo memo a fake?" Eventually it turned out the memo was not a fake; it had come from a mid-level staffer in Sen. Mel Martinez's (R-FL) office. Most who pushed this theory acknowledged the truth, lefty bloggers had a good laugh, and by this point is almost entirely forgotten. It is worth remembering as a reminder that blogs often push erroneous stories, and that once exposed, the misconceptions are more often than not quietly dropped.

DELAY: The Sugar Land Express

As the list of TRMPAC and Jack Abramoff-related accusations against then-House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay piled up early in the year, some on the left feared that he might be gone too quickly to be an effective bogeyman during the '06 midterms. In early 4/05, Sam Rosenfeld of TAPPED cautioned: "What did our president call it when Saddam fell too quickly? A catastrophic success. Think about it. Hands off DeLay!" And by late 4/05, conservative bloggers at RedState and UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge were calling on DeLay to resign. If anything, the coverage of DeLay's eventual step down has been characterized by one lull after another. The one exception was the day his eventual indictment by controversial DA Ronnie Earle.

IRAQ/TERRORISM/TORTURE: Sour Ghraibs

In mid-May, Newsweek published a few allegations of poor treatment at Gitmo by detainees there. Most memorable, and most questioned, was the report that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet. To the left, Newsweek was just the latest MSM to cave to admin. criticism, but to conservatives it was a betrayal. Austin Bay suggested that "history may see Newsweek's fatal 'Koran flushing' story as the US press' Abu Ghraib."

A few weeks after the Gitmo event, Amnesty Int'l suggested that Gitmo was a "gulag." Not long after, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) invoked Nazi atrocities when describing U.S. detainment practices. An uproar ensued, with conservatives interpreting his remarks as a direct comparison between the Bush admin and the Third Reich; liberals deemed that a misinterpretation. But Durbin apologized anyway, thus losing the strong support he had enjoyed from the lefty blogs.

Versions of this debate played out several times throughout the year, such as when the Washington Post reported on the existence of CIA prisons in Europe, over the existence of Able Danger, and now once again re: Bush's authorization of domestic wiretaps without specific court orders. The left considers it valuable reporting on a WH that's liable to do anything. With the sometime exception of torture, the right is angry not at Bush but the media. Many have called for prosecution of the leaks that resulted in these stories.

JUDGES: Filiblustering

The next signature fight of the early summer was over Bush's circuit court judges and the extant Dem filibuster that had kept them from a vote on the Senate floor. Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist, then a more likely WH '08 candidate than now, indicated his willingness to change Senate rules -- the "nuclear" (or "constitutional") option, and opinion tended to break neatly along party lines. But in the blogosphere, several liberal bloggers decided they'd be better off if Frist succeeded in getting rid of the filibuster.

Labor blogger Nathan Newman argued that "filibusters are inherently more of an obstacle to progressive government than a block to conservative politics." And while liberal and conservative bloggers endlessly debated whether the GOP's opposition to ex-Pres. Clinton's nominees was equivalent, the issue never came to a head: on 5/23, 7 GOPers and 7 Dems agreed on a compromise. Neither side was particularly encouraged. The Anchoress, from the right: "It's gonna be a long cold day before the [GOP] sees a dime of my money. A long. Cold. Day. Can someone please explain to me why, with 57% support from the nation ... the GOP caved on this?" Jesse Taylor, from the left: "Democrats win, basically. But they win in a way that is neither sure nor particularly productive in the long term." But it didn't take more than a few months for the CW to change, thus vindicating self-described "RINOs" like Mark Coffey, who had created a sidebar button for GOP-leaning bloggers who approved of the deal: "The Coalition of the Chillin." For a time, it allowed centrists such as Jeff Jarvis to wonder if the moderates could find a way to rule on other issues. But eventually it gave way to bigger fights over the SCOTUS vacancies that were coming soon.

SCOTUS: A Supreme Snoozer, A Serious QuagMiers, And Alito's Way

The filibuster compromise came at an opportune time for GOPers, as long-expected SCOTUS vacancies were indeed imminent. Over the months, many many rumors moved from conservative legal circles to RedState. Most, but not all, were wrong. The majority came from GA political consultant Erick Erickson, but one of the 1st (and one of the 1st wrong ones) came from Southern Appeal's Steve Dillard at RedState's Confirm Them: "Rehnquist will step down in the next four weeks: I don't think this news will come as a surprise to anyone, but I just received a phone call from an extremely reliable source who tells me that it's a done deal."

When Sandra Day O'Connor stepped down instead, up went the nomination of John Roberts, who proved to be relatively uncontroversial, even when switched to the CJ seat. Only when Rehnquist passed away, and Bush named WH counsel Harriet Miers to the bench did the 'sphere go wild. But the outrage came from the right, not the left, in a near reprisal of the angst over the filibuster compromise. This time ex-BC'04 webmaster (and soon to be RNC eCampaign dir.) Patrick Ruffini adopted the "Coalition of the Chillin'" logo for his pro-Miers group. Nevertheless, her withdrawal was a relief to conservatives. The left was more or less left scratching its head -- had they opposed her too little? Too much? And what came next? Next up for SCOTUS: Judge Samuel Alito, whose favor by conservatives and disfavor by liberals has restored the natural order of confirmation battles.

HACKETT: OH My

The summer doldrums brought 2 unexpected stories to the fore. One was the surprisingly strong candidacy of OH House special election candidate/Iraq vet Paul Hackett, who came within a few points of defeating now-Rep. Jean Schmidt in a heavily GOP district. Working in his favor was the OH GOP-implicating Coingate scandal, and the enthusiastic support of some influential liberal blogs, due in large part to Hackett's blunt criticism of Bush. Our 8/3 edition best summarized the frantic, heady week of fundraising and campaigning that led up to the 8/2 vote. Hackett became even more of a left-blogosphere hero after the election.

Later, Hackett's entry to the OH SEN race against fellow lefty blog favorite Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) would cause a minor controversy that resulted in the retirement of "liberal blogfather" Jerome Armstrong. We covered it 1st on 10/26, and followed up again with some original reporting on 11/1

SHEEHAN: Mother, Should I Trust The Government?

The 2nd big story was anti-war gold star mother Cindy Sheehan, who brought the anti-war movement as close as it's come to breaking out as a popular movement since the Iraq invasion. As we wrote on 8/16, "It may turn out that 2005 will be the Summer of Sheehan -- no matter which side of the increasingly emotional divide one finds themselves, the fact remains that it is an incredibly compelling and unnerving debate." Her encampment outside Bush's Crawford home during the dog days of summer -- in close proximity to a news-starved WH press corps -- and promotion by ex-Dean manager Joe Trippi helped get the media to pay attention, eventually turning her into a household name. Of course, much bigger news was in the offing (in fact, the transition from Cindy to Katrina was jarring enough for us to note the fact at the time). While she appeared in Time's year-end issue and still gets occasional publicity from the MSM, liberal bloggers almost never mention her, and conservatives only bring her up for the purposes of mocking the movement she represents.

KATRINA: The Battle Of New Orleans

We wrote on 8/29: "The only story that matters this a.m. is Hurricane Katrina. Where many had assumed the city could have been utterly destroyed, it seems clear at this point that it has been spared the worst: There will probably still be a New Orleans tomorrow." Within days, however, it was clear that N.O. (as many of us soon learned to abbreviate it) was not spared at all. And with Bush's slow response, embodied in an ill-advised guitar-holding photo op in San Diego and his ill-considered praise for now-ex-FEMA dir. Michael Brown, conservatives stopped holding back their criticism. While Bush hadn't had an easy time of it from the blogs throughout the year, Katrina damaged him in a way he hadn't been already.

Meanwhile, the blogosphere (both political and non) was noteworthy for its overwhelming response. As we wrote on 9/1: "Blog traffic is up overall, the same way cable news ratings are. Both the right and left are pointing fingers -- at Pres. Bush, at other officials, at the media and other businesses -- after all, criticism is the bread-and-butter of the political blogosphere. Despite the partisan rancor, blogs have started message boards independent of outside influence, plus local LA and MS media have grown blogs of their own -- bringing information to readers outside the area and helping displaced residents find relief, and each other, within. Fundraising efforts overlap with some traditional (i.e. non-blog) websites, but most activity so far largely originated at independent blogs from across the political spectrum. Had the blogosphere existed in its current form on 9/11, it would have looked something like this."

PLAMEGATE: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold And The Adviser Who Came In For Some Heat

What's there to say about Plamegate that hasn't already been analyzed from three or more angles? Between 6/20 and 12/16, now-ex-CIA "operative" Valerie Plame was mentioned in 88 of 118 Blogometer editions, frequently as the top story. The case was probably the closest-watched story of the year. At the outset, liberal bloggers almost to a person believed the WH had deliberately made her name public to "punish" her husband, ex-Amb. Joe Wilson, for contradicting their assertions about pre-war WMD intel. Months later, this line of speculation has largely disappeared, and if anything most of the controversy now focuses on the New York Times apparently inept handling of the case. Times reporter Judy Miller, long disliked by the left, eventually came to loom larger than Wilson or Bob Novak or Karl Rove. Eventually it even came to somewhat tarnish Bob Woodward, who knew about Plame, apparently from the same source as Novak.

