PERRspectives: Media Archives

Media Archives

	Before Badgering Obama, Bret Baier Compared Bush to Lincoln The conservative blogosphere is abuzz over the Bret Baier's contentious interview Wednesday with President Obama. Of course, Baier's repeated interruptions and confrontational tone should come as no surprise. After all, the Fox News hatchet man established his partisan bona fides two years ago in an exclusive interview with President Bush titled, "George W. Bush: Fighting to the Finish." And in that lovefest which Fox News deemed a "historic documentary" (and which is available from Amazon.com for $19.95), Baier compared Bush... more Posted on March 17, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Sick and Tired of the Sick and Tired As the health care reform debate heads into its final days, the Republican opposition is turning on the sick themselves. This week, the right-wing echo chamber blasted an 11 year old boy whose mother passed away due to lack of health insurance. And a day after the conservative blogosphere protested that Obama insurance reform case study Natoma Canfield might yet receive charity from the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, furious Tea Party activists in Washington taunted a man suffering from Parkinson's disease.... more Posted on March 17, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	The Bizarro World of the Bush Torture Apologists With each passing day, the apologists for the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture resemble more and more characters from an episode of Seinfeld. After narrowly escaping a recommendation of disbarment last month, its legal architect John Yoo offered what might be deemed the George Costanza defense: it's not a war crime if you believe it. Now, conservatives on both sides of the Liz Cheney "Al Qaeda 7" smear of the Obama Justice Department have entered Seinfeld's Bizarro World where... more Posted on March 13, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Rove: No Bush War for Democracy in Iraq As millions of Iraqis braved bomb blasts and threats of violence to vote this weekend, voices across the political spectrum in the U.S. praised the democratic elections. But while President Obama announced that "Their participation demonstrates that the Iraqi people have chosen to shape their future through the political process," his conservative opponents claimed vindication for George W. Bush and his war on Saddam. Left out of their narrative, of course, is the inconvenient truth that the United States did... more Posted on March 9, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Rove Book: No Pushback on Iraq WMD My Bad Next week, Karl Rove's memoir Courage and Consequence hits the bookshelves. But as the previews make clear, you won't have to wait until March 9th to appreciate Rove's gift for fiction. According to the AP, his revisionist history claims that "many of the controversies that weakened his presidency were falsehoods perpetuated by political opponents," including the disastrous Hurricane Katrina response he laid at the feet of Democrats Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco. But in one area, the absence of weapons... more Posted on March 3, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	The Tea Party's Taxing Logic Back in September, "10 Lessons for Tea Baggers" documented a set of inescapable truths which the frothing-at-the-mouth followers of the Tea Party movement nevertheless manage to deny. Number one on that list then and now is "President Obama cut your taxes." As Steve Benen related today, the Tea Baggers themselves and their ideological water carriers at the National Review by ignorance or choice refuse to acknowledge that 95% of American households received tax relief courtesy of Barack Obama. A new... more Posted on February 14, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Broder's Palin Worship Revives Stupid Candidate Theory Back in 1999, the New Republic displayed then Governor George W. Bush in a dunce cap to tout its cover story, "Why America Loves Stupid Candidates." Judging by David Broder's fawning paean to Sarah Palin today in the Washington Post, it may be time to debate the stupid candidate thesis again. Ironically, Broder's ode to Palin ("Sarah Palin displays her pitch perfect populism") arrives on the same day that conservative Jonathan Kay warned about the real story coming out of... more Posted on February 11, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	White House Press Corps Slams Gibbs' Palin Joke In case you missed the reaction to Robert Gibbs' lighthearted mockery of Sarah Palin's "telepalmter", the White House press corps has a new rule. NBC's Chuck Todd, who previously defended Palin by declaring, "We've all done notes," protested Wednesday "I was surprised by the stunt myself." In her report, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux groused, "so much for changing the tone." Apparently, for this Democratic White House to jokingly respond to bitter attacks from former (or wannabee) Republican vice presidents is undignified... more Posted on February 10, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	CBS Super Bowl Ads We'd Like to See After refusing in the past to run "controversial" ads from groups such as the United Church of Christ, CBS is reversing course. During its extended Super Bowl coverage on Sunday, the network will air a not-so-subtle anti-abortion message sponsored by Focus on the Family featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. In it, the nation's most famous virgin (if less famed passer) will apparently lecture American women on reproductive rights while joining his mother in discussing his miraculous birth. Now that... more Posted on February 7, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	The Immaculate Convention "I'm mad, I'm really mad," the man said, adding, "It's not the economy. It's the socialist taking over our country." If you thought those words came from one of the 600 faithful breathlessly waiting to hear from Sarah Palin at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, you could be forgiven for your error. Virtually identical in tone and content, that frothing at the mouth anger was instead just one highlight of a McCain-Palin town hall rally in October 2008.... more Posted on February 6, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Palin Abandons Her "Screw Political Correctness" Mantra Last June, soon-to-be ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin praised Michael Reagan, lauding his propensity to "to call it like he sees it, and to screw political correctness that some would expect him to have to adhere to." As she headed out the door six weeks later, Palin promised to be "less politically correct" after her leaving office. Then after the Ft. Hood shootings in November, Palin said "profile away!" because such political correctness "could be our downfall." As it turns out,... more Posted on February 2, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Scott Brown, Fred Thompson and the Authenticity of Trucks In the wake of Scott Brown's landscape changing win in Massachusetts, the clear message to Republicans is "keep on truckin'." As the Boston Globe reports, the green GMC Canyon truck - what the paper deemed Brown's "regular-guy-mobile" featured so prominently in his campaign - is experiencing "a surge of interest" at Bay State dealerships. All of which suggests that with his pickup truck Scott Brown like Fred Thompson before him has perfected the Republican art of ersatz authenticity. The Senate's... more Posted on January 22, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	For GOP and Media, Obstructionism is the New Normal As Massachusetts residents vote in large numbers for a new Senator, 538.com, Pollster.com and other analysts are predicting an upset victory for Republican Scott Brown. If so, the GOP's victory will be double. The Republicans will not only have succeeded in replacing Ted Kennedy and ending the Democrats' 60 vote supermajority, but have already triumphed in redefining their unprecedented obstructionism as the new normal in American politics. And in that, they have been aided and abetted by the press and... more Posted on January 19, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Tim Tebow Turns Super Anti-Abortion Crusader Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow hasn't played a down in the National Football League, but he will nonetheless be a star during the Super Bowl on February 7. That's because the University of Florida quarterback will join his mother in a 30-second Super Bowl ad to deliver an anti-abortion message funded by Focus on the Family. And given the media's fawning coverage so far of Tebow's evangelical fervor, Super Sunday promises to be only the next installment of his pigskin... more Posted on January 17, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Conservatives Put the Hate in Haiti On Monday, January 11, PBS Newshour aired what may have been the most upbeat assessment of the progress in and future prospects for long-suffering Haiti offered in years. That 10 minute segment ("Despite Years of Crushing Poverty, Hope Grows in Haiti") revealed new investment, government improvements and signs of economic life in the Western Hemisphere's most impoverished nation. 24 hours later it lay in ruins. And even then, at the hour of Haiti's greatest need, leading voices of the conservative... more Posted on January 13, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Father Knows Best for Tucker Carlson On Monday, Tucker Carlson to great fanfare launched The Daily Caller, a conservative alternative to The Huffington Post. But even as the first edition featured gay-bashing, rape jokes, mockery of leading Democrats and opinion pieces by Republican Congressmen, analysts wondered whether TDC's $3 million in funding from right-wing money man Foster Friess would influence Carlson's content. But as his past on-air cheerleading for his father Richard's good friend Scooter Libby shows, Tucker Carlson can't only be bought, he can be... more Posted on January 12, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	For Redemption, Tiger Woods Should Become a Republican Fox News anchor Brit Hume is rightly being mocked for suggesting that the road to redemption for a philandering Tiger Woods begins with his conversion to Christianity. But Hume's on-air evangelical fervor doesn't merely show his religious bigotry in general or ignorance towards Buddhists in particular. It also won't work, at least not with his viewers. As Gary Hart and Jim McGreevey among other Democrats learned, being a Christian isn't enough to resurrect a reputation and return to the public... more Posted on January 7, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Rush Limbaugh Praises Blue State Health Care Last week, Republican strategist Kevin Madden chastised President Obama for choosing to vacation in a "foreign place" like Hawaii, concluding "it's much different than being in Texas." Rush Limbaugh, it turns out, couldn't disagree more. The right-wing radio host and avid golfer not only visits the islands every year. After his New Year's Eve scare with chest pains, Limbaugh had nothing but praise for the care he received there. And for good reason: while Hawaii ranks second in state health... more Posted on January 3, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name Conservatives this morning are apoplectic about some of the vile, hate-filled comments generated online in response to the hospitalization of Rush Limbaugh. And rightly so, as a quick glance at Twitter reveals. But before the right-wing faithful rush to condemn liberal hate, they would do well to look in the mirror first. After all, theirs is a movement that in recent months prayed for the death of President Obama and two Democratic Senators. On this point, Rush Limbaugh himself can... more Posted on December 31, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	GOP's Madden Faults Obama for Being from Hawaii For some Republicans, among the sins of this President of the United States is being from one of them. That's the word from GOP strategist and Mitt Romney aide Kevin Madden, who on Wednesday declared that Hawaii "seems like a foreign place." That indictment came in response to a question from CNN's John Roberts regarding the "heat for this president from the Republicans" over the failed Christmas day airliner bomb. (Left unmentioned was the Republican double-standard for the 2001 shoe... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Shoes vs. Underwear: The GOP's Terror Distinction The similarities between failed airplane bombers Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are striking. Each Al Qaeda convert was radicalized in London. Reid and Abdulmutallab were each subdued by fellow passengers after their explosive devices failed to detonate. The two men struck just as the President of the United States was starting his vacation for the Christmas holiday. In each case, the President spoke publicly about the incident only days later. And the Nigerian, just like Reid before him, will... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Lumps of Coal for Time and the New York Times Judging by two articles which appeared in their publications this holiday week, Time and the New York Times won't be getting a visit from Santa. Time's Amy Sullivan predictably stirred up right-wing rage with her just-in-time for the holidays, "No Churchgoing Christmas for the First Family." Meanwhile, David Herszenhorn described the Senate's "new partisan vitriol" in an account which conveniently omitted noting which party was responsible for it. Helping to resurrecting conservative mythmaking about President Obama's faith, Sullivan alerted readers:... more Posted on December 25, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Bipartisanship's Willing Executioners Republicans win, even when they lose. That appears to be the conventional wisdom after the Democrats' crucial victory in the Senate health care vote this weekend. In its wake, media outlets gave credence to John McCain's assertion that thanks to President Obama, Washington is "more partisan" and "more bitterly divided than it's been." That followed the pronouncement of CNN's supposedly moderate Republican analyst David Gergen, who proclaimed the party line vote "a tragedy" since it did not garner a "super... more Posted on December 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Six Degrees of John McCain Last week, Politico ran yet another fawning profile of John McCain, declaring him "critic-in-chief." But whether the ersatz Maverick's motivation runs the gamut from "unresolved anger to concern for his right flank as he seeks re-election to genuine dismay about Obama's agenda," McCain has been at or near the center of almost every domestic political news story over the past week. Call it the Six Degrees of John McCain. Or, perhaps more accurately, the First Degree of John McCain. In... more Posted on December 19, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Cokie Roberts Silent on Palin's "Exotic" Hawaiian Vacation Back in August 2008, ABC analyst Cokie Roberts echoed the McCain campaign's talking points which painted Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and a foreign sounding one at that. As the Obamas vacationed in his home state of Hawaii, Roberts complained: "I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be at Myrtle Beach and if he's... more Posted on December 18, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Perino Forgets Bush Called His War Rhetoric a Mistake As she makes clear with alarming frequency, former Bush press secretary Dana Perino knows very little and seems to remember even less. In 2007, Perino admitted her ignorance of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then three weeks ago, she swept the bloodbath of 9/11 under the rug when she proclaimed, "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term." Now in response to Barack Obama's 60 Minutes interview Sunday, Perino claimed that Obama's suggestion that "President... more Posted on December 16, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	Grading on the Obama Curve Right about now, college students across America must be wishing they had taken all their classes with Professor Barack Obama. After all, if the President is giving himself a B+ for his first year office, those kids would probably all be on the Dean's List. And that's a curve we can believe in. In his defense, Barack Obama had little choice but to inflate his grade when asked by Oprah Winfrey during her "Christmas at the White House" interview Sunday.... more Posted on December 14, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Gitmo Memo and the GOP Love Affair with Leaks Once upon a time (a time coincident with George W. Bush's tenure in the White House), Republicans decried the leaking of classified national security information. After the New York Times revealed his program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA, President Bush deemed it a "a shameful act" that is "helping the enemy." Alas, that was then and this is now. As the publication of the confidential McChrystal report on Afghanistan and now a draft DOJ memo about relocating Gitmo... more Posted on December 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Birther Palin Now Declares Her Family Fair Game During the 2008 campaign, then Senator Barack Obama rushed to Sarah Palin's defense in reaction to the media frenzy over her 17 year old daughter's pregnancy. "Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said, adding: "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president." As it turns out, at least one... more Posted on December 4, 2009 \| Comments (9)

