March 16, 2006
3/16: Russ Is No Wuss, But His Fuss Makes Some Cuss
Less than a week after Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) proposed his resolution to censure Pres. Bush, the measure is now splitting the liberal blogosphere. Some say it will likely have -- and already has had -- a deleterious effect on Dems' strength. Others argue this view assumes public opinion cannot be changed, and in any case the substantive (i.e. Bush broke the law, they argue) should outweigh the political. Meanwhile, it may also help the GOP overcome its recent divisions and rally behind the president.
Speaking of Bush, there is now yet another poll finding him at his lowest levels recorded, and while there's no silver lining for him there, a few center-left bloggers are asking whether the way those polls are reported might actually be distorting the results. Meanwhile, bloggers react to news that Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) is not dropping out of the SEN race, MSNBC's Chris Matthews is under fire from bloggers again, a House bill that would protect bloggers from campaign finance regulations is delayed once more, and George Clooney says he never blogged for Arianna Huffington. Plus, we present our latest Blogger Spotlight.
EAVESDROPPING: Democrats' Reasons Why Not
The Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen talked to some friends on the Hill about why the Dems acted as they did -- and calls the reasons "more compelling than I expected": "Dems were bothered by the fact that Feingold took the party off-message"; "there's a sense that Feingold helped bring Republicans together"; "there was not even a hint of party strategy on this"; "Dems saw that Bush was starting another series of Iraq speeches, and the party was ready to pivot from ports to the war"; and lastly, he quotes a Senate staffer saying Dems should hold a "hearing with a panel of experts discussing whether Bush's behavior deserves censure. Wouldn't that be much better as a first step then a rushed vote in which we lose and R's declare victory and say we were silly?" 
Conservative QandO arrived at one of these conclusions independently, writing: "I'm not sure what he expected, quite honestly. Most politicians, regardless of party, hate surprises." Hullabaloo's Digby feels differently: "None of these reasons hold up for me. They do not denote timidity, so much as a kind of political blindness" -- he goes through them, rebutting each one by one. And he warns: "If Democratic pols don't understand that they are flirting with terrible grassroots defeatism, then they are going to lose ... demoralized Democrats are not going to bother with them. Come on. Speak for us. If not now, when?" At Interesting Times, Chris Andersen concurs: "Many in the party leadership don't seem to realize just how precarious is the coalition of interests backing the Democrats this Fall."
Lefty economist PGL at Angry Bear: "The good news is that Senator Harkin has a spine. As for the lack of support from other Democratic Senators, see the debate between" Kevin Drum and Glenn Greenwald -- Drum argues this is not "good political theater," while Greenwald calls that "baseless" CW that discounts picking up more support. PGL: "I'm with Glenn on this one." Uggabugga sides with Drum: "At this blog, we have one and only one standard for behavior in this election year: 'Will it increase the chance that Democrats gain control of one of the chambers of Congress?' That's it. Nothing else matters. If anti-abortion Bob Casey becomes the senator from Pennsylvania, fine. If Feingold's censure motion diminishes whatever political standing the Democrats have, then that's not fine." Though not directly responding to this debate, Legal Fiction's Publius proposes a 3rd way: "[S]ometimes your goal must be to move the polls, not merely react to them. My argument, then, is that the Feingold censure resolution is not a good way to go about moving the polls, not that Dems shouldn't try to move them on this issue. It's not a question of whether, but one of how." Liberty Street is "disappointed" with both Drum and Publius: "We don't need bloggers to act like the Democrats, who are such jellyfish that they measure everything by whether it will open them to Republican charges of being 'soft on terror.'"
Meanwhile, New York Times' David Kirkpatrick reports, GOPers, "worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching" Bush. Liberal Brendan Nyhan sees the story as one in a continuing series of "impeachment hype" reports floated by GOPers including Paul Weyrich, talking up the possibility although no one inside the Beltway has endorsed the idea. Conservative Brainster's Blog agrees in part: "What Nyhan is essentially saying here is that while the netkooks may holler for impeachment, the grownups in the party -- the elected representatives -- are not that stupid. I suspect he's pretty close. Of course, Conyers will hold impeachment hearings, and the New York Times will pretend that every day produces new revelations, so there's no room for Republicans to be complacent." Liberal Yale law prof Jack Balkin is more cynical: "So children, here's the moral of the story: If you are the President, feel free to violate the law, early and often. Just make sure you do it when your party controls all three branches of government. Because just as blood is thicker than water, party is thicker than law." Conservative Rick Moran predicts the fate of the censure move: "Expect the motion to be voted down in Committee but brought to the floor by Bill Frist himself who, like Speaker [Denny] Hastert's ploy of bringing Representative [Jack] Murtha's cut and run resolution on Iraq to an immediate vote, will seek to hold Democratic Senator's feet to the fire and dare them to vote to punish the President for running a program they want to see continued."
