June 20, 2006

6/19: A Foreign Affair

Sorry, no one bothered to tell us about the new publishing platform, and our usual writer was out yesterday (to see why, scroll to the end of this post). So, here's our make-up to you.

Iraq is back on top of the agenda today, as two weekend controversies provided juicy fodder for fierce partisans on both sides, and North Korea's apparent preparations for missle tests causes some on the left to wonder what happened to priorities regarding the axis of evil.

But all is not foreign. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) gets the blogger treatment today, while CT SEN and one candidate's ad -- featuring an apparently abused bear and some less-than-perfect voiceovers -- continues to be hot topics.

IRAQ I: Murtha, All About The MTP Facetime

Rep. John Murtha's (D-PA) appearance on 6/18's "Meet The Press" generated the usual applause from the left and scorn from the right. Some samples:

The left was generally impressed with the appearance, hailing Murtha as the master of rebuting GOP talking points. Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar: "This was as effective a performance on Meet The Press as I've seen, and demonstrated not only that Murtha is right but that he's good. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it expertly. Right off the bat he took the offensive, hammering away at Republican talking points and emphasizing and re-emphasizing his own." People's Republic of Seabrook, a solid Dem, calls Murtha "My New Hero #39." Gateway Pundit: "By not confronting this blowhard, the media is being totally irresponsible and unfair to the American people! Sick!" Riehl World View: "Can't we just put him in the senile column with [Sen. Robert] Byrd (D-WV) and be done with him?" Black Five (and here) offers a military perspective on Murtha. One header: "Murtha Jumps the Shark." while Blue Crab Boulevard, Expose The Left, RedState and others offer more commentary. Plenty of righty bloggers, including Gateway and Outside The Beltway, take host Tim Russert to task for not calling Murtha out. Ann Althouse, among others, questions the pot's calling the kettle, in this case, fat, over Murtha's comments on Dep WH CoS Karl Rove's large bottom. TBogg thinks Murtha's comment cost Dems the "fat-ass-American" vote: "War is hell. Pie is yummy." Stop The ACLU offers an interesting response that looks destined to make the left fight back: "As a former Army paratrooper and Somalia veteran, I would like to remind Congressman Murtha one one basic truth he may have blissfully overlooked: his star may be bronze, but silence is golden."

Murtha's calls to re-deploy U.S. troops to Okinawa generated most of the commentary from the right. Say Anything, responding to Murtha's calls for U.S. troops to be re-deployed to Okinawa: "Murtha would like us to redeploy our troops from Iraq to Okinawa. See, his plan is that we'll "withdraw to a safe distance" with our forces ready to "swoop back in" should Iraqis need us. That way we're not really cutting and running from Iraq, just 'getting the troops out of harm's way.'" Protein Wisdom: "Okinawa? Okinawa? That's, like, in Japan, isn't it? Which makes me wonder if, in speaking of quick strike troops redeployed outside of Iraq, Murtha isn't overhyping to ability of the military just a bit. Or perhaps it's just the laws of physics he's overhyping. And he's doing so, ironically, because the military is in his estimation unable to fight well enough when they are able to confront the enemy directly." Cold Fury, The Sundries Shack, Patterico and Anti-Idolitarian Rottweiler offer their takes on the Okinawa proposal. JustOneMinute summarizes Murtha's position in song:

Ooookinawa!
Where the planes come whistling from the sky
With our redeployed men we can leave right then
And it's just six thousand miles to fly!

Ooookinawa!
Ev'ry night my intel chief and I
Sit alone and talk and watch an AWAC
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we are here for John Kerry
And to the Iraqis we aren't very scary
And when we say
Yeeow! WTF is it now?
We're only sayin'
Why are we based in Okinawa?
Okinawa, no way.

Oliver Willis: "The message the right is trying to send out is that Murtha is endorsing a move that emboldened terror, and by a Democrat no less - but as Dick Cheney has himself alleged -- Reagan's pullout [from Beirut] helped terrorists in the eyes of the right." That was in response to righty comments criticizing Murtha's citation of ex-Pres. Clinton's pullout from Somalia, which the right thinks helped Osama bin Laden continue to add Al Qaeda recruits. Wizbang and Hot Air lay out the right's points.