	Republicans Give Thanks for Short Memories Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino's jaw-dropping statement Wednesday that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term" didn't merely serve to confirm President Obama's terrible judgment in appointing her to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. As it turns out, Perino's clumsy whitewashing of the 9/11 attacks is just the latest (if most pathetic) installment of the ongoing GOP project to selectively erase history. From their disaster in Iraq and neglect of Afghanistan to... more Posted on November 26, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Sarah Palin's Willing Objectifiers As Sarah Palin travels the country filling her coffers, the debate rages as to whether the former Alaska Governor is a victim or beneficiary of sexism (or possibly even both). But while her allies and Palin herself have left little doubt where they stand in the wake of the Newsweek cover imbroglio, their words belie a different truth about who's objectifying whom. As many of her biggest supporters appear to admit, if Sarah Palin didn't look like she was still... more Posted on November 20, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Pat Boone and the Right-Wing War on the AARP Back in 2003, Republican leaders praised the AARP for its support of President Bush's unfunded and deeply flawed Medicare prescription benefit. But now that the 40 million member organization has endorsed the House Democrats' health care reform bill, the GOP is declaring war on its one-time ally. Helping lead the attack is an array of industry-funded front groups and their reactionary has-been spokesmen like Pat Boone. Last week, Republican Congressmen Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) implied the nation's... more Posted on November 5, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Media Lament Recession's Impact on the Tragically Rich One week after its devastating documentary ("The Warning") on federal regulator Brooksley Born's unheeded warning in the 1990's about the potential disaster in the offing for the U.S. financial system, on Tuesday the PBS program Frontline aired an episode which portrayed the subsequent recession's harsh impact on the residents of an Upper East Side New York neighborhood. But in focusing on the nouveau pain of the upper-middle class and above, "Close to Home" was hardly breaking new ground. For months,... more Posted on October 29, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Limbaugh Calls Obama a "Man-Child." Again. Rush Limbaugh is like a faulty septic tank, always overflowing and spewing s**t everywhere. In addition to his frequent racist diatribes, Limbaugh's effluence routinely contains such on-air vulgarisms as "grab the ankles" and "bend over." Now, the right-wing radio host has branded President Obama a "man-child." And as it turns out, it's not the first time. Blasting the President on everything from the supposed "war" on Fox News and health care reform to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Afghanistan... more Posted on October 28, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Obama and the Right-Wing "Bull" Market Among the rarely acknowledged truths of American politics is that the U.S. economy in general and the stock market in particular almost always do better under Democratic presidents. Of course, that oversight is no accident, but instead the predictable result of successful mythmaking by the Party of Hoover and its media allies. And so it was this week as the Dow cracked the 10,000 barrier; the same conservative commentariat who blamed Barack Obama for the market's free fall as early... more Posted on October 15, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Forgetting Right-Wing Terrorism at the Atlanta Olympics Conservatives may be having a blast now celebrating America's loss of the 2016 Olympics, but during the 1996 Atlanta games the explosion was literal. Right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb that killed one and injured over 100 people at the Atlanta Olympic Park. But while the Republican echo chamber never forgave Barack Obama for winning the presidency, Rudolph's extremist violence they seem only too eager to forget. That selective amnesia was on full display during Fox News' bashing of... more Posted on October 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	"Going Rogue" by Sarah Palin, Editor's Cut Buoyed by bulk advance purchases by the right-wing faithful, Sarah Palin's upcoming book Going Rogue as expected catapulted to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. That Palin turned to ghostwriter Lynn Vincent, whose past conservatives screeds branded Democrats "treasonous" and lauded the Christian crusader General William Boykin reprimanded by President Bush, is similarly unsurprising. Meanwhile, former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt announced on Friday a Palin presidential run in 2012 "catastrophic" for the GOP. Not because of what's in... more Posted on October 2, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Washington Post Aids GOP in Medicare Role Reversal Story That the elderly of all groups of Americans most strongly oppose President Obama on health care reform shows the success of Republican fear-mongering over supposed Medicare cuts and "death panels". And on Monday, the Washington Post did the GOP a great service in a piece titled, "On Medicare Spending, a Role Reversal." While exploring the impact of projected savings in the program that serves 46 million Americans, the Post left unchallenged the Republicans' laughable claim to be the new protectors... more Posted on September 28, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Will GOP Call for Prosecution of McChrystal Report Leaker? One day after the Washington Post's Bob Woodward published the confidential McChrystal report on Afghanistan, the Politico asked, "Who leaked and why?" But while the article speculates on the identity and motivation of the leaker, one issue - the punishment of Woodward's source for revealing national security documents -remains off the table. Which is a far cry from the 2005 revelations regarding President Bush's illicit program of NSA domestic surveillance, publication of which prompted leading conservatives to call for the... more Posted on September 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Why Right-Wing Hissy Fits Work On Wednesday, the fact checking web site Politifact deemed a "pants on fire" lie the Republican claim that President Obama planned to indoctrinate America's school children in a broadcast next week. On Friday, press secretary Robert Gibbs rightly noted that presidents Reagan and Bush similarly addressed students in speeches which, as Steve Benen pointed out, actually promoted their agendas on taxes and education. Nevertheless, as ABC, the New York Times and Politico tell us, the "school speech backlash builds." All... more Posted on September 4, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Wall Street Journal Debunks GOP Talking Point on Stimulus While the Wall Street Journal editorial page can always be counted on to cheerlead the flat-earth economics of the Republican Party, on occasion the paper's reporters contradict GOP orthodoxy. And so it is today on the subject of the Obama stimulus package. Just one day after Eric Cantor (R-VA) followed the lead of John Boehner and Newt Gingrich in urging the cancellation of the recovery program he deemed a "failure," the Journal's Deborah Solomon reported otherwise in a piece simply... more Posted on September 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	WaPo Cites Blackwater's Krongard on Low CIA Morale One day after Newt Gingrich, no friend of the CIA, called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over his plan to investigate the agency, former Vice President Dick Cheney pronounced he was "offended as hell" by the probe. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported "Ex-Intelligence Officials Cite Low Spirits at CIA." To make its case, the Post turned to one A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard. That would be the same Buzzy Krongard who until recently sat on the advisory board of Blackwater.... more Posted on August 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	CBS News Slams AARP, Promotes Right-Wing ASA Instead As its 2003 support for President Bush's overpriced, unfunded and deeply flawed Medicare prescription benefit showed, the AARP can make some strange political bedfellows. Buti in a segment Monday slamming the 40 million member organization over its role in the current health care reform debate, CBS News made some strange bedfellows of it own. Its content-free coverage of disgruntled AARP members not only helped propagate Republican fear-mongering about mythical cuts to Medicare benefits. As it turns out, CBS essentially aired... more Posted on August 18, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Right-Wing Rage: Recurring Symptom of a Preexisting Condition There's nothing new under the sun, especially when it comes to the frothing at the mouth right-wing rage over health care reform. But thanks to the 24/7 media's transformation of politics into just another form of entertainment, delusional Birthers, deceitful Deathers, raging Teabaggers and town hall intimidators are dominating press coverage of the debate. And it's all a recurring symptom, Rick Perlstein argues in the Washington Post, of a nation in which "crazy is a preexisting condition." In his instant... more Posted on August 15, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Health Scare: When Politics is Entertainment "When politics is just another form of entertainment," I lamented in a presentation on the 2008 campaign last year, "the first thing that suffers is the truth." And so it is with the incendiary health care debate and so much else of what now passes for political discourse in the United States. Bolstered by flame-throwing right-wing media and complicit Republican leaders, the demonstrably false "death panels" myth refuses to die. New polling shows that the town hall festivals of fury... more Posted on August 14, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Press Prostitutes and the Bush Prosecutors Purge The Bush White House was notoriously famous for its purchases of positive press coverage. While columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher pocketed $240,000 and $41,500 to push the Bush line on education and marriage initiatives, paid-for Pentagon pundits took to the airwaves to back the administration on Iraq. But as new documents from the U.S. attorneys purge show, not all friendly coverage came from whores for George W. Bush. As it turns out, Washington Times editor John Solomon and National... more Posted on August 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Selective Amnesia of John McCain Saturday's Wall Street Journal features a fascinating interview with John McCain by editor Stephen Moore. Fascinating, that is, as a study of revisionist history and selective amnesia by both men. While Moore now praises McCain as "one of the lead critics of Obamanomics," in the past the former Club for Growth president groused his organization's members "loathe" McCain. As for the ersatz maverick, McCain blamed the economic crisis and media bias rather than his own serial flip-flopping and miserable campaign... more Posted on August 1, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	ABC's Tapper Slams Obama on Health Care Choice Fresh off revelations he offered disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford kid glove treatment in exchange for an exclusive interview, ABC's Jake Tapper has once again committed journalistic malpractice. The President's pledge to Americans that under his health care proposals "you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan" isn't literally true, Tapper insists, because employers could still change or drop coverage altogether for their workers. Of course, Tapper ignores that employer-provided health care is already disappearing at an... more Posted on July 17, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	CBS News Features Bin Laden Attack Fan Scheuer On Sunday, CBS Evening News featured a segment discussing the twin controversies surrounding the secret CIA program Dick Cheney ordered withheld from Congress and new rumors Attorney General Holder may yet seek a special counsel to investigate some aspects of the Bush administration regime of detainee torture. As its expert on the American intelligence community, CBS trotted former CIA operative Michael Scheuer. That would be the same Michael Scheuer who just two weeks ago proclaimed President Obama doesn't care "about... more Posted on July 13, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	USA Today Misleads on Politics of Stimulus Spending To Disraeli's famous line that "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics," you can add a fourth: USA Today. In an article suggestively titled, "Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08," the paper implied the White House steered stimulus funds to counties that voted for the President. But as USA Today acknowledges, the distribution of the $17 billion in local funding (a small fraction of the overall $787 billion recovery package) is... more Posted on July 9, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Sarah Palin's Greatest Hits Attempting the political equivalent of relaunching the Hindenburg, soon-to-be former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hosted ABC, Fox News, CNN, Time, the AP and other media outlets while fishing Tuesday. But even as she proclaimed of her abrupt resignation, "politically speaking, if I die, I die," Palin reminded Americans once again why she so deserves that fate. By claiming the nonexistent "Department of Law" in Washington would protect her from the kind of ethics woes she encountered in Alaska, Palin demonstrated... more Posted on July 7, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	After Calling Hillary Clinton a Whiner, Palin Blasts Media's "Different Standard" One day after her rambling resignation speech in Wasilla, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was a no-show for July 4th events in her state. But that didn't stop her from issuing yet another statement on Facebook, attacking the media for the "different standard [it] applies for the decisions I make." As it turns out, it is Sarah Palin who is holding herself to a different standard; in March 2008, she slammed Hillary Clinton for whining about her own treatment at the... more Posted on July 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Palin's Lawyer Threatens to Sue Bloggers, Media During her now 10 month-long media victimization campaign, Sarah Palin has time and again displayed her fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment and Americans' free speech rights. Now as she prepares to exit the Alaska Governor's mansion, her confusion - and thin skin - is again on display. On the Fourth of July of all days, Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein issued a warning that his client would bring defamation claims against bloggers and media alike speculating on rumors of... more Posted on July 5, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Washington Times: Social Conservatives Fall from Grace You know things are bad for God's Own Party when the arch-conservative and faithfully Republican Washington Times runs an article proclaiming "social conservatives fall from moral high ground." Declaring "Republicans retreat from values claims," the Times catalogued the damage done to the party of supposed "values voters" by an endless string of scandals extended by John Ensign and Mark Sanford in the past week. For Democratic schadenfreude alone, the Times introduction was worth the price of admission: Social conservatives, the... more Posted on June 25, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Chip Reid and the Spirit of Jeff Gannon Jeff Gannon may no longer be a fixture in the White House briefing room, but his spirit seemingly lives on with CBS reporter Chip Reid. Not, that is, as a male escort, but as an ever more reliable mouthpiece for Republican talking points. During Tuesday's press conference, Reid was quick to echo Fox News' Major Garrett's snide ("What took you so long to say those words?") - and demonstrably false - claim that an "appalled and outraged" President Obama had... more Posted on June 24, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Krauthammer Doctrine In what could be deemed "Colbert's Law," Stephen Colbert in 2006 famously told President Bush, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias." Which is why, according to Washington Post columnist and Fox News regular Charles Krauthammer, Fox did a "great service to the American polity" when "it created an alternate reality." Call it the Krauthammer Doctrine. Last week, the former psychiatrist and Democrat turned iconic conservative flamethrower accepted the 2009 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism by announcing, "There... more Posted on June 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Double Trouble with Letterman and Iran In ways large and small, Americans are reminded almost daily of the wisdom of their rejection of John McCain last November. Now you can add the Iran unrest and the Letterman-Palin flap to the growing list. The same John McCain who in April 2007 sang in jest "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" on Monday scolded President Obama, insisting "I hope we will act." That flashback came just days after McCain, who in 1998 slandered Chelsea Clinton with a vulgar... more Posted on June 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Powerline's Hinderaker Reminds Us of Bush's Genius That President Obama had a very good week seems beyond dispute. His groundbreaking speech in Cairo Thursday was praised worldwide. Meanwhile, NBC's Brian Williams aired a fawning two-hour look inside the Obama White House that the Daily Show rightly compared to an episode of MTV's Real World. But when Newsweek's Evan Thomas described Obama's stratospheric global standing as "sort of God," that was more deification than 2004 Blog of the Year Powerline could stomach. Of course, John Hinderaker's nausea could... more Posted on June 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Liddy, Gingrich, Limbaugh and Supreme Menstruation Back in 1995, Newt Gingrich famously concluded menstruation rendered women unfit for combat roles in the military. Now just two days after Gingrich branded Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "racist," convicted Watergate felon and right-wing radio host G. Gordon Liddy agreed that both of Newt's arguments disqualify Sotomayor. Period. After echoing Tom Tancredo's slander that the National Council of La Raza to which Sotomayor belongs is a "Latino KKK," Liddy Thursday recycled Gingrich's theory of menstrual disqualification: "Let's hope that... more Posted on May 29, 2009 \| Comments (7)