Although the case had been discussed at some length during '03, when Novak published her name in a column, and the inquiry launched, the whole thing went big-time on 7/2 with the Huffington Post-hosted revelation by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that Rove had told/"leaked" Plame's name to Time's Matt Cooper. When the post first went up, the title was "Rove Blew CIA Agent's Cover"; later this was revised to the more cautious "It's Rove..." Despite skeptics like Kaus, O'Donnell had it largely right.

By mid-July, speculation ran so rampant we tried to keep track of it all. Among the theories we counted, all of which were wrong or are yet unknown five months later: "WH dep. CoS Karl Rove could face espionage charges rather than mere indictment under intelligence protection statues; Ex-Amb. Joe Wilson may have leaked wife Valerie Plame's role in his Niger trip to friends in the Washington press; New York Times' Judy Miller may have leaked the Wilson/Plame gossip to the WH; Or, Miller and the Times may be protecting another source, one unsympathetic to the WH; Ex-WH spokesperson Ari Fleischer may have leaked Plame's name."

Then came the near-jailing of Cooper, the actual-jailing of Miller, the 9/30 confirmation that Cheney CoS Scooter Libby was Miller's source, and then the 10/28 indictment of Libby. In the weeks leading up to this, the left-blogosphere had designated indictment day "Fitzmas," after special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It was a subdued one, as Rove escaped indictment. But as we head into '06, that possibility still hangs over Rove, and the WH.

BLOGGER OUTREACH: Gettin' To Know You

Dems have had the advantage of a "netroots" well developed during the invisible primaries of WH'04, and early in the year, DNC chair Howard Dean and Senate Min. Leader Harry Reidheld conf. calls with sympathetic bloggers. In early June, ex-VP nominee John Edwards "had a bunch of the political bloggers over for dinner at his D.C. house, I'm told, to meet with him, his Internet team, and his wife." But they haven't done much lately.

The GOP, meanwhile, largely ignored even the right-blogosphere until the fall of this year. Following the Miers disaster, the RNC and cong. GOPers wised up, and improved their outreach. On 10/20, the Blogometer attended a 10/20 "blog row" event for conservative bloggers to meet with GOP House members on Capitol Hill. We wrote then: "Events such as these highlight the blurring lines of journalism. It was aimed at amateur bloggers, but they weren't the only ones invited. ... Add to that, the caucus also filmed and photographed the event for its own purposes. While the interest in forging ties with amateur bloggers seemed genuine, it was also a rolling photo-op -- for the benefit of not just the MSM, but the blogosphere as well."

Conservative bloggers have been somewhat influential in the opposite direction. Post-Katrina, the impulse toward fiscal conservatism loomed large in the right-blogosphere. Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and TTLB's N.Z. Bear created the Pork Busters project aimed at members of the House and Senate. So far, they have a staunch ally in Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who made waves this fall with a failed attempt to redirect fed'l funds from a bridge project in AK to repair the hurricane-damaged bridge that crosses Lake Pontchartrain north of N.O.

MISCONCEPTIONS: Drop It Like It's Hot

The Downing Street Memo is an issue frequently described as the subject of blogger buzz. Indeed, there are and were blogs started about it. But it never became a cause celebre of the biggest bloggers, and that was the source of some consternation on lower-traffic lefty blogs. Yet the story still got out, suggesting that the biggest blogs don't have to promote an issue for it to take hold. Not that it went anywhere -- for many it was old news, or they decided the memo didn't necessarily say what the memo's proponents argued it did. A contributor to The Next Hurrah lamented an "impeachment fatigue" that rendered all impeachment talk "tin foil hat-ish."

Somewhat different but along the same lines was Ed Klein's anti-Hillary book. Did right-wing bloggers eat it up? No, actually they tore it apart. It suffered in part because it included (and Matt Drudge heavily promoted) a particularly vicious false rumor about the Clintons' marriage. While a hot potato, nobody really believed it, and Ed Morrissey had a representative take: "I'm no fan of the Clintons, but the Right has had its problem reining in its vitriol regarding Bill and Hillary since 1992."

REGULATION: The Rules Of The Game

Bloggers of the left and right tend to be more libertarian than their offline counterparts, and early on RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas joined forces to support cong. legislation protecting bloggers from new campaign finance rules, and later to argue before the FEC that online political activity should not be subject to new FEC rules. We were there on 6/29 when Duncan "Atrios" Black and others appeared before the FEC to argue their case. And in an important but overlooked ruling in late Nov., MO Dem consultant Roy Temple got approval from the FEC for his blogs to be treated just like any other media org, with a "press exception" from campaign finance laws.

INTRODUCING: The Drawing Of The Three

As we mentioned above, the blogosphere is beginning to organize itself into websites that aggregate blogs. Some emerge from traditional bloggers themselves, while others are projects by outsiders who want a piece of the action. There were 3 major introductions this year that stood head and shoulders above the rest -- though they have not all been equally successful:

The first out of the gate, conservative Beltway pundit-turned-liberal Hollywood activist Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post, likely met with the greatest amount of pre-launch skepticism. Libertarian Matt Welch snarked at Hit and Run: "The pre-launch Huffington Post continues to be a rich source for the kind of unintentional comedy I haven't enjoyed since watching the likes of Lou Dobbs, C. Everett Koop and Sydney Schanberg go bonkers with dot-com greed back at the end of the last Internet publishing boom." Only the website succeeded, and upon its debut drew praise from ideological adversaries, including Scott Johnson of Power Line. Instead of relying on Hollywood celebs for the majority of their content, Huffington offered a platform for liberal writers to reach a larger audience.

The 2nd was a group effort created by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, called TPM Cafe. While Marshall continues to blog for his site, TPM Cafe brings together policy-oriented liberal journalists, think tankers and readers to the debate issues on the web. Some Dem politicians, including Edwards, have taken up temporary residence at the site's "Table for One" page.

Pajamas Media, briefly known as Open Source Media, was initially announced by co-founder Roger L. Simon on 4/28. While announced as a blog advertising network, that aspect of the company has yet to develop; so far it is best known as a portal website. It's had a rocky start (and as a testament to HuffPo's endurance, PJM has been compared unfavorably with it). As PJM's debut neared, a scorned business partner gained a wide audience by publicizing unflattering details about the business' development. Then their name change ran afoul of another org's trademark, and questions about the business model persist. A blog-based death pool is currently predicting its demise.

MISCELLANY: It Takes A Year To Make A Day (And I Feel Like A Float In The Macy's Day Parade)

• Captain's Quarters played a key role in publishing documents related to the "Adscam" scandal in Canada that helped bring down the gov't of PM Paul Martin. For the effort, his site was banned in Canada for a time; eventuall writing about embargoed testimony on a scandal in Canadian PM Paul Martin's government.
• On 4/29, the Blogometer attended a Time dinner at Metropolitan Club, where managing ed. Jim Kelly led a discussion by now-Slate reporter John Dickerson and Wonkette editor Ana Marie Cox. We covered it for our 5/2 edition.
• In early Sept., we hopped a train to Philly for the 1st annual EschaCon, a convention of, by and for "Atriots" and "Eschatonians," members of the community at Duncan Black's Eschaton. Our full report is located right here.
• One of the most unpopular decisions of the last year was the New York Times' announcement and subsequent implementation of "TimesSelect," a pay-subscription program which effectively removed the newspaper's editorial columnists from the blogosphere. Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum announced that he wouldn't link to it any longer, writing: "I predict that's going to go down with New Coke as one of the all-time bad marketing decisions in history." And frequent Paul Krugman critic Don Luskin realized it would "have the consequence (unintended?) of making it far more difficult for bloggers to dissect Times columns."
• Air America Radio has had money trouble since its inception, but this summer it was revealed that a former exec had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to AAR to the detriment of a Bronx Boys and Girls club. While the NYC press largely ignored the story, radio talker Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin followed it closely.
• The '04 SD SEN campaign ended with now-Sen. John Thune (R) defeating then Senate Min. Leader Tom Daschle. But over the summer, we reported on what at first seemed to be a burgeoning financial scandal to which Thune might have been attached. But it quickly turned out that not only was there little substance to the charge, but it was being promoted by ex-Daschle staffers, and encouraged by a consultant still on Daschle's payroll. As we termed it in a 7/13 header, "So Basically, SD Is To Bloggers As NJ Is To Consultants."
• Prior to our launch, the political blogosphere claimed 2 very different causalties from the media. In 1/05, conservative bloggers seized on a suggestion by CNN exec Eason Jordan that the U.S. military had deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq. Jordan's remarks were made at Davos, blogged by a participant, and hit the political blogosphere within days (in some sectors, hours). Unable to effectively defend himself and protect the network, Jordan tendered his resignation just 2 weeks later. We weren't around yet, but click here to see all our mentions of Jordan throughout the year. (A few months later, Newspaper Guild pres. Linda Foley made similar remarks; conservative bloggers swarmed her too, but she survived.) The other "victim" was much weirder, and unfolded more or less concurrently: Liberal bloggers zeroed in on Jeff Gannon, an unknown reporter who had asked Bush a ridiculously softball question, and it wasn't long before he was identified as an erstwhile gay prostitute named James Guckert. He too resigned his (less exalted) post and went on to write occasionally for the Washington Blade [note: corrected 12/27] and -- wait for it -- his own blog. Same as with Jordan, click here for everything we have on him.
• For several months earlier in the year, the group blog PoliPundit featured a counter at the top of the page tracking John Kerry's post-election promise on "Meet the Press" to release his militrary records: "[X] days ago, John Kerry promised, on national TV, to sign form SF-180 and release his military records. He has yet to do so." Finally on day 115, in late May, Kerry more or less defused the issue by releasing his records not to the public, but to the Boston Globe. The issue eventually died, but less because Kerry's critics were satisfied than that other issues simply demanded their attention.
• Just a few of our favorite "Lest We Forget" items from the past year: Jim Treacher's all-purpose blog post; WuzzaDem's Andrew Sullivan "Emotional Alert" system; Patriotism gone horribly wrong at America We Stand As One; Video of the local television reporter's natural enemy, the cheese ninja; Politburo Diktat's Pajamas Media competitor, Flannels Media; The truth about HuffPo; Alito's shameful secret and the baseball card to prove it; A method for calculating your blog's worth to AOL; Harriet Miers' Blog!!!; And you've gotta love this thing, even if it doesn't make any sense.

