December 05, 2005

12/5: Cool As Ice

The weekend was relatively uneventful in political blogging, except for some interesting activity in the Plamegate case -- which only a relative few are now following with any intensity. Events in Iraq make for frequent discussions, as do the weekend shows, and plenty of topics that do not bear directly on nat'l politics. But Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain both get some interesting mentions, as does a Washington Post reporter and a handful of '06 campaigns. The cong. recess, the holiday season, and perhaps even burnout from a hyperactive autumn may help to explain why the 'sphere seems so subdued. Note for instance, that the top search on Technorati all weekend has been for the phrase "Xbox 360."

PLAMEGATE: Tending The Plame

On 12/3, Nation corr. David Corn posted his report on the conversations between Time's Viveca Novak and Karl Rove atty Robert Luskin. Citing "completely trustworthy sources," Corn reports: "Novak wasn't trying to tip off Luskin or to help him. During a conversation, Luskin said to Viveca Novak that Rove had never spoken to [Time's Matt] Cooper about Valerie Wilson. Novak instinctively pushed back, in the way many a reporter would challenge a source whom he or she believes is spinning or lying. "She assumed that Luskin was giving her BS,' one close-to-Novak source says. "And she replied with something along the lines of, 'This is not what I hear.' She assumed that Luskin did know about the Rove-Cooper conversation and that she was not telling him anything he did not already know." Corn discloses that he has played basketball with Novak's husband: "I've known Viveca Novak for close to 20 years, and this all squares with my nothing-but-positive impression of her." At Huffington Post, C&L's John Amato pronounces himself "confused" about Corn's latest, asking him about "your friend Viveca Novak." Where Corn notes a fact that had "been wrongly reported," Amato asks: "I wonder why you failed to mention that it was you who reported this fact incorrectly?" As Corn wrote, "What Viveca Novak said to Luskin, a friend of hers, is unclear," Amato asks: "I would also like to know if her husband was the 'source' that is close to Viveca?" Jane Hamsher comments: "Maybe if they'd been a little better friends she might have told him that her meeting with Luskin took place 'over drinks' in February, 2004 before he went out on a limb defending her. I guess she's better friends with Jim VandeHei," author of the Post story linked in the previous sentence. Hamsher pushes back more: "Matt Cooper quite nearly went to jail. Karl Rove never intended to give him any kind of waiver ... You think V. Novak might have wandered into her editors at some point over the past year and a half and said 'you know, I don't know how this might fit into anything, but before they send Matt to Romania for waterboarding maybe I should mention ...'"

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald is requesting that 8 pages of redacted info re: the Plame case be revealed, but not other sections dealing with identities of people who have not been named publicly so far. Hamsher assembles a list of people mentioned -- hinted at, not named -- in the Libby indictment; it could be one of them. Merritt lists those she thinks Fitzgerald is protecting with the request, including Bob Novak and his source, the sources of Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward; and others. Mickey Kaus writes, some Plame-watchers had assumed those pages "contained top secret eye-only information on the grave national security consequences of CIA 'operative' Plame's outing," but instead they "seem to mainly disclose information about witnesses, etc. involved in Fitzgerald's perjury case -- not a case about horrible damage done to our intelligence agents or their sources."

Eric Scheie at Classical Values, long one of those who doubted the scandal had much substance, finds it strange that Rove's pursuers put such stock in the CIA's version of events: "The CIA knows how to run individual agents, blackmail people, persuade them in all sorts of ways (again, legal and illegal), foment coups d'etat, and topple governments. It is an agency capable of great mischief at the very least."

INTEL: Natasha Fatale Implicated In CIA Rendering Scandal! Must Credit Blogometer!

Washington Post's Priest -- whose recent reporting on secret CIA prisons was much debated in past weeks -- now reports that the U.S. released a German national it had wrongly detained. At Daily Kos, Armando calls Priest "remarkable," and approvingly quotes Justice Brandeis on habeas corpus: "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." Obsidian Wings' Hilzoy: "We claim to be a nation of laws. If we are, we will hold people accountable for this."

