December 07, 2006

12/7: If Only The ISG Could Unite Iraqis Like They Unite Bloggers

The substantive reasons why bloggers from the right and left dislike the ISG may differ (righties cringe at suggestions that help from Iran and Syria should be sought, lefties want troops out yesterday) but both sides are passionately turned off by "bipartisan" sanctimony surrounding the report. In perhaps the only sentences he'll ever write that could easily be posted on Daily Kos, Bill Bennett tells The Corner readers: "This is the triumph of the therapeutic, where bipartisanship - a hug across the aisle - has become a higher value than justice. ... In all my time in Washington I've never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible."

IRAQ: James Baker Has No Clothes

Negative righty blogger reactions to the ISG include:

• T.F. Boggs: "The brainpower of the ISG has come up with a new direction for our country and that includes negotiating with countries whose people chant "Death to America" and whose leaders deny the Holocaust and call for Israel to be wiped from the face of the earth. Baker and Hamilton want us to get terrorists supporting countries involved in fighting terrorism!"
• RedState's Erick Erickson: "What does Congress's love child with the Axis of Evil look like? A James Baker-Lee Hamilton press conference. ... In essence, the report calls on the United States to capitulate to its enemies, abandon its friends, and blame Israel.
• under a header "The Emperor Has No Clothes" Townhall's Hugh Hewitt writes: "Incredibly, the ISG did not consult with anyone from the democratic government of Lebanon, even as the ISG urges us to reach an understanding with Syria."
• Captain's Quarters: "[the] recommendations descend from some strange Utopian vision of peace and brotherhood that only exists in the fevered imagination of the so-called realists. ... The ISG wants us to believe that Iran and Syria have no interest in instability in the region. That's an interesting perspective, since the two are the most notorious terror-sponsoring states in the world."
• The Corner's Rich Lowry: "On page xv it says Iran "should" stop the flow of arms into Iraq and promote its national reconciliation. And Syria "should" control its border with Iraq. Yes, they should! We needed an over-hyped bi-partisan commission for this?"
• Townhall's Dean Barnett: "The entire report exists in some kind of striped-pants-set fantasy world where all actors are rational and behave only in good faith. As a consequence, the report repeatedly offers idiotic banalities like, "No country in the region wants a chaotic Iraq," in spite of previously acknowledging that one of Iraq's most murderous militias, the Badr brigade, is a client of Iran."
• Power Line's Paul Mirengoff: "The best the "wise men" can come up with is to have our worst enemies try to help us stabilize Iraq. And, apparently, the primary inducement will be to pressure Israel into creating a Palestinian state (as if Iran really cares about that). It's difficult to say which is more pronounced, the craven nature of this recommendation or its lack of realism."
• The Corner's Bill Bennett: "For a report to identify the outside agitators (which happen to also be the worst terrorist-sponsoring states in the world - Iran & Syria) as "provid[ing] arms, financial support, and training for Shiite militias within Iraq," i.e., fomenting war, and then say we should negotiate and offer incentives to those countries is simply too much to bear. Insult is added to injury with the absurdity that Iran and Syria then become members of something called the Iraq Support Group. Committeeism simply got out of control here."
• The Corner's Andy McCarthy: "I just don't get how the media and the solons themselves are willing to celebrate error as triumph, in a life-and-death matter, simply because everyone is willing to be wrong together. I'm trying to figure out whether that is more craven or dumb - I'll be back to you once I've reached consensus."

Army Reservist T.F. Boggs was particularly insulted by one recommendation: "Not only are the findings of the ISG a joke but the people who led the group (Baker and Hamilton) treat soldiers like they are a joke. One of the main recommendations of the ISG is to send more troops to Iraq in order to train Iraqis so they can secure their own country, but they don't feel that we are doing a good job of that right now because training Iraqis isn't an attractive job for soldiers to do because it isn't a "career advancing" job. As someone who trained Iraqis from time to time I take personal offense to this remark. In my experience soldiers clamored for the chance to train Iraqis. Any soldier who doesn't think training Iraqis is worth their time because it isn't a "career advancing" job shouldn't be part in the war on terror plain and simple."

