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Righteous Indignatius

  David Ignatius writes a column at The Washington Post describing a "larger, overarching battle" this election season between "two visions of America: testing whether it's a country defined by its political center or one defined by its political extremes."  His basis for this is The Way to Win, a new book by reporters Mark Halperin and John F. Harris, which perceives "two basic strategic ideas at work in today's politics: the 'synthesizer' approach of former president Bill Clinton, and the 'clarifier' tactics of President Bush and ... Karl Rove."  The Clinton approach is "the politics of the center," while the Bush approach is "the politics of the base."

  Ignatius takes pains to identify himself, as he often does, with the "old school" that "instinctively prefer[s] a centrist style of civilized debate"; he then--and this is where, predictably, he triggers another fierce reaction from certain poliblogs--knocks the "shrill voices of the New Media," lumping together talk-radio hosts, bloggers and other "partisan megaphones," who, admittedly, "might eventually put us out of business."  Ignatius goes on to describe what he believes to be a growing centrist trend among incumbents and candidates of both parties.  But, he ultimately ponders, "if the Democrats win next month, will they be heirs of Clinton's vision of politics or of Rove's?  Are we heading for unity or even sharper division?"

  Let's back up a minute here, says Susie at Suburban Guerilla.  "I should face up to the distasteful task of responding to insidious bullshit," i.e., Ignatius' aforementioned blogger rip.

bull[stuff]quote>  I hardly know where to begin, what with someone like Mark Halperin (of ABC’s horrible “The Note”) having the audacity to lecture us on civility and politeness. ... Let’s look at the compelling core fact that seems to elude the Beltway Bobbleheads, and it’s this: This is not a game.  Really.  The actions of the Bush administration, their congressional enablers and the media’s blushing handmaidens have real consequences, for real people.

  How do they manage to treat the Iraq war like a chess game, played with cheap plastic pieces instead of real men and women?  How do they oh-so-politely ignore the stench of 600,000 Iraqi dead as if it were of no more concern than an ill-timed fart at a dinner party?  How do they downplay the breathtaking orgy of rape and pillage that is the White House, this war and the members of the GOP-controlled Congress?  How do they reduce our finally awakened and greatly concerned electorate to annoyingly “shrill” voices?

  And how dare these Washington media fluffers insist, from the protection of their bubble, that they have the moral authority to tell us civility should prevail when their polite indifference brought us to the point where our nation is in utter crisis?

  mcjoan at Daily Kos lets it rip, too:

  The reason, David Ignatius, you are eventually going to be put out of business is because you forgot your business.  You rival the GOP Rubber Stamp Congress in looking the other way when it comes to the disaster this administration has wrought.  Cheney's energy policy, drafted by big oil?  Well, how important could that be.  Lying about estimates for the cost of the prescription drug plan?  Numbers are confusing.  800 signing statements undoing the will of Congress?  Um, signing statements?  Lying to the nation and to the international community to take this country into a misguided, expensive, poorly planned and even more poorly executed war?  ... That's not my beat.

  The media's failure, YOUR failure David Ignatius, to demand any accountability at all for this president and for the Congress that has propped him up, is the seed you planted for your own destruction.  Your failure to recognize and point out the radical right that has taken over the Republican party is not the fault of us great unwashed liberal bloggers, the legions of the shrill.  Your failure is all yours.  What you wrought by pushing the agenda of the Clinton haters and the Gore detractors was this unmitigated catastrophe known as the Bush administration.

  Ezra Klein has a turn too, from a different tack, at The American Prospect's TAPPED:

[I]t's time to stop pretending that the death of civilized debate doesn't have suspects.  The media may yearn for civilized debate of another age, but it was Ignatius's employers at The Post who leapt on every blue dress, trumped up land deal, and sexual titillation The American Spectator would "report."  If folks want to talk health care, PAYGO, and unipolarity till the cows come home, I'm sure Democrats would happily oblige.  But I don't think they're going to enter the knife fight unarmed again anytime soon.  If Ignatius is detecting a return of civilization to the political discourse, maybe it's because Republicans have been so silenced by their own failures and scandals that only Democrats are being heard.  And when they don't have to shreik to be heard by Mr. Ignatius and his colleagues, it sounds pretty good.

  Blue Crab Boulevard, on the other hand, dismisses the book's theme.  "I don't actually agree with Halperin and Harris' interpretation all that much.  I think they see Clinton in a better light than he deserves and Bush in a worse one."

  "That aside," he wraps, "I don't think there really can be much of a question of how the Democrats are, in general, running this campaign.  They have made a concerted effort, admitted openly, to suppress the conservative vote and split the Republican coalition.  Halperin and Harris meant their book to be a guide for the 2008 elections.  I think it is pretty obvious which way the Democrats plan to head."

House Race Update

FL 16: Negroaaaan

  Joe Negron, Mark Foley's replacement as GOP candidate for the 16th, lost an "obvious" ruling when a judge asserted that putting up signs inside polling places saying that a vote for Foley is a vote for Negron is "electioneering prohibited by law."  While GOPers gnash their teeth, Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos reminds readers of a situation earlier where a politician got the shaft, parties reversed.

  "But, of course, Republicans want to change the rules" when the tables are turned.  "No dice," writes Kos, "at least with this judge.  Republicans are obviously appealing the decision."

NM 01: Instant Karmadrid

  Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo rues the nasty backlash that elements in the GOP are attempting to rouse with wild allegations of their own, such as Kenneth Blackwell's Ohio campaign hinting loudly that challenger Ted Strickland is gay.

  1st District GOP incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson took a similar swipe at Dem opponent Patricia Madrid.  "Wilson's whole site at the moment is given over to a local TV news spot about a Internet-teen sex sting that bagged a 41 year old man who thought he was meeting a fourteen year old girl in the park for sex," Marshall writes.  "The story is about how he didn't get time but probation.  Wilson says it was the fault of opponent Patricia Madrid (who is currently state Attorney General)."

  Then, lo and behold, the news breaks a day later at The Raw Story: Wilson had buried a file containing allegations "that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor."

[Mike Sheehan]