July 17, 2006
7/17: War Room 2.0
The lion's share of blogger attention is being devoted to developments in the Middle East 7/17, but non-foreign policy items could still be found through out the weekend, especially as Q2 reports trickle in. Perhaps most noteworthy was the rapid response from Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) blog outreach director Peter Daou following a New York Times article that many progressive bloggers interpreted as an HRC condemnation of Dem stances on social issues. Thanks to Daou's quick emails and solid progressive reputation, a BLOGGER VS. HRC story morphed into a BLOGGER VS. MSM by day's end.
CLINTON: So That's What Blog Outreach Directors Do
A 7/16 New York Timesarticle quoting Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as saying "We do things that are controversial. We do things that try to inflame their base," was taken by many progressive bloggers as HRC criticism of Dem legislative priorities. Bloggers quickly moved to condemn HRC for her apostasy but were then quickly contacted by Team Clinton to set the record straight. The Suburban Guerilla reports: "Peter Daou, who's Clinton's blog advisor, writes to tell me the Times story was uniquely misinterpreted by Anne Kornblut, that this is Hillary's standard stump speech and that if you go back and read it again in context, she's speaking in the "we" part as what the Republicans do, not the Democrats. Which does make a lot more sense."
Under the header "Journamalism" Atrios writes: "Grrrr. Kornblut makes it even worse by implying that Democrats are the ones bringing up gay marriage, when it's the goddamn Republicans who are doing so."
Daou's work is still far from over though. Ed Kosner at progressive hangout The Huffington Post was so turned off by the "abusive" HRC criticism elicited by his previous post he wonders if HRC and Dems should set their sites a little lower: "Unless Mrs. Clinton manages somehow to disarm all this over the next eighteen months, the smart course for her - and the Democrats - would be for her to be the vice-presidential candidate in 2008. That way, she could show herself to the country without being the white-hot center of the race. ... With Hillary running for vice president, her admirers could flock to the ticket, and voters who'd had enough could vote Democratic, rationalizing that as Veep, Mrs. Clinton couldn't do all that much mischief."
GORE: Civil Unrest As Major Achievement
Hill Street Blues writer and Associate Professor Terry Curtis at The Huffington Post looks south of the border and sees the type of leadership he wishes Al Gore possessed: "What if Al Gore had been more like Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador? What if he had not merely demanded a recount in Florida but encouraged Democrats to pour out into the streets, rather than discouraging them? ... I'm willing to concede that hundreds of thousands of people could have poured into the streets and the Supreme Court would have still handed the White House to W. But even if the Mexican rightist does take office, by calling his followers out into the streets, Obrador has already accomplished something essential that Gore failed to do: he has made it clear that in a completely divided country, the right cannot pursue a unilateral agenda without engendering civil unrest. And that, by itself, is a major achievement."
GIULIANI: Superman Returns
At conservative hang-out RedStateSlimJim is not happy with ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's record on abortion, but comes away agnostic on Giuliani's candidacy: " Rudy's record on abortion isn't just bad. Rudy's record is apocalyptic. Rudy makes Romney look like Pat Robertson. ... In short, no pro-lifer in their right mind could consciously vote for Rudy. And yet? I love the guy. God help me I do think the world of Rudy Giuliani. And it all has to do with 9-11. You see, I live in New York City. ... For those of us shell shocked in New York City Rudy was the only one we could look to for support. And he never let us down. During the crisis and well after it he was always there. He went to countless funerals and worked round the clock. He was our superman. So while I cannot support the Mayor as a Presidential candidate during the primaries I can't bring myself to oppose him either."
MCCAIN: Bay State Favorite
Power Line notes fellow conservative apprehension with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) but concludes McCain's imperfections are outweighed by his invincibility: "Hugh Hewitt sometimes says of John McCain that he is a great American, a lousy Senator and a terrible Republican. McCain certainly has his faults, but I think that formula overstates them. While he differs with most conservatives on important issues like immigration and freedom of speech, he is rock-solid on defense, is a genuine spending hawk, and has been conservative on social issues. That's not perfect, but it's far from lousy, as his 80% 2005 rating from the American Conservative Union attests."
PL continues: "But there's no denying that one reason lots of conservatives - like me - wouldn't mind seeing McCain as the Republican nominee in '08 is that no Democrat currently on the scene has the chance of a snowball in a warm place of beating him. Evidence: Rasmussen Reports currently shows McCain leading Hillary Clinton 44% to 43% in Massachusetts."