Righties were pleased that the ISG did not recommend immediate withdrawal or redeployment of troops. The Corner's Cliff May: "On the plus side this report is not a recommendation to move out of Iraq; it's explicitly a a recommendation for "moving forward" in Iraq." Best Of The Web's James Taranto: "The recommendations of the Iraq Study Group are out, and those who are eager for a quick American defeat will be disappointed. More than a year ago, Rep. John Murtha caused a stir when he said America should "immediately redeploy," though he later claimed this wasn't what he meant (another botched joke?). The ISG's recommendation is much more moderate: a partial withdrawal, beginning more than a year from now, contingent on the success of efforts to train Iraqi forces. It seems like a plausible approach."

Looking forward, Outside the Beltway looks at how both parties will use the report: "It used to be said that politics ended at the water's edge; it has been many years since that was a reflection of reality. Both sides will use the Report to seek political cover for what they want to do but I suspect they will continue to bludgeon their opponents over the war."

The Truth Laid Bear posts an HTML version of the report and identifies the Adobe PDF keywords chosen for the ISG include: "iraq study group report james baker lee hamilton co chairs middle east congress bipartisan strategies president bush america abroad military withdrawal troops civil war iraqi government sunni shia kurds christian sectarian violence conflict post-conflict" TLB comments: "Yes, that's right. If you're looking for "withdrawal", this is the document for you. If you happen to be looking for "victory," however --- you are out of luck."

Power Line provides a rough summation of a conference call featuring ISG members William Perry and Alan Simpson as well as bloggers from the left and right. Finally, National Review Online has a symposium on the ISG.

IRAQ: This Isn't What We Voted For

The most popular ISG reaction in the lefty 'sphere came not from a blogger, but from Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas:

The fact is this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgment to oppose this Iraq war in the first place, and did not have the judgment to realize it was not a wise move in the fight against terrorism. ... So this is really a Washington inside job and it shows not in the description of what's happened -- that's fairly accurate -- but it shows in the recommendations. ... This report does not do the job and it's because it was not composed of a real representative group of Americans who believe what the American people showed in the election, which is that it's time for us to have a timetable to bring the troops out of Iraq."

Kos later notes the loss of 10 U.S. servicemen and adds: "But in Washington, as long as none of the bipartisan DC elite get embarrassed those are acceptable losses."

Crooks and Liars has video of Feingold's appearance on Countdown and comments: "Feingold said what I have felt all day. This report does not give us a clear path in Iraq and leaves the future of the war up in the air. Even worse is the fact that we have lost 10 more soldiers today and the administration needs more time to figure out what to do. Iraq sure doesn't need more time to slip into anarchy -- it gets worse by the day."

Other lefty reax include:

• Atrios: "The only way the ISG was going to actually possibly cause a change in policy was if they said it's time to leave. Bush will continue what he's doing. ISG report anniversary day is now on the calendar, and a year from now we can see just what the Wise Old Men of Washington have accomplished."
• firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "The Baker-Hamilton Report calls for a reduction in troop levels to 70,000 by 2008 "subject to unexpected developments." Since the guy in charge of implementing it issued more than 750 signing statements saying why he did not have to pay attention to those laws which don't happen to strike his fancy, we're rather confident in his ability to interpret the phrase "unexpected developments" a somewhat loosely."
• The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum: "And what's this about keeping 70,000 non-combat troops in Iraq pretty much forever? That got a unanimous blessing from the commission members? I think that tells you more about who was eligible for the commission than it does about whether this is a good idea."
• Matthew Yglesias: "Now that I've read the whole thing, the good news about the Iraq Study Group report is that it's filled with accurate observations about the situation in Iraq. ... To make a long story short, these observations render virtually all of the ISG's recommendations moot. Absent political reconciliation, none of this stuff about embedding someone here, or training someone there is going to accomplish anything. And national reconciliation hasn't been forthcoming because the key people aren't committed to it."
• AMERICAblog's AJ in DC: "to some extent the report is the worst of all worlds, because it caved to political pressures but has no implementation power, which leaves the Bush administration able to pick and choose, creating a bad version of some of the recommendations while claiming to adhere to the report."
• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "I fear that it's still not PC to suggest in polite company that the war is over, we lost. And I fear just as much that the Study Group may not have seriously considered this possibility - the proposition that nothing we do will matter in the end, and that as bad as it sounds, the only solution is to get out now. Yeah, leaving sucks - but staying sucks worse."