The article raises different questions on the right. In a post titled "Pouting Spooks Leak Again," Never Yet Melted takes issue with the line of Priest's article which describes "a former Soviet analyst with spiked hair that matched her in-your-face personality who heads the CTC's al Qaeda unit," whose "name is being withheld because she is under cover." To NYM and others, this is awfully close to outing this woman, a la Valerie Wilson/Plame. JustOneMinute: "Quick, subpoena Dana Priest of the WaPo -- someone with a political axe to grind has leaked to her the name of a covert CIA officer!"

PENTAGON: America -- Love It Or Lieb It

Lefty bloggers remain irritated with Sen. Lieberman for his recent WSJ op-ed reaffirming support for the current course in Iraq (see 11/30 Blogometer), and now that his name is surfacing as a possible replacement for Sec/Defense Don Rumsfeld, they're not enthusiastic. Atrios: "It'd be a smart move for the Bush administration. The press loves them some Lieberman, and they love them some 'bipartisanship.' Rumsfeld's clearly mad as a hatter these days and needs to go for reasons going beyond mendacious incompetence." And Lieberman is willing "to put his name on a pack of lies in service to the Bush administration. Politics aside, though, what a nightmare." Conservative David Wissing doesn't exactly protest: "Of course if Lieberman were to accept a position as Secretary of Defense, that would give a chance for [GOP Gov.] Jodi Rell to appoint a Senator to fill his vacant seat. But right now, I'll wait until it actual happens before I really start thinking about that turn of events." Steve Soto also doubts it will happen, but for different reasons: "Frankly, I don't see it happening, because if Bush were to replace Rummy, the PNAC cabal and [VP] Cheney's imperialist faction will want one of their own for the job, and not a Democrat, no matter how much Rove wants bipartisanship and the Jewish lobby on board for this."

At TPM Cafe, ex-Clinton official Ivo Daalder promotes an op-ed he co-wrote for the LAT which argues it "would be unfortunate if President Bush's doctrine of preemption were a casualty of the Iraq war. We should avoid waging unilateral preventive wars of regime change. But circumstances will probably arise in which the option of using force preventively should be available -- whether to kill terrorists, prevent weapons proliferation, halt genocidal killing or stop the spread of deadly disease. The task is to make the idea a more limited and more legitimate tool for dealing with new security threats."

WHITE HOUSE '08: Is He Still A Maverick?

Sen. McCain's "Meet the Press" appearance on 12/4 drew a variety of reactions -- Arianna Huffington comments: "If today's show was any indication, the Straight Talk Express has gone seriously off the road. ... You got the feeling that McCain knew the stuff coming out of his mouth -- 'the president has done a good job' -- was absurd, but both he and Russert lacked the energy either to make it believable or to address its absurdity. I kept waiting for Russert to ask: "But wait a minute, aren't you John McCain? What's happened to you?" Centrist Joe Gandelman credits McCain for standing firm on the "torture ban": "Many news reports have noted that Cheney is adamant on nixing a torture ban. Well, now -- if these reports are to be believed -- the White House is slowly, seemingly inexorably, inching towards accepting some kind of ban." But having read Byron York's TNR piece on McCain and the Bush WH, Scott Shields calls McCain a "Bush loyalist whose position on Iraq is 'stay the course,'" pointing out his that fiscal policies don't necessarily mesh with his Dem fans: "I strongly doubt that many Democratic McCainiacs support the privatization of Social Security that McCain does."

MyDD's Chris Bowers is hosting the Dec. straw poll, asking readers to select their picks for '04. With a few thousand votes registered so far, the results show Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) with a slight edge over typical straw poll winner Wesley Clark, both comfortably leading Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA) and ex-Sen. John Edwards.