IRAQ II: Zalmay The Pessimist

Washington Post's report on a memo from the U.S. embassy in Iraq on the less-than-ideal conditions there, as reported by Editor and Publisher, attracted attention this weekend as well. The left siezes on the report as proof that the situation in Iraq remains terrible. Bark Bark Woof Woof has a link to the memo, which claims, among other things, that ethnic cleansing is already under way. He concludes: "I didn't expect the president to come back from Iraq and say to the press in the Rose Garden that we are in deep s*** and that life inside the Green Zone is like a replay of Berlin in April 1945. Remember, we're dealing with an administration that scorns the idea of a reality-based community. But who does it serve to come back and put on this show when it's obvious that the situation there is anything but inspiring unless you're Dante working on a sequel?" Noting that most of the memo details hardships incured by employees of the embassy, Hullabaloo says: Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad "pretty much says that he doesn't know if he can trust his own employees much longer because they are being driven a little bit crazy by fear and paranoia. Heckuva job, there, Uncle Sammy."

American Street: "The memo reports a near complete breakdown of law and order, except for that which is dependent on 'local providers' of power and security." Anticipating Bush admin spin and noting the giant "KHALILZAD" on the bottom of the cable, Michael Stickings asks: "Shouldn't the U.S. embassy in Baghdad know what it's talking about? Its report of reality in Iraq surely bears far more resemblance to the truth than anything we've ever heard from Bush and his various mouthpieces of delusion." Road To Surfdom, skippy the bush kangaroo, Echidne, First Draft and Duck of Minerva all offer their takes. Left Coaster thinks the memo, followed shortly by Bush's visit to Baghdad, speaks to more than just the failing situation in Iraq: "We are becoming a country that cannot believe anything our government says to us because they have been so dishonest in so many ways for so long. On this front, Bush and his compatriots have surely lost their battle to create their reality. But what they have sown is distrust, cynicism and a whole boatload of conspiracy theories - not exactly what they had thought they would create with their scientific marketing plan."

NORTH KOREA: Let's Not Do Launch

Reports that North Korea could be close to test-firing a missle that could reach as far as Alaska have some bloggers worried -- for more than one reason. Calling any test-fire a "huge setback" to U.S. relations with the dictatorship, Suzanne Nossel wonders what the U.S. gains from talking to dictators anyway. Calling it "not quite the Cuban Missle Crisis -- but clearly it's a crisis that is rapidly growing," The Moderate Voice offers a round-up of Asian media reaction to the report. The left blames Pres. Bush for letting the situation get out of control. Michael Stickings notes: "Talks won't stop North Korea's test of its Taepodong 2 missile. Talk soon... or else. Or else what? The prospect of a nuclear Iran is frightening enough. Think of a nuclear North Korea with far more advanced technology. Diplomatic leadership, Bush ought to know, is just as important as, if not more important than, the capacity to wage shock-and-awe campaigns against perceived threats." Brilliant at Breakfast: "Heck of a job, Georgie." Booman Tribune also jumps in. Kevin Drum examines options and wonders just what Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney, Peter Beinart and Sen. Hillary Clinton think.

WH '08: The Other Joementum

A "flat-out" running for president Joe Biden made the rounds in NH this weekend. His message: "The next Democrat, whether it's me or Sen. Clinton or John Kerry, whomever -- the Democratic nominee -- they'd better be able to ante up right in front of the American people two things: security and faith." The occasion brought up a Good Joe vs. Bad Joe debate in the blogosphere. Good Joe has an intuitive, heartfelt and strong foreign policy platform and a great way of communicating it. Bad Joe turns out to be an awful legislator. American Footprints' Praktike gives the case for Bad Joe: "[W]hile he often gets things right about national security policy, seems to be lousy at getting actual bills passed despite his platform as ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Perhaps he should spend less time bloviating on the Sunday talk shows and more time shaking hands and having lunch and so forth with his fellow Senators, in order to build support for what he wants to do." Nadezhda, on the same blog, wonders if they're possibly talking about the Joe "whose proposed amendment to the defense budget would have ratcheted up the sanctions pressure on Iran and funded "democracy promotion" (read, regime change) efforts to the tune of $100 million. And Joe, working in tandem with Condi and the State Department, managed to defeat that piece of idiocy on the floor of the Senate last week. Even though Santorum has 61 (count them, 61!) co-sponsors on a piece of legislation that would do the same thing as his proposed budget amendment." Not to pick on Joe Biden, but Reader_IAM at Done With Mirrors picks up on Biden's calling for more Dem party bluntness by writing this: "Blunt? Um, O.K. Regardless of whether that prescription is true or not, it sounds wrong, somehow, coming from Sen. Biden, who is still stuck back on the concept of "brief," the perfect example of which was his substitution of bloviation for serious questions back in the Alito hearings. It's hard to hear "blunt" in the whirlpool of words that seems to be Joe's first instincts." We're not sure even his staff would disagree privately. Blue Crab Boulevard thinks Biden is "trying very hard to stake out the territory on the right side of the Democratic party," but maybe not so successfully. Riehl World View says if Biden wants to authenticate his not-from-the-left aura, he needs to be a little better on taxes.