BY THE NUMBERS: Down For The Count

As journalists, we tend not to be numbers people. But we still like counting. Here's a few fun facts about this year's Blogometer, from 3/30 to 12/16:

• Number of editions prior to this one: 175
• Number of words, total: 615,313
• Average Blogometer length: 3,516 words
• Longest edition: 9/6's "The Battle of New Orleans," at 6,866 words
• Shortest edition: 12/14's "Briefing Papers," at 2,213
• What's longer, the entirety of the '05 Blogometer or "Infinite Jest": The Blogometer, but just barely
• Most-cited blog: Daily Kos by a country mile, at 456 links
• Next 9 most-cited blogs: RedState (301), The Corner (212), Power Line (212), Captain's Quarters (211), Michelle Malkin (211), MyDD (208), Eschaton (200), Instapundit (197), HuffPo (176)
• Least-cited blog: Most of them, i.e. all the ones we never linked to.

POSTSCRIPT: Back To The Future

So what happens next year? One thing we're sure of is that blogs will become a major force in the midterm elections. Quite a few have already organized, but many more are coming. In particular, watch for them to take over not just the dissemination of oppo, but also the collection of it. And thanks to the FEC's ruling that even highly partisan blogs are covered by the press exception, watch for more non-profits and ideologically aligned think tanks to get into the blogging business.

Meanwhile, the fact that blogs are becoming more important to communications and logistics outside of politics will only reinforce their importance, even as we cease to realize how pervasive they are. Indeed, watch over the coming year(s) as website re-designs incorporate the tools of blogging. Where the community goes is another question altogether. To follow the bloggers is to follow an often fascinating group of writers and their contentious debates. They're not as easy to romanticize as Hemingway's fellow expats in post-war France, or Dorothy Parker's witty tablemates -- at least not yet. Nevertheless, there is a very real sense of a community -- even there are two distinct halves who have little use for the other. But as new bloggers and new organizations set up shop in the politically-minded corner of the blogosphere, these circles will change. We won't presume to know how. But in 12 months time, the place may look much different than it does now.

Posted by at 12:56 PM

December 16, 2005

12/16: Purple Haze

This last regular Blogometer of '05 finds a landscape quite different from the one we covered our first editions, nearly 10 months ago. At the time, Pres. Bush remained relatively popular, but the signs of trouble were lurking: His Social Security plan was moving to the back burner, as the fate of Terri Schiavo was all anyone could talk about. Now after a summer and fall of Plamegate, Cindy Sheehan, Katrina, Able Danger, and then a Plamegate reprise, we find most conversation is about issues surrounding the war on terror: the voting and violence in Iraq; a fight over the Patriot Act, torture/"torture" and domestic spying. That's just today, but in the past month we've seen a marked shift away from domestic politics and toward foreign policy, especially Iraq.

Although we won't take the temperature of the blogs again 'til 1/3, we will return 12/22 to bring you a special "Best of the Blogometer" edition. In that edition we'll include the most notable posts of '05, spotlight the biggest events, and review the trends in political blogging that shaped this year -- and perhaps the year ahead. Got any suggestions? Send 'em our way: blogometer@nationaljournal.com.

IRAQ: An Impressive Achievement, Or An Impressive Photo Op?

Without question, the Iraq election was a much bigger story in the right-blogosphere, and it so happens that very fact was itself a significant topic of discussion.

>> From the right -- Wizbang's Jay Tea compares the war to a long family car trip: "As the Iraqi elections wound down, I took a quick survey of some of the left end of the blogosphere. And I noticed" the "endlessly repeating ... mantra about 'bringing the troops home,' like annoying kids in the back seat with their endless queries of 'are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer?' And like those kids, as tempting as it is to turn around and smack them, we can't. But we can, at least, yell back at them." The Corner posts an e-mail from a "high-level muckety muck friend" at the WH who calls this "arguably the most successful and significant, election in Iraq" so far, in large part because of the Sunni participation. Captain's Quarters: "Those left out of the negotiations, such as the Zarqawi faction, obviously will continue to attempt their operations to disrupt the elections, but the lack of widespread violence may indicate that Zarqawi's ability to conduct such operations has been severely curtailed." CQ's Ed Morrissey also wonders why the major papers aren't editorializing about the election: "The RSS feed for the Opinion page at the Times just updated with tomorrow's articles. ... Wait -- perhaps one of their guests addresses it instead. Er, no." And the Washington Post? "The Washington Post editorial board passes on the elections as well. Instead, they talk torture, ANWR drilling, and a recount in Virginia's election for attorney general. ... The LA Times doesn't do much better." The Jawa Report is offended that CNN, MSNBC and CNN carry reports describing the new parliament as "the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's ouster": "Um, can we, like, not count anything during the Hussein era as democratic?" California Conservative writes that Iraqis' enthusiasm "seemed not to sit well" with CNN's Cooper. At one point his "retort of, 'Well, are you disappointed with anything about the election?' was met by dismissal by the young Iraqi woman who positively glowed with gratefulness for her newfound freedom." Pro-war centrist Joe Gandelman writes, "just as there have been no easy answers about this war all along... there are no easy answers. Just, on election day, hopes raised and -- in the often-courageous and defiant act of voting -- being realized. Which, on December 16, 2005 at least, may be enough and a lot." Pajamas Media rounds up the best of its on-the-scene reporting from various polling sites.

>> From the left -- Nico Pitney is amused that Lynne Cheney went to an elementary school to "marshal support," as AP put it, for the Iraq war. A photo shows L. Cheney holding up an finger; Pitney advises: "Lynne Cheney should have given the kids a lesson in the consequences of failing to plan." Steve Gilliard: "Elections are a good start, if there is a real government to support. But if it's just a debating society for basically gangsters and fanatics, all the elections in the world will not matter." At Crooked Timber, Daniel Davies does some analysis and figures Iraq will have a secular gov't soon. But he has caveats: "One, Iraq is a federal country under its new constitution. That means that a liberal secular government in Baghdad will not exactly be passing any French-style anti-hijab laws in Basra." 2nd, Anbar is still "bandit country." He also expects Iran will have a bigger say-so and terrorists will persist, so considering the cost in blood and treasure, "I think this is pretty lousy."

>> Debating the lack of debate -- Right-leaning Jeff Goldstein does a round-up of the top left-leaning blogs, who note the high turnout, or dismiss the effort, or say nothing. He adds: "I'm not passing judgment on these sites; I'm just trying to give you some idea about how the anti-war sites are reacting to the elections. Perhaps some sites are waiting for results. Or a really nasty explosion or something. You can draw your own conclusions." David at In Search of Utopia responds: "It isn't all about sour grapes Jeff." Although he was and is against the war, he adds: "None of that changes the fact that I am extremely proud of the heroism of the average Iraqi in going to vote today and in trying to put their country back together. So I wish them well, and most of all I wish them a speedy recovery of their Sovereignty, and a return of our troops to their homes." Another example -- Conservative SoCalPundit makes a more forceful argument, heading a post "Liberal Blogs Choose Silence On Iraq Elections." Liberal The Peking Duck "wouldn't be surprised if it's true," and explains why it's true in his case: "There comes a point when all you can feel about Iraq is cynicism and pessimism. It will take more than a feel-good photo-op to turn that around, especially after we've seen so many in the past few years." Indeed, Daily Kos' recently-promoted front-page contributor McJoan wants to be optimistic, but has seen too much go wrong: "I love the idea of purple fingers against insurgents' bombs. It makes for some lovely imagery. But we've long since learned that imagery isn't enough to win this war. All the 'Mission Accomplished' banners in the world aren't enough to overcome the reality of a poorly planned and ineptly conducted war. And all the purple fingers in Arabia aren't enough to create democracy. At least not yet." Header at Unclaimed Territory: "What exactly do Iraqi elections prove?"

