June 08, 2007

6/8: We Can Dream, Can't We?

With John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani exchanging barbs with each other instead of their actual primary opponents, some bloggers are wondering if it wouldn't be better to have candidates from different parties square off in deabtes instead of (or in addition to) the Dem v. Dem and GOP v. GOP contests we've always had. Since electability is a reasonable issue for many primary voters (see a pre-arrest Eric Alterman make the case here) wouldn't GOP vs. Dem debates help many voters decide who they feel would make the best case for their party?

DEM FIELD: Dems Not A Dime A Dozen

Noting the "markets such as this have a legendary accuracy in predicting the outcome of elections" Daily Kos' Devilstower looks at the current state of the Iowa Electronic MarketsPresidential Nomination Market : "Over on the Democratic side of the nomination market, shares of Hillary [Clinton] top the board at 49 cents -- that's a very high number for a market with this many candidates. [Barack] Obama follows with a respectable 30 cents, and [John] Edwards is way back at only 7 cents. Edwards supporters are apparently far more common on Daily Kos than they are at the IEM. The Rest of Field token on the Democratic side is at 11 cents."

CLINTON: Bad Company

Team Clinton, not Hillary herself, is drawing the lions share of netroots criticism this week. Spurred by a 6/5 New York Times story on labor complaints about Clinton pollster Mark Penn's PR firm efforts to block union organizing drives, HRC and Penn told Marc Ambinder that Penn, "will cede all oversight responsibilities for his company's labor relations clients to other managers." The netroots are not buying the distinction. The Nation's Ari Berman blogs: "Penn's 'recusal must thus be seen as a classic case of PR spin; a phony gesture that fails to address the underlying problems or the reasons prominent labor leaders are upset with Clinton's campaign."

Matthew Yglesias agrees: "So, in short, Penn and Clinton are promising that in response to labor's complaints they're going to . . . keep doing all the same things. He'll still be profiting from his firm's union-busting work. ... A Clinton administration, like the Clinton campaign, would doubtless be pro-union in a whole variety of ways. Clearly, though, she doesn't really have her heart in it."

Also critical of those close to Clinton, AMERICABlog's John Aravosis buys Bob Shrum claims that Bill Clinton advised John Kerry to support "the anti-gay amendment to the US Constitution that would have banned gay marriage and vitiated scores of other rights that gay couples may have" and comments: "There's already a growing concern in the gay community that Senator Clinton, while "good on paper" on gay issues - and once considered remarkably good personally - will throw us under the bus if and when she becomes president."

CLINTON II: Edwards Got A Haircut?

IA Independent reports of Clinton campaign polling in IA are unsettling already suspicious netrooters. Jason Eness-Potter recounts a 5/25 phone call he got testing pro-Clinton and anti-Obama/Edwards messages. Questions included:

• "As an Iowan, do you feel that Iowa's role in the caucuses is very important or 'a silly waste of time?'
• "During Bill Clinton's administration, the Clintons helped to create 100,000 jobs in Iowa. After hearing this, is your opinion of Sen. Clinton higher or lower?"
• "Sen. Obama boasts of his consistent opposition to the war, but he has contradicted himself by voting for appropriation bills to fund it. Does this make you approve of Sen. Obama more or less?"
• And on Edwards, the subject was, predictably, about his $400 haircut a month or so ago.

Swopa at firedoglake comments: "Sounds like Hillary's trying to figure out the fastest way to flame out of the 2008 campaign. ... From the sound of these polls she's running, it seems like Clinton hasn't figured out that communicating a clear sense of what she'd do if she was President isn't just the most idealistic way to run, it's the most practical."

DODD: Doddmania Is Back!

Chris Dodd utilized Senate Cmt. passage of the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act to push for support of his Restoring the Constitution Act at The Huffington Post. Dodd blogs: "My father served as Executive Trial Counsel under Chief Prosecutor and Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals ... one of the saddest days in my 26-year career in the Senate occurred last fall when the Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), allowing evidence obtained through torture to be admitted into evidence, denying individuals the right to counsel, the right to invoke the Geneva Conventions. ... America can lead again, but we must restore our moral authority. That is why I introduced the Restoring the Constitution Act (RCA)."

