April 28, 2006

4/28: Two Ships Passing In The Night

Ideally the blogosphere can be a place where people with strong disagreements can come together and discuss the important issues of the day in a spirited, if not maniacal manner. And real debates do occur more often than blog-haters give the blogosphere credit for. But then there are days like today when each side grabs onto their favorite stories and then disapear into their own echo chambers never to be heard from again. Today the left is buzzing over a MSM article on Sen. George Allen (R-VA) as well as two GOP scandals. Meanwhile the right would rather talk about the television viewing habits of the WH press corps. Luckily Sen. GOPers were kind enough to volunteer a solution to our nation's gas prices that everybody could love to hate.

The left is teeing off on Allen after Ryan Lizza'sTNR piece hit the web 4/27. Under a header, "When I Was Young And Racist, I Was Young Racist" Ezra Klein at TAPPED describes the article as: "The sort of article that can sink a candidacy. Allen comes off as a garden variety of sadist, a high school bully and vandal."

Many lefties focussed on the origins of Allen's southern affectations. Hullabaloo: "What I didn't know was that he was a racist, sadistic prick. After all, from the non-Virginian cowboy boots to the tobacco spitting, he has self-consciously adopted these neo-confederate affectations. He's not a real son of the south." Brendan Nyhan: "One of the most striking aspect of the story is the extent to which Allen resembles George W. Bush. Like Bush, Allen was a non-Southern child of privilege who adopted a "good ol' boy" persona as an act of rebellion against the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, and then used that persona to get himself elected to office in a Southern state." Ed Kilgore at TPM Cafe: "But the revelation to me was the discovery that Allen's whole cowboy-boot-wearing, tobacco-chewing, country-music-loving Southern Man routine was something he cultivated during his formative high school years in the hyper-exclusive Southern California community of Palos Verdes."

The Political Animal hopes the MSM toughens up on Allen's style: "The press corps is a sucker for "authenticity," and it's something that both George Bush and John McCain have cleverly exploited. Allen's "authenticity" also turns out to be barely skin deep. See, Allen didn't grow up in the South at all. He grew up in Chicago and California. ... But the consistent evidence in Lizza's piece that Allen's red state good 'ol boy shtick is little more than a personal invention, carefully cultivated and maintained through the years, should at least give the press corps pause as they cover his campaign."

Other lefties just didn't care for the southern shtick at all. The Reality Based Community: "It seems that Allen liked to display a noose in his law office early in his career. Even if - stretching things a bit - we imagine that the noose was intended to refer to legal Western hangings rather than the more common informal variety, what kind of twisted character uses a replica of an execution device as office decoration?" Swing State Project, Greg's Opinion, and Amygdala had similar reactions.

The Carpetbagger Report thinks Allen's highlighted weakness makes him no worse than other GOP hopefuls: "The fact that Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), a likely Republican presidential candidate, has some "issues" when it comes to race is not exactly new. McCain is unprincipled, Giuliani is too liberal for his party, Gingrich has an entire decade to justify, Romney's religious tradition is a high hurdle for evangelical primary voters, and Bill Frist is, well, Bill Frist. But for Allen, it's all about race."

Everyone seems to agree the most damaging revelation is that Allen wore a confederate pin for a yearbook photo while in high school in California. Lefty Lawyers, Guns, and Money: "Since there will be a lot of diversion about the issue, it should be emphasized that Allen wearing a Confederate pin as a high school student is particularly odious, because he wasn't a Southerner. Allen was unambiguously making an endorsement of ideology, not heritage, and to be clear the ideology in question is treason in defense of slavery, and the symbol was later revived to defend post-Reconstruction apartheid."

Righty Outside the Beltway first posted to defend Allen writing, "The fact of the matter is that Southern politicians play to the cultural sympathies of their region, as do politicians elsewhere." After finding out about the confederate pin OTB wasn't as quick to excuse: "This one is harder to explain away, to be sure, although I tend not to be too concerned with high school behavior of people who have a long public record."

