Monday’s Mini-Report

April 28, 2008

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Barack Obama’s appearance on Fox News still isn’t going over well. Adam Green, a spokesperson for MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Obama, said today, “It was a mistake for Obama to go on FOX’s Sunday show and treat the experience as if it was a real news interview. Democratic politicians need to understand that FOX is a Republican mouthpiece masquerading as a news outlet. When dealing with FOX, you either burn them or they will burn you.”

* On a related note, Josh Marshall had a good item on this, making the case that the appearance was a judgment call, but picking a fight with Wallace wasn’t a viable option.

* This could be interesting: “In the corruption trial of Chicago political fundraiser Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko last week, a federal witness alleged that ‘Rezko discussed efforts among top Republicans, including former White House political director Karl Rove and GOP national committeeman Robert Kjellander,’ to have U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ‘fired to derail a corruption probe.’ Now, according to Newsweek, the House Judiciary Committee ‘intends to investigate the facts and circumstances alleged in this testimony.'”

* On a related note: “Tony Rezko associate Elie Maloof just testified that when he received a grand jury subpoena, Rezko told him not to talk to the feds. Why? ‘The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor,’ Maloof just testified that Rezko told him. What did Rezko mean, prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked. ‘That Patrick Fitzgerald would be terminated and Dennis Hastert will name his replacement. The investigation will be over.'”

* The Clinton campaign is done talking about the Wright controversy. I’m glad, though I think it was a mistake for the campaign to weigh in on this one in the first place.

* Dan Froomkin had a good item on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which he described as “a dispiriting, mostly humorless affair.”

* Antonin Scalia isn’t convinced that torture constitutes punishment. Wow.

* Tim Russert told Howard Dean yesterday that “McCain is tied or beating both Clinton or Obama in most of the national polls.” That’s actually not true.

* For all the complaining I do, I actually love newspapers, and shudder to think what American journalism would be like without them. (Broadcast news just relies on newspaper reporters to do all the heavy lifting.) I mention this because the industry’s numbers continue to tank.

* Amusing: “Vice President Dick Cheney headlined a fundraiser for Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) on Thursday. While Cheney gave some of his standard lines … only a ‘small crowd’ turned out to hear them. A sponsor of the event blamed the low turnout on the lack of a ‘more competitive two-party system.'” I don’t think that’s the right explanation.

* If you missed Bill Moyers’ interview with Jeremiah Wright, Where’s the Outrage posted the video.

* Ackerman 1, Kagan 0.

* Why, exactly, would someone call 911 after seeing two men kissing?

* There’s something deeply comical about this controversy: “It looks like the Pentagon is just in a lesson-learning mood lately. While they’re busily reviewing whether the carefully-orchestrated use of military analysts was improper, the Army is reviewing whether it should have known better than to award a $300 million contract to supply arms to the Afghan security forces to a company run by a 22 year-old. As The New York Times reports, the key lesson seems to be that if a contractor’s price seems too good to be true, then it probably is.”

* This is just starting to get interesting: “House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Monday threatened to subpoena former Attorney General John Ashcroft, a top former Justice Department lawyer and the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney over legal memos justifying the use of harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists.”

* It’s hard to believe this is still ongoing: “Johnson County District Court Judge Stephen Tatum ruled today that prosecutors cannot have the abortion reports they want for their criminal case against Planned Parenthood. The documents are key to District Attorney Phill Kline’s 107-count case against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and its Overland Park clinic, Comprehensive Health, its attorneys have said. But Kline said today that he can proceed with his criminal case against Planned Parenthood even if KDHE doesn’t turn over the reports.”

* And finally, you’ll be pleased to know that the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended four years ago — that is, according to Paul Wolfowitz. I’m curious, if the occupation ended in 2004, how does Wolfowitz describe what we’ve been doing since?

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

The Clinton campaign is done talking about the Wright controversy.

Geeee – think seeing a 30+ point lead evaporate to 9, which the MSM dutifully rounds up to 10 points (while failing to mention anything about the unverifiable count and the voting problems in Obama territory that alienated votes) has anything to do with shillary deciding to make this statement.

She has made similar statements before only to have surrogates do her dirty work and then pouncing it on herself because her surrogates made it an issue.

Do not trust her on this – she will lie and do whatever. America does not want or need a bush-clinton-bush-clinton dynasty in the White House. She cannot win an honest election.

  • Clinton doesn’t really need to talk about Wright anymore. Wright is doing a good enough job keeping himself in the news these days.