Daily Kos' mcjoan is on board: "The evisceration of the Constitution lays at the heart of every egregious wrong we've seen done by this administration in the past six years. It's difficult to overstate the importance of what Dodd is attempting with this legislation. There really is no greater cause for the rule of law, for our liberty, for the basis of our very government." Atrios proclaims: "Doddmania ... Glad to see someone actually cares about that constitution."

EDWARDS: All The Right Enemies

John Edwards attacks on Rudy Giuliani and Pres. Bush are faring much better among the netroots than his 6/3 jabs at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their belated votes against the latest Iraq supplemental bill. TPM Cafe's Greg Sargent enjoyed this quote from Edwards 6/7 press conference in New York, NY: "If Mayor Giuliani believes that what President Bush has done is good, and wants to embrace it and run a campaign for the Presidency saying, 'I will give you four more years of what this president has given you,' then he's allowed to do that. He'll never be elected President of the United States, but he's allowed to do that."

Matthew Yglesias also enjoyed the anti-bush focus: "My favorite part, though, is really just the opening line: 'There is no question that America is less safe today because of the president's War on Terror Doctrine.' ... obviously, that's not a strategy, but by simultaneously rejecting the war on terror conceptual framework and the notion that Bush's policies have been successful, Edwards is signaling that he's open to running a foreign policy that's different from Bush's in broad, strategic terms. Hillary Clinton, by breaking the other way on both of those questions in the most recent debate, did the reverse."

Also helping Edwards out in the right enemies department: Bob Novak. David Sirota blogs: "Bob Novak resorts to using his entire column to attack John Edwards for having the nerve to alienate the Washington Democratic Establishment by -- gasp! -- being a populist. Making the kinds of enemies who become so desperate that they run to an archconservative Republican columnist to vent their anger is a good sign that a Democratic presidential candidate is doing something right." Firedoglake's TeddySanFran adds: "I don't know if you've chosen a Presidential candidate for 2008 (I have) but could you do worse than to choose the one opposed by Bob Shrum?and James Carville?and Robert Novak?"

OBAMA: Obama Vs. Gore

MyDD's WVaBlue asks readers for advice on how to derail Barack Obama's coal liquefaction bill. WVaBlue blogs: "As Al Gore denounced it, we asked everyone to call the bill's co-sponosors (including Obama) and express their displeasure ... What's the best way to go about this? Target the sponsors? Target committee members? This is one of those situations where the support (with a well funded coal industry lobby) is well organized and the opposition diffuse (though passionate)."

OBAMA II: Keep Workin' My Way Back To You Babe

Andrew Sullivan seems to be a fan of Obama's rhetoric on urban poverty blogging, "Obama's speech/sermon at Hampton University was about much more - an outline for a presidency focused in part on urban isolation and despair. Notice the conservative pitch for a liberal policy. Obama focuses on young children and ex-offenders. His big government programs are all geared toward fostering conservative social behavior and opportunity. Who does this remind me of? George W. Bush, of course. The rhetoric at least. Perhaps the true legacy for compassionate conservatism will be in the Democratic Party."

Also praising Obama, AMERICABLog's John Aravosis picks up on Jake Tapper's crowning Obama as the winner "in the race between Democratic presidential candidates to be first to criticize the Bush administration's appointment of Dr. Jim Holsinger to be surgeon general." Aravosis comments: "Obama is expressing concerns about Bush's choice of an anti-gay bigot, who thinks being gay is something you can "cure," as our next Surgeon General. As he, Dodd, and Hillary are on the committee that needs to confirm this guy, this is important."

GILMORE: Whiner In Chief

Jim Gilmore came away with no positive reviews from his 6/7 American Spectator Newsmaker Breakfast. AmSpec Blog's Philip Klein blogs: "The problem with Gilmore was that he spent much of his opening remarks complaining about how he wasn't given enough time to speak in the debates, but here he was, with a room full of journalists all to himself, and he was harping on his lack of speaking time. But I don't think it's just a matter of time, it's a matter of making the best out of the time allotted to you. According to this clock, Mike Huckabee only got to speak for 49 seconds more than Gilmore, and yet most people agree that Huckabee had an impact."

GIULIANI: If You're Gonna' Skip IA ...

