April 27, 2006
4/27: A Tale Of Two Scandals
As much as the blogosphere dislikes them, the MSM is often the oxygen to the bloggers' flame. Without news items to comment and complain about, bloggers rarely have the resources to keep a story moving. WH Dep CoS Karl Rove's 4/26 visit to the grand jury was just the hook lefty bloggers needed to unload on one of their favorite villains. Meanwhile, righty blogger attention to ex-CIA analyst Mary McCarthy has petered out since neither the CIA nor McCarthy have spoken since a 4/24 Newsweek denial of any McCarthy role in the Washington Post's secret prison story.
Also in the Blogometer today, Pres. Bush can't please anyone on immigration, bloggers examine survey results from their readers, some webby big boys can't get along, and Blogometer Spotlight shines on Duncan Black.
ROVE: Just A Big Tease!
The possibility of a Rove indictment still gets some lefty bloggers hot and bothered, but for others the constant near-misses have taken their toll. "West Wing" EP Lawrence O'Donnell keeps the flame alive at Huffington Post: "Karl Rove's return to the grand jury today could mean the end of the Rove investigation or the beginning of the Rove prosecution. ... If Rove asked to return to the grand jury, that means Rove's lawyer, Bob Luskin, believes an indictment is imminent and is sending his client back to make a final desperate attempt to avoid indictment. ...For what it's worth, the buzz among the Washington press corps right now is that Rove asked to return to the grand jury."
Taylor Marsh is also optimistic: "The bottom line is simple. No one goes back to the grand jury a fifth time willingly unless he or she is trying to undo what has been mistakenly or purposely done. Karl's tried to make his prior statements clearer too many times it seems to me." And Shakespeare's Sister is tingling: "Very interesting. My spider sense is telling me Rove's about to have his ass handed to him. If anyone can finally nail him to the wall, it's Fitzy--and I feel it coming, yessir, I do." Other cautiously optimistic lefties: BarkBarkWoofWoof, The Carpetbagger, Anonymous Liberal, firedoglake, and TalkLeft.
Other lefties just aren't as confident anymore. The Political Animal recaps the Rove-saga and then parses Attorney Robert Luskin's 4/26 statement: "Luskin doesn't say that Rove isn't a target, only that he's not a target "in connection with this appearance." As for bringing charges, there's no telling what "no decision" means. Maybe he's waiting to see if Rove cooperates in testimony against someone else. Maybe that's just boilerplate stuff that prosecutors say until the day they hand down an indictment. Who knows?" But no better site captures the left's anticipation and then deflation better than Hullabaloo.
Some have given up all hope. Midtopia: "Besides, it's still not clear that any crime was committed in the first place.This may just be a matter of Fitzgerald tying up loose ends. If he's got something on Rove, I want to see it as much as anyone. But I don't think there's much to get excited about just yet." Balloon-Juice: "In general I refuse to get very excited about the Plame story because anybody who does eventually go down will spend a year and a half appealing the verdict and then walk off with a presidential pardon. In the following ten or twelve years Lewis Libby and whomever else will collect ideological welfare checks from some partisan thinktank."
Righty bloggers have no worries. The Real Ugly American: "Personally, I'm greatly encouraged. Why? Because if the best CNN can do for a cover story at 8pm on a Wednesday night is: "Rove says something. Nobody knows What. But we're sure it's bad. Like everything else. Bad. And Bush talked about uranium in 2003." Then the underlying Truth is: business as usual." JustOneMinute complains about Washington Post inconsistencies and Byron York at the the Corner also has thoughts.
IMMIGRATION: Not Covering Your Base
An AP story describing Bush as favoring U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants set off resounding condemnations of the president on the right. Michelle Malkin posts some unkind reader responses under a header: "OPEN-BORDERS BUSH: THE FINAL STRAW?" More Malkin: "Not that this is a surprise to anyone who has actually listened to President Bush's open borders-sympathizing over the last five years."