Not every recommendation was unappreciated. TPM Cafe's M.J. Rosenberg was heartened to see the Israel-Palestine conflict play a major role in the report and writes: "It is critical that progressives support these recommendations and that the new Democratic majority in Congress does not try to score points with the right by criticizing Baker's call for engagement."

DEM FIELD: Al Gore's 500K Man Army

Kos posted his first '08 straw 12/6 and writes: "Let's say, conservatively, that 5 million people read liberal blogs. You get 10 percent of those, you're looking at 500,000 activists working on your behalf. What campaign wouldn't kill for that sort of interest?" With 15,834 respondents the 12/06 results stood at (with 7/06 results):

            Dec  Jul
Edwards      28   15
Obama        28    -
Clark        26   17
Clinton       5    2
Richardson    4    2
Kerry         1    2
Bayh          1    1
Vilsack       0    -
Biden         1    1
Feingold      -   38

Kos also included a "Fantasy Straw Poll" which Al Gore won handily with 57% to Obama and Clark's 12%.

Kos also unveiled hi first '08 "Cattle Call" rankings. In the Top Tier:

• 1. Barack Obama: "He's just executed, either by accident or by design, the most masterful media rollout in the history of presidential campaigns (or at least since I started paying attention). He's got Oprah. He's got star power. He Sister Souljah'd this site. He's tied for the lead in the latest dkos straw poll. He's got more "friends" on MySpace than any other politician.
• 2. John Edwards: "Benefitted greatly by Feingold's departure from the race, picking up a significant chunk of netroots support (tops in the latest straw poll, in fact). He is the "labor candidate", though we saw how well that worked out for Gephardt in 2004. Had a primary schedule that was made for him until Obama got in the picture, but is still pretty good nonetheless."
• 3. Hillary Clinton: "You know the arguments -- she has the money, she has the name ID, she has the top consultants, yadda yadda yadda. Fact is, she didn't want to enter this race this quickly, yet Obama has tipped her hand. Now, it's a race for Team Clinton to figure out how to take back some of that media thunder in which Obama is basking. She was supposed to be the rock star in this race, yet she's been pushed aside for the new kid."

Kos ranks the rest of the field: 4. Wesley Clark, 5. Bill Richardson, 6. John Kerry, 7. Evan Bayh, 8. Joe Biden, 9. Tom Vilsack, 10. Chris Dodd, and 11. Mike Gravel.

BAYH: What Is Populist For 'No Chance'

TAPPED's Ezra Klein picks up on The New Republicreports of Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-IN) role in '01 Bankruptcy Reform Bill and writes: "But forget merely voting for their reprehensible bill, Bayh even voted against any amendments to soften its reach or mitigate its harm. Now, as he suits up for a presidential run, he's relearning the language of populism."

KUCINICH: Progressive Wanted

MyDD's Chris Bowers links to Cleveland Plain Dealerreports that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) might run and writes: "I don't think he was exactly a very effective spokesperson for the left-wing of the party last time, but progressives are not exactly in abundance among the current crop of candidates. Still, I think his platform would have done a lot, lot better in 2004 if there was a more impressive candidate - even another member of the house - running on it."

OBAMA: He's A Lover Not Fighter

Pamela on Politics's reports Obama is "scheduled to chat sometime tomorrow with Whip-elect James Clyburn. That's a move that could signal he wants the third most powerful man in the House to welcome him to the second primary state with open arms." Gentry adds: "In September, Obama wasn't running when I asked him about the matter after the Iowa steak fry. It seems that the answer is morphing into a 'yes.'"