	NY Times, McClatchy Parrot Rosen Attack on Sotomayor's Temperament Earlier this month, George Washington University professor and New Republic legal analyst Jeffrey Rosen turned to anonymous sources in a blistering - and controversial - attack on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's judicial temperament. Now just days after the raging right predictably made Rosen's smears a centerpiece in the battle against Sotomayor, the mainstream media is following their lead. As it turns out, 24 hours after McClatchy claimed, "Sotomayor's take-no-guff demeanor could alter court dynamics," Thursday's New York Times headline announced, "Sotomayor's... more Posted on May 29, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Two Last Words on Obama at Notre Dame From the beginning, the feigned outrage among social conservatives over Barack Obama's invitation to deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame was a political device, a manufactured controversy designed to create a rift between the President and the American Catholic community which overwhelmingly supports him. As the data showed, there was no conflict between Obama and Catholic voters, but perhaps instead a reflection of turmoil within the Church itself. Now that the speech, which Andrew Sullivan deemed "deeply Christian," has... more Posted on May 18, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Palin Fails Second Test on 1st Amendment On Wednesday, former beauty pageant contestant Sarah Palin rushed to the defense of another, proclaiming of Carrie Prejean, "I can relate as a liberal target myself." But by insisting "those who disagree with her deny her protection under the nation's First Amendment Rights," Governor Palin once again revealed her ignorance of the United States Constitution. As it turns out, Palin also failed First Amendment 101 during the 2008 campaign. In a statement released late Wednesday, Palin breathed new life into... more Posted on May 15, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Cohen, Ford and the 1-2-3 Torture Test At the end of the day, evaluating the Bush administration's program of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques is like a three-part exam. Was it legal? Was it moral? Was it uniquely effective? If the answer isn't "yes" to each and every one of those three questions, the Bush regime of detainee torture cannot be justified. Sadly for its defenders, this test isn't graded on a curve and there is no partial credit. And that, in a nutshell, explains why the policy... more Posted on May 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bush was Laughing at You, Not with You That the right-wing blogosphere panned Barack Obama's attempts last night at presidential humor as "lame" and "mean-spirited" comes as no surprise. That conservatives were apoplectic when Wanda Sykes crossed the line in lampooning the Palin family's method failures and likened Rush Limbaugh to a terrorist was even less so. But to conclude that Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner proved "class made an exit with the Bush Administration" is to blissfully ignore President Bush's eight-years of joking at the expense of... more Posted on May 10, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Burned by Roberts, Rosen Smears Sotomayor On Monday, the New Republic's prominent legal analyst Jeffrey Rosen published a rumor-filled assessment of Obama Supreme Court short-lister, Sonia Sotomayor. And by Thursday, as ThinkProgress reported, what Glenn Greenwald deemed Rosen's "anonymous smears" and "a model of shoddy journalism" were being parroted throughout the media. But as to why Rosen took a tabloid approach to evaluating Sotomayor, his motivation may be simple. Jeffrey Rosen may be trying to compensate for his early cheerleading for - and subsequent buyer's remorse... more Posted on May 7, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	One Psychiatrist, Two Psychologists and Torture This was not a proud week for the American mental health profession. On Thursday, ABC News documented the essential role of two $1,000 a day psychologists contracted by the CIA to architect its detainee waterboarding program. And on Friday, Harvard-trained psychiatrist turned right-wing water carrier Charles Krauthammer rationalized the Bush torture regime for his readers in the Washington Post. In the same article in which ABC briefly acknowledged its role in propagating former CIA agent John Kiriakou's misinformation about the... more Posted on May 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	AP Blames Obama for Deficit, Ignores Bush Tax Cuts Last month, I examined how Liz Sidoti, Ron Fournier and other of the Republican bath water drinkers at the Associated Press present conservative opinion pieces to readers using headlines which wrongly begin with the word, "Analysis." Now in an another broadside deceptively titled "Fact Check," the AP pins blame for the federal budget deficit on President-then-Senator Obama and Congressional Democrats. Sadly for the myth making machine that is the AP, long before last fall's bipartisan economic bailout it was President... more Posted on April 29, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Scalia Flips Off Media Again in Decency Case By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court Tuesday upheld new FCC fines against broadcasters who air "fleeting expletives" such as those used in recent years by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie. In his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia as usual missed no opportunity for a skirmish in the culture wars, blasting "foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood." Of course, given his own penchant for flipping off reporters - in a church no less - Scalia could again run afoul of the standard... more Posted on April 29, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Broder Parrots GOP "Criminalizing Politics" Talking Point on Torture As it turns out, there are three certainties in life: death, taxes and David Broder faithfully regurgitating Republican talking points. Given his past fascination with Hillary Clinton's marriage (but not Rudy Giuliani's serial nuptials) and paeans to the trustworthiness of John McCain (but not Barack Obama), it comes as no surprise that Broder Sunday declared calls for the prosecution of potential Bush administration war crimes "an unworthy desire for vengeance." In so doing, Broder became just the latest to parrot... more Posted on April 26, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Defining Political Deviancy Down In 1993, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously warned that American society was "defining deviancy down." To the approval of conservatives, Moynihan cautioned that when it came to crime, family breakdown and other social pathologies, "we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the 'normal' level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard." Now 16 years later, so it is with American political culture. As this week's... more Posted on April 18, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Latest Laffer: Rich Too Smart to Pay Higher Taxes Back in 2004, President Bush rejected John Kerry's plans to roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, arguing, "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." Now five years later, supply side snake oil salesman Arthur Laffer has resurrected the Bush claim. Barack Obama will raise taxes on lower and middle class Americans, Laffer now insists, because the rich are too smart to pay them. That moment of conservative clarity came during Laffer's appearance Saturday... more Posted on April 13, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	From Republican Rhetoric to Right-Wing Terror The slaughter of three Pittsburgh policemen by an assailant who "didn't like our [gun] rights being infringed upon" has again highlighted the growing danger from incendiary Republican rhetoric spawning right-wing terror. After all, just days ago, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced, "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous." Fox News host Glenn Beck warned of a "Constitution under attack" and predicted a coming "civil war" while featuring guests like NRA chief Wayne Lapierre whose group spent millions in 2008... more Posted on April 5, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Phony War on Catholics Barack Obama, in the telling of some Republican leaders and their amen corner in the media, is "declaring war on Catholics." So says former Bush speechwriter turned Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson in parroting the wishful thinking and trumped-up controversy of conservatives in a diatribe this week. Sadly for the right-wing echo chamber, both with their votes and their attitudes on a wide range of social issues, American Catholics are with Barack Obama. The manufactured outrage over Obama's Notre Dame... more Posted on April 4, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Right Denounces Online Tactics It Uses Every Day Across the right-wing blogosphere, red meat reactionary Andrew Breitbart is being hailed as a visionary hero for his call to arms, "online activists on the right, unite!" In his jeremiad, Breitbart warns that a "digital war has broken out, and the conservative movement is losing" and insists the right's "embrace of Judeo-Christian ideals" has prevented it from adopting its opponent's "propaganda techniques that were perfected in godless communist and socialist regimes." Of course, from astroturfing and paid blog commenters to... more Posted on March 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Cocaine Use Back in the News Tabloid rumors are now making the rounds that a supposed friend of vice presidential daughter Ashley Biden is shopping a video alleged to show her using cocaine. But while any gossip (no matter how dubious) regarding the first and second families gone wild is always sure to make the news, this imbroglio is certain to refresh memories of George W. Bush's purported predilection for the white powder. After all, as former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan suggested in his book... more Posted on March 29, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Democrats. Saving American Capitalism Since 1933. Even as President Obama prepared to meet with the CEO's of the nation's largest banks and financial institutions, his detractors' hysteria about his plans to rescue the economy reached a fever pitch. In Washington, GOP leaders decried Obama's "banana republic" budget, only to unveil warmed-over tax cuts certain enrich the wealthiest Americans while accelerating the Reagan-Bush emptying of the Treasury. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal spoke in apocalyptic terms of "civil war" as "Democrats bid business adieu." Of course, forgotten... more Posted on March 27, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	Bush's Answer to Chuck Todd: Go Shopping During President Obama's press conference Tuesday, NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd demonstrated once again why he ought to return to his previous role as a political analyst. Even as Americans are losing their jobs, homes and retirement savings, Todd asked the President "why haven't you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing to participate in this economic recovery?" Of course, Todd only needed to look to Obama's predecessor for another presidential model of sacrifice. Whether the... more Posted on March 25, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	AP Redefines Opinion as "Analysis" If Politico has emerged as the ESPN of politics, covering the game but not the content of government, the Associated Press in recent weeks has delivered another media innovation. Time and again, the AP has delivered opinion pieces to its readers using the headline, "Analysis." But if a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, some of the output of the AP smells like something else altogether. Chief among the op-ed writers masquerading as journalists is Liz Sidoti.... more Posted on March 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	When Presidential Humor Attacks The right-wing blogosphere is predictably abuzz in the wake of President Obama's shockingly insensitive off-the-cuff joke comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics. Following as it did Joe Biden's request at a rally last year that a wheelchair bound man "stand up," Obama's unfortunate appearance with Jay Leno isn't going to help matters for the new White House. Of course, when it comes to thoughtless presidential humor, George W. Bush was the master. As his teasing of children, the blind,... more Posted on March 20, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Van Susteren Joins Carlson with Conflict of Interest This has been a busy week for journalistic conflicts of interest. Over the weekend, former MSNBC host Tucker Carlson blasted Jon Stewart as a "partisan hack," a charge made without noting either his own 2004 bludgeoning at Stewart's hands or his ceaseless advocacy on behalf of Scooter Libby, a man whose legal defense fund was led by Carlson's father Richard. And now comes word that Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, who landed three softball interviews in six months with Alaska... more Posted on March 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Fox News Splices Biden Again in Second Videogate Around the blogosphere, readers were shocked - shocked! - to learn that Fox News had deceptively edited a six-month old video to create the false impression that Vice President Joe Biden believes "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." But while Fox is guilty of ham-handed splicing, it's worth noting that the network is a repeat offender. As it turns out, back in 2005 Bill O'Reilly tortured another Biden clip about U.S. policy at Guantanamo Bay. As Media Matters and... more Posted on March 17, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Cheney Rejects Gore's Model for Ex-VP Decorum One day after Dick Cheney claimed President Obama is making the nation less safe, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs joked that CNN invited the former vice president only because "Rush Limbaugh was busy" and Cheney was "the next most popular member of the Republican cabal" available. But when CBS' Chip Reid protested the "sarcastic" tone towards the ex-VP, he apparently forgot that as vice president Dick Cheney told a sitting United States Senator to "go f**k yourself" on the... more Posted on March 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Meghan McCain's Ass, John McCain's Chelsea Clinton Joke Among the least compelling story lines in the continuing internecine Republican conflict is the war of words between Meghan McCain and Laura Ingraham. After Ingraham dissed as "plus-sized" the presidential candidate's daughter turned blogger, McCain responded by telling her to "kiss my fat ass." When McCain asked on ABC's The View, "What kind of message are we sending young women?" Ingraham used her radio show to advise her, "You're gonna have to deal with people teasing." If Meghan McCain had... more Posted on March 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Looking in Mirror, Carlson Blasts Jon Stewart as Partisan Hack Jon Stewart's demolition Thursday of CNBC's Jim Cramer may pale in importance to Edward R. Murrow's historic 1954 take-down of Joe McCarthy, but those who most likely would have backed the red-baiting Wisconsin Senator are just as unhappy about it. Former MSNBC conservative commentator Tucker Carlson is at the top of that list. Carlson, perhaps still smarting from his own 2004 smackdown by Stewart which helped doom his gig on CNN's Crossfire, blasted the Daily Show host as a "partisan... more Posted on March 15, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	GOP Myths Claim Bush, Not Obama, Inherited a Recession Two days after Americans learned that U.S. household wealth plummeted by a staggering $11 trillion (an 18% drop) in 2008, the Washington Post featured a critique of President Obama's rhetoric attributing the recession to George W. Bush. But while Obama's statement that "by any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster" is inescapably true, his Republican opponents continue to stand truth on its head. It was George W. Bush and not Barack Obama, they falsely maintain, who inherited a... more Posted on March 14, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	The Jon Stewart Effect: When Entertainment is News Some time ago, I did a presentation (video here, slides here) arguing that American politics has been transformed into just another form of entertainment. And that blurring of news, politics and opinion, I contended, posed a grave threat to American democracy as a well-informed citizenry devolved into what Al Gore deemed the "well amused audience." Which is why Jon Stewart's demolition last night of hedge fund manager turned CNBC host Jim Cramer was so important. In an age when news... more Posted on March 13, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Fleischer and Bush Still Peddling 9/11 - Saddam Link On the very day Politico detailed the concerted effort by former Bush aides to resuscitate their boss' moribund legacy, his one-time press secretary Ari Fleischer battled MSNBC's Chris Matthews on the subject of the Iraq war. But while a newly tenacious Matthews turned on a Bush White House he once praised as "good guys," Fleischer at least was consistent. Six years after the invasion of Iraq, Fleischer like President Bush continues to falsely link Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.... more Posted on March 12, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	The Wisdom of Politico: Right Angry with President It Opposed It's not for nothing that Politico is (or should be) known as the ESPN of politics, highlighting the contest but not the content of American democracy. One day after President Obama as promised signed an executive order reversing the draconian Bush restrictions on stem cell research, Politico focused on the grievances and disappointment of hard line social conservatives. Of course, while neglecting to mention that overwhelming majorities of the American people and their representatives in Congress backed President Obama on... more Posted on March 10, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	"George W. Bush is My President." Six weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, a growing chorus of voices among the leaders of the defeated and downtrodden Republican Party is calling for his failure. During a time of war and national economic crisis, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Delay, Michelle Malkin, Johan Goldberg and Rick Santorum are just some of the GOP politicians and pundits urging Americans to cheer against their president and his recovery program. Of course, that hyperpartisanship is a far cry from eight years ago,... more Posted on March 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Last Time the Top Tax Rate was 39%... The last time the top income tax rate was 39%, the United States enjoyed a booming economy, rising incomes, low unemployment and expanding budget surpluses. Unfortunately, that simple truth has been ignored by Republican propagandists and mainstream media alike during the debate over President Obama's stimulus plan and budget proposal. In his budget, Barack Obama has basically called for the status quo ante Bush when it comes to the taxes paid by upper income Americans. By letting the 2001 Bush... more Posted on March 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP and the Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat As the beaten and battered conservative faithful gather at the CPAC event in Washington, casual incitements to violence against the President, Democratic leaders and liberal Americans once again are filling the air. While former UN ambassador John Bolton produced guffaws with the specter of Obama's hometown being destroyed in a terrorist attack, Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher earnestly suggested some members of Congress should be shot. Meanwhile readers of the web site of Fox News host Sean Hannity voted on "what... more Posted on February 27, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	WSJ's Stephen Moore Accuses Obama of "Fiscal Child Abuse" No doubt, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's disastrous Republican response to President Obama's address to Congress will go down as one of the more bizarre episodes in American political oratory. But perhaps even more disturbing and dishonest was the charge by the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore that Obama's $787 billion economy recovery package constituted "fiscal child abuse." As it turns out, Moore has been hurling that same slander for at least a decade, all the while ignoring the endless sea... more Posted on February 25, 2009 \| Comments (14)

