1/31: Just Because You're Paranoid ...
As we go to press, Samuel Alito has been confirmed to the SCOTUS by a vote of 58-42. It's too soon to grab reax on that, but it's similar to what's come before. As everyone understands, the real fight was on 1/30, where the lopsided 72-25 cloture vote effectively ended the liberal blogosphere's efforts to persuade their representatives to block his nomination.
The left-blogosphere's campaign was the latest peak of its strong activist streak. For most of 1/06 and long stretches of late '05, it has been motivated and working toward several goals. In the past, these have included the pursuit of Rep. Tom DeLay, flogging the Plamegate investigation, promoting Cindy Sheehan, and backing the candidacy of ex-House candidate Paul Hackett. In all of those, lefty bloggers had a modicum of success. This time, they had some success getting 25 sens. to vote against cloture. But as with the previous defeats (Hackett's loss, Sheehan's slide back into obscurity, no Karl Rove indictment yet) the taste of victory surely raised expectations. And now there's an unmistakable anger, sense of powerlessness, and in some cases paranoia, throughout the lefty blogosphere. One way of taking power is striking back at the Dems who failed them. And there's a lot of that. Their invective -- and there's plenty of it -- is aimed heavily at the 19 Dems who voted for cloture, but also at the liberal interest groups which failed to mount a compelling case against Alito, and specifically NARAL for supporting pro-choice GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). Chafee voted against Alito today, but voted for cloture last p.m. Not a few are threatening to renounce the Dem Party entirely, or at least to stop giving money to the party this cycle.
In most cases above, GOP bloggers stood on the sidelines and observed, rather than countering the left head on. This is certainly the case here, where they have no reason to fight -- their confidence in Alito's eventual confirmation has never seriously been shaken -- and so it's a big day for the old right-blogosphere pastime of perusing Daily Kos comment boards to find bitterest responses from what some of them call the "moonbat" left. All that keeps this from being a "one story day" is the RSC meeting in Baltimore, where all 3 candidates for House maj. leader attended and spoke to the press. While the righty bloggers have followed that race closely enough, this event is probably a bit esoteric to most, and hasn't got the attention of the wider right-blogosphere -- only a couple of professional bloggers and GOP activists.
One thing we saw very, very few mentions about: Tonight's SOTU address. A few reasons for this: the Alito confirmation is dominating all other stories, and there's no awareness that anything big will be announced tonight, but also there's almost always far more coverage of an event following it. Bloggers tend to be reactive, and as yet there's not much to react to.
THE ALITO NOMINATION I: Group Think
Liberal Oliver Willis: "I think the failure to even present a remotely coherent case against Samuel Alito falls squarely on the head of the legal eagles on the progressive side. The primary reason for groups like People for the American Way, Alliance for Justice, etc. to exist is to be the front line of defense for Supreme Court nominations. ... It speaks volumes when you fail at your organization's primary mission. Not that their mission was to stop Alito -- I don't know that that was ever possible simply because we didn't have the numbers -- but that Roberts and Alito both sailed through the process unassailed."
NARAL's backing of the no-Alito but yes-cloture Sen. Chafee is a major issue for some, primarily female bloggers. Jane Hamsher argues that "vote for cloture is a vote for Alito," and yet: "I just got off the phone with NARAL and I am being told that they do not consider Chafee's vote on cloture to be significant. They are not going to pull their support for him over this. ... This ridiculous little kabuki about voting AGAINST Alito and FOR cloture is a sham, and if NARAL is going to look the other way they no longer deserve to be the guardians of a woman's right to choose in this country." 
Georgia10 of Daily Kos concurs: "Congrats, NARAL. You got punk'd." On the other hand, Roxanne Cooper and Amanda Marcotte both give Chafee a thumbs-up for his announced "No" vote on the nomination itself.
Conservative Betsy Newmark: "Here is one place where conservatives and liberals can agree. None of us like Chafee's wishy-washy, public agonizing over every controversial vote. I don't understand why the man even wants to consider himself a Republican unless it is that he enjoys the publicity he gets every time he opposes the GOP on some issue. If he were just another lefty New England senator, would any one care one jot about him?"
THE ALITO NOMINATION II: Kossack Krack-up?
NRO's Byron York went clicking through Daily Kos for reax, and posted this edited excerpt to The Corner: "What I want is a complete list of every scumsucking f--kstick Democratic a--hole senator who voted for cloture. That's what I want. I don't know what to DO with that list, not yet -- but I know for G--DAMNED sure I won't be VOTING for any of them, let alone sending them any g--damned MONEY. Frankly, right now I'd like nothing better than to torpedo the entire lot of them. Just dump them like so much worthless, leaden, VICHY MOTHERF--KING BALLAST." York doesn't provide the link but it is here, by Maryscott O'Connor, and is cross-posted to her My Left Wing. The post also features a Photoshopped Time cover, with a picture of Alito and the words "We are F---ED." Right-Wing News also picked it up, adding: "It's so over-the-top it's funny..."