Meanwhile David Holman* writing at The American Spectator attacks Lizza for being dishonest. Lizza's crime: "So I find it curious that Lizza's very first sentence is "Senator George Allen is the only person in Virginia who wears cowboy boots." I wore cowboy boots that day, just feet from Lizza. ... Contacted yesterday, Lizza said he "didn't see any cowboy boots at Shad Planking except Allen's." Sadly, that poor reporting reflects the rest of his article."

* The Blogometer mistakenly originally credited Mark and not David Holdman. We regret the error.

Following up on a Wall Street Journal piece describing an expanded FBI probe into the dealings of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) that include stays at the Watergate and free prostitutes, Washington Babylon reports: "I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence committees -- including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. ...Apparently photographs were taken, and investigators are anxiously procuring copies."

Dots were quickly connected by fellow lefties. TPM Muckraker suggeted CIA Director Porter Goss could be the powerful intelligence figure. Newshog notes that this wouldn't be the first time Cunningham and Goss had been connected: "This isn't the first time that a connection between Cunningham and Goss has been alleged. Back on March 3rd, Steve Soto had reported that "Dusty" Foggo was already under investigation for his involvements with (contractor Brent) Wilkes and speculated that Goss might well be hip deep in the corruption." The Left Coaster is also on the case: "According to David Shuster of MSNBC, the federal prosecutors who are working the Duke Cunningham case are trying to get Cunningham and Wilkes to roll over on members of Congress who have been compromised by Wilkes' blackmail operation. And who may be one of those members with ties to Wilkes? None other than a man we speculated upon two months ago: Porter Goss."

Lefty blogger glee could not be contained. Whiskey Bar could barely compute the news: "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the news (from Harper's via TPM Muckraker) that Porter Goss, director of the CIA, may be implicated in a hooker service for corrupt (and horny) congressmen paid for by defense contractors and run out of -- you really gotta love this part -- the Watergate Hotel. So what are we supposed to call this new scandal? Watergategate?"

Many are just happy to see that sex is finally making a come back in the nation's capitol. Balloon-Juice: "Some of you may feel disappointed that scandals in the modern Republican era have mostly involved corrupting the levers of government for profit and partisan gain. Where's the sex? You almost miss the days when reputable papers ran red with tales of Bill Clinton, Bob Packwood and Newt Gingrich crossing swords. Ken Starr's angry 500-page coda practically came with a brown paper wrapper. There's something cold about a party that transgresses for profit/partisan gain, and never for sex. It appears that Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the most awe-inspiringly corrupt politician in recent memory, and his equally-audacious defense-contracting partner-in-crime Mitchell Wade have ended our long, sad drought of illicit government sex." Obsidian Wings: "Now we have an enormous interconnected mass of scandals -- Abramoff, DeLay, Cunningham, Ney, Coingate, Ralph Reed, and so on and so forth -- but until now, alas, no sex! According to the Wall Street Journal, however, that might be about to change."

And of course, where there is sex in DC, Wonkette can't be too far behind: "Boring Ol' Congressional Corruption Case NOW WITH HOOKERS...Oh man, we are excited about Congress again." Wonkette then notes others connected with contractor Brent Wilkes including: Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, Rep. John T. Doolittle (received more money than Cunningham!), Schwarzenegger (though he probably doesn't need a contractor to get him a hooker), Duncan Hunter, and (OMG OMG) KATHERINE HARRIS."

Wait there's more! Cannonfire comes up with a big curveball: "Here's the really intriguing bit: So far, none of these stories have specified the sex of the prostitutes. Read the WSJ piece carefully, and you'll see that writer Scot Paltrow goes out of his way to avoid assigning gender-revelatory pronouns to the "escorts." As I noted in a previous piece (scroll down to "Finally, our story goes gay"), the Washington Blade identified Cunningham -- who has made some rabidly anti-homosexual pronouncements -- as having, shall we say, a secret life."

The right ran with a Hotline On Call item (go team!) reporting on this exchange between WH Pres/Sec Scott McLellan and Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei. Michelle Malkin described the event as a "hissy fit" and the rest of the righties were equally unkind.