	Gerson and Kudlow Laud Recession as Economic Enema The recession is good for you. At least, according to former Bush speechwriter turned Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson. Praising the "recession's hidden virtues," Gerson on Sunday reassured Americans that their financial hardships may be a boon to their physical health and personal morality, all while helping foster cultural renewal. As it turns out, Gerson is just following in the footsteps of Reagan adviser and CNBC host Larry Kudlow, who last April lauded the "cleansing" and "therapeutic" effects of recession... more Posted on February 23, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	CBS Falsely Portrays Stanford as Democratic Bagman On Wednesday, federal authorities reported they did not know the whereabouts of Texas banker and scammer Allen Stanford. But what we do know for certain about the financier whose frauds may yet rival the $50 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme is that he donated generously to both political parties in Washington. Of course, that would be news to viewers of CBS Evening News. Because while Stanford gave early and often to Texas Republicans John Cornyn, Tom Delay and George W. Bush,... more Posted on February 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	"Unless Otherwise Directed" in Iraq Plugging his new book The Gamble on the Iraq surge, the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks offers a jaw-dropping account of the critical decision to pay off Sunni insurgents. Contrary to George W. Bush's "decider" myth, it was David Petraeus who simply informed the President of that defining change in tactics the General implemented on his own in 2006. As it turns out, from Paul Bremer's catastrophic disbanding of the Iraqi army in 2003 to key elements of the surge itself,... more Posted on February 11, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Tentative Stimulus Deal Confirms Krugman's Law As I noted earlier, the Senate has apparently reached a $780 billion compromise stimulus package after supposed moderates amputated over $100 billion in funding for health care, education and other vital initiatives. While many of my liberal allies disagree with my assessment that President Obama got rolled by bringing a knife to a gun fight with Congressional Republicans, it's hard to disagree with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's January 5th prediction of what would come to pass. Call it... more Posted on February 6, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Mocking Obama, Right Lauds Bush as Abraham Lincoln With Barack Obama's inauguration just days away, the conservative commentariat is outraged about comparisons between the 44th president and the 16th, Abraham Lincoln. The true successor to the Great Emancipator, the right-wing noise machine continues to insist, is George W. Bush. And as it turns out, no one has made that comical analogy more frequently - or forcefully - than Bush himself. Over at CQ, guest columnist Richard Connor is just the latest to echo the right-wing line that "history... more Posted on January 15, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	DOJ to Prosecute New York Times over NSA Story? In a Newsweek exclusive three week ago, former Justice Department official Thomas Tamm revealed his role in helping the New York Times make public President Bush's program of illegal domestic surveillance. Now Salon's Glenn Greenwald has details on the DOJ's efforts to punish the whistleblower. And as it turns out (and as I suggested back in 2007), the Bush administration's ultimate target may be the New York Times itself. As Greenwald spells out today, the Justice Department investigation is not... more Posted on January 7, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Laura Bush Memoir Tops List of Upcoming GOP Books On Monday, the Scribner division of publishing giant Simon & Schuster announced it had signed a book deal with First Lady Laura Bush. While her husband and his former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have each so far failed to secure publishers for their respective memoirs, Laura Bush's "intimate account" of her eight years in the White House is scheduled for release in 2010. As it turns out, the First Lady's memoir is just the first of a torrent of books... more Posted on January 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Crime Pays for Palin Clan Sarah Palin is once again proving that nothing succeeds like failure. Within days of the overwhelming defeat of the McCain/Palin ticket came rumors that the Alaska Governor could reap a $7 million windfall for a book deal. Now just 24 hours after the birth of her son, MSNBC is reporting that the daughter of the abstinence-only sex education Governor stands to earn $300,000 for pictures of her baby. And as it turns out, Bristol Palin can thank the drug arrest... more Posted on December 30, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Bagging Blagojevich or How the Right Learned to Love Patrick Fitzgerald News this morning that U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has indicted Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich predictably brought cheers from the conservative chattering classes. Blagojevich's arrest over the "pay for play" Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama and myriad other jaw-dropping corruption schemes Fitzgerald simply deemed "staggering" led the right-wing Hot Air blog among others to proclaim "Fitzmas arrives early this year." Of course, when the crime was obstruction and perjury over the outing covert CIA operative Valerie Plame as political... more Posted on December 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Obama United Against GOP War on Dogs Harry Truman once famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." For all of his faults, President Bush followed Truman's advice and like his father welcomed man's best friend to the White House. In his interview with Barbara Walters Wednesday, Barack Obama signaled that he, too, wanted a "big rambunctious dog" in his administration. As it turns out, this rare moment of bipartisanship is a welcome relief from the extreme anti-dog agenda of the Republicans who... more Posted on November 27, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The National Review's Nazi Self-Parody As Georgia Congressman Paul Broun learned last week, politicians and pundits of all stripes should resist the temptation to compare their opponents to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Apparently, the staunch conservatives at the National Review didn't get the memo. Facing both conservative calamity at the polls and defections in its own ranks, the Review's Deroy Murdock suggested that a 1930's Nazi-style purge is just what the doctor ordered for the Republican Party. As the New York Times detailed Monday,... more Posted on November 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	To GOP's Dismay, Obama Won Affluent Voters Among the lowlights of the presidential campaign was the bogus charge from John McCain and his Republican allies that Barack Obama's tax plan was "socialist." Ending the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans while providing tax relief for most working families, the GOP's amen corner shrieked, verged on communism. But as the election returns showed, voters were having none of it, including those making over $200,000 year. To the consternation of some on the right, the affluent in 2008... more Posted on November 11, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Complaining Now, Palin Called Hillary Clinton a Whiner If nothing else, Sarah Palin has a short memory. Literally days after branding Barack Obama a "socialist" who "pals around with terrorists," Palin responded to her ticket's crushing defeat by announcing, "God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family." And as she returned to Alaska to complain about the media's accurate reflection of her jaw-dropping ignorance and campaign profligacy, Sarah Palin conveniently forgot having called Hillary Clinton a whiner when it comes to the press. During a Women and Leadership... more Posted on November 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Conservatives Blame Bush Recession on Obama Unsurprisingly, it took less than 24 hours for the conservative chattering classes to blame the Bush recession on President-elect Barack Obama. The usual suspects, including Rush Limbaugh, Fred Barnes and Dick Morris, pinned two days of steep stock market declines on Obama's election. Of course, the recent bloodbath on Wall Street has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with what John McCain deemed "the fundamentals of our economy" being weak. And as history shows time and again,... more Posted on November 7, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Palin, Like Bush in 2000, Duped by Canadian Pranksters Given her Neanderthal social views and staggering ignorance of foreign affairs, it's no surprise that many have dubbed Sarah Palin "George Bush in Lipstick." Now, eight years after a Canadian comic duped then-Governor Bush into accepting the endorsement of a mythical prime minister in Ottawa, John McCain's running mate has suffered a similar fate. In even more spectacularly embarrassing fashion, as it turns out, Sarah Palin was punked by a prank call from a Montreal radio host posing as French... more Posted on November 1, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Defining Moment on Saturday Night Live? Following in the footsteps of his running mate Sarah Palin, Republican John McCain will appear on NBC's Saturday Night Live this weekend. Coming just three days before Americans head to the polls, McCain is hoping a little levity might help reverse his long slump in the polls. Sadly for the supposed maverick, his defining moment on SNL already came four years ago. McCain's most important performance by far on SNL came neither this May nor during his 2002 rendition of... more Posted on October 31, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Joe Klein Latest to Be Ejected from McCain Plane Just three weeks after booting New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd from the campaign plane, Team McCain grounded Time magazine's Joe Klein as well. Apparently, when the going gets tough, John McCain tells the tough to get going. Unable to withstand Klein's documentation of the McCain campaign's descent into the gutter, the Straight Talk Express banished him instead: Campaign spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responded that "we don't allow Daily Kos diarists on board either." Once upon time, Joe Klein lauded John... more Posted on October 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The 2008 Nobel Prizes for Conservatives Coming just 12 months after Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, news that Princeton professor and New York Times economist Paul Krugman garnered the 2008 award for economics once again has some conservatives apoplectic. But while some (for example, here and here) take solace that Krugman was not recognized for his punditry, many rugged individualists on the right remain hopping mad that they never win prizes designed to recognize contributions to, well, the rest of humanity. To once again... more Posted on October 13, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McLovin: Politico's Roger Simon By almost any accounting, the past few days have been calamitous for John McCain. But not according to Roger Simon of the Politico. While McCain's transparently cynical ploy to play hero in the Wall Street bailout drama was widely derided as a stunt, Simon on Thursday insisted "it isn't as dumb or as desperate as it looks." Then as polls revealed American voters saw Barack Obama as the clear winner of Friday's generally even debate, Simon instead announced "the Mac... more Posted on September 27, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Debate Night Cowardice from McCain and Palin Friday's first presidential debate may well be best remembered for the unique combination of cowardice displayed by the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain couldn't look his opponent in the eye during the contest. And unlike Joe Biden, Sarah Palin wouldn't look into television cameras after. McCain's childish refusal to even acknowledge Obama's presence immediately struck commentators doing the event post-mortem. On MSNBC, Richard Wolfe noted that McCain "curiously couldn't look Obama in... more Posted on September 27, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Two Financial Crises, Two McCain Tantrums On Tuesday, paleo-conservative columnist George Will joined Mitt Romney and a long list of Republicans in warning Americans about John McCain's decidedly unpresidential temperament. "Under the pressure of the financial crisis," Will wrote, McCain reacted "furiously." Alas, McCain's rage now is just a repeat of his 1989 temper tantrum as the Keating Five scandal enveloped him during the last U.S. financial meltdown. In a piece titled simply, "McCain Loses His Head," a horrified Will made the case that McCain's out-of-control... more Posted on September 23, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Camp Admits Issues, Truth Don't Matter There's an old saying that "everyone is entitled their own opinion, not their own facts." Not according to John McCain. In the face of an avalanche of criticism across the political spectrum over John McCain's endless lies, distortions and smears, his campaign continues to insist that the truth doesn't matter. For John McCain, facts themselves are subject to debate. The downward trajectory of the McCain, as I predicted months ago, was revealed by campaign chairman Rick Davis' admission two week... more Posted on September 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	ABC's Gibson, The View Ignore Ultra Hard-Line GOP Platform On Friday, ABC's Charles Gibson and its hosts of The View again exposed the differences on abortion and stem cell research between John McCain and his hard-line GOP running mate Sarah Palin. But lost in their interviews is any mention of the 2008 Republican Party platform. As it turns out, that radical document demands far more draconian restrictions than either McCain or Palin will acknowledge. To be sure, John McCain now supports overturning Roe v. Wade, a reversal of his... more Posted on September 13, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	*McCain on Lipsticked Pigs, Btches and Tar Babies** Once again, John McCain is proving the old maxim that a man who lives in 11 glass houses shouldn't cast stones. While his campaign feigns outrage over Barack Obama's labeling of the McCain change mantra as "lipstick on a pig," video footage surfaced of McCain using the same aphorism about Hillary Clinton's health care plan in 2007. And its effort to manufacture fury over bogus accusations of sexism, Team McCain must be betting that Americans have forgotten John McCain's troubled... more Posted on September 10, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	*Sexism Flashback: McCain Used Hillary Btch Episode to Raise Money** Judging by the recent polls, the McCain campaign has skillfully played the sexism card in defense of Sarah Palin. Last Tuesday, McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina decried the "sexist treatment of Governor Palin." And by Sunday, campaign manager Rick Davis declared that Palin would do no interviews until the media "is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference." (That first appearance has since been scheduled with the reliably subservient Charles Gibson of ABC.) What a difference a... more Posted on September 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Kudlow Rewrites History, Blames Dow's Slide on Democrats Monday was a miserable day for the Dow, with the market suffering a 242 point drop. But rather than joining "so-called market analysts" in attributing the sell-off to credit market woes, higher oil prices and a fluctuating dollar, the National Review's resident class warrior Larry Kudlow found a predictable villain. Despite the inescapable history that the stock market does better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones, Kudlow blamed the market steep slide on the opening of the Democratic Convention in... more Posted on August 26, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Media Get It Wrong: Warren Asked Obama and McCain Different Questions Two days after the fact, questions continue to surround John McCain's surprisingly strong performance Saturday at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. The mainstream media and blogosphere alike are abuzz with rumors that McCain pierced Warren's so-called "cone of silence" and, more serious still, may have purloined his legendary POW "cross in the dirt" story from the late Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. But on one point, there is no dispute. Despite CNN's assurances to the contrary, Rick Warren simply asked Barack Obama and... more Posted on August 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	CBS Does McCain's Bidding on Russia, Edwards Stories In ways large and small, CBS News continues to offer John McCain's presidential campaign a helping hand. Less than a month after Katie Couric edited out McCain's shocking confusion over the timeline of the surge in Iraq, CBS News on Monday featured Robert Kagan, not identified as McCain foreign policy adviser, as its lone analyst in a segment on the conflict in Georgia. And that came just days after CBS assessed the impact of the John Edwards' affair not on... more Posted on August 12, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Yanks "True Conservative" Ad from YouTube, Web Site Just one day after the McCain campaign proclaimed its man the "Original Maverick," Barack Obama blasted that assertion both on the stump and in a new ad of his own. "You can't be a maverick when politically it's working for you," Obama said, "and not a maverick when it doesn't work for you." Which may explain why the McCain campaign has apparently tried to purge any traces of its "True Conservative" ad, a February 2008 spot designed to win over... more Posted on August 7, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Launches the "Character War" Recently, John McCain has taken to boasting, "I know how to win wars." But he isn't talking about Iraq. As his gutter politics of the last week show, McCain is talking about the "character war" against Barack Obama. As predicted, McCain is turning to the Republicans' tried and untrue formula for success from 2000 and 2004. That is, because Americans overwhelmingly prefer Democratic positions and priorities across almost the entire spectrum of issues, the GOP has to make the race... more Posted on August 1, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Katie Couric's Clumsy Caricatures There are many reasons to dislike CBS News with Katie Couric. Now you can add ham-handed racial stereotyping to the list. Just days after editing out John McCain's calamitous gaffe about the Sunni Awakening following the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq, Couric offered a pablum profile of the McCain campaign team. In her behind-the-scenes segment Tuesday (video here), Couric seemed shocked - shocked - to learn that McCain's director of outreach to African-Americans was himself an African-American: The campaign... more Posted on July 29, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Brooks Blasts Obama But Praised Bush for "Remaking the World" That the Republican water carrier and New York Times columnist David Brooks would blast Barack Obama's Berlin speech was utterly predictable. (Kevin Drum even predicted the title of the piece, "Playing Innocent Abroad.") To be sure, by slandering Obama's call to "remake the world" with epithets including "saccharine," "treacle," and "Disney," Brooks did not disappoint. Of course, even less surprising is that back in 2005, David Brooks had only glowing praise for President Bush's democratization agenda and its audacious vision... more Posted on July 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Ads Attack Media That Love Him As Barack Obama's global travels - and good fortune - dominate the headlines in the U.S., the McCain campaign has launched two new ads in a petulant campaign against the media itself. The spots, which prominently feature MSNBC's Chris Matthews (among others), blast a fawning media's seeming love affair with Barack Obama. Whether or not contempt works as a campaign strategy for McCain, it could be a case of biting the hand that feeds him. After all, as Chris Matthews... more Posted on July 22, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	They Said It at Netroots Nation The first two days of the Netroots Nation conference have already produced a bumper crop of highlights and sound bite moments. As was widely reported, the DLC's Harold Ford was showered with cries of "Why?" and "Who?" when he told the lunchtime audience, "I have great, great respect and admiration for my former colleagues" at Fox News. And former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman challenged John McCain to "call on Rove to go and obey the law and to show up... more Posted on July 18, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Perrspectives' Netroots Nation Preview For the next few days, I'll be blogging intermittently from the Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos) conference in Austin, Texas. While most eyes will be on the headliners like Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Lawrence Lessig, Wesley Clarke and Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, there are a number of intriguing sessions I'll be checking out. On Friday morning, Cass Sunstein, John Dean, Adam Bonin and Michael Waldman will be discussing "The Next President and the Law." Coming just days after the release of... more Posted on July 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Pittsburgh Pander vs Hillary's Tuzla Tall Tale Back in March when Hillary Clinton claimed she braved sniper fire in Tuzla in 1996, she wasn't pandering to voters in the swing state of Bosnia. But in swapping the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Green Bay Packers in his famous tale of duping his Vietnamese captors, John McCain Friday made a cynical play to win over the people of Pennsylvania. To be sure, John McCain wasn't padding his resume with a dubious example of his courage and sacrifice. His personal... more Posted on July 12, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Chickenhawk Goldberg Brands Obama's National Service Plan "Slavery" Just one month after he tried to rewrite John McCain's record on Iraq, Jonah Goldberg is trying to whitewash his own past when it comes to serving his country. Today, Goldberg compared Barack Obama's call for national service with slavery in a bilious Los Angeles Times op-ed that conveniently forgot to mention either Iraq or military service. Convenient, that is, because Jonah Goldberg apparently believes such service is for suckers. His sensitivity on the issue may have something to with... more Posted on July 8, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Future Civics Lesson: "Replenish the Ol' Coffers" Over at the National Review on Saturday, Kathryn Jean Lopez suggested a novel future for George W. Bush after he completes his disastrous tenure in the White House. The most unpopular President in modern times, Lopez insists, would "make an awesome high-school government teacher." But leaving aside for the moment his obvious aversion to academic study and the English language (as well as the U.S. Constitution), Bush has already made up his mind about his "post-service service." Upon leaving office,... more Posted on July 6, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Broder, Cohen Provide Human Shields for McCain's "Trust" Campaign Every presidential campaign has its pivotal moments as defined or, in some cases, abetted by the media. 2008 is shaping up as no exception. At the very time when Barack Obama is said to be inoculating himself against the far left liberal label with his positions on FISA, gun rights, the death penalty and federal faith-based programs, two of the leading lights of the Washington Post opinion page are inoculating serial reversal artist John McCain against charges of flip-flopping. On... more Posted on July 1, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	A Conversation with Real McCain Author Cliff Schecter Back in 2000, Democratic strategist and political writer Cliff Schecter contributed $20 to the presidential campaign of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. An admirer of McCain's independent streak then in opposing Republican orthodoxy on supply-side tax cuts and overturning Roe v Wade, Schecter admitted, "I trusted him." Eight years and seemingly endless McCain flip-flops later, Cliff Schecter wants his money back. That in a nutshell is the genesis of Schecter's new book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him... more Posted on June 30, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	WaPo's Gerson Blasts Franken, Ignores GOP "Vulgarians" In case there was any doubt that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson is now performing the same role for the Republican Party on the Washington Post opinion pages, today's column should put it to rest. Labeling former comedian turned Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken a "vulgarian," Gerson proclaimed the Democrat's satirical writing of the past the "Federalist Papers of lifestyle liberalism." As it turns out, Gerson not only has no sense of humor, he has no sense of balance: the... more Posted on June 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Issa Adds Russert Outrage to His Hall of Shame As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, the execrable California Congressman Darrell Issa used the occasion of Tim Russert's wake to appropriate the memory of the late Meet the Press host for political purposes. Of course, Issa had guaranteed himself a particularly hot seat in Dante's inner circle long before he enlisted Russert on the House floor today to make a case for off-shore oil drilling. From attacking the families of dead Blackwater contractors and accusing Valerie Plame of perjury to playing... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	Studies Refute McCain's 30 Gitmo Recidivists Talking Point In the wake of the Supreme Court's restoration of habeas corpus rights in its Boumediene decision Friday, John McCain and his allies on the right have predictably forecast an American bloodbath at the hands of terrorists unleashed from Guantanamo. While Justice Antonin Scalia claimed the ruling would "almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed," Newt Gingrich contended the Supreme Court "could cost us a city." As for McCain, he simply regurgitated a soon-to-be familiar GOP talking point, "30 of... more Posted on June 16, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Jon Stewart Gives Ralph Reed a Pass on Abramoff Ties On Tuesday, Jon Stewart welcomed former Christian Coalition wunderkind and Jack Abramoff scandal figure Ralph Reed to the Daily Show to pitch his new book, Dark Horse. But while the two discussed Reed's joining Scooter Libby, Bill O'Reilly and Lynne Cheney among the ranks of racy right-wing novelists, Stewart gave the disgraced lobbyist and failed Georgia Republican pol a free ride when it came to Reed's own close association with Abramoff. Ironically, Reed's Daily Show appearance came just one day... more Posted on June 11, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain's Friday Document - and Pastor - Dump Now for a pop quiz. What will the main media story about John McCain be on Tuesday after the long Memorial Day break? If you guessed John McCain's limited health disclosure, Cindy McCain's limited tax disclosure, or the meaning of the supposed maverick's failed pandering to madmen ministers Hagee and Parsley, you're probably wrong. By taking a page from the Bush playbook, McCain's Friday document - and pastor - dump virtually guaranteed that Tuesday's tale will the be the gathering... more Posted on May 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Scorned on the Issues, GOP Tries to Manufacture "Character Gap" A flood of recent polls suggests the 2008 election will once again display the "Iron Law" of 21st century Republican presidential politics. That is, with Americans showing an overwhelming preference for Democratic positions across virtually the entire spectrum of issues, the GOP has to make the race about something else. This year as in 2000 and 2004, the Republicans will try to turn the race into a presidential personality contest. And to win it, they need to manufacture a "character... more Posted on May 21, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's 2004 SNL Appearance Still His Best Pundits and bloggers alike are buzzing about John McCain's appearance yesterday on Saturday Night Live. Without once mentioning his standard stump punchlines "I'm older than dirt" and "I have more scars than Frankenstein," the 71 year old Republican nominee riffed on his age. While he was at it, McCain got in a few jokes while providing some advice for his Democratic colleagues. Still, McCain's best performance by far on SNL came neither last night nor during his 2002 rendition of... more Posted on May 18, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Washington Times, Post Agree Cindy McCain Must Release Taxes They may not agree on much, but this week the editors of the Washington Times and the Washington Post joined forces in demanding that Cindy McCain make public her tax returns. One day after the Post declared "it won't do," the reliably right-wing Times insisted "Mrs. McCain needs to end the 'privacy' charade and release her tax returns." The Washington Post's call for the McCains to divulge their IRS filings on Tuesday came as no surprise. After all, four years... more Posted on May 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	*McCain to Bush in 2000: "Don't Give Me That Sht. And Take Your Hands Off Me."** Four days after Arianna Huffington first reported it, John McCain's 2000 VoteGate has become the election issue du jour. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all run stories confirming Huffington's account that in 2000 a still steaming McCain did not vote for George W. Bush, the man who savaged him and his family during the Republican primaries. But as the fevered denials from his campaign show, the story of McCain's hate-love relationship with... more Posted on May 9, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John McCain's Top 10 Out-of-Touch Moments In another sign of the media's sheepish acceptance of the Barack Obama "elitist" story line, the New York Times on Tuesday described the Illinois Senator as "tagged as elitist." But just as disturbing as the Republicans' apparent success in establishing the "out of touch" narrative as a fixture in campaign coverage is John McCain's seeming inoculation from it. After all, John McCain isn't merely fabulously well off, courtesy of his wife Cindy's $100 million beer distribution fortune. At almost every... more Posted on May 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Voting Record Contradicts Maverick Myth On Wednesday, John McCain's home state Arizona Republic did some good excavation work in the ongoing demolition of the GOP nominee's maverick myth. Analyzing his Senate voting record since 1999, the paper found McCain rarely strayed from the Republican Party line. But that's only a small part of the unraveling of the McCain maverick fable. As I previously detailed, John McCain in his eternal quest for the GOP nomination has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised core principles to curry... more Posted on May 8, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	GOP: Baghdad Still Safer Than U.S. Cities From the outset of the Iraq war, Republican leaders and their amen corner in the right-wing media have sought to calm squeamish Americans by favorably comparing the violence there to life in U.S. cities. Now, John March, a developer planning (believe it or not) a "Disneyland-style" theme park in Baghdad, says the carnage in the Iraqi capital is no different than the "drive-bys" in Southern California. But while grotesque, the analogy is not novel: it has already been repeatedly deployed... more Posted on May 5, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Townsend Joins Snow on Conservative News Network (CNN) Politico is reporting that President Bush's former homeland security adviser and current intelligence advisory board member Fran Townsend is joining CNN as a contributor. Joining former White House press secretary Tony Snow as the second Bush sycophant to join the network in the last two weeks, Townsend's addition is apparently designed to help make CNN the "right choice" during its election '08 coverage. While George W. Bush may be most disliked President in modern American history, his one-time mouthpieces are... more Posted on May 4, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	McCain Advertises Next to "McCain Idiocy Watch" While reading Kevin Drum's latest over at Political Animal today, I couldn't help but notice that John McCain had fallen victim to the quirks of Internet advertising. Just below a graphic proclaiming "Advertise Liberally," the McCain campaign placed an elegant ad asking Washington Monthly readers to "Join Our Team." Sadly, the McCain ad was displayed next to a devastating piece titled, "McCain Idiocy Watch." On the same screen where a young John McCain, recently freed from captivity in Vietnam, salutes... more Posted on May 3, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Democrats Losing the Character War Two recent polls suggest that Democrats are winning minds but losing hearts in the war for the White House in 2008. Despite surveys showing that Americans consistently prefer Democratic positions over those of Republicans across virtually every issue, a new Rasmussen poll found voters trust John McCain more than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. And last week, an AP/Yahoo poll revealed no difference in voters' candidate preferences even when it came to the election's most important issue, the economy.... more Posted on April 29, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Age-Old Punchline: "I'm Older Than Dirt" Back on November 30, 2006, future Republican presidential nominee John McCain joked, "I'm older than dirt." A year and a half later, DNC research director Mike Gehrke was reprimanded for agreeing with him. Last week, Gehrke appropriated a joke from Jay Leno, all in the name of a little ageist fun. As ABC's Jake Tapper reported, Gehrke showed the poor judgment of using his own Facebook page to pass along Leno's quip: "You know what you call someone who digs... more Posted on April 28, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	VP Hopeful Mitt Romney Attacked McCain's Temper In the wake of the Washington Post's article Sunday on John McCain's legendary temper, pundits, politicians and armchair psychologists alike are weighing in on the Arizona Senator's litany of f-bombs, fisticuffs and frothing. But while McCain spokesman Mark Salter called the Washington Post piece "99% fiction," one national Republican leader has already taken great pains to back up its account. Mitt Romney, the man who would be John McCain's running mate, in January decried "the McCain way" of uncontrolled fury... more Posted on April 22, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	10 More Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked In the wake of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous' abominable performance in the ABC Democratic debate Wednesday, I created a list of 10 debate questions John McCain will never be asked. (The Real McCain author Cliff Schecter subsequently featured my list over at The Huffington Post, AmericaBlog and Crooks and Liars.) Now, as it turns out, this Sunday's guest on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous is none other than Arizona Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Here, then,... more Posted on April 19, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	10 Debate Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked While the liberal blogosphere and media critics alike are fuming over the deplorable gotcha-fest that was the ABC Democratic debate yesterday in Philadelphia, conservative talking heads are positively ecstatic. In the New York Times, David Brooks called the questions on lapel pins and the Weather Underground "excellent." The excreable Michelle Malkin snarked, "How dare they explore questions of character, truthfulness, and judgment?" And over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey offered "kudos to ABC News" while noting "John McCain has to... more Posted on April 17, 2008 \| Comments (26)