Random Rudy Giuliani blogging thoughts include:

• a Corner reader on Giuliani skipping the Ames, IA, straw poll: "Also I feel the need to point out that Rudy's campaign said they still plan to compete in the caucuses in January. If 'Iowa specific issues' were going to cause him not to compete in the straw poll in August, it would stand to reason that 'Iowa specific issues' would keep Rudy from competing in the caucuses in January as well. This clearly isn't the case. There are other reasons why he's skipping the straw poll."
• AmSpecBlog's Philip Klein on Giuliani's impending health care plan: "I'll be interested in seeing the plan once it gets fleshed out, but broadly speaking, I like the approach, and that's based on my personal experience. ... Politically speaking, healthcare is an area where Giuliani has a huge opportunity to outflank Romney from the right as the campaign goes on.
• and Andrew Sullivan seconds Ben Affleck's cogent case that Giuliani is, in fact, a fascist.

MCCAIN: Maybe He Should Stop Calling Conservatives Racists

RedState's Erick Erickson make the case John McCain did better in 6/5's debate than most conservatives claim: "I disagree with McCain on the Immigration Bill, but I think his comments, following Tancredo's veiled xenophobia, were right on the money. Make no mistake about it, were Tom Tancredo President of the United States, Dora the Explorer would be deported."

Most conservatives, however, are still trumpeting the demise of McCain's campaign. Townhall's Hugh Hewitt highlights WaPo's 6/7 story McCain staffers defecting to Fred Thompson and comments: "Thompson won't be the only beneficiary of the collapsing McCain campaign. Some of the money folks and much of the grassroots will have noticed Romney's momentum as well, and as the disembarkation begins, many will head straight to the Iowa frontrunner."

Also tracking McCain defections, SC's Daily Chaser posts the text of Aiken County Chair David Nix's resignation from Team McCain: "Please consider this my resignation as Aiken County chair for McCain. I am too far from him on the Amnesty Bill. I was hopeful that he could keep his nose clean this time around, but he can't read the pulse of the American citizens."

ROMNEY: Romney Derangement Syndrome

The Brody File flags a Mitt Romney exchange in Concord, NH, that may worry some social conservatives. Responding to a gay mother's question on the validity of her family Romney said: "There are other ways to raise kids that's fine: single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids. That's the American way, to have people have their freedom of choice." A John McCain aide emailed to attack Romney: "It looks like Romney's willingness to say anything was on display yesterday in New Hampshire where he endorsed gay couples raising children."

Andrew Sullivan comments: "Mitt Romney blurts out his real views in New Hampshire. He's really got to watch that. The Christianists are getting pissy." Also unhappy with Romney, Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall blogs: "This guy really rubs me the wrong way. ... Romney seems so transparently phoney, so willing to say anything that I find him genuinely frightening. ... Romney seems almost like a caricature of the political phoney. ... I feel it to an extent with Bush, though nothing like I do with Romney."

F. THOMPSON: Silly Math

NY Sun's Ryan Sager does the math on the early outcome of ImWithFred.com fundraising efforts: "In 48 hours since the Web site launch (with no paid advertising, or pre-oorganized push by donor operation): 29,463 registered supporters; $352,323.00 in donations; 3,360 contributors; Or: $7,340 an hour. If they could keep that up for a month (just as an admittedly silly mathematical exercise), they'd have $5.3 million by early July."

In not-so-positve Thompson blogging, Race 4 '08s Kavon W. Nikrad posts video of Thompson's 6/5 Fox appearance and asks: "Does Fred Thompson hold the 'Jim Gilmore Position' on abortion? Namely, that he opposes Roe but does not support the criminalization of abortion at the state level in the first trimester?

IMMIGRATION: They Have Not Yet Begun To Fight

Conservatives are under no allusion that 6/7 cloture vote victory is the end of the immigration fight in the senate. The Corner's Kathryn Jean Lopez writes: "First, yes, the victory yesterday - a product of tireless efforts by a handful of conservative Senators and staff - is a nice pause in this debacle. But I am afraid that is all it may be... the White House is still 100% committed to getting this bill passed. ... Conservatives should note precisely which Senators were with us on defeating cloture and compare that to how Senators may change if the bill comes back... in other words, we should make sure we know which Senators are bought-off if the White House does what we believe they will." Kausfiles adds: "Of course, the bill isn't dead. Just resting. There will be an instinctive, goo goo guilt-tripping MSM effort to induce its revival. ... It could well come back. This is no time for gloating."