Michelle was not alone in her unhappiness. FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog: "President Bush has been "SOFT" on illegal aliens and immigration from the start. Enforcement of border security laws have been restrained at best during his presidency." Webloggin: "I believe that the conservative base is being taken for granted. ...The worse part about this whole fleecing is that the man I defended for 5+ years is leading the pack. President Bush is once again proving that he is tone deaf on the issue of immigration." The Lonewacko: "Since Bush, Teddy Kennedy, Harry Reid, and Dick Durbin all see basically eye-to-eye on this issue, here's a dramatic solution to Bush's popularity woes: he should switch parties." The Republic of Biloxi: "How can the President be so right on the war on terror and so apallingly awful on his domestic policy?
Captain's Quarters believes the President is sensitive to these sentiments but will ultimately capitulate to Senate Dems: "An inside source to the negotiations between George Bush and the Senate on immigration reform report that Bush will not officially endorse the Hagel-Martinez compromise out of fear of the political backlash on the de facto amnesty program...The nature of legislation is compromise, but this appears to be closer to capitulation. Nowhere in this article does Bush appear to express any support for the House bill that strengthens the border even as a companion to the Hagel-Martinez compromise. Instead, we get this Republican president conspiring with Harry Reid to give him political cover with immigration hard-liners in his own party."
Even righties sympathetic to the difficulty of the issue are still unhappy with the president's leadership. Outside the Beltway: "While I am intellectually and viscerally opposed to rewarding lawbreakers by letting them jump ahead of those who have been waiting patiently in line, Bush is almost certainly right that, as a practical matter, we're not going to round up eleven million workers and expel them from the country. My problem with this is the president's lack of leadership."
It's gotten so bad on the right that some are even praising ex-Pres. Bill Clinton. Thoughtsonline: "Jeez, even in Clinton's most triangulating of days, I don't think the Democratic base had to worry about Clinton secretly selling them out on an issue that was as important to them as dealing with the illegal immigrants is to much of the GOP base."
All is not lost for Bush though. His immigration stance has convinced some that the president is less than pure evil. The Reaction: "See, however much I dislike Bush, I must admit that I don't regard him as evil incarnate. In his heart, he's probably a lot like his father: sensible, pragmatic, and fairly moderate. This is one issue where Bush clearly finds himself at odds with hard-line conservatives, be they in Congress, the base, or the blogosphere."
Cong. hopefuls see opportunity. At DailyKos, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) foe David Harris takes his opponent to task: "As a Representative from a border state, Joe Barton has failed to craft, sponsor or support "reasonable immigration policy." By his own admission, his solution is that we send them all back. My immediate question is that given his concern for fiscal spending, how do we pay for the transportation and law enforcement needed to return any undocumented workers to where they came from? How do we explain separating parents from children that are citizens? Who will do the work of the estimated 11 to 20 million immigrants when they are gone?"
The draft Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) movement also hopes immigration can be a winner for their man.
BLOG SURVEY: Enough About You, Let's Talk About Me
BlogAds released their 2006 blog reader survey results on 4/26 and broke blog-readers down into "distinct communities." BlogAds explains:
The median political blog reader is a 43-year-old man with an annual family income of $80K. He reads 6 blogs a day for 10 hours a week. 39% have post-graduate degrees. 70% have contributed to a campaign. 69% have bought music, 87% have bought books. 58% say blogs are "extremely useful" sources of information. 52% leave comments on other people's blogs. Just 18% of political blog readers have their own blogs. (As you'll see, that's a lot lower than in other blogospheres.) Of these, 53% blog to keep track of their own ideas, 50% to let off steam, 36% to influence public opinion.
BlogAds is quick to point out their survey is self-selecting and highly unscientific. The results also skewed left this year since some of the bigger righties (including Michelle Malkin and Andrew Sullivan) did not participate.
MyDD looks at the results for "Democrat" bloggers and concludes: "Active readers of Democratic political blogs are very highly educated, highly politically active, quite well-to-do, voracious consumers of media, not very young, and skew male. Apart from the male part, these indicators fly in the face of stereotypes about progressive bloggers, who are supposedly drooling, rabid, anti-social, uneducated, teenage extremists with no political value and out of touch with current events." Atrios is not surprised by the results.