	Politics, Entertainment and the ABC Debate Debacle Media critics and the liberal blogosphere alike are apoplectic about Thursday night's abominable ABC Democratic debate in Philadelphia. But lost in the outcry over what the Washington Post deemed a "shoddy" and "despicable" performance by moderators George Stephanopolous and Charles Gibson is a snapshot of the future of American politics. When politics is just another form of entertainment, the ABC debacle is what you get. Back in February, I delivered a presentation titled, "That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign... more Posted on April 17, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Laura Bush, Cindy McCain to Host Morning Shows In case anyone still doubted the transformation of American politics into just another form of entertainment, news that Laura Bush and her would-be Republican successor Cindy McCain will soon be hosting NBC's Today Show and ABC's The View should be a case in point. And to be sure, millions of Americans will see the two Republican women presented as the very models of the modern First Lady. On Tuesday, April 22nd, Mrs. Bush will co-host the 9 AM hour of... more Posted on April 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	For McCain, Silence on Religion is Golden Just one day before lambasting Barack Obama over his recent comments about religion, John McCain was a no-show at Sunday's CNN Compassion Forum on faith. That's because when it comes to discussing his own religious beliefs, the Republican presidential nominee believes that silence is golden. And judging by the fawning stories from the Washington Times, CNN and the Politico, the press corps seems to agree. But McCain's reticence to speak about his faith doesn't represent a generational preference for private... more Posted on April 15, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	McCain Goes Both Ways on Press Shield Law Addressing the annual meeting of the Associated Press, John McCain stayed true to form in his ongoing courtship of the media. Pandering to what is in essence his base, McCain proclaimed his support for a proposed federal press shield law. Then in typical fashion, McCain joined President Bush in decrying the use of confidential sources by the New York Times and others to expose White House criminality. During his remarks, McCain used the press shield issue to woo a press... more Posted on April 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Right Assails Diversity Staging at Obama Event Over at the Weekly Standard, Michael Goldfarb takes the Obama campaign to task for deploying the "diversity police" during an appearance by Michelle Obama today at Carnegie Mellon University. But while the campaign staff's efforts to produce a multi-racial backdrop may have been ham-handed, they pale in comparison to the comic Republican attempts to create the illusion of any minority support at all. As the university's student paper described it: While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the... more Posted on April 9, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	The Politico's Half-Story on McCain's Religion In the Politico this morning, Jonathan Martin offers what the New Republic deemed a "smart piece" about John McCain's religious beliefs. But in describing McCain's reluctance to speak publicly about his faith ("McCain Shies Away from Religion Talk"), Martin tells only half the story. Given that John McCain is now the de facto leader of God's Own Party, his contradictory and suspiciously-timed statements regarding his religious conversion is a story that still needs telling. In his piece today, Martin notes... more Posted on April 3, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Ralph Reed Joins Scooter Libby as Right-Wing Novelist In conservative political circles, you can't keep a bad man down; he'll just come back and write a novel. And so comes word that former Christian Coalition wunderkind, Jack Abramoff crony and failed Georgia GOP candidate Ralph Reed is joining Scooter Libby, Lynne Cheney and Bill O'Reilly among the pulp pushers of the right. On Monday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Reed will soon publish his first novel, Dark Horse. As to its subject, the AJC speculates only, "The... more Posted on April 1, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	NYT's Lichtblau Details White House Effort to Block NSA Story In December 2005, New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau broke the shocking story of the Bush administration's program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA. Now, in a new book due out next week, Lichtblau details the White House's 13-month effort to block the Times' revelations of its lawlessness. And to be sure, that deceitful stonewalling and the threats of retribution that followed show a Bush administration determined to conceal its criminality at any cost. In excerpts... more Posted on March 28, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Moqtada Al-Sadr Answers the Wall Street Journal In another unfortunate case of premature Iraq elation, the Wall Street Journal last week celebrated the decline and fall of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr. Echoing the "bring 'em on" taunt of their former boss, ex-Bush advisers Dan Senor and Roman Martinez triumphantly asked "Whatever Happened to Moqtada?" But as the renewed turmoil in Baghdad and violent chaos in Basra suggest, the answer may be, "he's back." The cease fire declared last summer by Sadr's Mahdi army militia has been... more Posted on March 25, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Three Iraq Stories, More Conservative Exploding Heads The life of the American conservative is a perpetual crisis of cognitive dissonance, especially when it comes to the run-up to the Iraq war. So three new stories this week are certain to cause right-wing minds to explode, or at least to seek the safe harbor of denial. First came word of a new book from Rumsfeld aide Douglas Feith revealing that President Bush declared "war is inevitable" in December 2002, months before UN weapons inspectors produced their report on... more Posted on March 11, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Getting the Numbers Right and the Headlines Wrong Yesterday, I offered surprisingly accurate predictions for the Democratic primaries in Texas and Ohio. But while I called correctly Texas for Hillary Clinton by 3% and was close on Ohio (forecasted 8% margin versus 10% actual), it appears I got the ensuing story line wrong. On Tuesday, I assumed the standard media narrative would portray Clinton's wins as "too little, too late." But a quick glance at the nation's headlines suggests her sweep of the Buckeye and Lone Star states... more Posted on March 5, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Tomorrow's Headlines Today As Democrats in Texas and Ohio vote in what could be the decisive primaries today, polls suggest late movement towards Hillary Clinton. But while the outcomes in those key contests may be in doubt, the media's coming interpretation of them is not. In all likelihood, Wednesday's headlines will proclaim Hillary Clinton lost even in victory. Both the Obama and Clinton camps have been frantically "pre-spinning" the March 4th primaries. For its part, the Clinton team has announced that anything less... more Posted on March 4, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Who's on First? In Debates, Hillary Clinton Watching the MSNBC Democratic debate last night, you couldn't help but conclude Hillary Clinton can't win for losing. After a miffed Clinton noted that she has routinely been asked the first question, blogs left and right, not to mention MSNBC's post-debate analysts, lambasted her for it. For what it's worth, she just happens to be right. Clinton's admittedly feeble effort to seek balance came early in the debate. Coupled as it was with an awkward attempt to leverage a Saturday... more Posted on February 27, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	CBS News Calls Secular America Immoral In a single sentence in one story on religion in the United States, CBS Evening News managed to insult the vast majority of the American people. Describing a major new study on Americans' religious faith from the Pew Forum, CBS' Wyatt Andrews suggested that atheism in particular and Americans' widely shared belief in a secular society in general is immoral: "The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America. To the surprise of many experts,... more Posted on February 25, 2008 \| Comments (6)

	WaPo Praises McCain on Signing Statements, Ignores Bush Betrayal Today's Washington Post praised John McCain's "ironclad refusal to issue signing statements." While his Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton defended using "signing statements in very rare instances," the Post lauded McCain's "sharp break" from the unprecedented practice of the Bush administration. But what the Washington Post neglected to mention was why John McCain has such a visceral dislike for presidential signing statements. The answer, as it turns out, dates back to December 30, 2005, when President Bush betrayed... more Posted on February 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Right Rages Over Oscars' "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Moment In much the same way that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, conservative culture warriors love to hate the Oscars. Last night's 80th Academy Awards were no exception. Nothing seems to infuriate the family values crowd more than Hollywood award winners on stage thanking their same-sex partners for their support. Nothing, that is, except the sight of American soldiers in Iraq introducing them. Conservative culture mavens were apoplectic that a half-dozen U.S. troops were featured... more Posted on February 25, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	NY Times Endorsed McCain Before Running Scandal Piece The blogosphere is abuzz with the New York Times story about presumptive GOP nominee John McCain and the nature of his relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. It remains unclear why the paper sat on the story since December. But whether or not the New York Times has had the goods on John McCain, it didn't stop them from endorsing him in the state's Republican primary last month. On January 25th, the New York Times gave McCain its stamp of approval... more Posted on February 20, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Michelle Obama and the Right's "Hate America" Myth One of the most consistently insulting and fatiguing myths perpetuated by the conservative chattering classes is the right's age-old fraud that liberals hate America. Which is why Michelle Obama's latest misstep is all the more frustrating. Just days after implying she'd withhold her active support should Hillary Clinton become the Democratic presidential nominee, Mrs. Obama inadvertently provided the Republican amen corner with more ammunition to keep firing its "hate America" salvoes. Speaking to an audience in Madison, Wisconsin, Michelle Obama... more Posted on February 19, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	The Coming Right-Wing Blog Boom In the span of just six weeks, conservative angst over the comparatively feeble state of the right-wing blogosphere has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. After first trumpeting the supposed decline in traffic at liberal blogs, conservative heads nodded in agreement as Red State's Erick Erickson blamed abortion and capitalism for the abysmal state of the right's online presence. But for all of its hand-wringing, the right-wing blogosphere may be on the verge of a boom. After all, as... more Posted on February 17, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	The Real Right-Wing Flag Flap As the Carpetbagger Report details, the conservative blogosphere has its panties in a twist over word that an office used by some Obama volunteers in Texas displayed a flag featuring the likeness of Che Guevara. (As even the local Fox station notes, that office is unaffiliated with the official Obama campaign.) But lost in the right-wing goosestepatariat's comical calls for the Obama campaign to renounce Che Guevara and Fidel Castro is the actual conservative endorsement of a much more dangerous... more Posted on February 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Time Traveler David Brooks Predicts Democratic Disunity Faced with the dismaying prospect of Democratic unity and Republican schism during the 2008 nominating contests, conservative columnist David Brooks today turned time traveler. Taking a journey through his own space-time continuum, Brooks argues that Democrats are not unified now because they not might be in the future. In 2009 as in 1993, he claims, Democrats will splinter as they are forced to make excruciating choices in the wake of a devastating Bush presidency. Call it Brooks' Law of Republican... more Posted on February 12, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Limbaugh and McCain United - Against Chelsea Clinton As the war of words between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain reached a fever pitch this week, it took MSNBC reporter David Schuster to remind Americans that the two right-wing titans share some common values. For all of their current disagreements over the direction of the Republican Party, Limbaugh and McCain agreed on one thing. They both called a young Chelsea Clinton ugly - and worse. As Molly Ivins recalled, Rush's 1993 slur against the 13 year old daughter of... more Posted on February 9, 2008 \| Comments (8)

	That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08 Last night, I delivered a presentation at the Ignite Portland event titled "That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08." Ignite is an eclectic event where a series of presenters each get five minutes and 20 slides (advancing automatically every 15 seconds) to discuss virtually any topic they want. The event organizers captured each of the presentations on video. A YouTube video of my presentation follows below. As the slides themselves were often not in the camera shot, here are... more Posted on February 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Fox Brings You the Super Bowl Sunday Rightacular! On Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, the Fox Network will add its unique brand of right-wing propaganda to the mix of football and ads millions of Americans tune in to see. Before its pre-game show and Super Bowl XLII coverage, Fox stations will first air three hours of Fox News Super Tuesday political "analysis." Since the New York Giants and New England Patriots hail from the bluest of blue states, viewers should expect Fox and friends to wear red-tinted glasses in... more Posted on February 2, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	New York Times Reporter Subpoenaed Over Sources That cheering sound you may have heard this morning was conservatives' applauding the news that New York Times reporter James Risen has been subpoenaed in an effort to force him to reveal his confidential sources. But while Republican rage may be temporarily muted over the inquiry into Risen's 2006 book, many on the right won't be satisfied until Risen goes to jail for his cardinal offense, revealing President Bush's illegal domestic surveillance program. The subpoena James Risen received from a... more Posted on February 1, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Wolf Blitzer Loses the CNN Democratic Debate Thursday's CNN Democratic debate in California revealed two fundamentals truths. First, Democrats as a whole were very well served by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, two candidates who each delivered sterling, civil performances. Their thoughtful exchange stood in sharp contrast to the second inescapable conclusion, the banality of the moderator, CNN's Wolf Blitzer. On a night these Democrats brought credit to their party, Blitzer's incessant efforts to inject conflict into the proceeding brought only embarrassment to himself and his network.... more Posted on February 1, 2008 \| Comments (14)

	Predicting the Bill Clinton Backlash Last week on this site and over at DailyKos, I expressed my disappointment in the "attack dog" role that former President Bill Clinton had assumed in his wife Hillary's campaign. In making his leadership role among Democrats and esteemed position among most Americans subservient to Hillary's nomination, I argued, Bill Clinton had put his legacy at risk: Perhaps the only development more disappointing than the injection of racial politics into the Democratic primary process has been the descent of Bill... more Posted on January 24, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Chris Matthews and Hillary's Lazio Moment in New Hampshire Over at Media Matters, Eric Boehlert details the backlash that engulfed MSNBC's Chris Matthews over his aggressive and often sexist commentary about Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the New Hampshire primary. But more important than the analysis of the "blog swarm" against Matthews is the prospect that his ham-fisted oafishness helped propel Hillary Clinton to her surprising victory. Chris Matthews may well be the Rick Lazio of 2008. Back in 2000, First Lady Hillary Clinton was locked in a... more Posted on January 22, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	Sports Night on Huckabee and the Confederate Flag Over at Slate, Christopher Hitchens asks why the press is ignoring Mike Huckabee's shocking statement about the Confederate flag. While the media were quick to highlight Huckabee's shameless pandering to South Carolina's far right, the press generally preferred to avoid any discussion of Huckabee's blatantly racist appeal to the Palmetto State's antebellum boosters. Sadly, for the clearest analysis of Huckabee's message, one should turn not to the news, but to the 1990's primetime TV show, Sports Night. In South Carolina... more Posted on January 22, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	John McCain's Free Ride In the wake of his New Hampshire and South Carolina victories, the once-and-future GOP frontrunner John McCain is enjoying a charmed life when it comes to the press. Just days after John King's puff piece on CNN, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz offered a glowing review of McCain's accessibility to the press. But as he conveniently continues his retreat from his past positions on immigration and tax cuts as the Republican race heads to Florida, John McCain should be receiving... more Posted on January 21, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	The Weekly Standard's Hypocritical Praise for John McCain With John McCain's return to the front of the Republican pack, the conservative Weekly Standard is reexamining the Arizona's vices and virtues. But while Dean Barnett bemoans McCain's "uncanny ability to drive virtually all conservatives nuts," Adam White and Kevin White praise McCain's record on the confirmation of right-wing judges. Not because McCain's position on the so-called "nuclear option" was right in principle. No, the Standard lauded McCain's success with the "Gang of 14" because it preserved the ability of... more Posted on January 19, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	The Wall Street Journal's "Liberal Hatemongering" Sham Once again demonstrating its gift for fiction, the Wall Street Journal offered a hilariously pathetic treatise on the hate-mongering and intolerance of liberals. Just three weeks after Bruce Bartlett took to the Journal's opinion pages to insist that Americans overlook the Republicans' racist present to instead focus on Democrats' racist past, Arthur C. Brooks today in "Liberal Hatemongers" argued that "that political intolerance in America is to be found more on the left than it is on the right." Sadly,... more Posted on January 17, 2008 \| Comments (10)