IN THE STATES: Mean Joe Is Back

Matt Stoller's hair trigger fired at the news that Carter Eskew had produced Lieberman's first ad, which took a page from his 1988 slugfest with Lowell Weicker. Stoller notes that Eskew is a partner at Glover Park Group, which includes several "ex-Clintonite" bugbears for lefty bloggers. And while Stoller "doesn't want to point fingers," a certain digit does indeed extend: "Glover Park sell[s] access to Democratic and media insiders, and they sell their political judgment." Stoller (and virtually every blogger we've read) thinks the ad itself is a mess. Markos thinks the bear ad will be a "PR disaster" for Lieberman. "This has to be the most ridiculous ad I've ever seen. It's not even that it's mean. It's just too silly and stupid to believe. Does anyone really believe that Lieberman is in this fix because of Lowell Weicker? And pace Weicker, Lieberman and ad creator Carter Eskew, but even in Connecticut, Lowell Weicker has been out of the Senate for a really long time. I don't want to say he's ancient history. But he's sort of ancient history." Also -- "Notice how the Weicker bear is all patched up and stuff? Weicker has just gone through hip replacement surgery, and this appears to be mocking him."

Ned Lamont himself blogs about Lieberman's Washington Postinterview with David Broder, wherein Lieberman bemoaned the fact that his position is "not popular within the party." But, he said, "that is a challenge for the party --whether it will accept diversity of opinion or is on a kind of crusade or jihad of its own to have everybody toe the line. No successful political party has ever done that."" Well. Writes Lamont: "As we've said before, this isn't about "toeing the line" on one issue, namely Iraq. It's about undermining the Democratic Party at almost every turn, from judicial nominee votes, to appearances on Fox News to repeat GOP talking points, to Terri Schiavo, to the Bush energy policy, etc, etc etc.." And it "Seems to" "Roger Ailes" that "having a pro-war candidate and an anti-war candidate running against each other within a party is about accepting diversity of opinion. No one's kicked your ass out of the party or kept your name off the ballot, Joe." Blogger DHinMI, writing on Kos, who admits to have "had some concerns abotu Lamont," calls the comment "pathetic." Dem voters "haven't been on a jihad to cleanse the party of people who supported the Iraq war; hell, we even nominated a Presidential candidate who had voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Joementum's claim is a canard. His problems are entirely of his own doing, and have little to do with the policies he supports or the ideas he espouses and almost everything to do with the contempt he showers on those he would refer to as Jihadists, but who we call Democrats." Connecticut Local Politics'sGenghis Conn writes that the comment is a "good example" of the Two Liebermans. A "Noble Joe" who "is principled and unafraid to put party aside and take a stand for what he believes in. This is admirable and all-too-rare in a politician." And "Baron Joe," who "believes he deserves his seat for life, that his opponent has no right to challenge him, and that he is entitled to go to any and all lengths to retain his spot in the peerage."

Jumping to Joe's defense is Riehl World View, who writes that the "Kos Kids may not realize it, but they are helping to give Republicans precisely what they want." Which is: (we think improbably, but oh well) to get the RNC to give the race more attention. Meanwhile Captain Ed thinks (hopes, wants) Lieberman to (will) caucus with Republicans, a thought that California Conservative approvingly coos at. He then writes, in an unselfconscious sentence: "If there's one thing that the American people don't like, it's that they don't like "party unity" if it means playing politics with the war. Regardless of the polling, the American people know that pulling out of Iraq now that we're there isn't the right thing to do." Blue Crab Boulevard picks up Lieberman's final sentence from the quotation, which appears to be a warning to the Dems. Gay Patriot says the Dems have a dilemma, but not as large as his, apparently: "Right now, Joe Lieberman faces the dilemma of whether to make contingency plans to run as an independent or stake it all on winning the Democratic primary (which would make him a shoo-in for re-election). And I face the dilemma of whether to root for his victory as a sign the opposing party still has some sense or to hope for his defeat in order to strengthen my party's hand in the fall elections."