Reaction to MyDD's Chris Bowers 12/4 post on Obama's New York mag interview continues. Digby writes: "It's so disheartening to see someone we hope will be a brilliant leader make the mistake of running against the Party just when it is finding a new sense of unity." Digby goes on to recount ex-Pres. Bill Clinton's Sister Souljah moment and comments: "It became, however, a matter of conventional wisdom that Democrats needed to distance themselves from their "special interests" and liberal base in order to win elections. ... Why would you run from them just when the other side's consensus is starting to fray? It's far more politically useful to present them to the public as the average people they really are. We're all just like you -- regular everyday citizens who believe that the country needs a new direction."

Daily Kos spin off Street Prophets is more forgiving of Obama's words: "Everybody seems to think that Much has been made of Obama's affinity for "third way" politics in the style of Joe Lieberman or Jim Wallis. There is some of that here, but we shouldn't mistake Obama for a simple triangulator like Bill Clinton. ... Obama believes that the current political logjam can be broken by repairing the discourse that created it. That, I may need to spell out, is a very Christian line of thought. Obama is going to drive progressives up a wall because they'll be looking for him to take their side in the partisan dogfights, and he's practicing a ministry of reconciliation."

The Huffington Post's David Roberts is one of the netrooters Obama is driving up the wall: "But when he turns to discussion of the issues, the tic emerges. In every case, there are two moldy, entrenched positions, politicized extremes advanced by shrill partisans. In every case, neither of those moldy positions adequately addresses our current realities. He, however, has a clear-eyed, above-the-fray position of his own that synthesizes all the best of both extremes. ... He doesn't dismiss or demonize you. No, no, he understands what motivates your position. He knows where you're coming from. All of you. Everybody. If Bill Clinton felt your pain, Obama does him one better: he thinks your thoughts too."

GOP FIELD: Rudy And McCain Speak To The Base

Captain's Quarters identifies two early '08 winners in ISG reaction. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and ex-NY mayor Rudy Giuliani (R): "At least two presidential aspirants have publicly opposed the Iraq Study Group and its linkage of the situation in Iraq with the Palestinian conflict. Rudy Giuliani called some of the ISG's recommendations "useful", but told Dennis Prager that leaving Iraq would be a "terrible mistake", while John McCain scotched the notion of a regional conference dominated by two terror-supporting states."

Right Wing NewsJohn Hawkins details his unhappiness with the current GOP field for Human Events Online:

• 1) Sen. John McCain: "McCain is probably the single most widely despised Republican on Capitol Hill amongst conservatives in the know. That's because he seems to take particular delight in poking his finger in the eye of other conservatives in order to draw praise from liberals in the press."
• 2) Rudy Giuliani: "Giuliani is not conservative in the least. In fact, he's so ideologically ambiguous that he has more in common with the Democratic contenders than his Republican counterparts on perhaps a majority of issues."
• 3) Mitt Romney: "Although he is the outgoing governor of the very liberal state of Massachusetts and was named as one of the Top 10 RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) less than a year ago in HUMAN EVENTS, he's not as liberal as he might appear at first glance."

IA's Krusty Konservative takes a detailed look at the Romney and McCain operations in IA and notices a similarity: "The one thing that I find odd with both the Romney and McCain kampaigns is that they both have yet to fill the position of kampaign manager, yet they both have hired field staff and other positions. ... This type of bottom up strategy might lead to problems down the road for each kampaign."

GINGRICH: Run Already!

The Corner's Jonah Goldberg reports the DC GOP holiday party circuit is filled with pro-Newt Gingrich buzz. The Corner's Mona Charen echoes Goldberg's sentiments writing: "I spoke to a prominent Washington conservative over the weekend who is intimately familiar with Newt's problems, but confessed that nonetheless she is drawn to him now. He is so articulate and mentally nimble, and well, after six years of a verbally challenged leader."

Goldberg, however, notes his patience with Gingrich is running thin: "[i]f he's going to run for President, he needs to run for President. The game he's playing now is smart if he has no intention to run because it gives him a bigger megaphone. But if he wants to be elected President, his reluctant statesman act is foolish and self-indulgent beyond words - in my opinion."

ROMNEY: Is The Drudge Primary Over?

IA's Caucus Cooler reax to reports Team Romney hires BC '04 research director Matt Rhoades: "He was largely responsible for bc04's tremendous rapid response team as well as the anti-Kerry research. Most importantly he has a good relationship with Matt Drudge, who was already expected to be relatively hostile to McCain."