	WSJ Extends GOP "Criminalizing Politics" Defense to CIA Tapes It was only a matter of time before the conservative chattering classes extended the Republicans' perpetual "criminalization of politics" defense to the exploding CIA tapes scandal. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal obliged, claiming the Justice Department's probe into the spy agency's destruction of detainee interrogation videos was the equivalent of "criminalizing the CIA." Following the script from the Tom Delay, Valerie Plame outing, U.S. attorneys purge and other Republicans scandals, the Journal's contortion is just the latest right-wing effort... more Posted on January 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	John Edwards Impersonates Gary Hart in NH In New Hampshire Friday, John Edwards was offering his best Gary Hart impersonation. Like Hart in 1984, Edwards claimed his second place showing behind Barack Obama in Iowa had transformed the Democratic nomination into a two-man race. But no one is buying it, probably including Edwards himself. Sadly, Edward has misread the history and lessons of Iowa. You can't blame him for trying. Edwards simply had to win the Iowa caucus to transform the predictable media narrative of the Clinton-Obama... more Posted on January 5, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	That's Entertainment: Hyperpartisanship and Politics as Theater As the 2008 campaign begins in earnest, one of the emerging storylines is so-called hyperpartisanship, the bitter and increasingly divisive conflict between Democrats and Republicans that is said to be fueling cynicism - and apathy - among voters. In Iowa, Barack Obama proclaims that he will transcend partisan cleavages, while John Edwards vows to fight. Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will meet in Oklahoma next week with prominent figures from both parties to encourage the 2008 candidates to form... more Posted on December 30, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Misdirection: Bartlett Ignores GOP's Racist Present for Dems' Racist Past In one of the most disgusting and disingenuous acts of political misdirection in recent memory, former Reagan and Bush 41 advisor Bruce Bartlett is asking Americans to ignore the Republican Party's racist present and instead focus on the Democratic Party's racist past. Taking to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Bartlett extracted a catalog of quotes from Jefferson to Biden to document the Democratic Party's' shameful past history when it comes to African-Americans. But no amount of sleight of... more Posted on December 24, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Medals of Dishonor: How the Right Rewards Cover Ups & Payback On Friday, right-wing mouthpiece and failed Bush Labor nominee Linda Chavez demonstrated the Iron Law of Republican scandal management. Claiming the CIA official purportedly responsible for destroying detainee interrogation tapes "deserves a medal," Chavez showed the conservative commitment to rewarding those who conceal White House wrong-doing. The corollary, of course, is the GOP Payback Principle: those exposing Bush administration criminality should be prosecuted. In her Friday column titled "Destroying CIA Tapes Deserves a Thank You," Chavez argued that the 2005... more Posted on December 23, 2007 \| Comments (21)

	U.S. Papers Inject Anti-Abortion Rhetoric into Omagh Trial Coverage In a Belfast courtroom Thursday, a judge acquitted electrician Sean Hoey, accused of the 1998 bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland. But while coverage of the story in Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK focused on DNA evidence, police incompetence and the legacy of past terror incidents, many American newspapers had a different agenda altogether. The Oregonian and other news outlets instead chose to turn the Omagh verdict into anti-abortion propaganda. In Belfast, Dublin and London, coverage... more Posted on December 21, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Putin Succeeds "Good Friend" Bush as Time Man of the Year This morning Time named Russian President Vladmir Putin its 2007 Man of the Year. It is altogether fitting that Time selected Putin as a successor to two-time winner George W. Bush. Like his friend the American president, Putin for good or ill (mostly ill) has made his nation a major force in global affairs. And as Time notes, he did so "at significant cost to the principles that free nations prize." In its tribute "A Tsar is Born," Time details... more Posted on December 19, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	"Republican of the Year" Awards We'd Like to See This week, the Journal of the American Bar Association announced the selection of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as its 2007 Lawyer of the Year. In a process that prioritized the absolute value of the contenders' beneficial or deleterious contributions to the legal profession, Gonzales edged out such notables as Duke lacrosse team prosecutor Michael Nifong, Hatch Act hatchet woman and loyal Bushie Monica Goodling, and Plamegate villain Scooter Libby. As Edward A. Adams, the Journal's editor and publisher, described... more Posted on December 13, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Perino, Bush and the Unlearned Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis On Saturday, White House press secretary Dana Perino confessed her ignorance regarding the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs fiasco the previous year. Of course, it should come as no surprise that the chief spokesperson for President Bush would confuse John F. Kennedy's signature national security triumph with his greatest foreign policy failure. After all, President Bush is not merely ignorant of the history, but determined that JFK's two lessons from the Bay of Pigs - taking... more Posted on December 11, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Will David Broder Weigh In on Giuliani's Tryst Fund? As the scandal surrounding his surreptitious taxpayer-funded Hampton frolics continues to envelop Rudy Giuliani, two questions are coming into focus. Obviously, the first is to what degree Giuliani's efforts to conceal his NYPD-financed romps with then-mistress, now third wife Judith Nathan imperils his presidential campaign. The second? Will David Broder, supposed dean of the Washingtonpress corps and inquisitor of the Clinton marriage, break his silence on Rudy's? That the Giuliani story has legs is supported by the proliferation of nicknames... more Posted on December 1, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	The Weekly Standard Laments the Party of Hate Debate Over at the conservative Weekly Standard, there is despair and consternation at the picture of the Republican Party presented at last night's CNN/YouTube debate. While one column feared the "vaguely threatening parade" of the assembled GOP White House hopefuls, editor and Fox News commentator Fred Barnes lamented a debate that was "mortifying to the candidates." Apparently, the truth is not setting them free. Because the Party of Hate Americans saw on stage last night wasn't a caricature, but the reality... more Posted on November 29, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	NY Daily News: Bush Furious with Rove Over Plame Leak in 2003 Just one day after excerpts from the upcoming Scott McClellan tell all book suggested President Bush lied about the roles of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the Plamegate affair, the publisher is now back-tracking on the explosive claim. But despite a spokesman's assertion that McClellan "did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him," a seemingly forgotten 2005 story from the New York Daily News suggests otherwise. As Perrspectives, Talking Points Memo, the Washington Note and other blogs noted... more Posted on November 21, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	NYT Yielded to White House, Sat on Pakistan Nuclear Security Story The New York Times' recent report that the United States has been secretly helping Pakistan secure its nuclear arsenal contained another revelation. As with its 2005 expose of the Bush administration's illegal NSA domestic surveillance program, the Times sat on the Pakistan story at the request of the White House. Contrary to the repeated claims of President Bush and his amen corner, the New York Times has been more than deferential in letting the White House determine "all the news... more Posted on November 21, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Georgia Governor Perdue and the Top 10 Republican Prayers As a devastating drought continues to parch the Southeast, Republican Governors in Georgia and Alabama are turning to divine intervention to help replenish their dwindling water supplies. In Atlanta, Governor Sonny Perdue held a public vigil at the state house Tuesday to "pray up a storm." His plea follows on the heels on Alabama Governor Bob Riley's week-long "Days of Prayer for Rain" in June. As then-Governor George W. Bush showed with his 2000 proclamation of "Jesus Day," prayer is... more Posted on November 13, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Jeff Gannon Selling Book, Himself in the Blogs? When the subject is fraudulent journalism, thoughts naturally turn to Jeff Gannon. With FEMA staging fake press conferences and Hillary Clinton under the microscope for answering planted questions at campaign events, the male escort turned Bush White House press corps fixture inevitably will crawl out from under a rock for 15 more minutes of fame. And so it appears on Perrspectives and several other blogs. Commenting on a Perrspectives blog post Saturday comparing the Clinton campaign's bad judgment with the... more Posted on November 11, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	Hillary's Planted Questions and George W. Bush, Master of Political Theater The conservative commentariat and right-wing bloggers are apoplectic at revelations that Hillary Clinton fielded questions planted by her staffers during recent campaign appearances. Confirming the worst stereotypes of the ever-calculating, risk-averse Clinton, Bush sycophant Michelle Malkin labeled Hillary a "crapweasel." And she should know. After all, from planted reporters and purchased pundits to invitation-only events in front of friends-only audiences, it is George W. Bush who perfected the art of the stage managed appearance designed to "catapult the propaganda." From... more Posted on November 10, 2007 \| Comments (20)

	Edited ABC Iraq Story Latest White House PR Fraud Just days after revelations of fake FEMA press conferences and the altering of a CDC report to Congress, the Bush disinformation machine is at it again. As ThinkProgress reports, the White House redistributed to reporters an edited version of an ABC story in the hopes of painting a picture of unvarnished progress in Iraq. Apparently, deleting damaging references to the stillborn political process in Iraq is all in a day's work for a White House committed to helping President Bush... more Posted on November 2, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	FEMA, CDC and Bush's Potemkin Presidency Two stories this week once again highlighted for Americans the Potemkin Presidency of George W. Bush. Confronting Stephen Colbert's maxim that "reality has a well-known liberal bias," the Bush administration tried to pull the wool over the eyes of Congress and the media. On Wednesday, the White House acknowledged it "eviscerated" the testimony of CDC Julie Gerberding on the health impacts of global warming. And on Thursday, Bush's FEMA director Harvey Johnson staged a faux news conference about the California... more Posted on October 26, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Snow Job: Bush's "Democrat Party" Taunt When former White House press secretary Tony Snow announced his resignation in August, he claimed his departure was motivated by his need for "dough." Appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday night, it turns out Snow is content to shill for President Bush for free. Rejecting the assertion that Bush was far from the self-proclaimed "uniter" of GOP lore, Snow pooh-poohed Stewart's example that a petulant, mean-spirited President intentionally taunted his Democratic opponents by calling theirs the "Democrat... more Posted on October 16, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Bush and Gore on the Prize Money The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore on Friday predictably produced flashbacks to the 2000 election fiasco, complete with the usual conservative venom and liberal wistfulness. But seemingly lost in the tales of the parallel lives of George W. Bush and Al Gore are their sharply contrasting views towards their respective legacies. Just follow the money. At his press conference yesterday, Gore announced he would donate his $750,000 Nobel Prize award to the Alliance for Climate Protection:... more Posted on October 13, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Conservative Nobel Prizes We'd Like to See Predictably, the conservative chattering class and its amen corner in the right-wing blogosphere are apoplectic about the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore. But their rage and angst about the Nobel Committee's "politicized awards" for "mass exaggerators" and "deceptive rhetoric" isn't merely a function of the inconvenient truth of the success of Gore's global warming campaign. No, the rugged individualists of the right are just hopping mad that they never win prizes designed to recognize contributions to, well, the... more Posted on October 12, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	Right-Wing Blogs Downplay Bin Laden Tape Damage, Probe Just one day after revelations by the private security firm SITE Institute that a U.S. government leak of its clandestinely obtained Osama Bin Laden video compromised its penetration of Al Qaeda's global computing network, U.S. intelligence officials announced a probe of the damaging episode. But in the Animal Farm world of the right-wing blogosphere where some national security leaks are more equal than others, the Bush administration's latest fear-mongering or perhaps just potential incompetence is hardly cause for concern. No... more Posted on October 10, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Leaked Bin Laden Tape Shows GOP Double Standard Today's revelations in the Washington Post regarding the Bush administration's September 7th leaking of an Osama Bin Laden videotape served to once again highlight the hypocritical Republican double-standard when it comes to the publication of classified national security information. As the CIA black sites and illegal NSA domestic surveillance stories all show, the President and his amen corner are quick to call for the prosecution of those who reveal White House criminality. But when Bush and his GOP allies through... more Posted on October 9, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Chris Matthews: Bush White House "Good Guys" Won't Silence Me At a party last night celebrating the 10th anniversary of his MSNBC show Hardball, Chris Matthews lashed out at the Bush administration for its efforts to control his editorial content. But if his claims that "they will not silence me" ring a little hollow, they should. After all, Chris Matthews has spent the last several years telling us that President Bush, his White House and the Republican leadership team are "good guys." Matthews' tough talk didn't end there. Without mentioning... more Posted on October 5, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	CBS News Resurrects Bill Frist In the age of Katie Couric, CBS Evening News has become synonymous with journalism as puffery and the interview as hagiography. But on Wednesday, Couric and correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reached a new low in a fawning profile of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. In just a few minutes, CBS helped abet the conversion of the Schiavo misdiagnosing, AIDS myth propagating, feline dissecting, partisan hatchet man into a noble crusader for children's health. As I wrote earlier this month,... more Posted on September 27, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Bremer Letters Show Bush OK'd Disbanding Iraqi Army On Sunday, I detailed Bush biographer Robert Draper's stunning portrait of the President asleep at the switch as the disastrous May 2003 decision to dissolve the Iraqi army moved forward. As the New York Times relayed, a nonchalant Bush told Draper "The policy was to keep the army intact; didn't happen" and " Yeah, I can't remember, I'm sure I said, 'This is the policy, what happened?'" As Tuesday's New York Times now suggests, Coalition Provisional Authority viceroy L. Paul... more Posted on September 4, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	NYT: Bush Slept as Iraqi Army was Disbanded As I wrote this morning, today's New York Times offered a dismaying portrait of President Bush obsessed with his legacy - and potential financial windfall - after leaving office. But even more disturbing was the discussion of the Iraq war and the administration's calamitous 2003 move to disband the Iraqi army. When it came to perhaps the pivotal decision of the war, America's first MBA President simply acted like an absentee landlord. The American project in Iraq may well have... more Posted on September 2, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Fox News Attacks Couric Trip While Single Mother Soldiers Die in Iraq As ThinkProgress reported today, Fox News attacked CBS rival and single mother Katie Couric for her upcoming trip to Iraq. But while Neil Cavuto, John Gibson and the gang at Fox grew hysterical about Couric, they remained silent about 26 year old Michelle Ring and other single mothers fighting for the United States in Iraq. The issue for Fox, of course, is that anyone else's coverage of Iraq inevitably brings the facts of Bush's Baghdad fiasco directly to American television... more Posted on August 30, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Michael Vick's Next Career: Right-Wing Pundit With his plea deal yesterday on charges of running a dog fighting operation, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick likely brought his NFL career to an end. But Vick's next calling awaits him as soon as he is released from prison. Michael Vick, it would seem, is supremely qualified to be a conservative pundit. Far from a barrier, a felony conviction is often a feather in the cap for the aspiring right-wing radio host, Fox News commentator or conservative movement mouthpiece.... more Posted on August 21, 2007 \| Comments (7)