LIBBY: Something About Grey Poupon

Newsday's Brune reports that speculation about Pres. Bush pardoning Valerie Plame outer/ex-Cheney CoS Scooter Libby, and the piece got some bloggers all hot and bothered. It wasn't the idea of a pardon that incensed some, but the newslessness of the story, as some put it. Blue Crab Boulevard: "The entire article, from start to finish, is complete and utter smoke." Outside The Beltway

Righty Sundries Shop: "I find it incredible that the president would want to pardon Libby, or even slow his trial down in the slightest, considering that Libby has a great opportunity to crush the Fitzgerald investigation entire, exonerate the entire administration, and show Joseph Wilson to be an inveterate liar one more time. Pardoning Libby has nothing but downsides while letting his trial run its course does nothing but help the administration." Lawhawk offers similar reasoning.

Talk Left is taking the story with a grain of salt, too, thanks to quotes from Libby supporter/ex-US Atty. Joe diGenova. But there may be a strategy to the piece: "To put this out in the media through DiGenova now, Team Libby (the p.r. team, not the lawyers) is either testing the waters or hoping to demoralize Team Fitz by making them wonder if Libby's prosecution is all for naught." The Heretik also takes on diGenova and criticizes some of his statements in the piece. Brilliant at Breakfast thinks the admin is waiting until the next "American Idol" season to pardon.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Someone's Not Getting A Fruitcake For Xmas

In the battle for the netroots, it seems that some on the left might be getting a tad touchy about their less-than-stellar win record. They're claiming everything they can, and fighting as hard as possible to gain recognition for the victory by ex-Reagan Navy Sec. Jim Webb (D) in VA. Seems that the latest spat began as righty Glenn Reynolds claimed the Webb victory showed the lefty netroots still couldn't win, neglecting the fact that the lefty blogosphere had been firmly in Webb's camp.

Lefty Glenn Greenwald came after Reynolds, and with a vengence. After calling Reynolds' Instapundit "Fact-free," Greenwald continues: "The truth is, as is so often the case, the precise opposite of Instapundit's statements."

Needless to say, Reynolds responded, followed by a Greenwald response (no link -- update V). Kos provides a play-by-play, and he's firmly on Greenwald's side on this one.

BLOGGERS VS. THE MACHINE: If Only He'd Contributed To Rep. Cox's Races

By the way, speaking of Kos, after his buddy Jerome Armstrong signed on with VA Gov. Mark Warner (D), an avowed centrist who works with GOPers, Blogometer asked: "Is Kos Too Centrist For DailyKos?" This weekend, Armstrong took a little more heat for his work with Warner, as NYT's Opinionator blog reports. Turns out that while Armstrong was pumping Warner and ex-VT Gov. Howard Dean, he was also allegedly pushing stocks on a financial website, getting paid for promoting a company's favorite picks. An SEC complaint has been filed against him.

Ohio 2nd Blog sees Armstrong taking advantage of his reputation and position: "Candidates interested in trying to force the blogosphere by hiring such professionals as Armstrong need to look no further than to the barren landscape that is the opinion that many Ohio democrats have of Sherrod Brown online. Armstrong's ham handed efforts at manipulating online opinion for Brown were a disaster, and dozens of Ohio netizens that should be Brown's most fervent online supporters have written his campaign off entirely. Many blame Congressman Brown. Personally I see him as just another babe-in-the-woods investor lured into the flashing web of internet hucksters, and then systematically sucked dry. As a dot con veteran it's something that I've seen many times before." Buckeye State Blog, also not a fan of Kos and kin, jumps in the fray as well.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Paradise Lost

Christine Rosen, writing in The New Republic, focuses three solid pages on the above-mentioned Reynolds. The piece, which dismisses Reynolds' "comfy chair revolution" as a kind of naive utopia, is worth a read if you have a password. The piece has yet to garner much comment, but it could pop up as another catalyst for "the MSM hates us because we beat them all the time" posts.

LEST WE FORGET: A Good Day To Be A Carroll

Regular Blogometer author Conn Carroll and wife Wendy welcomed Owen Robert Carroll to the world at 7:05 a.m. ET today. Weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs., 9 ozs., Owen's doing just fine, as is Wendy. Our congrats to the new parents! Pictures, we're sure, when they come available.

Posted by at June 20, 2006 01:02 PM