UNITY '08: When Sam Waterston Attacks

MyDD's Jonathan Singer takes issue with Law & Order's Sam Waterston's endorsement of Unity '08: "If I understand correctly, the assumption is that bipartisanship is in and of itself an end rather than a means, that America would be best served if the politicians could simply give up on their party allegiance and instead dedicate themselves to principle and compromise. .... Bipartisanship, however, is not a panacea. ... Both the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, the two examples of crowding out views that do not conform with leading opinion, occurred at times of bipartisanship."

Singer goes on to explain why he juxtaposed Waterston's Unity '08 message with his SNL spoof on robot insurance for the elderly: "Here, he brings up a number of things Americans dislike about their political system, including the mudslinging, the high cost of elections and the avoidance of issues (a claim I would take issue with, but that's a rant for another day...). As a solution to these ills Waterston suggests bipartisanship, explaining that he has met with the founders of the movement and is convinced that they can rise above these problems and usher in a better type of politics. There is little explanation of how, exactly, they will achieve this, but that is no matter. People trust Jack McCoy so they will trust the actor who portrays him, Sam Waterston. They will buy Unity08, just as they bought robot insurance."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: PoorGirl15

Matthew Yglesias comments on a Wired article showing that while popular, the creators of YouTube sensation LonelyGirl15 failed to make a lot of money of the enterprise:

To me, at least, this is the real moral of the story. Peer-production of digital media probably will produce a fair quantity of awesome popular stuff lurking amidst the vast pool of dreck. And well-designed services will let the awesome stuff rise to the top and the dreck fade to the background, rendering those services awesome and popular. But -- and here's the rub -- having something awesome and popular just may not prove to be especially lucrative. In the past, a popular television show or a popular album or a popular film or a popular distribution channel guaranteed you vast sums of money. In the future, that just may not be the case. The very most popular things will generate some income, enough to live off of and continue financing new projects, but not the sort of gigantic windfalls associated with 20th century media hits. And lots of other things -- including reasonably popular ones -- will only generate trivial levels of income. And they'll continue to be made. Made by people who think its fun, or who derive some benefit from their work other than direct monetary income.

LEST WE FORGET: Katherine Harris Was Funny

Extreme Mortman offers up his Top Ten funniest political moments of the year

• 1) The year opens with a bang. The opening of lawyer hunting season is ceremoniously marked when Dick Cheney shoots Harry Whittington.
• 2) Cynthia McKinney hurls a cell phone at a Capitol Police officer. The cell phone is swiftly wrestled to the floor and detained for questioning.
• 3) Jack Abramoff wears black hat, black coat to court. The disguise doesn't help. Everyone notices him except for a traveling band of Chasidim.
• 4) Court documents show Rep. William Jefferson kept $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer. Federal investigators still pouring over boxes and boxes of frozen pizzas.
• 5) Wonkette puts this one best: "The front page of Tom DeLay's legal defense fund website. The featured clip is Stephen Colbert's interview with Robert Greenwald, director of an anti-DeLay documentary. The DeLay team, in a mass email, claims that Colbert 'cracks the story on real motivations behind the movie,' presumably with questions like 'Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?' which really get to the heart of Greenwald's nefarious secret agenda. Stephen Colbert? Very probably funny. Tom DeLay? Hysterical."
• 6) Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson sue for "gross invasion of privacy." Makes sense. After all, a cornerstone of the Wilson-Plame family is the sacrosanct value of privacy. They really hate publicity.
• 7) Katherine Harris runs for Senate. Her campaign highlight is one perfectly-positioned blanket.
• 8) Borat make benefit glorious press conference in Washington outside Kazakhstan embassy - then leads two dozen reporters on pied piper-style march to glorious White House benefit.
• 9) President Bush - both of them - gets big laughs at the White House Correspondents Association dinner.
• 10) Fights breaking out in other countries' parliaments are always hilarious. This year we were treated to an actual food fight - or at least one legislator in Taiwan chewing over a proposal on opening direct transport links with China.

Posted by Conn Carroll at December 7, 2006 12:31 PM