Many on the right were eager to recognize and reward those who stood with them. Right Wing News urges, "Conservative Foes Of Amnesty Should Be Magnanimous In Victory ... Furthermore, I think it's important to take a "carrot and stick" approach with politicians." The Corner's Lopez reports that in the end Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) "stood up for conservatives" and "their right to offer amendments" contrary to "Graham, McCain, Martinez, and Specter" who "all told the GOP senators to stuff it." RedState's Leon Wolf urges readers to show their thanks by popping checks in the mail to Sens. John Sununu (R-NH), Gordon Smith (R-OR), and Susan Collins (R-ME).

McCain drew the lion's share of conservative ire. Townhall's Dean Barnett writes: "And what is the media reward to the Republican Party for this insanely misguided misadventure? MSNBC.com now leads with the headline, "Bush-backed immigration bill stalls in Senate." Thank you Senator McCain for so courageously once again reaching across the aisle and getting your party yet another stick in the eye." Michelle Malkin adds: "If Lindsay Graham and John McCain think their abominable behavior is going to be forgotten, they better think again."

On the left Ezra Klein blogs: "It's worth noting, too, that this is a huge defeat for the White House, and proof positive that they utterly lack capital in Congress. Bush's power over his party is insignificant now, and he is, as officially as can be, a lame duck." And Atrios says he is not sad to see the effort die: "The real thing to take away is that much of the "bad" is bad that Michelle, Lou, and I can all agree on. It isn't in there because it appeals to Republican/conservative voters, it's there because it appeals to elite business interests. A guest worker program without any path to citizenship will just lead to lots of people entering the country legally and then overstaying their visas."

And for those of you keeping score at home, Netroots favs Sen. James Webb (D-VA) and Jon Tester (D-MT) both voted with the GOP against cloture.

PROSECUTOR PURGE: The Long And Winding Rove

TalkingPointsMemo's Josh Marshall writes about AL atty Dana Jill Simpson (R), who swore in an affidavit that in '02, a close associate of Karl Rove claimed that Rove had told him that he had gotten the DoJ to investigate then-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) "and that he was sure the investigation would eventually take Siegelman out of politics."

Marshall, on the WH and DoJ refusing to answer questions about the issue: "In the context, I don't think that's acceptable. Now, perhaps the issue here is that the Democrats in Washington won't press the issue, and thus the press won't either. And from a political standpoint their position may be understandable, even correct. ... [But] from what I can tell there are real questions about the prosecution and the trial." More Marshall: "So who's going to press this question with the White House and the DOJ? TPM may not be able to get answer but the big papers can. So who is going to ask? Or does this one just get ignored?"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: You Can Act Like A Man

After reading Joe Kleinlatest anti-netroots missive, NRO's David Frum figures out why Klein "is such a special target of left-wing blogger wrath." Frum quotes from Klein: "Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed-especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable." Frum responds:

Sorry Joe: that's whining. In a media age, we who write make public figures of ourselves. We seek a public platform, but the prominence of our platforms carries a price. There will be criticism, and not all of it will be fair. Words will be misconstrued, false stories will be circulated. We've all experienced it. It comes with the territory. ... Just as you say, the left-wing bloggers are fierce, intolerant, and often witless bullies. But remember: bullies prey on weakness. Your quavering, pitiful, "hey cmon you guys, quit it" pleas only invite more pummelling. Be a man! Stop complaining. Stop paying the Danegeld of false compliments to people who don't deserve them. Hit back when you must; otherwise suck it up and keep working.

LEST WE FORGET: Send In The Clowns

The Huffington Post's Gabriel Delahaye is no fan of the "middle-to-upper-middle-class white kids of the world" protesting the G-8 summit in Germany. Linking to news that some of the "motley band of more than 800 protesters" are wearing "fluorescent wigs and clown noses" Delahaye blogs: "I understand the aversion that the Avril Lavignes of the world feel towards globalization and a free-market economy, but the part that I don't get is why they are confused that no one takes them seriously ... Oh, good work. Nothing says "take me seriously, I have important views on the geopolitical situation that need to be heard" like clown costumes.

Posted by Conn Carroll at June 8, 2007 12:31 PM