10/16: The Next Van Jones?

Conservative bloggers are buzzing about yesterday's episode of The Glenn Beck Program, during which Beck played a video of WH comm. dir. Anita Dunn citing ex-Chinese leader Mao Zedong as one of her "favorite political philosophers." Dunn later said that she was joking, but most righty bloggers don't believe her. Although Media Matters is defending Dunn, most liberal bloggers aren't commenting on the controversy. The dynamic reminds us of the first week in September, when conservative bloggers joined Beck in going after another WH official, Van Jones, while liberal bloggers generally stayed on the sidelines. Will the right succeed in forcing Dunn from her job, like they did with Jones? Thus far most major newspapers haven't reported on the controversy, but stay tuned...

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (digby, Benen, Orton) are mocking Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for threatening to "kick [MoveOn.org] in the teeth" if the organization continues to criticize his donations from the insurance industry.
• Conservative bloggers (Erickson, Malkin) are blasting ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) for endorsing GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 race.
• Liberal bloggers (Greenwald, Fernholz, Morrill, Ackerman) are blasting the four House GOPers who are accusing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) of trying to plant "spies" within certain House committees.
• Liberal bloggers (Benen, Attaturk) are criticizing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for suggesting that the Dem health care reform legislation might be unconstitutional. Some lefty bloggers are arguing that Grassley could be vulnerable to a challenge from ex-IA First Lady Christie Vilsack (D).
• Liberal bloggers (Dayen, digby) are buzzing about Sen. Mark Pryor's (D-AR) prediction that no Dems would join a GOP-led filibuster of the merged health care bill.
• Liberal bloggers (Yglesias, Drum, Klein) are offering tentative support for Pres. Obama's proposal to give seniors and disabled Americans a one-time payment of $250 to help them get through the recession.
• Conservative bloggers (Lopez, McCarthy, Hinderaker, Liebau, Erickson) remain upset that right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh was dropped from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams.

Note: Blogometer will be taking the day off on Monday, October 19th. We will return on Tuesday, October 20th.

DUNN: Maoists In The White House?

Conservative bloggers are buzzing about Dunn's comments about Mao:

• RedState's Erick Erickson: "[T]hanks to our friend Glenn Beck, we have Anita Dunn on tape declaring her favorite philosopher is Mao -- the Chinese Hitler. Mao led the communist revolution in China and became China's dictatorial and insanely paranoid leader. Hitler sought to exterminate a whole race of citizen. Mao decided to exterminate all of his citizens, or at least significant classes of citizenry, driving many to suicide to avoid ritualistic violence at the hands of Mao's red brigade. [...] How in God's name is it acceptable for the woman in charge of the White House's communications shop to declare Hitler her favorite philosopher? The answer is that it is not. Why then is Mao acceptable?"
• Power Line's Scott Johnson: "In the video below, Dunn cites mass murdering Communist Chairman Mao as one of her two favorite philosophers (the other being Mother Teresa). Delivering this talk in which she cites Mao, Dunn conveys all the charm and personal appeal of Krupskaya. According to Michelle Malkin, Dunn says she was joking (courtesy of Lee Atwater). A great sense of humor: as one can see from the video, that's one more thing Dunn has in common with Krupskaya. What is it with these people?"
• Townhall's Greg Hengler: "At what point does America correlate Obama's friends and associates with him? Why is it that we can discern fakes, phonies and degenerates when choosing our friends but fail to use those principles when choosing the leader of the free world?"
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "You know, when you cite a mass murderer as one of two favorite political philosophers, I think we can tune out your media criticism."

Hot Air's Allahpundit predicts that Dunn will soon lose her WH job: "Don't bother pounding the table about firing her, though: She's already on her way out, which is precisely why the White House's gutless brain trust tasked her with being the attack dog against Fox."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Compromise Is A Two-Way Street

Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias:

"Al From has one of these op-eds where you urge liberals to drop hopes for a public option in the interests of being pragmatic and passing health reform. I sort of agree with this -- reform is worth doing even without a public option. But what these exhortations to practicality always miss is that this is a two-way street. If you think the public option isn't that big a deal and it's not worth spiking health reform over it, then you ought to think that it's not worth spiking health reform in order to kill it either. But here's [CT Sen.] Joe Lieberman not only expressing opposition to a public option, but saying he might filibuster any health reform package that includes a public option.

So far there's been basically no pressure in the media on members who take this position to justify their extreme level of opposition. I get, for example, that [ND Sen.] Kent Conrad supports the Finance Committee version of health care and opposes adding a public option to it. But suppose a public option does get added. Does that suddenly take a vast package of reforms that he played a key role in crafting and turn it into a terrible bill? Why would that be? Surely Conrad is as aware as anyone else in congress that in order to pass a large, complicated health reform bill many senators are going to have to vote 'yes' on a bill that contains some provisions they oppose. After all, the health reform bill contains hundreds of provisions! Are moderate members really so fanatically devoted to the interests of private health insurance companies that they would take a package they otherwise support and kill it purely in order to do the industry's bidding on one point?"

LEST WE FORGET: Millions of Americans Waste Entire F*cking Afternoon

The Huffington Post's Andy Borowitz:

"COLORADO (The Borowitz Report) -- Moments after a little boy who was believed to be in his parents' homemade helium balloon was found safe and sound, millions of Americans came to the realization that they had flushed the entire fucking afternoon down the fucking toilet.

'I watched the entire drama unfold and then it turned out that no drama had unfolded,' said Carol Foyler, 32, of Missoula, Montana. 'I can't tell you how pissed I am at that fucking kid.'

At their Colorado home, the parents of six-year-old Falcon Heene said that they were relieved that their son was all right and that they were pushing forward with their plans to build a giant child-operated flame-throwing robot."