CIVIL LIBERTIES: No Such Agency

New York Times reports this a.m., post-9/11, Bush "secretly authorized" the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials. It gets top billing at both the Drudge Report and Huffington Post. His header: "Paper: Feds Eavesdrop On Americans Without Court-Approved Warrants." Hers: "Bush Secretly Authorized Eavesdropping On Americans Without Court-Approved Warrants..." TalkLeft walks readers through the main points of the article.

>> Volokh Conspiracy's Orrin Kerr: "I hope we'll be hearing more about this in coming weeks, as this is big news. While the statutory privacy laws have an exception for this type of monitoring ... and the constitutional limits on e-mail surveillance are uncertain even in traditional criminal cases, the constitutionality of warrantless interception of telephone calls in situations like this is really murky stuff." Instapundit: "I can't see any very compelling reason to bypass the courts here, especially given that warrants in these cases are almost always granted. Which makes me wonder what's up here." Power Line's John Hinderaker: "The Times believes that it should be the arbiter of what will and will not help the terrorists and thus impair our national security. I don't agree. Under the Plame precedent, this case is a no-brainer. The intelligence officials who leaked to the Times should be identified, criminally prosecuted, and sent to prison."

>> Liberal Politics in the Zeroes: "The Pentagon is spying on us, NSA is spying on us, Dubya is spying on us. Gee, it's so nice to be in the 'land of the free,' isn't it?" In light of everything else wrong with the Bush admin., Oliver Willis expects many to just ignore it: "It's so hard to care anymore." Liberal Xymphora notices the paragraph where the Times explains they held the story "for a year to conduct additional reporting" after the NSA requested they not run the piece. Xymphora isn't too impressed: "So what has happened in the past year to change the Time's view of what dark secrets it can let out? Answer: Judith Miller. This is a rather pathetic attempt to regain some credibility lost by publishing the Miller lies for so long, but the fact they hid the NSA scandal just reinforces the view that the Times is no place to find the truth."

PENTAGON: Flips Flops In Winter?

Bush's acceptance of John McCain's torture policy is taken by both the left and right as a sign of weakness -- either politically for the POTUS or militarily, as a liability in the war against terrorism.

>> Header at Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: "Why Don't We Just Surrender and Get it Over With?" At The Corner, non-Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy dubs it the "Al Qaeda Bill of Rights" because it "rewards the terrorists trying to kill us all with U.S. Constitutional rights." He also notes that McCain got the bill through by attaching it to a DoD appropriations bill, although he calls Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) attempt to attach ANWR to the same bill "disgusting." Righty Bill Quick sees a different course of action -- because "al-Qaeda members will easily resist the milquetoast interrogation techniques that are still permitted ... there is no reason to capture and hold them. In fact, no reason to take them alive at all." Conservative Robert George thinks Bush got played: "In short, you're either with us or with the torturers. McCain arguably beat the administration at its own rhetorical game." Longtime torture critic Andrew Sullivan exults: "This is such a great, great day. Iraqis turn out in massive numbers to move their country forward; and America regains her honor by finally, unequivocally reasserting a ban on torture and adherence to the U.N. Convention on Torture."

>> At liberal MyDD, Matt Stoller isn't pleased with Washington Post's Baker's take on it. Arguing that the amendment "doesn't prevent torture," Stoller calls it "the usual movie review of the personalities involved, including that oh so valiant maverick John McCain who pushes back on the WH to ban torture, except not really." Blogenlust goes faux-patriotic singing "God Bless the U.S.A." andthen snaps back to reality with: "Have you noticed this administration has spent as much energy trying to ban gay marriage as they've tried to prevent the banning of torture?" Center-left Michael Stickings: "It's yet another White House flip-flop, but at least it's hypocrisy in the right direction."

Instapundit agrees with "the folks" at NRO that Andrew Sullivan "has been consistently, pompously, and annoyingly moralistic and irritatingly unspecific" on torture. "So if that's the chorus, well yes -- but it's a song that has a lot of notes, most of them struck by Andrew himself. And I'm irritated with him, not for the reason you might think -- because I disagree with Andrew -- but more the contrary, because every time I read one of his preening posts, I find my opposition to torture weakening in response, even though I've been consistently in opposition to torture."

CHENEY: Don't Call It A Comeback

VP Cheney's opponents are cheering McCain's victory with the passage of his anti-torture bill, but lefty think tanker Steve Clemons isn't so sure: "I don't trust Vice President Cheney on this front -- and nervous rumors are leaking out of the White House and State Department that Vice President Cheney's supposed 'containment' by Bush was a ruse, or at least was just temporary." What's more, "some of those who thought that the Libby indictment and combination of bad news items crippling the White House had harmed Cheney's status are now reversing themselves. At a minimum, they are talking less definitively about Cheney's downfall."

PATRIOT ACT: The Last Refuge Of A Patriot

AP reports, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) says Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) does have the 40 votes he needs to successfully filibuster the Patriot Act. Feingold has been posting about his campaign at TPM Cafe, and he posts 1 last entry before this a.m.'s scheduled vote. He concludes: "I will be on the floor for the vote and will post again as soon as I can this afternoon." Recalling that Feingold was the only sen. to oppose the Act in '01, Daily Kos' WisVoter comments: "I couldn't help but be reminded of Henry Fonda's character in '12 Angry Men.' For those who have not seen this movie ... it tells the story of how one jurist, Mr. Davis (played by Fonda), starts out as the only one on the panel unwilling to blindly accept the prosecution's claims of a man's guilt, and instead begins analyzing the facts of the case, eventually persuading the other members of the jury to acquit the man."

INTEL: Do You See What I See?

Washington Post reports, a cong. report has determined that the WH and cong. members did not have access to the same pre-war intel, contra claims by Bush and his admin. AMERICAblog: "Who would have guessed since the administration has repeatedly said otherwise so many times? Go figure why more and more Americans do not trust the administration." Daily Kos' SusanG: "Seems like it was just yesterday, Bush was saying" otherwise; she quotes Bush, and follows: "Whoops! It was yesterday! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

PLAMEGATE: Waas Happening Now

In today's National Journal, Murray Waas reports on the phone call between Robert Novak and Karl Rove that lead to Novak's column outing Valerie Plame as a CIA op.

Steve Clemons writes: "Waas makes a solid case that Rove was prepared to talk to Novak about the president's intention to make Fran Townsend Deputy National Security advisor for Combating Terrorism, not necessarily a campaign to out Plame. ... This does not alter the prospect that Rove was potentially fabricating answers or giving deceptive statements to Patrick Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury in this case, but it does add much more detail -- nuts and bolts style -- to what these retainers to Bush and Cheney were doing, and why they were doing it." Crooks and Liars: "There's so much information in this article that you need to read it carefully, but one thing is quite certain. Robert Novak is a tool of the government and should have been ostracized from the journalistic community a long time ago."

DELAY: Run Ronnie Run

New York Times reports, Bush was asked in an FNC interview whether he thinks ex-House Maj. Leader/Rep. Tom DeLay will be cleared of the charges he's facing: "Yes, I do." Firedoglake's ReddHedd is apoplectic: "Did he or his staff even stop to think about the consequences of this public display of affection for Delay? Has anyone explained to the Preznit the meaning of the words 'jury tampering'?" Hilzoy, guesting at Washington Monthly's Political Animal: "But here comes the funny part: Scott McClellan was asked about this in today's press briefing, and guess what? He refused to answer, on the grounds that that would constitute commenting on the Plame investigation."

MO Dem consultant Roy Temple reports at his blog: "Pursuant to a Missouri Sunshine Law request, Fired Up! has obtained records [PDF] which indicate that Texas prosecutors [i.e. Travis Co. DA Ronnie Earle] in the criminal case against Rep. Tom DeLay recently sought certified copies of campaign finance disclosure reports" for GOP MO Gov. Matt Blunt's '00 GOV campaign. Earle has previously looked into Blunt father/acting House Maj. Leader Roy Blunt's PAC. Records show MO's "response to Earle's request totaled 829 pages."

MIDTERMS '06: The Least Worst Option

Leon H of RedState considers the pros and cons of backing conservative Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey (R) over "RINO" Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), even if it means a Dem could win the seat instead: "There are ... some significant negatives to leaving Chafee installed that tend to manifest themselves at committee level. When Chafee is just one vote of 100, he can cause significant problems. When he is one Republican vote on an evenly divided committee of 18, he can be disaster. A rather strong case can be made that it would be better, for all those committees, to have a junior Democrat in a powerless position, than a senior unpredictable Chafee."