Now Pew Research finds Bush at a new low in their poll -- 33% approval overall:
Liberal Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof: "As much as we'd like to, the progressives and the blogosphere can't take credit for finally getting the word out to the electorate just how badly Mr. Bush is doing; if we had that much impact, John Kerry would be president. No, he's pretty much done this all on his own, and quite effectively, I might add." The Left Coaster: "Are the Democrats going to step up to the plateful of opportunity, or will they swing and miss the ball again? What of the opportunists in the GOP? Will one of them see fit to fill Jeffords' shoes?" Pastordan at Street Prophets: "Bush at 33%! Cripes, when do the Four Horsemen appear?" Atrios quotes from the Pew report, including this bit: "The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is 'incompetent,' and close behind are two other increasingly mentioned descriptors: 'idiot' and 'liar.' All three are mentioned far more often today than a year ago." Referring to what he and many others on the left see as a Bush-compliant press, he adds: "It's enough to give our press corps the vapors." Noting a Reuters report that singer/actress Jessica Simpson has cancelled an appearance at a GOP fundraiser over concerns about "politicizing her favorite charity," TBogg asks: "How low do you have to sink that someone who starred in a movie with Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville doesn't want to be seen in the room with you?" Header at Hippie Librarian: "Even Jessica Simpson gets it."
Conservative Flopping Aces takes a close look at the methodology: "Oh no! What are we gonna do? But wait, lets take a look at the bias once more in the polling organization ... once again they over sample Democrats by 6% this time, and guess what? We're these registered likely voters? Nope, just adults." More: "Will these MSM outlets EVER do a poll again where they poll registered likely voters and keep the sample within one point? I doubt it. They want to be able to make news instead of report it and what better way then to print a headline that say's Bush's approval rating is at a all time low?"
POLLING: Is This Something Like Steve Carell Not Being Able To Mention Which Network His Show Is On When He Drops By Letterman?
Speaking of Bush's bad polls, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote earlier this week, each separate poll has been finding Bush at new lows in their own separate polls, "but they give the collective impression that Bush is sinking week to week" and never compare other polls "to their own past surveys, when they're fully aware of the others." Mickey Kaus adds: "The drumbeat of separate, self-referencing 'new low' polls may become a factor driving poll numbers even further down. ... If these outfits polled every week, maybe this wouldn't be a distorting factor. Any turnaround would be quickly picked up and acknowledged." Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal adds a lot more, including a chart showing all the polls' trendlines for Bush's ratings. He writes: "Why does each intra-pollster comparison herald a new 'new low' headline, when the more accurate read (for now) would be to treat each new survey as confirming the same drop since February recorded by all? Such an approach does not require a snazzy graphic like the one above (though it couldn't hurt). It could be done in a sentence: 'Our results are consistent with those last week by ...'"
Ex-FL Sec/State/FL SEN candidate/Rep. Katherine Harris (R) appeared on "Hannity & Colmes" last p.m. to quash rumors that she would drop out of the race, and to announce she would put $10M of her own money behind her campaign. Ian Schwartz at Expose the Left has video of Harris' announcement. At MyDD's Breaking Blue, Taegan Goddard notes that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) now "will get to trigger the 'millionaires amendment' to McCain-Feingold and raise money in $12,000 chunks."
Centrist Joe Gandelman asks: "You have to wonder what Harris is thinking. Her poll numbers are down, this will likely be a tough Republican year, and members of her own party have tried to get her to drop out. It's not just a question about where the winning voters will come from -- but where needed unfettered and enthusiastic party support will come from. She can't expect many Democrats to vote for her. What -- and where -- is her constituency?"
Liberal News Hounds: "Hannity asked about" ex-MZM pres. Mitchell Wade, who "bribed" ex-Rep./convict Duke Cunningham "and admitted funelling" $32K of "illegal campaign contributions to her. Harris said, 'The authorities say that I could not have known. I did not know.' But, as Think Progress reports, a review of the facts makes her story lose credibility."
Conservative Lorie Byrd: "I am not crazy about Harris staying in the race because I think she has far too many negatives, but when I read stuff like this calling Harris 'Cruella' it makes me want to stick up for her. Maybe if Democrats attack her like those in the moonbat blogosphere do, she will actually get some sympathy votes and win the seat after all."