CT SEN: Fun With Filings
Progressive bloggers are making the most of Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D) Q2 FEC filings. Matt Stoller at MyDD has two posts on the subject first noting that Martin Frost reported his employment as "US Congressman" for a 9/25/05 $1000 donation despite his '04 reelection loss; that "Andre Agassi gave a full double max $4200;" and that "many of Lieberman's big donors (and there really are only big donors) come from the finance, technology, and defense related fields, and in particular the executive class. Lamont sees more from entertainment, media, academia, and engineers." Later Stoller reports that a donation from Choicepoint's CEO "raised [his] eyebrows as well."
Meanwhile L.A.-based activist Jane Hamsher reporting from CT at firedoglake lauds the local press for being "light years ahead of their national counterparts when it comes to covering this race." Hamsher links to a Hartford Courantarticle on Lieberman's record as well as a Journal-Inquirerstory on Lieberman donations from "the military industrial complex."
Over at LieberDem ex-Lieberman aide Dan Gerstein notes Bill Clinton's defense of Lieberman from the Aspen Institute conference and asks: "All of which raises some obvious questions. Does this make Bill Clinton, whose positions track pretty much across the board with Joe Lieberman, a shill for the President Bush and the Republicans? Are the angry Lieberman-haters now going to suggest Bill Clinton is a disloyal Democrat? If not, how can they justify this obvious double standard?" Pro-Lamont Matt Stoller at MyDD picks up on the same story but isn't phased: "I'm not surprised or even disappointed that Bill Clinton is out for Lieberman. He was an exceptional politician, but he's also part of the past."
More to the liking of the left, ret. Gen. Wesley Clark took a swipe at Lieberman in a DailyKos chat while pledging to support the winner of the Dem primary: "I am a proud member of the Democratic Party, and I believe it is our party's responsibility to support the will of the Democratic primary voters in Connecticut. I personally look forward to supporting the candidate CT voters elect as the Democratic nominee. Though, as an aside, I must say I find it ironic that Senator Lieberman is now planning a potential run as an independent after he continually questioned my loyalty to the Democratic Party during the 2004 presidential primary."
Finally Mystery Pollster takes the time to put to rest rumors of Lieberman sponsored push polls: "While public polls have been few and far between in the Connecticut Democratic primary, reports of "push polling" have been bubbling up through the blogosphere. I have seen two sets of reports. The first round drew the usual over-the-top rhetorical blasts. Calls received in Connecticut in late June were described as by supporters of Ned Lamont as "Lieberman push polling" (here, here and here), as well as "Lieberman's Latest Dirty Trick," and "the sleaziest of campaign tactics" (by Kos himself)."
MP continues: "The most recent and interesting report comes from a correspondent of BranfordBoy on the blog My Left Nutmeg. The respondent took detailed notes on all of the questions and concluded, "today, I received my first recognizable Push Poll." The report is worth reading in full, because this call was almost certainly an internal campaign poll and not something that deserving of the label "push poll" (a point echoed -- to their credit -- by both My Left Nutmeg and the Connecticut Blog)."MN SEN: Pickin' On The Videographer
Conservative and MN denizen Captain's Quarters doesn't think too highly of Minnesota Poll's 7/16 poll showing Hennepin Co. Atty. Amy Klobuchar (D) with a 50%-31% lead over Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-06). CQ: "It's helpful at this juncture to recall the MinnPoll's history in predicting elections. Over the last twenty years, the poll has miscalculated Republican support every election cycle, getting increasingly worse as time goes on while overestimating Democratic support. ... If you get the notion that the Strib skews its polls against the GOP, you'd be correct. In the last twenty years of elections for President, Senate, and Governor, the Strib has underestimated Republican support by an average of over seven points. The only race in which they did not underestimate Republican support was in 1990, when they picked Rudy Boschwitz to beat Paul Wellstone for the Senate."
Captain's Quarters also came out for AM 1280 Patriot Picnic listener-appreciation day where he interviewed Kennedy. The podcast can be downloaded here and CQ previews the broadcast: "One light moment of the interview came when we realized that his opponent, Amy Klobuchar, had sent a videographer to record Kennedy's appearance. Andy Aplikowski notes that the videographer did not get chased away as did Ben Goldfarb at a Klobuchar event. Mitch asked him what he thought about the physical assault on Goldfarb while we were live on the air, and the poor guy barely muttered a "no comment." The crowd, of course, loved it, and we let the fellow do all the recording he wants. Republicans, after all, have nothing to hide."