	Report: Foreign Policy "Experts" Reject the Iraq Surge In the wake of the controversial O'Hanlon/Pollack op-ed endorsing the progress of the surge in Iraq, the liberal blogosphere has been awash in commentary about the mainstream media's narrow reliance on the pro-surge viewpoints of "very serious people" constituting the "foreign policy clerisy." As it turns out, not so much. A new joint report from Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress suggests America's leading foreign policy experts see President Bush's Iraq surge as a failure. Leaving aside... more Posted on August 20, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Media Double Standard on Obama, Giuliani Foreign Policies Media reaction to the recent foreign policy pronouncements of Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani provides a case study in double-standards. While Obama received a hellstorm of criticism for his statements on attacking Al Qaeda bases in Pakistan and the use of nuclear weapons, the mainstream media has been essentially silent on the blatantly bizarre and downright dangerous national security vision Giuliani penned in the pages of Foreign Affairs. The differing treatment of these leading Democratic and Republican candidates reflects the... more Posted on August 16, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Blogs Left and Right Pursue NSA Leak Figure Within hours of Newsweek's revelation that the FBI had raided the home of former DOJ official Thomas M. Tamm in connection with the 2005 NSA domestic surveillance leak, both ends of the blogosphere have begun a feverish search to learn more about man at the center of the story. On the left, Tamm is portrayed as a not-too-mysterious whistle-blower who posted at sites likes Media Matters and perhaps more clandestinely at TPM Muckraker. And on the right, Tamm is being... more Posted on August 6, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Is the New York Times the Next NSA Leak Target? Just one day after learning the FBI raided the home of former DOJ attorney Thomas M. Tamm in connection with the December 2005 leak of President Bush's illicit NSA domestic surveillance program, conservatives are beginning to clamor for action against another target: The New York Times. Writing in Commentary, editor Gabriel Schoenfeld is renewing his call for the indictment of the New York Times for its December 16, 2005 publication of the NSA story. Perhaps sensing a momentum shift with... more Posted on August 6, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	CNN to Add Bush Adviser Laura Ingraham? The disturbing descent of CNN into schizophrenia added a new chapter this week. The network asked Laura Ingraham to temporarily fill in for the outgoing Paula Zahn. As you'll recall, the right-wing radio host's resume includes her 2006 Democratic phone jamming operation. And most recently, as Oliver Willis now informs us, Ingraham served as informal adviser to President Bush. The addition of Ingraham is just the latest example of CNN's intermittent Fox envy. It comes just weeks after giving its... more Posted on August 2, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Life Imitates Art for Novelist Bill O'Reilly The falafel day fall-out for Bill O'Reilly continues to dominate the blogosphere. Atrios, DailyKos and others are still having a field day with the Smoking Gun documents from the sealed settlement in the Mackris sexual harassment case. (Decorum prevents displaying them here.) But largely overlooked in the salacious details of O'Reilly's tawdry talk to his subordinate is the years of practice he got earlier - as a novelist. In his 1998 novel, Those Who Trespass, Bill O'Reilly showed he could... more Posted on July 31, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Fragging Rights The ever more disturbing Pat Tillman saga is predictably stirring rage across the blogosphere. Most just want to know the truth about a seeming White House cover-up that may include the horrible possibility that Tillman was "fragged," that is, purposely killed by his fellow troops in Afghanistan. But while the Tillman affair is spawning conspiracy theories on all sides, it is once again drawing attention to some conservatives' apparent comfort with fragging itself. Over at ThinkProgress, Iraq veteran and VoteVets... more Posted on July 28, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	The Simpsons Explain the Bush Presidency As The Simpsons movie opens this weekend, President Bush is under a withering assault from all sides. White House aides face contempt of Congress charges and Senate Judiciary Committee members call for a special counsel to probe Attorney General Alberto Gonzales while the President's position on the Iraq war grows more untenable.. Which is altogether fitting. As I explained back in April, a 2000 episode of The Simpsons perhaps best explains how the Bush presidency survives because of - and... more Posted on July 26, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Stephen Hayes: Cheney's Favorite Iraq-9/11 Fabulist Now Biographer Predictably, mainstream media discussion of Stephen Hayes' new biography of Vice President Dick Cheney has focused on his "unprecedented access" and salacious details. But while the Beltway is a abuzz about Cheney's decision to take the "cruddy job" of Vice President and Hayes' fanciful tale about a seemingly homophobic Cheney telling Senator Pat Leahy to "f**k yourself", little attention has been paid to Hayes himself. Which is too bad. Because as the history shows, whether the issue is non-existent Saddam-9/11... more Posted on July 24, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	The National Review Jumps the Shark The National Review, the conservatives' official game day program for the war in Iraq, has finally jumped the shark. Like a long-running sitcom with declining ratings, aging stars and bereft of new ideas, the magazine has been reduced to bizarre stunts in a desperate plea for attention. This week, that desperation took the form of slandering the families of American troops going off to war in Iraq. And that was just for openers. As Chris Kelly detailed in the Huffington... more Posted on July 15, 2007 \| Comments (4)

	Bush Taunts Children, Disabled, Blind, African-Americans... In Cleveland on Tuesday, President Bush offered Americans yet another example of the heartwarming leadership style that has so endeared him to 26% of Americans. At his latest invitation-only event, Bush made a 13-year old girl cry. Of course, making fun of children is all in day's work for George W. Bush. After all, as his past teasing of the blind, the disabled, U.S. soldiers and blacks confirms, President Bush laughs at the expense of most Americans. ThinkProgress tells the... more Posted on July 11, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Kurtzman on How to Fight a Conservative Over at About.com, Political Humor editor Daniel Kurtzman maintains one of the web's most comprehensive collections of political jokes, cartoons and images. (Full disclosure: some are them are from Perrspectives.) Now, he has come out with a fun-loving how-to book for liberals, "How to Win a Fight with a Conservative." In addition to his new book, Kurtzman has also put together a quiz to help you determine what type of liberal you are. His very short (and very fun) political... more Posted on July 5, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	SiCKO Required Reading: U.S. Health Care by the Numbers Michael Moore's controversial film SiCKO opens nationwide this weekend. Hailed by critics and widely praised across much of the political spectrum, Moore's look at the failing American health care system is already generating the predictable smear campaign from the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical lobby and their allies on the right. But before the inevitable discussions about the accuracy of the film's portrayal of the U.S. health care system and the plight of insured middle class American come to dominate the... more Posted on June 29, 2007 \| Comments (31)

	Politics as Theater: Al Gore and the Assault on Reason Fresh off his Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore has authored a new book, The Assault on Reason. Excerpted in Time as part of a feature on Gore, the book is a jeremiad against the crippled state of American political discourse and democracy itself. But as prescient as Gore is on the decline of public debate in America, he may well understate the more fundamental transformation: politics itself as entertainment. From inaction on global warming to... more Posted on May 17, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Washington Post: It's Giuliani Time Back in February, I slammed the Washington Post for its reporting on Bill Clinton's speaking fees and the implication that his new-found wealth would unfairly fuel his wife's 2008 presidential campaign. In contrast, the Post was largely silent on the million in speaking and consulting fees reaped by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Until today. In a massive report in today's edition, the Washington Post takes apart the influence-peddling, behind-the-scenes money machine that is Rudy Giuliani's firm, Giuliani Partners.... more Posted on May 13, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Are PBS Stations Burying "A Brief History of Disbelief?" During last night's episode of Bill Moyer's Journal, host Bill Moyers interviewed Jonathan Miller, creator of a three-part series titled "A Brief History of Disbelief" to be aired on PBS stations beginning this week. Or perhaps "some PBS stations" would be a better description. As it turns out, many PBS affiliates are apparently choosing not to run Miller's predictably controversial look at the roots and philosophy of atheism. And a quick check of the calendar shows that Oregon Public Broadcasting... more Posted on May 5, 2007 \| Comments (20)

	Don Imus' Troubled Future, Al Sharpton's Troubling Past The controversy over the racist commentary of Don Imus continues to boil over in the liberal blogosphere. But while there is general agreement with the calls by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for Imus' firing by CBS Radio and MSNBC, there is a disappointing silence when its comes to Sharpton and Jackson's own histories of hate speech and racial intolerance. There is no doubt that for his slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team and track record of on-air bigotry,... more Posted on April 10, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	NBC's Williams Nails Gonzales on His Catch-22 In a surreal interview today with Alberto Gonzales, NBC's Pete Williams highlighted the shifting sands underneath the Attorney General's increasing untenable position. With a single question, Williams revealed Gonzales' Catch-22 in the firings of U.S. attorneys: he cannot claim to both have played no role in the evaluations of the fired attorneys and know that their sackings were the result of performance issues: Williams: To put this question another way - if you didn't review their performance during this process,... more Posted on March 26, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, "Mistakes Were Made" Edition The Bushboard List of Top 10 GOP Sound Bites has seen another shake-up at the top of the charts. With the exploding U.S. attorneys scandal, the Scooter Libby verdict and the debate over Iraq war funding, a new crop of Republican talking points is zooming up the rankings. Topping the charts is the Gonzales-Bush smash hit "Mistakes Were Made" from their tribute album to the former federal prosecutors, Eight is Enough. With the conviction of Dick Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby... more Posted on March 15, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Obama-Lieberman Genealogy Revealed Two week ago, I wrote about the many ironies surrounding the revelation that slave-holdings ancestors of the late legendary segregationist Strom Thurmond once owned the great-grandfather of civil rights activist Al Sharpton. Now, hot on the heels of news that Barack Obama's white relatives were themselves once slaveholders, Don Davis at the Satirical Political Report hilariously reveals that Obama's Egyptian ancestors owned Joe Lieberman's forbearers: An archaeological dig in Cairo, conducted at the behest of Jesus Tomb producer James Cameron,... more Posted on March 9, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Little Mosque on the Prairie Life imitates art, or so it would seem when it comes to religious intolerance in the North American heartland. In January, the Canadian Broadcasting Company began airing Little Mosque on the Prairie, an upbeat comedy about a small Muslim community making its way in a rural Saskatchewan town. But in Harris County, Texas, the culture clash is no joke, as outraged residents hope to block the Katy Islamic Association from building its house of worship. North of the border, the... more Posted on March 4, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Coulter's Slur and the Conservative Brand of Hate That Ann Coulter would call Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" during a speech at one of conservatism's pre-eminent conclaves should come as no surprise. Mitt Romney's apparent refusal to disown Coulter's endorsement and the silence of the Republican cavalcade of candidates (John McCain, who didn't attend CPAC, notwithstanding) comes as no shock either. And no one should be stunned by the almost complete lack of coverage of the Coulter slur from the mainstream media. After all, as I... more Posted on March 3, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	WaPo Slams Clinton, But Not Giuliani, on Speaking Fees Today's Washington Post features an interesting examination former President Bill Clinton's new-found wealth earned on the speakers' circuit and the implications for his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign. But while Bill Clinton brought in almost $10 million in speaking fees last year, he's not running for anything. Rudy Giuliani, on the other hand, is running for the White House. And on the subject of his $8 million speaking bonanza in 2002 alone, the Post said nothing. The Post's John Solomon... more Posted on February 23, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	The Plane Truth: Private Jet-Setter Hannity Attacks Gore On Sunday night, Sean Hannity will unveil his latest smear campaign against Al Gore. Hoping to portray the Oscar and Nobel-nominated Gore as a "Gulfstream Liberal," the Hannity's America hit segment will try to paint the former Vice President as a private jet flying, carbon-burning, global warming machine. And Sean Hannity should know. After all, when it comes to hypocrisy over extravagant travel on private aircraft, Hannity is the master of hot air. In 2004, Hannity racked up the private... more Posted on February 18, 2007 \| Comments (20)

	Sam Seder's Clinton Complex If today's performance by Sam Seder is any indication, the future of post-Al Franken Air America is bleak indeed. During a discussion of Iraq war profiteering of Bush/Cheney-linked firms such as Halliburton and Bechtel, Seder launched a surreal diatribe against Bill Clinton. Entertaining a caller's assertion that President Clinton was a major Halliburton shareholder, Seder attacked Clinton's own "low grade wars" of the 1990's. The implication is that Clinton somehow filled and dined at the same war-time corporate trough now... more Posted on February 16, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Flashback: Snickers Ad Slanders Cleveland The controversy over the ill-conceived and arguably homophobic Snickers Super Bowl ad continues to simmer for its parent company Masterfoods. AmericaBlog reports that Masterfoods is in "full crisis mode" over the spot and that "heads will roll" to ensure that Snickers marketing never again insults large swaths of the American public. But sadly, Snickers is a repeat offender. Just ask fans of the Cleveland Browns. In 1996, Snickers rolled out is "Not Going Anywhere for a While?" campaign including a... more Posted on February 8, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, Emboldened Enemy Edition The building bipartisan opposition to the President's proposed troop surge in Iraq and the crickets-chirping reception to Bush's abysmal State of the Union address have led to another dramatic shake-up in the list of Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. The President's hard-charging counterattack has moved two right-wing talking points up the charts. The new #1 is the thrashing "Embolden the Enemy," performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Robert Gates and Tony Snow, with guest vocals from Joe Lieberman. Jumping all... more Posted on February 1, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	My Conversation with Al Franken In an AP story Wednesday, a Democratic official confirms that Air America headliner Al Franken is in fact entering the 2008 Minnesota senate race against Republican Norm Coleman. Hopefully, the comedian turned Senate candidate can deliver some comeuppance to Coleman, who said of his late predecessor in 2003, "I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone." In honor of his looming campaign, Perrspectives take a look back at my May 2005 interview of Al Franken...... more Posted on February 1, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Understanding the White House's Iraq Vocabulary While a fierce battle over President Bush's "new way forward" in Iraq is being joined in the halls of Congress, an even more ferocious war of words is taking place to win the hearts and minds of the American people. Among Democrats, Republicans and the media at large, a rhetorical conflict to control the marketing of the Bush message on Iraq is well underway. From almost the moment the Iraq Study Group report landed with a thud on the President's... more Posted on January 15, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Brownback on the Red-Blue Divide In its December 18th issue, the New Republic offers a window into the soul of Kansas Republican Senator and 2008 White House hopeful Sam Brownback. Tracing Brownback's dual conversions from small government Gingrich acolyte to red meat culture warrior and from devout evangelical to Catholic firebrand, TNR ponders his presidential prospects. But Brownback's' new found extremism aside, the most illuminating nugget in Noam Scheiber's piece may be the themes of victimization and inferiority that underlay the rage and seething of... more Posted on December 26, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Flashback: Rumsfeld Celebrated, Aspin Slandered As he exits the Pentagon stage, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shows once again that for the Bush White House, nothing succeeds like failure. In an elaborate ceremony carried live on all the cable news networks, President Bush and Vice President Cheney feted the disgraced Defense Secretary with glowing words, military pomp and even a 19 gun salute. "This man knows how to lead and he did," Bush declared, "and the country is better off for it." But while... more Posted on December 15, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	GOP Quotes of the Week, Iraq Chaos Edition Just weeks removed from their midterm calamity, the leading lights of the right continue to suffer from rhetorical destruction. The entropy in Baghdad, the looming report of the Iraq Study Group and the last throes of a rudderless Bush administration have produced yet another bumper crop of classic Conservative Quotes of the Week: "We've been in this phase [in Iraq] for a while." President Bush, November 28, 2006. "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to... more Posted on December 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	MSNBC's Shuster Talks, Eats Trash As regular readers can attest, Perrspectives usually (though not always) comes down squarely on the blue side of the national political divide. But when it comes to Ohio State-Michigan, the most intense rivalry in sports, I always back the red state, or more accurately, the Scarlet and Gray. Which is why for this one day, I'll enjoy the lesson in humility meted out to MSNBC White House correspondent David Shuster. On Friday, Shuster, a Michigan alum, boldly predicted a Wolverine... more Posted on November 19, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Jim Webb and the Pornographers of the Right With the truth about his neo-Confederate proclivities and stock swindles putting his Virginia Senate reelection bid in doubt, Republican George Allen turned to fiction to smear his opponent, Vietnam War hero Jim Webb. Citing disturbing content from Webb's combat novels (one of which, "Fields of Fire," appears on the Marine Corps' recommended reading list), Allen and his amen corner have implied that Webb is a misogynist, pedophile or worse. As it turns out, poorly crafted, soft-core pornography seems to be... more Posted on October 29, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Republican Quotes of the Week The Republican implosion over Iraq, the Foley scandal and the North Korean nuclear crisis has produced yet anothe bumper crop of conservative quotes, quips and catastrophes. A small sampling from the talking heads of the right: "He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace, October 19, 2006. "House Democrats plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes, and minimize penalties for crack... more Posted on October 20, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, FoleyGate Edition The last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side. Soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert now has three smash hits at the top of the charts. Hastert's hard-rocking cut "(Democrats) Pamper the Terrorists" from... more Posted on October 19, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	George Allen Not Kosher Virginia Senator George Allen has once again confirmed the wisdom of the old aphorism that when stuck in a hole, stop digging. Just days after the "Macacagate" episode highlighted Allen's neo-Confederate proclivities, his ham-handed response to revelations of his Jewish ancestry put Allen in hot water. During his September 18 debate with Democrat Jim Webb, a bitter Allen reacted angrily to reporter Peggy Fox's question about his Jewish roots. Perhaps sensing that stories of his grandfather (and namesake) Felix' Jewish... more Posted on September 20, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	A Look Back: 9/11 and the Culture of Grief On this the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Defense once again organized the "Freedom Walk" 9/11 commemorative march to the Pentagon. But as I wrote last year in "9/11 and the Culture of Grief," this and other ritualistic displays of grief and remembrance reflect the new mass cultural experience of participatory mourning in the United States. And for a nation engaged in a global war with Al Qaeda, the American culture of grief is not... more Posted on September 10, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Right Wins Again: ABCs "9/11" and CBS's "Reagans" Despite the growing outcry over its conservative 9/11 historical fiction packaged as fact, ABC is proceeding full speed ahead with this weekend's "Path to 9/11." The contrast with CBS' 2003 capitulation over its controversial mini-series "The Reagans" could not be more stark. The only similarity is both networks' kowtowing to the pressure and the agenda of the right. As you may recall, CBS planned to air "The Reagans" biopic in November of 2003. But the dramatization's portrayal of the Gipper... more Posted on September 6, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	ABC Slams New Iraq Documentary, Ignores Own 9/11 Right-Wing Fantasy With this weekend's upcoming mockumentary "The Path to 9/11," Disney and ABC are breaking dangerous new ground in the conservative propaganda war. Even as the ABC network follows in the footsteps of Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ in "mobilizing the base," ABC News on Sunday declared Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" a left-wing hatchet job "produced like a political campaign." A pre-election salvo designed to pin the blame for the September 11... more Posted on September 5, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Warren Jeffs, Tucker Carlson and Conservatives' Uses of Polygamy With the arrest of fugitive polygamist Warren Jeffs, conservatives have once again returned to one of their favorite lines of attack against same-sex marriage rights. As Tucker Carlson put it during his September 1st MSNBC show, "I'm merely asking the obvious question, why not get rid of the discrimination against polygamists too?" Call it the right's "Marriage Slippery Slope" argument. For proponents such as Carlson, Senator Rick Santorum ("man-on-dog"), Senator John Cornyn ("man on box turtle") and columnist Charles Krauthammer,... more Posted on September 5, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Burns, Bolton and Steele The Avenging Angel, punisher of the rascals of the right, had yet another busy week delivering payback. Out in Big Sky country, GOP Montana Senator Conrad Burns found himself in hot water this week for insulting firefighters who had been battling blazes in his state. In the midst of a tough reelection bid against Democrat and rancher John Tester, Burns heaped scorn on the visiting Augusta Hotshots from Virginia, telling them they had "done a poor job" and "should have... more Posted on July 30, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Leavitt Latest GOP Miscreant Bush Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt headlines another week of wrongdoing by the miscreants of the right. The HHS chief earned the wrath of the Avenging Angel this week for proving that charity does indeed begin at home. Bush's go-to man on blocking the morning after pill used a non-profit foundation to enrich himself and family members. With Senators clamoring for the IRS to close the "Leavitt loophole," the HHS head may have to turn to Plan B.... more Posted on July 23, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	New Web Resources for Progressives The Perrspectives Resource Center has just been expanded with updated news, magazines, blogs, election information, data sources, polls, think tanks and other tools for Democrats and progressives of all stripes. The Resource Center also features a document library including the latest news, reports, legal documents and other essential materials for a host of Bush administration and Republican scandals. NSA domestic spying, the Valerie Plame affair, Iraq WMD intelligence manipulation, Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay, it's all there. Visit the Resource... more Posted on July 10, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Rush Limbaugh June has been a busy month for the Avenging Angel, smiter of conservative miscreants. The fun and frolic starts with Rush Limbaugh, the face of right wing radio and prescription drug fraud. On Monday, Rush once again ran afoul of the law over his pill predilection. Only weeks after doing a deal over charges of doctor shopping for the painkiller oxycontin, Limbaugh was stopped at the Miami airport for possession of Viagra without a prescription. Like Bob Dole before him,... more Posted on June 26, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, Cut & Run Edition The past two weeks have seen a changing of the guard atop the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites list. With the contentious Congressional debate over the path forward in Iraq, the fire and brimstone Republican smash hit "Cut and Run" vaulted to the top of the charts. Performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman and John Boehner with a chorus of hundreds on Capitol Hill, "Cut and Run" easily outpaced the new #2, "No Civil Liberties (When... more Posted on June 25, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Trailer Trash at Fox News There's an old, mean-spirited joke that tornados represent divine retribution against trailer parks. If so, then Fox News is in danger of losing members of its key demographic, according to Fox News host and political contributor Cal Thomas. Appearing on Fox New Watch this weekend, Thomas had this to say about the turmoil at rival MSNBC and his own network: "All of them are trying to copy FOX News now to be honest. Many of them are doing tabloid, more... more Posted on June 19, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's Amazing Gracelessness In the Bible, Jesus cured the blind. In a bizarre White House Rose Garden press conference yesterday, President Bush chose to taunt them instead. During a rambling session with reporters following his Baghdad pop-in, Bush chided Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten for wearing sunglasses during the press conference: THE PRESIDENT: Are you going to ask that question with shades on? WALLSTEN: I can take them off. THE PRESIDENT: I'm interested in the shade look, seriously. WALLSTEN: All right, I'll... more Posted on June 15, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Ann Coulter and Conservatism's Continuum of Hate On the House floor Thursday, Democratic Congressman Rahm Emmanuel threw down the gauntlet and challenged his GOP colleagues to repudiate the bilious words of Ann Coulter. But as should be clear by now, they simply can't. Whether the issue concerns gay Americans, 9/11, abortion, judicial appointments or political corruption, a seamless continuum of hate runs from today's governing conservatism through to its most extreme proponents. And that means the Congressional GOP differs only in degree - not in kind -... more Posted on June 9, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Reagan and Bush in the Age of AIDS PBS this week aired "The Age of AIDS," perhaps the most powerful and devastating documentary on American television in years. The two part, four-hour special featured interviews and history from six continents and over a dozen countries detailing the path, the politics and the pain of 25 years of the AIDS pandemic. Perhaps the most disturbing thread running through "The Age of AIDS" is the myopic complicity of the American radical right in the needless death and suffering of thousands... more Posted on June 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Gonzales: Reporters Fair Game On Sunday, the cancer of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency continued to metastasize. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared that journalists can and should be prosecuted for publishing stories involving classified national security information. "There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws." The Attorney General also made it clear that the... more Posted on May 21, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Final Word on Snow's Slur Last week, White House press secretary Tony Snow used his virgin press briefing to reintroduce the racial slur "tar baby" back into the vernacular. But while an unrepentant Snow attacked his critics as "unfamiliar with the pathways of American culture," it would appear that eBay offers a clear picture as to why Random House suggests "avoiding the use of the term in any context." As it turns out, an eBay seller by the name of "Our Southern Collectibles" offers Tar... more Posted on May 21, 2006 \| Comments (9)