Some righties used the event to demonstrate a liberal MSM bias. Right Winged: " Apparently Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post felt that his whiney liberalism was being eclipsed by the likes of David Gregory and Helen Thomas, so he took it up a notch today and set the bar for future whiney liberal "journalists" a bit higher." MediaBlog at NRO: "A few quick points: First, if White House officials watch Fox News instead of its cable competitors, that just makes them like everyone else in this country. Second, "a lot of people" consider CNN to be a Democrat-leaning network and wouldn't be suprisedsurprisedn that it's the channel that White House reporters prefer. Third, Jim VandeHei is a frequent MSNBC contributor, but he would still rather watch CNN. I wonder if that will come up next time he's on Hardball." Church and State: "I returned home from my softball game tonight to find, to my pleasant surprise, the left wing media wacko's have blown their liberal cover by actually complaining about the White House TV's being tuned to Fox.

Others took more personal digs at VandeHei. Sundries Shack: "The best part, for my taxpayer money, was when the reporter called himself "--the Fox victim--" right after "officially" making it a complaint." Captain's Quarters: "Not only did VandeHei raise this "serious" question, but he continued to complain about having to endure Fox over CNN. Finally Scott McClellan put an end to this national crisis by changing the channel on the television. It's interesting to see what matters mainstream media reporters consider as "serious". Next time his family loses the remote at home, we hope to see front-page coverage at the Post.

Some hoped new blood could establish discipline in the press room. Macsmind: "Where was this clown during the Clinton Administration when CNN was coined at the "Clinton News Network"? Fact is that this is no doubt due to Fox News' Tony Snow coming on board and show the utter sophmoronic childishness of the White House prima-dona corp is." The Anchoress: "Filed under: The Fourth Estate, The Perpetual Adolescents. ...Please tell me that Tony Snow will do the right thing from this point on and gently mock these people back into some semblance of quasi-adult sanity.

The Wide Awake Cafe points out that Fox is also Jack Bauer's news source of choice, while Wonkette thinks that VandeHei's complaints will only make the channel options worse: "Scotty McClellan is going out, as he came in, dealing with tough questions from our top-notch press corps. ...But Jim, you really can't expect this complaint to accomplish anything. You know they're just putting on the TVs whatever will bug the press corps the most. If they could get away with it, it'd be nothing but footage of Three Doors Down's performance at the "America's Future Rocks" concert on loop."

Lefties were buzzing over reports that WH DCoS Karl Rove was forced to sweat a little during his 4/26 grand jury appearance. The Left Coaster: "David Shuster of MSNBC reported today that despite the sunny appearance from Rove after his grand jury testimony yesterday, he described the experience as "hell", and he now thinks it is possible that he will be indicted." For all their complaining about Chris Matthews LeftCoaster wasn't the only one watching MSNBC. Taylor Marsh: "According to reports on MSNBC, people around Rove think he's in real jeopardy. Only today, he delivered more than we could have hoped. Shuster went on to say that in looking at Fitzgerald's prior cases, "Official A" got indicted 100% of the time."

Other lefties took the time to speculate on the details of Rove's testimony. Whiskey Bar: "Consensus opinion among the Plamegate experts seems to be that Karl is still trying to talk himself out of a jam -- the one created by his sudden attacks of temporary amnesia during his initial FBI interview and in his first appearance before the grand jury." TPM Muckraker: "Everyone agrees this morning that Karl Rove testified about why he failed to tell prosecutors that he'd revealed Valerie Plame's identity to Time's Matthew Cooper in July 2003.Here's how Rove's story goes: Rove testifed in February 2004 that he hadn't spoken with Cooper. Sometime around then (after Rove's testimony, one would assume), another Time reporter, Viveca Novak, told Rove's lawyer Robert Luskin that she'd heard Rove had spoken with Cooper. Luskin was "surprised," according to Novak, because Rove hadn't remembered that conversation. This sparked a search of Rove's emails, unearthing one which showed Rove writing about his conversation with Cooper. So then Rove went back and told prosecutors that he'd spoken with Cooper. Prosecutors seem to be skeptical of all this and are said to be contemplating perjury/obstruction of justice charges. Think Progress and Greg Sargent at TAPPED point out other possible holes in Rove's story.