From the opposite side of the spectrum DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas provided his own update on the race: "Mark Kennedy, the Republican candidate for Senate this fall, raised a massive $1.6 million in the second quarter. Lucky for us Democrats, the Democratic nominee, Amy Klobuchar, bested him with a $1.8 million quarter. What was a nearly a $1 million cash-on-hand advantage for Kennedy has shrunk to $500K after this quarter. Kennedy has $4 million CoH. Klobuchar has $3.5 million.
NE 03: 50 State Vindication?
Ryan Anderson at progressive activist MyDD highlights an Omaha World Herald report showing rancher Scott Kleeb (D) ahead in COH $277k to state Sen. Adrian Smith's (R) $105K. Anderson writes: "What's amazing about these numbers, however, is that Smith's advantage even in funds raised during this time would be nearly obliterated were it not for a last minute campaign stop by Dick Cheney which netted him a cold $85,000. In fact, it now appears that Cheney's fundraising stop was absolutely nothing short of what I reported it to be a month ago: A sign of desperation from a campaign verging on bankruptcy."
Also monitoring the race DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas takes the opportunity to take a swipe at his beltway foes: "This is what the DNC 50-state-strategy is all about. Dean's DNC is spending $120K/year for three organizers in the state, money that Schumer and Rahm would prefer be spent on b******t television ads by ineffective beltway consultant firms."
BLOGGERS VS. BELTWAY: No. 14 With A Bullet
Progressive Chris Bowers at MyDD looks opensecrets.org recent PAC report and declares blogger-backed Act Blue the "Top PAC for Democrats." Bowers writes: "In this election cycle alone, more than 5.8 million dollars has been raised for Democratic candidates via Act Blue. That is more than three times the amount raised for Democrats than by any other Political Action Committee in the 2005-2006 cycle. ... Now, Act Blue still has a long way to go to catch up to the largest PAC's in terms of total receipts (it would rank around 14th on that list--MoveOn.org comes in at an impressive 3rd). Also, if one were to add up all of the various union PACs, labor still raises more money for Democrats than does Act Blue. However, whatever qualifiers are thrown in front of it, the rapid rise of Act Blue is quite an achievement. It remains a very significant piece of the new, emerging progressive infrastructure and is an important facilitator of the people-powered progressive movement."
DEMS: Cut 'N Run To Video
Conservative bloggers took a victory lap after Fox Newsreported the DCCC pulled an ad using "flag-draped coffins and a phony mug shot of Tom DeLay" from their website. NRO's Stephen Spruiell writes: "Good. Maybe this time they can avoid offending veterans, doctoring photos and admitting that the best politician in the Democratic party left office six years ago." Captain's Quarters has similar thoughts.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Just Like America -- But Older, Whiter, Richer, And More Secular
Scott Winship at The Democratic Strategist continues his look at "netroots" demographics this time looking at Pew Research Center data on "Dean Activists." Winship reports that "the response rate in this survey leaves much to be desired" but still felt comfortable concluding the following:
"The netroots was also unrepresentative in terms of race. While 80 percent of Americans and 70 percent of Democrats were non-Hispanic whites in 2004, 90 percent of Dean activists and netroots members were. Blacks and Hispanics were quite underrepresented."
"Among Americans as a whole and among Democrats, half of adults had no more than a high-school education in 2004. One in four was a college graduate. Contrast this with the netroots' seventy-percent college graduation rate, which was possibly lower than the rate for Dean activists as a whole. ... These educational differences, not surprisingly, are reflected in income differences as well. While a third of American families and forty percent of Democratic families had less than $30,000 in income in 2004, that was true of only 15 percent of Dean activists and netroots members. In contrast, 30 percent of Dean activists and 20 percent of the netroots had family incomes greater than $100,000. Just 10 percent of Democrats and Americans were that well off."
"Protestants made up four in ten white Americans in 2004, split evenly between evangelicals and non-evangelicals. They accounted for three in ten white Democrats but just one in five white members of the Dean activists and the netroots. Barely any were evangelical. In fact, four in ten white members of the Dean activists and the netroots were secular -- four times the incidence among white Democrats or Americans as a whole."
LEST WE FORGET: Who Did You Exploit Today?
Matt Stoller at MyDD tickled the Blogometer's funny bone with this YouTube entry from MTV2 Sesame Street parody show Wonder Showzen. The clip shows a darling little girl ambushing poor Wall Street laborers with questions like:
When did you sell your conscience?
Can you justify capitalism in three words or less?
Do you need this napkin to wipe the blood from your hands?
When the revolution comes where will you hide? ... and
Do you want to go fight the power with me later?
Posted by Conn Carroll at July 17, 2006 12:32 PM
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