  • I think Obama knows exactly what he is doing. He goes on Fox, and Kos and MoveOn critize him, and for a bonus Matt Stoller gets the vapors. So the next time the Gopsters bring out these already-demonized bugaboos, he can just say how they hate him for being such a reasonable fellow. Bolstering his independence from the so-called “Far Left” is just going to help him in the remaining states as well as the General.

    I think the Wright brouhaha is going to work the same way in the end. A lot of pastors around the country are going to talk about Wright and not in the same way as the media.

  • For those of who support Obama and detest Fox, his decision is painful but proper. Transcending the zero-sum politics of the Bush/Clinton/Bush years means talking to those with whom you disagree–however unpleasant and distasteful it might be.

    I guess MoveOn serves a purpose in yet again pointing out Fox’s dishonesty and bad faith. But Obama’s core appeal is that he might manage to end the Rove/Carville politics of perpetual polarization–and you can’t do that unless you’re willing to make some allowance for meeting “the other side” where they are. Compare this to Bush’s perpetual terror of all but the most friendly crowds and journalists. It shows a self-confidence on Obama’s part that will serve him well.

  • Good points, anonymensch

    And after all the crap shillary has thrown at him – talking to FAUX may be the lesser or 2 evils. Faux has not said or used anything against Obama that shillary hasn’t also jumped on – she’s suppose to be a dem, right?

    LOL

    She’s no such thing – just more of the BUSH/CLINTON/BUSH/CLINTON crap tan anonymensch also refers to.

  • Sure – shillary can pretend to take the “high road” now that a pro-Hillary 527 — American Leadership Project — is putting $700,000 into a new Indiana TV ad to lie about Obama and the economy.

    She will come back and do the Wright attack again – she is a liar and will do whatever she can to destroy Obama’s chances in the general.

    That “lady” ain’t no democrat nor progressive.

  • Scalia doesn’t believe that torture constitutes punishment? Where’s the ‘Wow’ in that?

    He’s a member of Opus Dei. They practice corporal mortifcation as a means of transcending their sinful flesh. He probably envies the torture victims their pain and suffering.

  • You know, I don’t like Hillary much of late, but the whole shillary thing gets REALLY old.

    You come off as sounding really stupid when you post that. Just like saying Obamaniacs and Clintonbots. It’s degrading and unnecessary.

    Just sayin’.

    And Timmeh saying something which is not true? Really? Talk about once respecting someone…but that went the way of the Dodo long ago. Timmeh, you suck.

  • Let’s be straight. Obama going on Fox was stupid, out of touch, playing by the old rules, unworthy of him. Did Mark Penn start advising him?

  • * Dan Froomkin had a good item on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which he described as “a dispiriting, mostly humorless affair.”

    How many of those freakin’ things do they have every year? They’re a travesty.

  • Dale, not just a travesty but why are these people PARTYING when American’s are dying? Why does Bush always have that fucking smirk on his mug (and always at the most inappropriate times!!)? WTF!!!

  • You know, I don’t like Hillary much of late, but the whole shillary thing gets REALLY old.

    Just skip past little bear’s posts. Most everyone else does.

  • Kudos to the NY Times for not buying a table at the White House Whorrespondents’ Association dinner this year.

    WTF is right MsJoanne. I guess it’s only wartime when they want it to be wartime.

  • I usually enjoy seeing people’s opinions, Maria. I already skip past most of Mary’s drivel posts, because, well, she’s crazy. They are more of the same and she lost any semblance of integrity long ago. Little bear is a tad, uhm, off, but if you start to skip past everyone who is obnoxious, you don’t get the benefit of the thoughts and ideas of others.

    But there are days I just read CB and scan for some of my fav posters; those whose views I ALWAYS value.

  • Obama made his point through his boycott of FOX News, and it got results when Chris Wallace actually said on the air to his fellow hacks that maybe they’d gone too far in criticizing Barack. It wasn’t much of a bone, but better than nothing. And since Hillary had already appeared there herself, he might have left himself open to the charge of having less courage to enter the lion’s den than she does. Which would be bad as well as untrue.

    Considering that he held his own and vaporized a lot of the garbage….I mean Republican talking points being flung around these days, I vote that overall it was the right tactical decision. And that’s all I have to say about that.

  • She-whom-we-do-not-name is “done” with the Wright controversy because it is about to explode like an atom bomb—and not in the way that she-whom-we-do-not-name would have had it explode. Jeremiah has gone on the offensive, and there are still a good many voters pout there who would “get medieval” on she-whom-we-do-not-name if the slanders continue.