BLOGS VS. THE MSM I: And Sometimes You Can't Make Anybody Happy Any Of The Time
AP's Laurie Kellman reported on 3/15: "Feingold introduced censure legislation Monday in the Senate, but not a single Democrat has embraced it." Header at Firedoglake: "Why Can't The AP Count?" Jane Hamsher, on Kellman: "What a lazy, dishonest hack job. John Kerry has been saying right out of the gate he would support the resolution, [CA Sen. Barbara] Boxer's office has been confirming that she would and so has" Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). We'll add here that Kellman's article was filed hours earlier, none of those sens. had committed by Hotline's publication on 3/15, and what Kerry actually said was less decisive: "I'm interested in it. ... The president ought to be held accountable, and I think he broke the law." But Hamsher also identifies Kellman as having covered Cindy Sheehan's SOTU ejection, where Kellman described support of the troops as "just the opposite" of Sheehan's protest message, and posts an e-mail address for readers to contact AP with complaints. Blue Jersey is skeptical of Menendez's part, adding that if he does, "It doesn't quite offset the Patriot Act vote, but together with his cloture vote on Alito it shows he is willing to stand strong against the national Republicans."
On the other side of the aisle, MRC's Newsbusters complains that the Washington Post is helping to "publicize" Feingold's proposal: "The front page of the Washington Post blows the hot air of publicity on Feingold's leftist crusade, but the headline is "A Senate Maverick Acts to Force an Issue." Why are the "mavericks" always to the left of the party mainstream? ... Don't let the Washington Post ever argue they don't cover legislative proposals that don't stand a snowball's chance in Hell. And what is this censure resolution if not a Wisconsin snowball aimed at President Bush's head?"
BLOGS VS. THE MSM II: Another Hardball
Think Progress claims an exclusive, reporting that MSNBC's Chris Matthews "has received tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for delivering speeches to corporate interest groups," which appears to be "in direct violation" of NBC policy. Three trade assns -- The Nat'l Venture Capital Assn, The Nat'l Assn. of Chain Drug Stores, and the American Hospital Assn. -- independently confirmed to TP "that Matthews spoke for hefty fees on several occasions, as recently as last year." MSNBC pres. Rick Kaplan said the info was, "Totally untrue ... totally," but he "provided no evidence to support his claim." AMERICABlog: "Now, before Mr. Kaplan starts saying that the groups Matthews spoke to are not 'interest groups,' let's see how the first group ... describes itself: 'The venture capital community's leading source for information, networking, advocacy, professional development and industry statistics.' Advocacy. They're the lobbyists for the industry. That's what trade associations are. They're lobbyists. Or to use Mr. Kaplan's phrase: interest groups." Anti-Matthews blog Open Letter To Chris Matthews: "Rick Kaplan isn't looking too great right now. He's either a liar, he doesn't know his own ethics policy, or he has no idea, nor interest in, what his stars are doing in clear violation of his own network's ban on accepting speaking fees from interest groups." The site adds that Tim Russert is "also listed as being available for speaking fees, potentially also in violation of NBC policy." Philly Daily News' Attytood: "Many observers think that Matthews, a former Democratic aide, has been veering to the right in recent years. We doubt he'd change his political tune just to line up big speaking fees. But that's why these things are banned -- the appearance is not good." And a commenter adds: "Speaking fees may be only part of what he's receiving from the right. Two words: Armstrong Williams." Taylor Marsh: "I think he's helping his brother run for office in Pennsylvania instead of doing his job." [Matthews' brother is the presumptive GOP nominee for PA LG].
BLOGS VS. THE BELTWAY: 1606 Oz. To Freedom
A vote on H.R. 1606 (see 3/9 and 3/10 Blogometers), aka the Online Freedom of Speech act, aka the Blogger Protection Act, was scheduled for 3/15, only to be delayed until 3/16. But now the vote has been delayed yet again, by a week.
Earlier in the week, Daily Kos' Adam Bonin challenged 1606 opponents Democracy21, the Campaign Legal Center and GWU prof/IPDI dir. Carol Darr -- who support the rival H.R. 4900 -- to answer questions such as: "Do you pledge that you would not file a complaint with the FEC or in any other venue against Daily Kos seeking to restrict its current activities if HR 4900 passes?" When it seemed the bill was headed to the 3/16 vote, RedState's Mike Krempasky implored readers to call Hill offices making points such as "you can support BCRA and still believe that this little tiny section of American politics ought to be free." MyDD's Matt Stoller, on the old reform groups: "Common Cause was founded in the 1970s, and today we have a government that is more corrupt and money-dominated than it has ever been. In other words, I think new strategies other than 'restrict! restrict! restrict!' are in order." Later that p.m., the bill was pushed back again.