Firedoglake thinks the scandals gotten too complicated to carry an audience. Decision 08 and The Left Coaster are patiently skeptic. Oliver Willis sums up the sentiments of many: "I'm no expert on any of the whole Plame thing, but five times in front of a grand jury having to clarify your story and go over stories again and again-- it sure doesn't sound good. My guess: perjury, obstruction of justice. Who knows, though?"

Righties seem to hate everything elected GOPers propose on gas policy these days. Responding to a Sen. GOP proposal to give everyone a $100 rebate check Powerline asks: "Wasn't There a Time When Republicans Knew Something About Economics? ...Taxes are a large part of the cost of gasoline. How about if we cut them? There was a time when Republicans knew better than to engage in this kind of stupid demagoguery. If they don't know any more about economics than Democrats, why, exactly, should we keep voting for them? Well, there is national defense. But, still."

Others would like to know what happened to their party of limited government. Poliblogger: "While I like getting checks in the mail, I must confess that $100 isn't really going to alleviate my gasoline bill all that much. More to the point: since when is it the government's job to do so?" Professor Bainbridge: "Whatever happened to being the party of limited government? One is tempted to agree with Bill Quick's summation: We have to wake up the Stupid Party, before it completely merges itself into the Republicrat Statist Party."

Not everyone on the right thinks the idea is without any merit. Gawker takes the time to find something positive about the proposal: "(Hey, Senate, our bar tabs are too high lately; can we get some cash to cover that?) But then we realized it's even more ridiculous: The story we read says every taxpayer will get this check, even all us New Yorkers who don't buy gas in the first place. Which, come to think of it, is a kind of ridiculousness we can entirely get behind.

A neophyte could predict the left's reaction, so we bring you the more colorful thoughts. The Political Animal: "PANDERING FOR DUMMIES....A hundred dollar rebate! It's bad economics, bad policy, bad optics, and the palpable stink of election-year desperation all rolled into one fetid package."Demagogue : "I thought the Democrats were bankrupt of ideas, but the GOP is now giving the Dems a run for their money." The Talent Show: "The Republicans have finally come up with a winning strategy for November. Bribery. "Our free market system works", says the Senator who wants to give $100 handouts as an election gimick." AMERICAblog: "Hell, how far will $100 get you anyway and how much is it going to cost to actually implement this latest plan? It's a wonder they even have 22% support with this kind of thinking."

Guest blogging at The Political AnimalAmy Sullivan points to Bob Novak's latest column on MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and sees similarities with her own earlier conclusions: "Most Christian Right leaders wouldn't be gauche enough to say it publicly, but they have a serious problem with Romney's Mormonism. I still find it likely that they would oppose him in the primaries but support him if he won the GOP nomination. But Novak says maybe not even then. ...For the record, I think that's pretty appalling. There is no religious test in this country, and we shouldn't tolerate the de facto application of one. But it has to be said that this is the bed the GOP has made for itself by emphasizing the importance of a candidate's personal faith and by making the Christian Right such a critical part of its political base."

AR Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is not making any friends in the progressive media. SusanG at DailyKos criticizes Huckabee for cutting of all communication with the Arkansas Times.

James Boyce writing at Huffington Post thinks the hard lessons of losing make Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and ex-VP Al Gore the best Dem candidates for 08. The Democratic Daily also shows Kerry some love for his Sen. work on energy.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Whoa Nelly!

As a huge college football fan the Blogometer was saddened by the news of broadcasting legend Keith Jackson's retirement 4/27. Jackson's booming voice and stock phrases could make any match-up feel timeless. Without Jackson the Rose Bowl will never feel as magic and all fall Saturdays will never feel as big. Note: it's the second time he's retired.

LEST WE FORGET: Baby Got Book

Andrew Sullivan links us to what he describes as a Christian dating hip-hop video. Sir Mix-a-Lot purists need not inquire.

Posted by Conn Carroll at April 28, 2006 12:41 PM