DIEBOLD: The Case For Chads

The Miami Herald reported 12/15 on the claims of Leon Co., FL's election supervisor that a political operative could hack into Diebold-made voting machines and alter results. Brad Friedman: "The bad news keeps rolling in for Diebold. But that is hopefully good news for democracy and America!" Idol Thoughts: "We celebrate the election in Iraq but pay scant attention to the loss of our own votes here in the U.S. That this is not the lead story everywhere is shameful."

Conservative John Cole: "At any rate, I have really decided this electronic voting movement is not a good thing -- at least for now. I just don't think that a system this open to fraud, with or without a paper trail ... is a good idea, and I rush to embrace every new technology there is."

BLOGS ON BLOGS: And The Winner Is ...

Voting has concluded in the 2005 Weblog Awards, the brainchild of Wizbang's Kevin Aylward. Winners in some of the major categories: Best Blog went to Daily Kos, besting Eschaton and Michelle Malkin; Best Group Blog went to Hit and Run over RedState and Think Progress. Other caegories: Best liberal Blog: AMERICAblog; Best Conservative Blog: Ace of Spades HQ; And ex-military Iraq corresp. Michael Yon knocked the rest of the competition flat for Best Media Blog.

Now accepting nominations is the 2005 Koufax Awards, named for southpaw Sandy Koufax, honoring left-of-center blogs in various categories.

MISCELLANY: Dingell Bells, Freeman Tells, John Gets Kerry-ed Away ...

• We've just noticed: a button link appearing on a number of left-leaning and primarily UK blogs, which says: "I'll publish the Al Jazeera memo." This refers to an alleged British memo quoting Bush considering (or possibly joking about) bombing al Jazeera's Doha HQ (see 12/2 Blogometer). Spearheaded by BlairWatch, 300+ bloggers have signed up.
• PoliPundit's Lorie Byrd picks up an AP story with actor/'04 Dem convo narrator Morgan Freeman saying: "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history," and that "the only way to get rid of racism is to 'stop talking about it.'" Byrd: "Wow, I think I know who won't be on Jesse Jackson's Christmas card list this year. ... Talk is cheap, action is what really counts. Just look at Condi Rice and you will see what I mean when I refer to 'action.'"
• A handful of lefty bloggers are annoyed by a House vote to "protect" Christmas symbols. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) read a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" parody, which is posted by bloggers like Demagogue's Zoe Kentucky, who adds: "Yes, this is truly beyond ridiculous. But at least some Dems are treating it as it should be treated -- as a joke." Jonathan Zasloff at The Reality-Based Community suggests there may be anti-Semitism at play: "Is that going overboard? Well, several Representatives asked the House leadership to amend the resolution to protect the symbols of Chanukah as well, and it refused.
• Michelle Malkin offers a brief eulogy for the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI), who passed away yesterday: "Didn't agree with everything he stood for, but he was the original Porkbuster -- a crusader against government waste who issued 'Golden Fleece Awards' to expose taxpayer-funded boondoggles. ... Would that we had more like him... in both parties."
• Hotline On Call reported John Kerry saying on 12/15 that if the Dems take over the House, "articles of impeachment" may be considered. Mark Coffey can hardly believe it, whether Kerry was joking or not: "Is John Kerry the worst politician alive? Is the sky blue? Is the Pope... well, you know the rest."
• Crooks and Liars' John Amato: "You knew when the Fox caption under Sean Hannity's face said 'Dirty Money' -- there had to be some evil, liberal agenda attached. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, made large donations to Harvard and Georgetown universities which seemed to give Sean and author Richard Miniter, the perfect evidence of anti-Americanism on campuses across the country." Amato: "Unfortunately for Hannity, he should have talked to Rupert Murdoch first." As Newshounds reports, "A 1999 press release by News Corporation, announces that Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal owns more than 5% of FOX News Channel's parent company."
• Before it hit the wires, Josh Marshall had word that NH GOP operative James Tobin had been convicted on 2 counts related to phone-jamming on election day '02. He adds: "DOJ lawyers plan to lean on him to flip on folks higher up the ladder in the GOP. So there's even more muck coming down the pike."
• On 12/14, Minnesota Republican Watch pointed out that state Senate candidate Dan Ochsner's (R) camp was using a doctored photo. As they demonstrate, the photo was almost surely taken at an '04 Bush rally, and then those signs were replaced with Ochsner signs.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Now They'll Never Save Your Brain!

Hosting his usual Q&A Friday, Right Wing News' John Hawkins ponders the popular question: "Would you go back in time and kill Hitler as a teenager if possible? As a baby?" While most would almost certainly say "yes," Hawkins thinks hard and decides the answer is "no": "After all, Hitler did not rise to power out of the void. The Germans were a warlike people who were furious over the Treaty of Versailles and it seems likely that they would have eventually started another big war, with or without Hitler. Furthermore, Hitler made a lot of really dumb military decisions. If let's say the war had started about the same time with a more competent leader in charge or even worse, a few years later, when it's entirely possible that Germany might have been the first nation to develop the atomic bomb, the Axis could very well have come out on top."

LEST WE FORGET: This Is The Year That Was

If you haven't already seen it all over cable and local news, Jib Jab is out with a new musical video. In this latest, Bush takes questions at a presser, and reviews the calamities of '05. And because it's the end of the year, here's an end-of-year bonus "Lest": At this website, you can nominate anyone you'd like to be Time's "Person of the Year." While they won't actually be considered for the actual prize, they will be considered for inclusion on a large reader board in Times Square. Here's our entry.

Posted by at 12:37 PM

December 15, 2005

12/15: Vote Or Die

The election in Iraq leads most blogs this a.m. Optimists tend to be found on the right, and pessimists lean left. But that isn't always the case. Most expect the election itself to be a success in terms of voter participation -- it's what comes after that has even some war supporters concerned. Otherwise, Plamegate chugs along with the intriguing assertion by Bob Novak that Pres. Bush knows exactly who his source is, some GOPers are irritated that Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) is (now officially) not seeking re-election; and the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin isn't out of the spotlight just yet -- nor is Post political editor John Harris. We also present our latest Blogger Spotlight, which also our last of the year, in this penultimate edition of the Blogometer for '05.

IRAQ: Pessimistic Optimism?

Starting at 1:00 a.m. EST, Pajamas Media is providing on-the-ground reporting from Iraqi polling sites. American Bill Roggio is covering the election from Barwanna. PoliBlog reproduces a few useful maps and charts.

Mohammed from Iraq the Model writes: "I see most of Iraqis making their choices by comparing the names at the top of the lists while there's an educated minority who look at lists as a whole but either way it is all fine, we're still carrying much of the totalitarian heritage from the past decades. Here we have a proverb that says 'health comes in steps' and the thousand mile journey starts with a step, you know."

In a front-paged diary at RedState, Iraqi Hassan Kharrufa evaluates some of the top parties. Hassan himself prefers secular parties, but expects the Shia-backed Unified Iraqi Coalition will win: "It will rule everything, and I have a feeling Iraq will be like a second Iran then. Needless to say, I am not giving them my votes."

Iraq pessimist Juan Cole: "The only way in which these elections may lead to a US withdrawal is that they will ensconce parliamentarians who want the US out on a short timetable. Virtually all the Sunnis who come in will push for that result ... and so [will] the members of the Sadr Movement, now a key component of the Shiite religious United Iraqi Alliance. That is, these elections lead to a US withdrawal on terms unfavorable to the Bush administration. Nor is there much hope that a parliament that kicked the US out could turn around and restore order in the country."

Ex-CIA agent Larry Johnson, at TPM Cafe: "With voting already underway in Iraq we should harbor no illusion about the ultimate outcome -- the Iraqi shias with the closest ties to Iran will secure the largest share of the votes." The Mahablog's Barbara O'Brien writes, "getting the constitution right was less important to the Bushies than meeting that milestone. They wanted that talking point. A missed deadline would certainly have turned into a talking point for the Dems leading up to our November 2004 elections."

Conservative Decision '08: "We need not have a free Iraq that is in love with America; we only need a country that loves its freedom. That is victory, and it is within reach." Picking up on a report by New York Times' Filkins that the vote will reveal a "fissure" between Islamic and secular Iraqis, pro-war Secular Blasphemy comments: "More or less like the US, then. If the secularists and their allies manage to get close to half the vote, that would be a quite decisive repudiation of any alleged Islamist agenda."

Liberal BAGnewsNotes features a poster by secular Afghans who weren't happy with how U.S. official Zalmay Khalilzad's work in their country; the implication is that Khalilzad will do the same in Iraq: "Of course, this process would be managed by pre-established guidelines advantageous to Western interests. So, if you asked me who won, I'd say Khalilzad did."

On 12/14, the New York Times caused a stir by reporting that fraudulent ballots had been stopped at the Iraqi border. But according to Reuters, the Iraqi general in charge of the borders says it never happened. News Busters points out that the Times story was single-sourced, and asks, "who is trying to discredit the election, the unnamed source or the New York Times?"