MIDTERMS '06: The Do-Nothing Party

• Late last week, Kennedy V. Machine reported: "A little birdie whispered to us last night that the ethically challenged, temperamentally unstable, not-ready-for-prime-time [comedian/radio talker/rumored SEN candidate] Al Franken will, in fact, be moving forward with his anticipated move to Minneapolis next month to the lovely brownstone shown below."
• At MyDD, Jonathan Singer argues that Dems' '06 strategy should focus on Bush's "complete dearth of domestic accomplishments": "The Democrats must focus on George W. Bush and his Republican allies by pointing to utter policy failures such as Social Security privatization and the tax reform package ... rather than falling into the same traps as they did in 2002 and 2004. It's that simple."
• TN-based Team GOP reports that GOP consultant Chris LaCivita, best known for the SBVT ads, will likely be leaving Chattanooga Mayor/SEN candidate Bob Corker's camp early in '06: "One source told TeamGOP.org that Mr. LaCivita has been demoted and will now only be doing some of the mass mailing for the Corker campaign. Another source close to the situation said Mr. LaCivita may not even remain with the Corker campaign at all, but a decision will likely be made around the first of the year."
• OH GOV candidate/Rep. Ted Strickland (D) is backing OH SEN candidate/Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for the Dem nod; Brown's Grow Ohio blog hosts video of a speech by Strickland on behalf of Brown.
• Labor activist Jonathan Tasini, who runs the blog Working Life, has announced he will be challenging Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for the NY SEN nod. He notes this on his blog, but says he won't address the race further on the blog; his campaign site is tasinifornewyork.org. At Huffington Post, Tasini explains why he's running against HRC.

ABRAMOFF: Games People Play

A reader writes in to Talking Points Memo to argue why Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid getting Abramoff money is less problematic than other pols: "Representing Nevada, he could not politically support the opening of new casinos and was, indeed, probably required as a condition of reelection to do everything he could to prevent such an result. Abramoff probably had a computer program automatically dispensing contributions to those who opposed the new Indian casino permits, which Reid independently had great incentive to do."

MISCELLANY: You Furnish The Christmas, Murdoch Will Furnish The War

• AMERICAblog's lefty John Aravosis appeared on CNN this weekend, and during his visit to the studios, he ran into Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN). Aravosis had his picture taken with Lugar, and posts it to the website, commenting: "I'd traveled with him a lot when I worked in the Senate in the early 90s. He's just a very smart, VERY smart, decent fellow."
• Conservative Bill Hobbs posts an e-mail from Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) comm dir David All, summarizing the costs/benefits of MoveOn's controversial ad best known for using British troops in place of American ones: "Amount MoveOn.org allegedly spent in Georgia's first district on a media buy: $480,000 ... ZERO calls, emails, or letters resulting from the ad: PRICELESS."
• NJ state politics too confusing? Not sure who Goerge Norcross is, or why you should fear him? Blue Jersey has a handy beginners' guide to NJ politics, which will expand in the near future.
• Cori Dauber of Ranting Profs: "As I noted last night, NBC reports that al Jazeera is showing video from a terrorist group that is claimed to be footage of the attack that recently killed 10 Marines. While NBC notes that the military has told them that it can't be footage of that attack, since in the footage it's clearly daylight, while the attack in question took place at night, they go ahead and show the video anyway." Dauber links to a Marine website which warns soldiers that the video is "disinformation."
• Daily Kos contributor Superribbie argues that atty Steve Young (D) can win the CA 48 race, in part because of Minuteman founder/American Independent candidate Jim Gilchrist, because it's a CD where Kerry outperformed Gore, because a number of House Dems represent more-GOP areas than 48, plus the "twin albatrosses" of Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).
• At RedState, California Yankee notes that the DNC has "unanimously approved three resolutions supporting illegal aliens" -- such as a measure condemning a proposed CO constitutional amendment to deny non-emergency gov't services to illegals -- and that DNC chair Howard Dean "ridiculed President Bush's recent tough talk about stronger enforcement of border security." He asks, "How are we going to control illegal immigration if the leadership of the Democratic party supports it?"
• Donklephant's Justin Gardner, on the ongoing "war on Christmas" debate, a controversy raised almost exclusively by FNC: "Personally, I think this is a pretty weird push by Fox, and a fairly transparently partisan one at that. Also, as far as I can see, nobody else besides Fox is pushing this story. But I have seen our local Fox affiliate here in Kansas City pick it up and run with it in no less than two stories in four days." Crooks and Liars posts a screen shot from