The Daily Kos cloture vote "open thread" is an interesting one as well. Most of the comments are nothing like the above, but they are viscerally angry and focused on what the next move should be. Like O'Connor, some propose a divestiture from the Dems. Says one, "not one cent to the DSCC and especially not to my sorry excuse for a senator, Bill Nelson. it's third party time for '06 for me in the senate race. all of my money is now going to individual candidates, the DSCC can get bent." Some discuss changing parties as well. Decision '08 lists the top 5 (in entertainment value) "Kos Kidz" reactions to the vote.
New York Post's Deborah Orin joins in the dKos-focus, writing that John Kerry "got his marching orders from The New York Times and the left-wing blog Daily Kos (which can be hard to tell apart these days). Presto: Insta-filibuster, like it or not. It's the latest example of how Kerry -- plus 2000 loser Al Gore and the left wing of the blogosphere -- are all yanking the Democratic Party hard to the left, instead of the center (where most of the votes are). ... Another worry for Democrats was the fact that the reaction on the lefty blogs wasn't to think that maybe they'd had a dumb idea but instead to vow revenge and political death to Democrats who opposed the unpopular filibuster. ... 'Moron and coward'; 'Primary challenge'; 'Take down their names and kick their a-- in the next election' -- just a few of the angry messages for Democrats posted on the Daily Kos site as his bloggers realized the filibuster was going down. In fact, Kerry's allies seemed so angry at Democrats that they almost forget to attack Republicans."
As a kind of corrective to the hysteria, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas made a point about what the larger American public was focusing on: "While we obsessed over the cloture vote, that was not news to the rest of the country, blissfully unaware. What was? Bob Woodruff almost getting killed and Jill Carroll pleading for her life, both in Iraq. ... This, for the real America, was the news today. This isn't meant to minimize the importance of the Alito vote, but to note that this has not been a glorious day for Dear Leader. In fact, it's one of those days that may very well have turned the public against his presidency once and for all."
The anti-Dem sentiments and ugly remarks are by no means limited to dKos. The Agonist declares, "no Democratic Senator on the list who voted for cloture (and against a filibuster) will ever receive a dime from me personally. Why? Because after such a catastrophic failure you don't deserve to be Senators. The Republicans schooled you." Vichy Dems wrote, "Four up, one down, one big fracking sissy: Republican Senator John Ensign in car accident, unable to attend cloture vote -- that's effectively one more for our side!" Conservative Adam's Blog responds: "Wow, that's the Democrats' key plan for victory. Make sure enough Republicans in car wrecks and then celebrating afterwards."
BlogActive, which outed GOP ex-Rep. Ed Shrock in 9/04, on 1/30 threatened an unnamed, married GOP sen. with outing if he voted for Alito. The outing is not necessarily imminent -- depending on the vote, it may happen sometime before his next election. Even on the site, half the comments are running against the idea of outing this unknown pol. Elsewhere, it mostly just gets attention from the right: John Podhoretz writes at The Corner, "the real threat that's posed here is to Democrats, because with a base this out of control, every Democrat that doesn't toe the moonbat line has a reason to be afraid." Rob Port of Say Anything concurs: "Last night I read a post by Oliver Willis where complained about Democrat politicians not making liberal blogs part of their 'message machine.' Given the above, it is little wonder mainstream Democrats don't want to make themselves more beholden to the liberal blogosphere." Header at RedState: "Democrats Blackmail United States Senator." More: "People like this are not the opponent -- they are the enemy. If this comes to pass, the United States Attorney should pursue charges." Gay conservative Lime Shurbet concurs, citing DC blackmail statutes.
On a sillier note, one story going around the blogs involves an apparently legit RNC-facilitated e-mail notifying recipients of a GOP House Party in Bloomington, IL. The host promised, verbatim, "a Jesse Jackson pinata, a dunk tank where you'll get the chance to sink my wife who will be dressed as Hillary Clinton, and a special guest appearance by my uncle -- Rep. Timothy V. Johnson." The party itself was apparently not legit, but it got linked by a Daily Kos diarist as fact. It also rated a mention at Wonkette, which also posted a screen shot. But before long, the dKos diarist started to notice hints that the party was not for real, and updated: "I believe that this is a hoax/prank. I think somebody gamed the GOP House Party online system to create a fake party, and the GOP's own system automatically generated the party page and sent out invitations to GOP team leaders in the area. There are too many things I'm learning that don't seem to add up." The RNC also took it down; until then it was available at this URL.