PLAMEGATE: The Bobs

Hardly a day after Bob Novak made waves by publicly asserting he and Washington Post's Bob Woodward shared the same source, Novak is now quoted in the Raleigh News & Observer saying: "I'm confident the president knows who the source is. I'd be amazed if he doesn't. So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.'" Andrew Sullivan makes it his quote of the day; NRO's K.J. Lopez figures this means Plamegate will overtake Iraq as the day's big news.

TalkLeft, who thinks the source was NSA Stephen Hadley, expects an indictment to be based on Karl Rove's initial failure to mention his conversation with Time's Cooper in 10/03, adding: "No matter which way I slice it, it seems Luskin needed to pull one more rabbit out of his hat at the 11th hour. Either his grand jury testimony did it, or Viveca buried Rove." JustOneMinute, which leans toward ex-State Undersec. Dick Armitage as the source, responds: "Oh, please -- Rove forgot to mention Cooper in October 2003? The Department of Justice also forgot to ask about Cooper in their original document request ... What will Fitzgerald's indictment say? 'How dare you forget about the reporter we forgot to ask about?'"

WHITE HOUSE '08: Commonwealth Of Speculation

NRO's Jim Geraghty: "Romney's one electoral victory in his political career ... strikes me as a rather light record, and obviously, the Massachusetts governor doesn't get many opportunities to work on foreign policy and the war on terror. However, a domestic-policy oriented governor ... may have a chance to surpass expectations... if, as some suspect, we are seeing signs of a resurgence of isolationism." Romney critic Pam's House Blend has a roundup of Free Republic posts on Romney, and suspects he's "got a lot of work to do to win over that crowd." FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog writes that Romney's negative is "never standing for re-election to his only political office. ... Romney can run but the nomination belongs to either Rudy Giuliani or John McCain." Liberal Oliver Willis: "The question is -- which Romney will you get? The pro-choice one, or the one who said he was just faking that? The one for rights for gays, or the one against it? The one who favored civil unions, but then flip flopped on it?"

Alexander McClure of PoliPundit calls Romney's move "the most selfish and stupid decision of his life. ... I hope the fates ordain that he suffers the same fate as his father, [ex-MI Gov] George Romney when he sought the Presidency in 1964 and 1968. ... Simply put, he ran instead of fighting for re-election in Massachusetts. We cannot afford to have that kind of politician leading the party."

PENTAGON: From Tort Reform To Torture Reform?

Balloon Juice's John Cole castigates a "shameless" Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing that the McCain amendment would outlaw practices that are far from torture, such as stress positions. But Cole thinks they avoid mentioning some of the worst practices. He snarks: "Maybe I am not as manly a man as say, Paul Gigot or Daniel Henninger, but ... it sounds to me like someone else is playing fast and loose with definitions." The amendment passed the House last p.m. by 308-122. Late in the a.m., Andrew Sullivan writes: "I'm told a White House statement is imminent on the McCain Amendent. I'm told the White House has embraced the amendment, with no changes. If true, this is a huge step forward for the president, the war and American honor. It also has, I think, implications for McCain's possible succession to Bush as president. "

John Hinderaker of Power Line, citing a Washington Times report that Dems plan to filibuster the Patriot Act: "We've come a long way, obviously, since 2001, and the Democrats appear to be betting on the popularity of their antiwar position. They also hope to gain political protection from the fact that four Republican Senators join in their objections to the Act, and may even vote against cloture, thereby helping to kill the extension of the Act. I think that's a political miscalculation; it appears that we're going to find out who is reading the situation correctly."

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds has a lengthy round-up on the torture debate.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) again updates on the progress of Patriot Act at TPM Cafe.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: The Froom Of The System

UC-Berkeley economist Brad DeLong spoke on the phone with Washington Post's Harris, and posts a partial transcript of the conversation. DeLong wants to know whether Harris knew RNC eCampaign dir. Patrick Ruffini was BC'04 webmaster' Harris had approvingly cited complaints by Ruffini about Froomkin earlier in '05 (see 12/13 Blogometer, and our 4/4 edition for the original dispute). Harris would say little on the record; to DeLong it's an issue of "grassroots" organizing vs. "astroturfing."

Duncan Black defends WPNI columnist Dan Froomkin against complaints that his opinion column is too easily confused with news reporters: "One thing that people should ask" Froomkin's critics "why he hasn't seen fit to make any complaints about David Broder's presence at the Post? Broder has written a column for the Post for years, and he also still (though with declining frequency) puts his byline on news stories. I actually don't care that he wears two hats, but one would imagine that it would offend [the critics'] delicate sensibilities. Of course the answer is that Broder is Broder and no WATB is going to complain about the Dean." Black's acronymic term for Froomkin's critics -- WATB -- is spelled out here.

Centrist Jeff Jarvis has a lengthy post defending Froomkin as well. A sample: "Froomkin's column is popular with readers... but not with print editors. What does that tell us?"

IN THE STATES: It's The Little Things

Markos Moulitsas checks out the Web sites of the 2 Dems running for MT SEN. "Notice one major, substantive difference?" State Senate Pres. Jon Tester "is not afraid to say he's a Democrat." Aud. John Morrison "apparently is. It's impossible to rebuild the Democratic Party brand if they won't tell voters which party they represent. ... It's all part of rebuilding the party brand. [Dem MT Gov. Brian] Schweitzer is also unafraid to let people know he's a Democrat." In an earlier post, Kos notes that Schweitzer "is currently working to put an anti-lobbyist initiative on the 2006 ballot, allowing him and Montana Democrats to highlight the issue of corruption in those crucial mid-term elections. And Burns is doing everything he can do to validate the Democratic strategy."

MISCELLANY: Oh, Canada

• AP reports that the Ford Motor Co. is reversing itself (again), and will resume advertising in gay publications. Pressure from religious groups had caused them to withdraw the spots; AMERICAblog's John Aravosisled the counter-charge on this for several weeks. He headlines his latest post: "We Won." He also links to a letter (PDF) from Ford explaining its decision.
• Josh Marshall, on the Canadian elections, where the U.S. amb. David Wilkins admonished the Liberal party to relent in its criticism of the U.S.: "The whole thing vaguely reminds me of Gerhard Schroeder's 2002 reelection campaign. In the world of Bushdom, every center-left leader gets to win once on his own steam and then a second time by running on domestic disdain for George W. Bush. It's good politics. Everywhere." Captain's Quarters points out that PM Paul Martin, in criticizing the amb., mistakenly referred to him as "Williams," and made no correction: "He couldn't ask someone to double-check Wilkins' name? Martin supposedly has held high-level contacts with the American ambassador for months on the softwood lumber issue and other NAFTA concerns."
• As we've noted earlier this week, The Agitator's Radley Balko has been promoting the case of MS death row inmate Cory Maye, whose conviction Balko argues was highly unjust. But at Right Wing News, John Hawkins argues that Balko and others have got numerous facts about the case wrong, and that Maye is indeed guilty: "What it all comes down to is that the cops had a warrant, identified themselves as police officers twice, and then Maye deliberately and knowingly chose to shoot one of them to death. For that crime, Maye deserves the needle, the noose, or the chair -- not sympathy."
• At Confirm Them, Carol Liebau comments on the "reported strategy" of SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito's opponents is to "paint him as the second coming of Robert Bork": "It seems pretty significant that the left has to cast back to 1987 for a template of a successful derailing of a Supreme Court nomination. Because that's the first (and, really, the only) time they were successful in accomplishing it."
• Crooks and Liars posts video and transcribed excerpts of Bush's interview on "Special Report" last p.m., singling out in particular a quote where he praises Defense Sec. Don Rumsfeld: "I tell you, he is doing a heckuva good job."
• This p.m., a handful of NYC political bloggers are throwing a party -- the invite is open, just like the bar, but it'll cost you $30 at the door. Details here.

BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: From Sea To Sheinin Sea

Today the Blogometer talks to righty Karol Sheinin, who writes Alarming News.

What is your full name?

Karol Sheinin

What is your age?

28

Where did you grow up?

Born deep in the USSR, raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Where do you live now?

Manhattan

What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?

I'm a political consultant so I've worked on a number of campaigns. I do mostly PR.

When did you start blogging and why?

Three years ago. Like a lot of bloggers, I was forwarding articles with my snarky comments to friends and it just made more sense to have it all in one place. And also because there are so many hip-hop lyrics that make perfect post titles.

What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?

I loved covering the presidential election. I was working for Bush in Colorado and got to be on the ground seeing the reality of what was happening. My favorite post was written the day after Election Day, when it was still unclear if Bush was definitely the winner, about the lessons I learned from this election. And just so it doesn't seem like my favorite post is one in which I gloat, I also liked my sad post about Herman Cain, who I worked for when he ran, and lost, in the US Senate primary in Georgia. Basically, I like my election round-ups.

Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?

I blog several times a day. Less around election time because I get very busy.

Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?