    McPhony’s exploitation of the event will come back to haunt him; his chickens will come home to roost….

  • Jeez, little bear…are you even old enough to vote?

    Why don’t you just break out in a NA NA NA NA NA and be done with it.

  • Obama’s decision to appear on Fox was appropriate. His appearance puts the lie to all the crapola the Fox gasbags spout to their listeners. I have many friends who are nice but deluded people who really believe that Fox is the best news. Seeing Obama and discovering that he’s articulate, personable, and intelligent is an education for them. Next time the Fox whiz kids start whizzing on the truth, there’ll be a little doubt at the back of their minds.

    Allowing Fox to host a debate would have been a mistake – they have far too much control over the conversation in that situation. But Obama’s more than capable of going head-to-head with Wallace and coming out the winner.

  • I like Obama’s proposal to talk to our enemies, like North Korea, Libya, Cuba, and so on, no matter how loathsome they are to us. In that spirit, but reluctantly, I guess it’s okay for him to talk to Faux News.

    But perhaps wear gloves or garlic or something.

  • While I hate Fox, the fact is that many rely on it for “news” and I have to agree with Cmac. I don’t want to justify Fox but it’s there and sometimes you have to do stuff you don’t really like.

    Giving them kudos, as Penn did, is a completely different thing. Obama showing his stuff to an audience (especially if it’s an audience that may contain independents), isn’t a bad thing.

  • I was happy to see Josh post a note on Russert, but what he missed, what I thought was worse, is that Howard Dean agreed with him! What an idiot.

  • Compare this to Bush’s perpetual terror of all but the most friendly crowds and journalists. It shows a self-confidence on Obama’s part that will serve him well.

    Indeed. As someone who takes a back seat to no one with my antipathy toward all things Republican, I think MoveOn and the rest of the BlogLeft Establishment have missed the boat on this one. Sooner or later, we really are going to have to declare a truce if not peace, if we are to get anything done. While any Republican is operating under the Code Napoleon with me at first (presumed guilty until proven innocent), there are a few who pass the test, and eventually we’re going to have to find a way to connect with all the non-wingnuts, to finally drive a stake through the heart of WingnutAmerica (think the kind of grand coalition that eventually defeated Hitler). Obama going on Fox does show he has self-confidence that too many others lack and is willing to go the extra mile to establish some sort of contact with those who can be contacted. Posters here today on other threads have pointed out anecdotal evidence that the strategy works.

    For the LeftBlog Establishment, I would remind these people they have yet to win any races anywhere, so their “experience” is more theoretical than real. Perhaps they should learn there really are times where “engage brain before opening mouth” can be really useful. Right now, as at least one other poster pointed out here, they’ve been “of service” to Obama today in a way I don’t think they intended.

    Personally, I got tired of DKos back in October 2004, and haven’t visited since. I graduated out of the sandbox many years earlier.

  • Scalia’s comments are technically accurate but misleading as all hell. It’s true that under controlling Supreme Court precedent, the Eighth Amendment does not attach until after the defendant has been convicted– because prior to that point he isn’t being “punished.” However, the due process clauses of the Fifth/Fourteenth Amendments do apply to pretrial detainees and generally provide more protections to those detainees than the Eighth provides to convicts. So it certainly is not the case that torturing prisoners would be constitutional; it just happens that it would violate a different amendment than the Eighth.

  • anonymensch said

    and you can’t do that unless you’re willing to make some allowance for meeting “the other side” where they are.

    and therein lies the problem a lot of people have with Obama. “where they (the Right) are” today is so off the charts, their tactics so outrageous, their effort has always been to move so audaciously that normal Americans were stunned into inaction and eventually when it was time to be “bipartisan” and “meet in the middle” the middle would be somewhere between the trusts of the 1920s and Hitler.

    meeting them there is selling the country out. meeting them there so heavily rewards their misdeeds that it only assures that the next time the Repubs are in power it happens again. meeting them there locks in a solid anti-progressivism for generations.

    the people, policies, structures, and (im)morals that Reagan, Gingrich, DeLay, Armey, Bush/Cheney, Scalia, the Neocons, etc. have put in place cannot be accomodated. They must be confronted, corralled and convicted. They must be driven out, dismantled and deposed never to return to these tactics, these anti-American ways again.

    * * *

    On an unrelated subject, they say for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Swan allegedly supported Clinton, little bear of the juvenile, serial, (and ironically) shrill posts supports Obama. just sayin.