THE ALITO NOMINATION III: The Kennedy School
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is of course a perennial target of conservatives, and his impassioned floor speech caught the attention of Michelle Malkin and the many who link to her. She wrote: "I am watching Sen. Ted Kennedy on C-SPAN unraveling before my eyes. He is screaming. The face is fire-engine red. The fists are waving furiously. Here's my rough transcript of his ongoing diatribe smearing the Alito nomination as a step backwards toward mass discrimination." From her own rush transcript: "And my friends, the one organization, the one institution that protects [the "march of progress"] is THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! (Screaming at the top of his lungs.) Too much blood has been shed in those battles. Too much sweat. Too many tears. To. Put. At. Risk. That. March. For. Progress. (Banging podium. Voice cracking.)"
Kennedy's speech is available at his Senate website, and video is available via Crooks and Liars. And we meant to note yesterday, but only just found the link -- on 1/27 Kennedy followed Kerry in posting to Daily Kos. The title of the post was "Thank You for Helping To Stop Alito."
THE ALITO NOMINATION IV: Martha, Martha, Martha!
At Open Letter to Chris Matthews, Matt Stoller quotes Matthews from the 1/30 "Hardball" saying of Martha Alito, "isn't she a great woman, didn't she stand up-and then they'll put the camera right on Ted Kennedy and show how he was the guy that molested her basically -- that's the way they'll play it..." Stoller reacts: "This is journalism? Making light of the sexual abuse of women on national TV? And accusing a sitting US Senator of the offense, to boot (and no surprise it was a Democratic Senator)." Crooks and Liars: "Each day brings with it a new dawn and Chris Matthews keeps saying things that boggle the mind." Dem Bloggers: "Exactly where does "sloppy, irresponsible journalism" stop and "slander" begin?"
Joe Gandelman doesn't go in for the wholesale criticism of Matthews, but can see what they're getting at: "He might avoid a lot of headaches if he chooses his words a bit more wisely..." MacStansbury at MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy doesn't go in for any of it: "He's a liberal, a Liberal, a 'Liberal' and everything in-between. Watching these people twist in the wind amuses me to no end, especially when they are so blatantly wrong."
THE ALITO NOMINATION V: You Better Reax Somebody
Lefty Kevin Drum, on the filibuster and liberal bloggers' promotion of it: "I'm glad the filibuster took place, because even in failure it puts a marker down for future court fights. Still, even given the amateurish way that Senate Dems handled it, I expected it to get more than 25 votes. So here's today's assignment: In 5,000 words or less, what does this say about the influence of the lefty blogosphere?" RedState's Blanton, after the confirmation vote: "Hey Kossacks, does it not gall you that the votes for confirmation will be less than the votes to shut down the filibuster? You can thank a Democrat for that. Now, go on out and get them re-elected this year."
Righty Ed Morrissey writes, 2 lessons Dems may have picked up include a), orgs. "like PFAW and NARAL do not represent 'mainstream' views," and "bloviating of people like Ted Kennedy does not inspire the middle to their ranks, but instead repels more and more centrists through the obvious hyperbole and hypocrisy it demonstrates." He concludes: "The media predicted a permanent split on the Right over the Harriet Miers nomination, but it might be more likely that the Left will split over the failure of the Alito filibuster. The 2006 election just took an unexpected turn." Conservative Dafydd ab Hugh thinks the "era of the judicial filibuster is at an end": "While I would much prefer seeing the constitutional option enacted ... the reality is that if fear of the constitutional option makes it impossible for the Democrats to filibuster the latter, their number-one target, they won't be able to filibuster anyone else, either." Liberal Pharyngula lists the cloture-voting Dems, with designations such as "(One-termer-WA)" and "(Lickspittle-DE)," and dubs them the "Circus of the Spineless." Conservative Don Surber compares the Dems to Sideshow Bob's prolonged rake-stepping scene in the old "Cape Fear" episode of "The Simpsons": "These Intellectual Loons cannot [sustain a filibuster]. Still, they proceed to step on that rake. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
While most simply fault Dem sens. for failing to show the courage of their convictions, as even some centrist bloggers offered amused advice. Neoliberal Mickey Kaus, before the filibuster: "I'm not convinced Alito isn't the best we're likely to get under the circumstances, but filibustering a Supreme Court nominee -- in essence, requiring a supermajority before you fill a lifetime, unelected office with vast, uncheckable power -- seems more defensible than the average, everyday minority obstructionism. It's an honorable course Democrats might choose to take." He adds, "It's also honorable to stage a vote even if you know you're going to lose!" At Ragged Thots, conservative Robert George understands why Dems are upset: "Were I a Democrat voter, I'd be furious right now. ... Not only couldn't Senate Democrats get enough votes for a filibuster -- they lost 19 members of their own caucus in voting for cloture! 72-25!?!? You've got to be kidding! Why even go through the motions? And who do they allow to be the face of the filibuster -- Massachusetts' favorite sons, John F. Kerry and Edward F. Kennedy, the faces of elections lost and times past." Plus, Pres. Bush gets a great set-up for his SOTU this p.m.: "Now there's a strategy! If that's the gift that a politically-weakened president gets, what does that say about his opposition?"