BLOGS ON BLOGS: Nation-al Security

Last week, Pajamas Media founder Roger L. Simon finally announced it would begin rolling out ads. Soon BlogAds disappeared from the sidebar at Instapundit and others, soon replaced by PJM ads. The ads as yet are all in-house ads for PJM, but they do sport a new, improved pajama logo and offer a means to comment on the ads (but they are e-mail links, not comment boards). Others are raising questions about their choice of ad servers. Chapomatic: "PJM uses the previously very ugly popup user Doubleclick for their ad server. A few years back I just blocked out all those things. So I don't even see any of the ads. I wonder how many other folks also, uh, miss out?" Meanwhile, AmbivaBlog reports that getting linked by PJM so far "has brought precious little traffic. I count 19 hits out of the last 160, yesterday and today. (Told you I'm a wee blogger.) If it isn't driving more traffic than that, it makes you wonder how much traffic it's drawing, and, more intangibly, how much credibility it has with its readers. Has anyone yet experienced a PajamaLanche?"

On a related note, left-leaning PJM participants Corn and Marc Cooper have continued to draw criticism from fellow progressive bloggers. James Wolcott quotes Cooper in the comments of a post at Cooper's site a couple weeks back, criticizing his fellow Nation contributors as people who think "it's a pity the Soviet Union collapsed." Wolcott: "I must say, this isn't very collegial of Cooper. It teeters on the brink of journalistic disloyality. Are the editors and staffers at The Nation aware that one of their "name" byliners is badmouthing them like this?" It appears that Cooper has removed the specific comments from the board, though comments still in the thread refer to them. Atrios, never a fan of Cooper's, writes: "I'm all for people having the freedom to criticize the publications they work for -- in fact I welcome it -- but this kind of Reynoldsesque smearing isn't really something sensible editors should put up with."

Right Wing News' John Hawkins has announced the "4th Annual Warblogger Awards," compiled the favorite blogs of 50 participating right-of-center bloggers. Among the results: Favorite left-of-center-blogger was Kevin Drum, most annoying left-of-center-blogger was Markos Moulitsas, and favorite columnist who's not a blogger was Charles Krauthammer. Instapundit and Michelle Malkin compete for top honors in several categories; Malkin wins best overall blog.

INTRODUCING: For Any Remaining Academics Without Blogs Of Their Own ...

Launching today Cato Unbound is a new blog-like website produced by libertarian think tank Cato Institute. Each month, it will feature an essay by 1 major thinker, followed by replies and rebuttals from other public intellectuals. It kicks off with Nobel laureate James Buchanan arguing for 3 new constitutional amendments.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Wiki Shall Be Punished

Picking up from last week's debate over the vandalized Wikipedia entry for John Seigenthaler Sr. (see 12/1 Blogometer), New York Times' Seelye spoke to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who says he is "trying to make Wikipedia less vulnerable to tampering. He said he was starting a review mechanism by which readers and experts could rate the value of various articles. The reviews, which he said he expected to start in January, would show the site's strengths and weaknesses and perhaps reveal patterns to help them address the problems." Alternately, Jeff Jarvis suggests: "If I were a reference publisher, a library association, a university, a media company, or a foundation, I'd take Wikipedia as raw material and vet entries, perhaps even charging for the service: On demand or on the basis of traffic and links, I'd go in and vet already-written pieces and bless that version of it. Then maybe I'd publish a book from it."

LEST WE FORGET: Pro-Bush?

Via Crooks and Liars, evidence that at least one Bush is enjoying a surge in popularity.

Posted by at December 5, 2005 12:34 PM