I like the big ones because they tend to be so comprehensive. Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, LGF, I can't live without them. As for non-political ones, I follow the lives of two of my girlfriends, Jessica at The New Vintage, Ari Goes Down and Petitedov religiously. I love Post Secret. I also love the trashy celeb gossip at Perez Hilton though I only vaguely know who most of the people are. I guess I just like hearing secrets, either from regular people on postcards or about celebs via Perez.

Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?

I know it's not very original because everyone loves him, but Mark Steyn. I also really like James Taranto and Jonah Goldberg a lot. Actually, do any of those three qualify as 'mainstream'?

What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?

I rarely watch TV, in particular news programs.

What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?

Opinionjournal.com, ABCnews.com (but only for The Note) and the NY Times.

What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?

I try to visit every blog on my blogroll daily but when time is tight, I make sure to visit these:

• Clarified is one of the few readable liberals.
• Protein Wisdom has made me spit up laughing more times than I can count. Usually coffee.
• Ace of Spades, my co-host on the weekly talk show 'Hoist the Black Flag' (which airs Tuesdays 4-5 EST on www.rightalk.com), only like several hundred times a day.
• Urban Elephants has done a great job creating an online NY Republican community.
• Vodkapundit
• Cathy Seipp is my hero. I want to be as badass as her someday.
• The NY Observer's Politicker blog has become the daily must-read for anyone involved in NY politics.
• Dorian Davis -- if he blogged more often.
• Dean Esmay
• PoliPundit
• James Lileks' The Bleat and Screedblog are both always genius.

How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?

Once or twice a week, mostly local weekly papers that I read for my job that aren't available online.

How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?

They're in a symbiotic relationship. I don't see that changing for awhile.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: What Democracy Looks Like

Conservative Patterico's Pontifications quotes radio talker Hugh Hewitt asking Los Angeles Times' Michael Hitzlik whether he thinks Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein. Hitzlik isn't sure. Patterico has a proposal to settle the issue. He writes, the "question is, of course, reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's question in the 1984 election: are you better off than you were four years ago? That question was decided by an election. Call me crazy, but maybe we should have an election in Iraq that puts Saddam on the ballot, vs. the current slate of representatives. Let the Iraqi people choose. Do they want Saddam back? Or do they want a free and democratic Iraq?"

LEST WE FORGET: Grand Olde Shoppe

Left-wing satirist Jesus' General has a new sponsor: "GOP MART." For those studying up on evolution vs. intelligent design, GOP MART offers a Do-It-Yourself Peer Review Kit -- i.e. a torch and pitchfork. Scroll down the page to find more great deals.

Posted by at 12:51 PM

December 14, 2005

12/14: Briefing Papers

Today we've done our best to capture some of the reaction to the dispute over the identification of Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing" blog at WashingtonPost.com (see 12/13 Blogometer for the background). It's Topic A in the blogosphere, and has taken on a number of different tracks. There's dispute over what the Washington Post is reacting to. Today, many on the left seem to think the paper is caving into the complaints of the right, instead of concerns over journalistic standards. There also is a wide expression of enjoyment in watching the Post's internal issues being played out so publicly. This is likely a popular topic to some because it shows how the MSM struggles to compete with the new emerging medium that is the blog. Sit back and enjoy.

An announcement: Since late 5/05, the Blogometer has been featuring prominent political bloggers in our regular Blogger Spotlight feature, much like The Hotline does for political and media figures inside the Beltway. Today we're launching a page dedicated to collecting all of those Q&A interviews (40+ and growing) in one place. So click over to The Hotline's Blogometer Spotlights to revisit previous spotlights or catch up on any you may have missed.

Another announcement: the 12/16 edition of the Blogometer will be our last for '05. That means we have 2 editions more left to go, but we didn't want you to be surprised. We'll be back -- with a few improvements -- in early 01/06.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM I: Next Of 'Kin

Driving the commentary on Froomkin-gate today is NYU prof. Jay Rosen's interview with "two key players" in the Post's internal dispute: Washington Post politics ed. John Harris, WPNI exec. ed. Jim Brady.

Reading the Q&A, Jane Hamsher traces Harris' concern back to ex-blogger/now-RNC staffer Patrick Ruffini, and she highlights Harris' statement that the WH "never complained in a formal way to me, but I have heard from Republicans in informal ways making clear they think his work is tendentious and unfair." Hamsher: "This flap is brought to you courtesy of the Republican Party, who will not stand to see itself criticized by a major media outlet without seeking to take down the one who is doing so. And John Harris bends over and spreads 'em."

Brad DeLong: "Shouldn't John Harris have told Jay Rosen that Patrick Ruffini is not some grassroots 'conservative blogger' outraged at Froomkin's bias but rather a Republican operative engaged in working the ref?" Spot-On: "The flap ... is an instructive little incident that ought to alert the journalism community to an unpleasant reality: having been regarded as the enemy for so long by the American right, it is now equally detested by the American left."

Oliver Willis: "[T]he perspective that Dan Froomkin presents in his column is that the media is much too deferential to the White House. Now, apparently in the world of the national politics editor of what is arguably the most important political paper in the country -- this is evidence of liberal bias." NRO's Media Blog: "What comes across in Rosen's post is how threatened Harris feels by what he perceives as an assault on the tradition of objectivity in journalism. ... [I]f Harris -- or [Post ombudsman Deborah]Howell -- really wanted to address this issue, they should take a look at some of the Post's news reporters who clearly do have a political agenda and whose reporting undermines the case Harris is trying to make for objective journalism." Daily Pundit: "Given how much to the left what the Post newsroom regards as being the center already is, Froomkin must be so far out there in the socialist sunset that he's glowing red-hot for anybody at the Post to actually notice his rampant and unrelenting liberal agenda." Ezra Klein at TAPPED: "Charges of bias require no substantiation whatsoever -- they merely have to be seconded enough times and they become, ipso facto, truth-esque."

Josh Marshall cites WaPo exec. ed. Len Downie's comments at EditorandPublisher.com, that "We want to make sure people in the [Bush] administration know that our news coverage by White House reporters is separate from what appears in Froomkin's column because it contains opinion." Marshall: "His primary concern appears to be what the White House thinks; what the paper's readers think is secondary."

Public Eye's Vaughn Ververs, RE: Howell's column.: "It's hard to remember the last time an ombudsman created this much of a flap all on their own, but The Washington Post's Deborah Howell seems to have touched off a real firestorm."

IRAQ: Who's Running? Iran

The New York Times reports that an Iraqi Interior Min. official said border police seized a tanker that crossed from Iran "filled with thousands of forged ballots." The Astute Blogger: "If you ask me: this is an act of WAR. Iraq's next government ought to declare war on Iran and Syria and ask us to attack them both. We'd get THREE birds with one stone." Sister Toldjah"[F]orcing the kind of representation that Iran wants in the Iraqi gov't would be all good for Iran." Unclaimed Territory: "It looks more and more like democratic elections in Iraq will legitimately install pro-Iranian Shiites who intend to do Iran's bidding." Confederate Yankee cites Reuters in challenging its accuracy. "The single-sourced story appears to be totally false."

Power Line runs an optimistic letter from a U.S. Army Colonel in Tikrit. He says: "[T]he elections will be a success, some wind will be taken out of the insurgency, the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police will continue to improve, US combat units will begin drawing down, and Democrats will start a mad dash to take credit for the success. Just imagine, a Middle Eastern country holding three major elections in a single year, voting in a constitution guaranteeing individual rights, and electing a multi-ethnic, multi-religious government."

Captains Quarters wonders if the sentiment at home is changing, saying: "When the Gray Lady sees fit to start reporting that even the Sunni of Saddam's hometown have committed themselves to democracy in the upcoming elections, it might indicate that defeatism has finally jumped the shark."

TAPPED links to Greg Sargent's vision of how the Dems get their message straight on Iraq. In short, they should embrace different views and show they're a party of debate while the GOP is in denial about the war.

Mickey Kaus compares Rep. John Murtha's (D-PA) "If they'd talked to me, it wouldn't have happened" quote from Newsweek to then-Speaker Gingrich's suggestion that he "wouldn't have provoked a government shutdown if he hadn't been made to use the rear door of President Clinton's plane." Kaus: "Gingrich was widely denounced as a petty crybaby. How is what Murtha told Newsweek any different?" A reader suggests he's "conflating 'Gingrich's desire for status with Murtha's desire for input.'" He responds: "But if the current President Bush had heard Murtha out, but then ignored him, would Murtha really have refrained from going public ..."

Slate's John Dickerson raised issues with the RNC's Web video he RNC's "Retreat and Defeat." An image in the video shows a soldier in Iraq, as Dickerson puts it, "having his mission and Christmas tarnished by weak-willed Democrats." The original photo actually shows a soldier watching "The Grinch." "The RNC is pimping a mute and unnamed soldier not just to defend the Iraq war but to imply that Democrats are white-handkerchief-waving cowards who want the United States to lose." Blogs for Bush rebuts: "This hardly makes the ad fraudulent or misleading. It merely reinforces the reality that the defeatist rhetoric of the Democrats ultimately gets seen and heard by our troops fighting the war on terror."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM II: Iraq Edition

Tim Graham updates us on the latest survey of MSM Iraq coverage, courtesy of Rich Noyes. "The traditional broadcast networks air[ed] six stories in negative tones for every Iraq story with a positive angle."