  • if you start to skip past everyone who is obnoxious

    But I don’t skip past everyone who is obnoxious. Nor do I find it necessary to read every single poster’s offerings. There’s quite a bit of space in between those two extremes.

  • From the American’s have freedom file:

    Does Mike Huckabee want to be John McCain’s running mate so badly that he would pull some strings to have a young woman fired from her job for having the temerity to hold up a Hillary Clinton sign as the GOP nominee landed in Little Rock?

    Hmmm…a waitress holds a Hillary sign when McCain lands and Mike Huckabee intervenes to get her fired? Read it and weep.

  • Antonin Scalia isn’t convinced that torture constitutes punishment. Wow.

    Antonin Scalia should be impeached for willfully misinterpreting the intent of our founding fathers in this and a thousand other cases. The guy is an enemy of democracy and doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court. The same applies to Thomas, and could apply to the two newest members once they have more of a track record.

  • Why, exactly, would someone call 911 after seeing two men kissing?

    I’m glad the cops chased these young lovers off.
    Course’ I’d feel the same if either had been a gurl.

    Get a room, fellas!
    Some of us are married and likely t’ git jealous.

  • On Sunday, Barack Obama appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and marked an end to the right-wing network’s 772-day “Obama Countdown Clock.” Meanwhile, another clock, this time for Republican John McCain, keeps on ticking. 61 days after accepting his endorsement, the media has not asked – and John McCain has not answered – whether or not he agrees with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of Armageddon.

    For the details, see:
    “McCain-Hagee Armageddon Watch: Day 61.”

  • George McGovern, a Clinton supporter with integrity:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/25/george-mcgovern-still-bac_n_98599.html

    This, however, is not the only similarity McGovern draws between his run for the White House and the current process. In ’72, after he won the California primary and clinched the nomination, McGovern’s Democratic opponents argued that the delegation should have been rewarded on a proportional basis, rather than winner-take-all. It was, McGovern says, a changing of the rules in mid-game that resulted both in the weakening of his campaign and his limping into the convention. Thirty-six years later, he sees parallels with the Clinton campaign’s push to count the results of the non-DNC-sanctioned Florida and Michigan primaries.

    “We can’t overturn those rules now that the counting is over,” he said. “I think Barack didn’t even enter one contest [Michigan]. Those states knew what the rules were, all the candidates knew what the rules were, and to change it now I think is wrong.”

    George ain’t no dead-ender.

  • Obama did a pragmatic thing by appearing on Fox. The uneducated white vote has been heavily leaning towards Hillary and Barack simply went to the fountain where this demographic drinks. He can’t beat McCain until he first unequivocally surpasses Hillary — and he needs high school-only educated whites to do that.

    As far as Scalia not considering torture as punishment, so true. The real punishment is indefinite detainment for the crap admitted to while under torture with no contact with the outside world and no right to legal counsel of any type while in a military kangaroo court. Yes Virginia, there are even worse things than torture being propagated by Bush America.

  • On an unrelated subject, they say for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Swan allegedly supported Clinton, little bear of the juvenile, serial, (and ironically) shrill posts supports Obama. just sayin. — Mark Pencil. @28

    Funny you should say this… For the past few days (a week or more), I’ve been thinking that. gioven the prevailing winds, “our Swan” must have changed his position (from pro-Clinton to pro-Obama) and, to match that, has also changed the fairy tale handle. From J.C Andersen (the Ugly Duckling) to A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh – the bear of very little brain). But, agreed; both are boringly juvenile.

  • 19. little bear said: shillary=bush-clinton-bush-clinton criminal cabal
    So there!

    You didn’t come up with the word shillary, most of us have heard it as a rightwing smear word for more than 15 years. As such, it gets annoying seeing it used here constantly to attack her. Your posts are valuable, but you really should cut back seriously on that particular slur because it still puts many of us into troll-defense-mode regardless of how upset we are currently with her campaign.

  • Funny you should say this… For the past few days (a week or more), I’ve been thinking that. gioven the prevailing winds, “our Swan” must have changed his position (from pro-Clinton to pro-Obama) and, to match that, has also changed the fairy tale handle.

    He’s over at Washington Monthly using the same handle and writing completely, utterly nutso posts now supporting Obama instead of Clinton.

  • Barack needed to go all Bill Clinton on Wallace- out of the gate, kick him in the balls and make him cry like the snivelling yellow-stain journalist he is. But Obama’s too well-heeled for the school-yard bullying. What he needs is an enforcer, someone indirect who he can “plausibly deny/decry” as McCain does.

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