This a.m., ex-FEC commish Brad Smith posts to RedState: "The good news is this. The speech regulators are on the defensive. They've been able to hold this bill off only with a series of half-truths and lies, and their hypocrisy is being steadily exposed. ... We want to win, to be sure. But at least we are fighting on our battlefield. This is an issue on which popular opinion is against them." And he adds, at the very least 4900 "is a better bill (from the freedom point of view) than what the reformers trotted out as an 'alternative' last fall."
BUSH ADMIN: Fun With Doppelgangers!
At Chris Nolan's Spot On, Josh Trevino notes that MD "has had a 'three strikes' criminal sentencing law since 1994. Might" ex-WH adviser Claude Allen be taking the rap to save" twin brother Floyd Allen "from his third strike? This, unlike the shoplifting, would be eminently in keeping with Claude's public character." Trevino isn't quite sure what to make of this, but adds: "Don't underestimate the strength of family ties. And don't discount the weird."
BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been A Blogger?
We mentioned on 3/13 that actor George Clooney had written a blog entry for the Huffington Post, but on 3/15 Elizabeth Snead at the LAT's Styles and Scenes blog reported that Clooney's post (now removed) was not written by him, and was instead cobbled together from a couple different interviews. Soon after, HuffPo proprietor Arianna Huffington posted an explanation, saying she was told she had permission to run the interview excerpts as a blog post: "This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that." Wonkette imparts that Huffington and Clooney's relevant meeting occured the "same night that our boss, Nick Denton, threw Arianna a party at his stylish-but-tasteful SoHo loft. And we happen to know, having attended said party, that there was a shitload of free champagne ('free' = 'in lieu of actual benefits'). Which explains just how Arianna could've so completely misunderstood George -- she was wasted!" At The Corner, John Podhoretz apologized to Clooney "for calling him 'illiterate' for a work of ghost-writing he did not approve."
Conservative PunditGuy: "This calls into question EVERY post on Arianna's 'blog.' How many of the articles were written by the people their attributed to? How many were written with the permission of the people attributed? How many blog posts were written just like Clooney's? Arianna calls this an 'honest misunderstanding.' I call it fraud." Huffington added in an update to the above post that "99% of our bloggers blog directly onto the site." TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt: "The important aspect, if there is one, is that Clooney stands by the statements in the post. What he says is that is we should take pride in being liberals. That's the part we should focus on, not whether he intended it to be a quote as opposed to a blog post."
Clooney spoke to New York Daily News' "Lowdown" saying: "I feel abused ... Nobody has ever written an op-ed piece for me. If I say I've written something, I've written it. When I go to the Oscars, I write everything I say... I stand by what I do, but I'm very cautious not to take giant steps onto soapboxes because I think they're polarizing."
BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Bloggin' And Hobbs
Today the Blogometer talks to TN-based conservative Bill Hobbs, who writes BillHobbs.com, which is on temporary hiatus.
What is your full name?
William Howard Hobbs
What is your age?
41
Where did you grow up?
Delaware County, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Where do you live now?
Franklin, TN, a suburb of Nashville.
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
I currently work in the public relations office of a private university in Nashville. I served as a press assistant for mayoral candidate Jay West during the final four months of the 1999 Nashville mayoral campaign until the primary. He came in third. My first career was as a newspaper journalist -- I have worked for, in order, the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News, The Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal, the Clarksville (Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle, the Nashville Business Journal, and the Nashville Tennessean, all of that as a reporter covering crime and courts, general assignments, and a variety of business beats. From 1994-1997 I worked as a writer and then managing editor of a monthly country music magazine, and from 1993-2000 I also freelanced for a variety of publications including industrial trades, daily newspapers and business magazines. For a few months in 2001 I worked for a now-defunct Tennessee policy think tank.
I wrote a weekly column from January 2001 to May 2002 on business, public policy and economic issues for Nashville City Paper, and made numerous radio and television appearances in connection with the column. I currently do freelance corporate blog consulting for several blue-chip clients, and have edited two business books.
When did you start blogging and why?