The Mudville Gazette and Michelle Malkin take issue with the MSM's reporting of Bush's comment that 30K citizens have died in Iraq.

PENTAGON: Big Brother's Back

An NBC "Nightly News" report (and the related MSNBC.com story) alleging spying on war protesters generates some buzz. Big Brass Blog: "History is repeating itself. Anti-war and civil rights protestors ended up with government dossiers in the 50s and 60s. ... Now it's happening again." American Future: "Everyone who reads this blog knows that I've consistently supported the Bush administration's Iraq policy. ... While I strongly disagree with the protestors, it's their right as American citizens to express, in a non-violent fashion, their disagreement with the administration's policies." Macsmind: "Anyone who thinks that we don't have enemies within our walls who would tear us apart are either mistaken, in on the plot, or just plain stupid."

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) apparently goes straight from the Senate floor to TPMCafe, where he reports he debated Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) on the Patriot Act. Feingold: "An actual debate of this kind, unfortunately, is rare on the floor of the Senate, but it was an excellent opportunity for people who might have been watching to really understand some of the issues that concern those of us who are opposing the conference report."

At The CornerMark Levin suggests renaming the McCain anti-torture amendment the "McCain Amendment with al-Qaeda." "And perhaps those who support it might form a group, with the help of George Soros, called 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Terrorists.'"

REDISTRICTING: Who Can Rewrite Congressional Maps? Kennedy Can, Kennedy Can!

New World Man at Red State writes about the role Justice Kennedy plays in the TX redistricting case. "In 2006 the Supreme Court is going to announce that whatever Mr. Justice Kennedy and his clerks come up with between now and then is the supreme law of the land on legislative redistricting, ending 300 years of elected officials being in charge of drawing districts in America. You don't know what Kennedy and his clerks will decide this supreme law is. You don't know if you'll like it or hate it till you hear it. All you know is that it's going to happen. So ask yourself now: Is this democracy?"

THE ALITO NOMINATION: When Dems Attack

John Hinderaker writes about a DNC e-mail claiming that Judge Sam Alito has "on multiple occasions" broken a pledge to recuse himself from cases in which he has a personal interest. Hinderaker: "The two cases referred to in the email are snoozers at best. ... What is significant is not that these charges have any merit, of course, but rather that the Democratic Party is officially campaigning to defeat Alito's nomination."

PLAME: The Original Novak Returns

JustOneMinute tries to extract info from Robert Novak's speech in Raleigh 12/13, and sticks to his theory that the source is ex-Undersec/State Richard Armitage.

THE MARCH OF THE BLOGS: Another One Bites The Dust

Recently we discussed CO Gov. Bill Owens' (R) office blocking staffers from posting on political blogs. Well, now the Springfield State Journal-Register reports that the insider tipsheet Capitol Fax has traced some comments about GOP IL GOV candidates back to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's (D) campaign.

MISCELLANY: Schiavo's Revenge

Liberal Matt Stoller interviews Michael Schiavo at MyDD. Schiavo: "The people leading the Republican party in Washington D.C. and in Florida today aren't like the Republicans I know. ... I have gotten hundreds of letters and emails from other Republicans who agree with me and many of them have joined me in leaving the party. My message to moderate Republicans is: Pay attention. Learn what these people are doing in your name and with your votes. That's why I started TerriPAC."

Author Clive Davis writes: "I'm always struck by the uniformity of views among the artists and literati I've interviewed. For almost all of them, the notion that there might just be another point of view simply doesn't exist."

A number of blogs are pushing for votes at the "Web Log Awards," started by Kevin Aylward of Wizbang. One exception is Power Line: "Given the recognition we received last year, we encourage you not to vote for Power Line this time around. There are some great blogs running in our category ("Best Blog"), and we'll be highlighting some of them in the coming days."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Economics 101

On 12/10 Ann Althouse mentioned that her revenues from BlogAds have gone up since a number of top bloggers decamped for Pajamas Media. On 12/13, Tim Worstall said he'd had the same experience, and offered one reason why: "Pretty much all of the Pajamas bloggers used to run BlogAds. They now, as a condition of being part of the system, do not." But as yet, Pajamas Media has yet to lure advertisers who routinely buy space via BlogAds: "So we have a huge reduction in the number of page views available for purchase (what? 400,000? 500,000? on a daily basis?) but a similar number of advertisers looking for page views. The result?" There's more pie available for the bloggers who chose not to jump. Worstall concludes: "In fact, until PJM do manage to tempt some of those advertisers over to their system I'd say right now is an excellent time to be raising your BlogAd rates."

LEST WE FORGET: That's Officer Sheriff T.J. Hooker

"CSI: 70s" or something...

NOTES AND ERRATA

To read the unabridged edition of the Blogometer, visit http://blogometer.nationaljournal.com. Questions, comments, reservations? Drop us a line at blogometer@nationaljournal.com.

Posted by at 12:41 PM

December 13, 2005

12/13: All Took Up

The execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams occupied most of the discussion last p.m., after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and then the SCOTUS declined to intervene, and then this morning after it was carried out. We'd venture to say that most bloggers -- or at least most bloggers weighing in here -- label themselves anti-death penalty. This includes many conservatives, who are against it for either religious or libertarian reasons. However, they reserve their ire principally for the anti-death penalty left, whose reasons are different, and for Williams' most vociferous defenders. But even on the left there is little sympathy for Williams and less support; most pay lip service to their opposition to the death penalty but add that Williams was never a strong candidate for clemency.

Meanwhile, an internal conflict at the Washington Post over online columnist Dan Froomkin brings out his many defenders. The dispute pits Froomkin against the Post's WH reporters, who believe his opinionated column is too easily confused with the objective reporting they hope to be known for. First raised by the ombudsman this weekend, the story by now offers liberal bloggers another chance to criticize the Post, which some feel goes too soft on the WH.

In other news: Pres. Bush's speech gets some grudging praise but not all that much talk, the SCOTUS will decide what to do about TX redistricting, something may or may not be happening behind the scenes re: SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito, and we present our latest Blogger Spotlight.

DEATH PENALTY: Oh Well, There's Always Mumia ...

Center-right Althouse: "Personally, I'm opposed to the death penalty, but I can't understand why this person deserves it less than others who don't get clemency. Fame shouldn't be enough. Having famous supporters shouldn't be enough." Balloon Juice has similar sentiments. Lefty Atrios makes comments similar to Althouse, and turns his focus to Cory Maye (see 12/12 Blogometer), agreed across the blogosphere to be unfairly convicted and sentenced to die." Liberal MaxSpeak does the same, under the header "CORY SI, TOOKIE NO." Scott Lemieux gives the flip-side of Althouse's formulation: "But if we're uncomfortable about executing him, the lesson should be to oppose the death penalty for everyone, rather than arbitrarily saving a few people based on factors that ultimately have little or nothing to do with fundamental justice."

Patrick "Patterico" Frey says "forget" Tookie: "Remember instead his victims: Albert Owens, Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, and Yu-Chin Yang Lin. Tonight should be about honoring their memory, and bringing justice for their deaths." Michelle Malkin doubts that Tookie's advocates could name any of the victims.

TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt posted an image file with the text "An eye for an eye leaves the world blind." Header at Comments from Left Field: "Six Time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Set To Die Tonight." The Next Left calls Schwarzenegger "incredibly undiplomatic": "His death is a painful setback in the fight against gang violence. Worse, Schwarzenegger's statement of decision is largely focused on insulting Williams fight against gang warfare."

' Liberal Booman Tribune's Susanhu had been hoping for clemency, and warns of rioting: "To our friends in large cities, especially Los Angeles, stay safe." Black conservative Juliette Ochieng: "Now we'll see whether the idea -- planted by Big Media -- that blacks will riot over anything, even over the execution of one who made some of their neighborhoods a warzone, is a true one. I say no."

James Wolcott: "No former movie action hero -- or Yale cheerleader with enough psychological baggage to sink the African Queen -- should be entrusted with the power of life and death over his fellow citizens. These are essentially frivolous, uninformed men playacting blue-suited roles of grave responsibility." Mark Kleiman on Maye, for Huffington Post: "This case is an interesting test of the power of the Blogosphere. Though the apparent injustice is two years old, it seems to have attracted exactly zero attention in the mainstream media ... Unless bloggers can somehow attract the attention of mainstream media outlets, or of the politicians whose statements the mainstream media will treat as news ... then the story is going to die, and so, probably, is Cory Maye."

BUSH: The Qs Have It

Bush's speech got relatively little play on either side of the aisle yesterday, and it was his opponents who weighed in with the most commentary. Right-leaning Bush critic