Preemptive Karma notes that the gender gap is closing slightly while Matthew Yglesias is surprised to learn that the median age is 46.4 years.
Science and Politics, Swing State Project, Burnt Orange Report, and Betsy's Page all focus on survey results from their readers specifically.
BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Drudging Up Sales
The Drudge Report went looking for a fight and found one. Under a header, "'PROGRESSIVE' MEDIA STALLS: 'AIR AMERICA' IN AUDIENCE PLUNGE NYC, 'DAILY KOS' BOOK SELLS ONLY 3,600 COPIES" Drudge notes that, "'CRASHING THE GATE,' has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month. ...Meanwhile, the just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006] from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more than a third of its audience -- in the past year!"
Some righties were eager to blame the MSM for progressive media woes. Sister Toldjah: "As I've said before in conversations with people about the 'progressive' media, liberals don't tune in to the 'progressive' media nearly as much as conservatives tune in to conservative talk radio and other opinion outlets because because liberals already had plenty of media 'progressive' media outlets to turn to prior to Air America: ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, the NYT, WaPo, etc." RightWinged: "It seems that liberals get their fill of liberal media from the traditional mainstream liberal media (network news, CNN, NY Times, WaPo, etc.) and aren't bothering with the openly liberal outlets."
Others took the opportunity to attack Kos. Roger Simon notes that Glenn Reynolds book is selling better than kos' and then speculates: "It could mean one of several things: 1. Kos' audience has heard it all already; 2. Kos' audience is not "bookish"; 3. Kos' audience is not as big as it's cracked up to be; 4. Kos doesn't write particularly well; 5. Kos doesn't have anything new to say. 6. People are tired of all this political blather anyway." Right Wing News thinks kos' talents are wasted on politics: "Kos is a genius at building traffic, but he's not-so-smart when it comes to politics. Here's a guy who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through his blog and he has managed to funnel it to loser after loser after loser.
Little Green Footballs, Common Sense and Wonder, NewsBusters, Hit and Run, Blue Crab Boulevard, and Radio Equalizer all focus on the Air America angle.
Righty The American Mind had some questions on Drudge's numbers: "There may have been a promotion push today because Amazon has it ranked #25 today when it was #52 yesterday. Glenn Reynolds' An Army of Davids is only ranked #1237. Roger Simon, as of this moment, is wrong. Glenn Reynolds' book isn't selling better. (It all depends on how Amazon calculated its best seller list; something I don't know.) Either Nielsen's Bookscan is not very good at tracking total book sales or Amazon doesn't sell as many books as I thought."
Kos was not about to take Drudge's criticism lying down: "So to recap -- top ranking on Amazon, over 10,000 copies sold in three weeks the book has been out. Distributors have ordered 50,000 copies of the book, which has gone through three printings already (our small publisher can't afford to do large first printings). And we're just halfway through our book tour. And this is somehow supposed to be a failure?" Tbogg had kos' back: "Glenn Greenwald's book at #1 (admittedly with a big blog push), Kevin Phillip's American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury at #13, and Cobra II, which is no love letter to the administration, at #18. Add to that Tom Tomorrow's Hell In A Handbasket at #518. Michelle Malkin? #1,172 Glenn Reynolds? #1049. Hugh Hewitt? #7,300. It's almost enough to make a man go 'heh'.
McCARTHY: Does This Scandal Need A Priest?
With little new to comment on some bloggers have looked back to find new angles. Riehl World View has compared a 2002 Dana Priest with her Pulitzer prize winning 2005 effort and finds no substantive difference. Under a header "Is The 2005 Priest Story A Fraud?" he concludes: "In 2002 the WaPo called the International detention (prison) story vital - in 2005 they quote another official calling it a burden. In 2002 they informed people that Clinton initiated the practice of extraordinary rendition. In 2005, they made it look like a creation of George Bush. What changed? And what did Dana Priest know and when did she know it? Evidently, not a terribly great deal changed from 2002 to 2005, given that many details of the program the WaPo broke in 2005 were actually published through a group reported piece in the WaPo in 2002.
