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 December 16, 2005 12:37 PM