Center-left Michael Stickings: "After supporting Roberts last year, I simply could not look past Alito's overt extremism on executive power and his covert (and sometimes not-so-covert) extremism on key social issues like abortion. Alito has been brilliantly packaged to look like a modest, kind-hearted (dare I say compassionate?) conservative who will simply examine the law and interpret the Constitution with care and an open mind, but he is in reality a blank check for the imperial aspirations of Bush and Cheney. And his nomination is the latest blatant example of conservative court-packing." Newsrack Blog lists the 19 "Vichy Democrats" who went along with the GOPers: "A special word for Senator Byrd: please, next time you get all bothered about the Constitution, remember your vote today and then have the decency to just STFU, you preening, pompous fool." Steve Soto: "The goal is to get more Democrats elected this fall so that there won't be any more Alitos. And we should thank the bloggers, the activists, and yes, John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy for stirring up at least some pressure for a filibuster while those of us in the online community saw clearly that the Joe Bidens, Pat Leahys, Joe Liebermans, and even the Barack Obamas aren't ready or never will be ready to fight for this party or this country."
Hullabaloo's Digby: "The last time we had a serious outpouring from the grassroots was the Iraq War resolution. My Senator DiFi [Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)] commented at the time that she had never seen anything like the depth of passion coming from her constituents. But she voted for the war anyway. So did Bayh, Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Kerry and Reid. ... Every one of those people were running in one way or another in 2002 and they went the other way. The tide is shifting. There is something to be gained by doing the right thing." He adds: "This is a dramatic moment for the netroots. Get ready for marginalization, evocations of 1968 and 1972, calls for purging us from the party, the whole thing. That's what happens when the citizens rise up. Don't let it shake your will. We are the heart of the Democratic party and we can make a difference."
On a completely unrelated note, Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy: "While there will be lots of focus on the new Justice Alito, I hope we'll also take a moment to pause and thank Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for her 24+ years of dedicated public service. Justice O'Connor's July 1, 2005 letter to the President announced that she would retire from the Court upon the confirmation of her successor, which means that she will be retiring from active service on the Court as of today. I hope the news accounts of Alito's confirmation make a special point to note that."
HOUSE GOP ELECTIONS: Charm City
The RSC held a retreat in Baltimore, starting 1/30 and continuing through 1/31. All 3 House maj. leader candidates -- acting Maj. Leader Roy Blunt (MO), John Boehner (OH) and John Shadegg (AZ) -- spoke, and NRO's Stephen Spruiell and Townhall's Tim Chapman have been there to cover it.
Last p.m., Chapman reported: "Boehner said that he had heard from different members that Roy Blunt was making individual promises to members in return for votes. When asked to characterize what kind of promises were made, Boehner demurred. Blunt, vigorously denies this." Later, he reported that Shadegg said he had no evidence of this, but did say: "It is clear that discussions were made that resulted in whole blocs of votes shifting [into the Blunt column]." More Chapman: "When pressed as to the nature of those discussions Shadegg would not characterize them. : "I asked [RSC chair Mike] Pence about Rep. Tom Feeney's statement earlier today in which he hinted at the RSC potentially playing a role in any second ballot. Are RSC members talking quietly behind the scenes about a second ballot strategy? Pence fended of a smile and said, "If there is a second ballot, I suspect the RSC will be able to exert more influence."
Spruiell also talked to Pence, reporting: "When I asked him, 'What are the top priorities for RSC members in this race?' he named budget, marriage and ethics, in that order. It took me by surprise because the coverage of this race has focused on ethics and budget in that order -- and marriage hasn't even come up.