Confederate Yankee reads both articles and thinks Riehl may be on to something: "If Dan is correct, and upon reading the case he makes, I have a feeling that he may be, then Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize was awarded for recycling the content of an article she wrote with Barton Gellman years before." Dean's World isn't surprised by the change in the articles tone: "I wasn't surprised by this. I've noticed for four years now a decided shift in attitudes in the press and in some circles on the subject of torture."
Flopping Aces still wishes the MSM would focus on McCarthy's political affiliations: "The press will only pay attention to party affiliation if a Republican is involved. If not, all bets are off." Building on that sentiment The Politburo Diktat produces a ever-growing McCarthy-Dem-establishment matrix. Sister Toldjah, Macsmind, and Ace of Spades all have similar takes.
The Strata-Sphere points to an American Spectator piece quoting a DNC staffer on speculation that more Dems will get involved on behalf of McCarthy: "If Scooter Libby can have a legal defense fund website, then McCarthy should have one too," says a DNC staffer. "The DNC wouldn't set it up, we'd have some of our donors do it on the outside. There are plenty of consultants willing to help on this one, we think." Hot Air throws a wet blanket on the Spectator piece and thinks the DNC is too smart to get involved in this one
In From the Cold has a law school angle that could possibly put McCarthy in the clear: "As I understand it, departing CIA employees cease their normal duties soon after the announcement, and enter the agency's career transition program. ...That would suggest that Ms. McCarthy departed the IG's office in late January or early February. Factoring in the transition program and "terminal leave" (using up remaining vacation time or sick days), that would have carried McCarthy until the end of April. ...That means McCarthy potentially had access to the information. But again, a cautionary note: McCarthy had been attending law school at night for several years, and passed the bar last November. Given the rigors of that exam, I'm guessing that McCarthy took a lot of vacation time last summer and fall, preparing for the bar. That would make her a less likely source for Dana Priest."
BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Light From Black
Today the Blogometer talks to Media Matters fellow Duncan Black, who writes ESCHATON as Atrios.
What is your full name?
Duncan Black
What is your age?
34
Where did you grow up?
Sydney, Australia; Los Alamos, NM; Minneapolis, MN, Zurich, Switzerland, Salt Lake City, Utah; finally settling in suburban Philadelphia.
Where do you live now?
Philadelphia
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
I'm currently a senior fellow with Media Matters for America.
When did you start blogging and why?
In part because it seemed healthier, or at least less annoying, than yellow at the television set. In addition I saw that there was this emerging new medium having an impact on a public discourse which was, at the time, dominated by conservative voices.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
My personal favorite was when I was actually funny in a way which I'm usually not (I envy the comedian bloggers). http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_11_20_atrios_archive.html#113284634221898261 Generally, I have the most fun when there's somewhat obsessive attention being devoted to a single topic in a way which unites the whole liberal blogosphere. The social security debate of late 2004 early 2005 is a good example of that.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
All day, basically. Probably 12-16 posts or so
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
Digby of Hullabloo
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
Alterman
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
Countdown
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News, American Prospect, Washington Monthly
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
Too many to name, but Americablog, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, The Poor Man, Pandagon, Firedoglake, ACLUblog, Tbogg, Oliver Willis, ...
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
Oh, I think smart newspapers will take some of the best aspects of blogs - conversation and community - and use those to increase their relevancy to their local communities. At least I hope they do.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: 10 Million Registered Democrats Can't Be Wrong
The Political Animal sorts through the cross tobs of The Diageo/Hotline poll and finds that, "17% of the respondents read a political blog several times a week or more. In other words, there are roughly 10 million registered Democrats who read blogs on a regular basis. That's a lot."
LEST WE FORGET: Happy B'day To Me
Inspired by a friend's inquiry VodkaPundit has put together a list containing a favorite song from every year of his 37 year-old life. Making it even tougher he wasn't allowed to pick the same artist twice.
Posted by Conn Carroll at April 27, 2006 12:31 PM
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