November 2000. I started my blog as an adjunct to my City Paper column, where I could provide my column readers with more information, links to documents I mentioned in the column, longer analysis, etc. After the column ended in May 2002, I simple kept writing the blog. Also, from March through May of 2002 I wrote a satirical blog, Osama's Bin Bloggin.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
I've done extensive original journalism and research-based commentary on Tennessee's tax and budget situation that has helped influence MSM coverage in a more accurate direction, and also helped put the Taxpayers Bill of Rights firmly on the political radar screen in Tennessee, so that would have to be my favorite overall focus on my blog. I also write about religion, the war, the media and much more. Being an ex-journalist, or should I say a reformed journalist, I love examining media bias and doing media crit. In that vein, my favorite post would be this one, in which I took a Maureen Dowd column and added a few helpful hyperlinks to help Ms. Dowd make her points more effectively.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
Until a couple months ago, I would post 8-12 times per day, ranging from short items to longer, in-depth pieces that took a lot of time to research and compile. Late in 2005 I scaled back somewhat, doing fewer long pieces and more simple linking to things in the press and the blogosphere that I think my readers should read. On Jan. 10 I put my blog on hiatus thanks to a crushing work and freelance load and an ongoing medical-crisis situation in my family, and also to reevaluate where I go from here. I do expect to resume blogging at some point, and am in the beginning stages of launching a multi-author site, TennesseeVoices.com, focused on Tennessee politics, and perhaps a couple other sites. There is a very healthy Tennessee political blogosphere now with several other bloggers now also doing the same kind of work that I had done and, as my goal is to have a large number of skilled volunteer blog-journalists doing the kind of in-depth reporting and analysis that the Tennessee MSM does less and less of, I'm happy to see others doing the kind of daily blogging that I had been doing.
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
Captain's Quarters is awesome, as are the Powerline guys. At the Tennessee level, it would be Bob Krumm and Blake Wylie of the Nashville Files blog, and Jeff Cornwall of The Entrepreneurial Mind. My favorite non-political blogger would be Tod Bolsinger of It Takes a Church and Terry Heaton's Pomo Blog, where he writes about post-modern media.
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
It used to be George Will, but I rarely read him any more. Now it's Krauthammer. And Ledeen. And Mark Steyn. And David Warren. And Victor Davis Hanson.
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
I don't watch TV news very much. Too shallow and repetitive. Plus, my son is usually watching "Barney" or "Jay Jay the Jet Plane."
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
Tennessean.com, NYTimes.com, NashvilleCityPaper.com, WashingtonPost.com, Google News (which leads me to all kinds of sources from all over the world).
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
Instapundit, Powerline, Captains Quarters, Nashville Is Talking, Donald Sensing , Thunder 6 and Dr. Jeff Cornwall's The Entrepreneurial Mind, which I helped him start.
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
It's part of my job to scan the local papers every day, but most of my "newspaper" reading is online.
How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?
Newspapers and old media will become more blogcentric, and independent bloggers acting as journalists will increasingly impact MSM coverage. I write often about the interplay of blogs and media, and the rise of what I call "collaborative peer-reviewed journalism." Some of those posts are here, here and here.
My interest in the interplay of blogs and media is what led me to help organize the May 2005 BlogNashville conference at Belmont University in Nashville. ( www.blognashville.org ). About 300 bloggers and new-media people came, including Glenn Reynolds, Dan Gillmor, J.D. Lasica, Hoder, Rebecca McKinnon, Ed Cone, Mark Tapscott, Henry Copeland, Robin Burk, Dave Winer, LaShawn Barber, Robert Cox, Linda Seebach, Mark Glaser and many more.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Podcast People
Our colleague Danny Glover writes at Beltway Blogroll: "Politics in the information age increasingly is marked by efforts to best one's opponents in the technology arena, and the smart losers in those innovation battles are quick to study the successes of their political enemies." He notes the work of MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong on the Dem side and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) aide David All on the GOP side in blog organization and outreach. The number of politicians who maintain an official blog is growing, and some are getting into podcasting: "Republicans appear to have taken more of an interest in podcasting, particularly Senate Republicans, but lawmakers from both parties are using the technology." Glover compiles a list of members of Congress with their own podcasts -- 18 of them, mostly sens. And if he's missing any, Glover wants to know.
LEST WE FORGET: More Cartoon Violence
If there's one thing the Blogometer likes, it's bad old comics rendered incomprehensible and hilarious by means of Photoshopic intervention. Lucky for us, Jim Treacher is back in the game.
NOTES AND ERRATA: Why You Frontin'?
In our 3/15 edition, we mistakenly gave the impression that it was standard practice for Daily Kos-posted diaries by pols to me bumped up to the front page. We had in mind an exception, as reported in the 9/30 Blogometer, where Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) message to the dKos community was placed on the front page. Click here to return to the corrected text.
Posted by at March 16, 2006 12:06 PM
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