Pejman Yousefzadeh notes that the more bad press Blunt gets, the more likely GOPers are to get the impression they should switch their support away from him: "If Blunt fails to win on the first ballot, it is easy to imagine a mass of defections and a race that turns into a two-person contest between Reps. John Boehner and John Shadegg. And given that Boehner is yet another insider and Shadegg is the only genuine reformer in the race, who do you think is most savoring the clear shot at the other? And who do you think is most right to lick his chops?"
Posted to the Club for Growth Blog is a press release announcing the results of a Club poll showing that 77% of 1K likely general election voters surveyed nationwide say the new leader "should not be part of the existing senior leadership" and should not have "close ties" to DC lobbyists. The Club endorsed Shadegg upon his entry to the race. Full poll results are available on the site in PDF format.
Today the Blogometer talks to liberal Hilzoy, who writes for the joint liberal/conservative group blog Obsidian Wings.
What is your full name?
Hilzoy.
What is your age?
46.
Where did you grow up?
Belmont, MA.
Where do you live now?
Baltimore, MD.
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
I am a philosophy professor. I focus on bioethics and Kant's moral philosophy, and have written on freedom of the will and moral responsibility.
When did you start blogging and why?
I once worked as a copy editor for the Jerusalem Post over 20 years ago; other than that, I have never worked for the media. I have never been paid by a political campaign, but I have volunteered for a lot of them.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
I was asked to join Obsidian Wings when one of its posters decided to move on a little over a year ago. I thought it would be fun, and besides, it was before the election, and I wanted to be in conversation with more conservatives.
I had also, at that point, grown very tired of the conservative stereotype of liberals, and I thought if anything good could come of my blogging, it was that while I am quite liberal, some parts of the conservative stereotype of liberals are just plainly false of me. (E.g., no one, not even my worst enemies, has ever called me a moral relativist, or said I just didn't care about morality. Likewise, I am not normally regarded as mushy-headed, nor has anyone who knows me ever accused me of insufficient patriotism. Not that people don't criticize me in real life -- they do. They just don't make these criticisms.) For this reason, I thought that I might be able to make people question it, not by trying to falsify it, but just (as my Mom would say) by being myself.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
One of the nice things about writing for a group blog is that I don't have to have a blogging schedule. Sometimes I write several posts a day; sometimes I write nothing at all.
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
I can't pick one, so I'll pick three. See here, here and here.
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
Paul Krugman.
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
"The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." I find most of the others unwatchable, since I have no interest in Scott Peterson et al.
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
Too many to list.
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
Again, you really don't want to know, especially with a 50-word limit on the answer. Luckily, I read very fast.
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
At this point, almost never, except sometimes in airports.
How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?
I really don't know, and I'm no good at predictions. (I do think that the idea that blogs and other media are in conflict is wrong.) But here's one effect I think blogs might have: blogs make it much easier for people to get really well-informed on political issues. People with real expertise are blogging, and it's amazing how much background knowledge about an issue you can pick up by reading a blog by someone who knows about that issue and discusses it. Moreover, a lot of blogs are funny and well-written. But blogs can also present policy information in a way that's accessible to people who do not enjoy reading, say, GAO reports or extended arguments about the tax code. Blogs are an extremely personal medium, and good bloggers have their own voice; this means that blogs can engage people whose cognitive style is less suited to digesting data and arguments whole, and more suited to dealing with, and coming to understand, actual people.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Blogs Vs. The MSM ... Literally!
Tech blogger Jason Kottke: "In 2002, Dave Winer of Scripting News and Martin Nisenholtz of the New York Times made a Long Bet about the authority of weblogs versus that of NY Times in Google: 'In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site.' I decided to see how well each side is doing by checking the results for the top news stories of 2005." Based on his observation, he concludes with a non-conclusion: "As someone said in the discussion of this bet, this bet is about Google more than influence or reputation, so these results probably tell us more about how Google determines influence on a keyword basis rather than how readers of online informational sources value or rate those sources. Do web users prefer the news coverage of blogs to that of the NY Times? I don't think you can even come close to answering that question based on these results."
LEST WE FORGET: Does This Mean Stephanopolous Is Carson Daly?
Wonkette, now under new management by David Lat and Alex Pareene, considers an announcement from ABC News that their SOTU coverage will include live-blogging and a "truth squad." They write: "Personally, we're excited about the 'text and video comments' that will be shown, presumably, in a running ticker under the President, not unlike TRL." And by "consider," we mean they imagine what such TRL comments would look like: "This is Monica and Stephanie from the University of Maryland and we just wanted to say private health savings accounts are da bomb!" And: "yo, just wanna giv a shoutout to my boy Justin!! i miss you and i hope to see you next semester give alito a straight up-or-down vote!!! federalizm 4-eva!"