	No Comfort for Bush on the Economy Nothing seems to frustrate the White House and the Republican leadership more than their abysmal poll numbers on the economy at a time of booming GDP and a resurgent job market. It is, they claim, all about the war. But as I wrote in the "Bush League Economy," the issue for the President and the GOP isn't the Iraq war overshadowing a robust economy, but the growing insecurity most Americans experience daily with surging energy prices, spiraling health care costs,... more Posted on May 19, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Snow White During his virgin White House briefing today, new press spokesman Tony Snow reverted to his Fox News roots with his casual use of a racial slur. But in referring to a thorny question regarding President Bush's illegal NSA domestic spying programs as a "tar baby," Snow is just the latest conservative to show why the Republican outreach effort to African-Americans seems doomed to fail. Consider, for example, President Bush's own campaign to woo black voters during his calamitous campaign to... more Posted on May 16, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Poll: Double Win for Bush on NSA Phone Records A new poll from the Washington Post suggests that the President Bush may be winning a double victory with his illegal NSA domestic surveillance programs. Americans seem willing to buy the White House's "tough on terrorism" hype at the expense of the law and their own civil liberties. And as an added ironic bonus, the President gets another opportunity to decry leaks that supposedly jeopardize national security. Surprisingly, the poll data show Americans even more content with revelations over government... more Posted on May 12, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Life Imitates Art: Lynne and Mary Cheney Write Books Washington is all abuzz about the new book from Mary Cheney, "Now It's My Turn." But while bloggers and gay rights activists ponder the question of Mary Cheney's lesbian self-loathing in her father's Republican Party, another epic tale of forbidden love from the Cheney family has largely been forgotten. Back in 1981, Mary's mother Lynne Cheney published "Sisters," a tale of two women's hard lives and unspoken love in the Old West. The Second Lady showed could she could write... more Posted on May 8, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Malkin Rages Over "Los Rangers" One day after Cinco de Mayo, the puerile Michelle Malkin was once again on the culture warpath. The target of her outrage this time? Baseball's Texas Rangers, who donned uniforms on Friday bearing the text "Los Rangers." While I'm no supporter of the Rangers pandering to their growing Hispanic fan base, I find the virtriol and venom that Malkin and her fellow travellers offer over the jersey episode both fatiguing and ironic. After all, a previous owner of the Texas... more Posted on May 7, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hot Tubs, Trial Lawyers and Republicans One of the Right's favorite bogeymen is the trial lawyers, the ambulance chasers supposedly behind skyrocketing health care costs and bankrolling the Democratic Party. But as Bush family consigliere James Baker III showed once again on the Larry King show last night, Republicans are just fine with trial lawyers when they need one. Baker and his daughter-in-law Nancy used the CNN setting to tell the story of the tragic death of his 7-year old granddaughter Graham, who drowned in a... more Posted on May 3, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bitter Pills for Crawford, Limbaugh It was a mixed week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants. Two evil doers of the right, Lester Crawford and Rush Limbaugh, found themselves in trouble this week for doing bad things with prescription pills. Sadly, only one faces the prospect of true justice. Dr. Crawford, the former head of the Bush FDA, faces a criminal inquiry for financial misdeeds and lying to Congress. Last fall, Crawford, a vet by training and a friend of big Pharma, reneged... more Posted on April 30, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Snow Day in Washington As widely predicted, President Bush on Wednesday officially named Fox News regular Tony Snow White House press secretary to replace the departing Scott McClellan. Putting a card-carrying member of his conservative amen corner in front of the press may signal Bush's willingness to circle the wagons at the White House or to play to his base. As for the Dana Milbank of the Washington Post got it about right in his analysis on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last week: "I'm... more Posted on April 26, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Scott McClellan's Greatest Hits White House press secretary Scott McClellan made it official today, tearfully announcing his resignation. McClellan's was a long overdue and merciful act of political euthanasia, ending what one analyst last year deemed "a persistent vegetative state." McClellan's sublime ignorance, awkward dissembling and limitless ability to take a punch made him the perfect mouthpiece for the scandal-ridden Bush White House. His rumored replacements, including Fox News anchor Tony Snow and one-time Iraq coalition provisional authority shill Dan Senor, simply don't offer... more Posted on April 19, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP's Pulitzer Prize Winning Scandals The 2006 Pulitzer Prize awards were announced today in New York. If there is one common attribute many of the winners share, it is holding up a mirror to the scandals and corruption of the Bush administration and his Republican Party. The Pultzter Board recognized coverage of a broad range of Republican fraud, deceit and skullduggery, including the NSA domestic spying program, the CIA's secret prisons and the Jack Abramoff scandal, just to name a few. For example, Susan Schmidt,... more Posted on April 17, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The PlameGate Leak Resource Center As the scandal grows surrounding President Bush's leak of classified national security information to discredit administration critics, you can track all of the latest news, legal filings, statues, timelines and other key documents. Just visit: The Perrspectives PlameGate Scandal Resource Center.... more Posted on April 11, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Perrspectives in the News With the revelations regarding President Bush's authorization to leak classified national security information and the resignation of Tom Delay, it's been a busy time in the liberal blogosphere. Increasingly, Perrspectives content is part of the coverage. Over at Air America Radio, the Randi Rhodes Show used the occasion of the Delay announcement to run in full my September piece about rampant GOP corruption, "Banana Republicans." The following day, her show also featured a link to the Perrspectives Plame/CIA Leak Scandal... more Posted on April 10, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	GOP Cornered by Bush Leak That President Bush authorized Scooter Libby to selectively leak portions of the highly classified October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate as part of a coordinated assault on Joseph Wilson and other debunkers of pre-war Iraq WMD claims should come as a surprise to no one. What is surprising is that at least one Republican has the courage and the honesty to acknowledge the hypocrisy and shamelessness of a President now revealed as "leaker-in-chief." Representative Ray Lahood, an Illinois Republican and staunch... more Posted on April 7, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	A Conversation with Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga Jerome Armstrong (founder of MyDD) and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (of DailyKos fame) are bringing their "Crashing the Gate" book tour to my home town of Portland. Their PDX itinerary on April 9th and 10th concludes with an event Monday evening to help Rob Brading unseat Oregon House Speaker Karen Minnis. Earlier this week, I had chance to catch up with Jerome and Markos in advance of their upcoming Portland trip. We discussed their book, the state of the Democratic Party... more Posted on April 5, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Brand W and the Midterm Elections Facing dismal poll ratings and the potential loss of both the House and Senate, the Republican National Committee appears set with its 2006 mid-term election strategy. Call it "Brand W." That is the central message in a memo from GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen to RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. Acknowledging the GOP's current challenges, van Lohuizen says the key to maintaining Republican control of Congress is reenergizing and mobilizing the Party's dispirited base. To do that, the memo claims, the... more Posted on March 29, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Abdul Rahman and the Death of the Bush Doctrine Neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol once famously said, a neoconservative is "a liberal who's been mugged by reality." Now the once-preening adherents of the Bush Doctrine are being beaten and battered by events on the ground. First came the Sharia-influenced constitution and sectarian violence in Iraq and the Hamas government in Palestine. With the possible execution of Christian convert Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, neo-conservatives' faith in democracy promotion in the Middle East is falling victim to their own much-hyped law... more Posted on March 25, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Republican Mind: Don't Worry, Be Happy These may be dark times for President Bush and the GOP, but Republicans are happy. Or at least happier than Democrats. That's the unsurprising conclusion of the annual survey of American happiness ("Are We Happy Yet?") by the Pew Research Center. Just as predictably, conservatives like George Will are happier still about what they see as vindication for their blighted ideology. On this as on so many other topics, Will has the morality play utterly backwards. But first a little... more Posted on March 23, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	The Top 10 GOP Sound Bites: Iraq Anniversary Edition This weekend's third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq brought another shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites List. Catapulting to #4 is the new White House medley, "We're Makin' Progress", performed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and General George Casey. Still topping the charts is the hard rocking smash hit, George W. Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program." Coming in a close second is Scott McClellan's lyrical magic, "Ongoing Investigation." Another cut from that same broken record, Karl... more Posted on March 20, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Polygamy and the War on Gay Americans With its sympathetic portrait of a polygamous family, the new HBO series "Big Love," is helping to heat up the culture war. The show has been the fodder of a Newsweek feature on the polygamy rights movement, complete with headlines such as "Polygamists Unite!" For conservative stalwarts like Charles Krauthammer and Rick Santorum, "Big Love" is ammunition and seeming validation for their claim that same-sex marriage leads directly to legalized polygamy, incest and bestiality. As usual, the culture warriors have... more Posted on March 17, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Bush's Humor: The Joke Is On Us A sense of humor has always been an invaluable tool for presidents. Self-deprecating humor helped endear John F. Kennedy to the press and allowed Ronald Reagan to disarm his critics. But for George W. Bush, humor provides only a occasional glimpse of the truth and a rare window into the dark soul of a man who apparently views his fellow citizens with disdain. President Bush's performance Saturday at the Gridiron Club was no exception. Bush used the roast last night... more Posted on March 12, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	CPAC 2006: Republican Party Animals Just in time for Lincoln's birthday, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will arrive in Washington. Next Thursday, February 9th, hundreds of right-wing activists, high-profile Republican politicians and conservative groups of all stripes will descend on the capital to give lie to the Great Emancipator's words, "with malice toward none; with charity for all." The CPAC 2006 speakers include Vice President Cheney, whose scheduled remarks are said to include a primer on Senate floor etiquette. UN Ambassador John Bolton... more Posted on February 2, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Jeff Gannon Meets the 82nd Airborne This past week has been among the most instructive in the annals of the Pentagon's inexcusable "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Among the lessons learned: while the American military has no place for soldiers who pose on gay web sites, the Bush White House press corps is another matter altogether. On Wednesday, the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military released Pentagon figures estimating that 10,000 gay servicemen and women were discharged from the U.S. armed forces... more Posted on January 27, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Branding the NSA Domestic Spying Scandal As part of its all-out campaign to defend its indefensible illegal domestic wiretapping program, the Bush administration is turning to one of its tried and true marketing techniques - branding. The product? The "Terrorist Surveillance Program." In speeches this week, President Bush, former NSA program manager Air Force General Michael Hayden and other White House surrogates will toe the party line and refer to the "terrorist surveillance program." To support the new GOP talking points, the White House web site... more Posted on January 24, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Ralph Reed: Abramoff Crony and Fox News Scandal Analyst Fox News has nothing if not, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright might say, "cojones." Perhaps never more so than on Sunday, when its Big Story Primetime show featured Republican lobbyist and strategist Ralph Reed offering analysis on the Jack Abramoff scandal: 1:00am Big Story Primetime Abramoff Ripple Effect? Republican strategist Ralph Reed speaks out on the wide-spread impact of the disgraced lobbyist's scandal. Who better that Reed to provide insight and context into the exploding Republican scandals on... more Posted on January 16, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Brokebush Mountain The new Ang Lee film Brokeback Mountain may be one of the most powerful love stories brought to theaters in recent years. It would also appear to be among the most successful at the box office, with the highest per screen take of any film in the United States during the past week. The "gay cowboy" film is also causing predictable consternation among the family values crowd. On Fox News, host Stuart Varney worried that the film would make "explicit"... more Posted on December 30, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Wisdom of Sports Night The big three television networks rarely have much wisdom to offer American viewers, especially regarding the major issues of the day. But there are exceptions to the rule, as I discovered watching a DVD of the late 90�s ABC series, Sports Night. Sports Night, by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, was a comedic drama portraying the cast and team behind a nightly national sports program akin to ESPN Sportscenter. In an episode titled "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee," the... more Posted on December 3, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Avenging Angel Smites Schmidt, Woodward It's been a very busy week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants. Last week, Bob Woodward, the famed Watergate reporter, confirmed that he sold his soul to the devil. First, Woodward penned two Bush hagiographies in exchange for exclusive access to the White House. Now it it turns out that Woodward, who on October 27th dismissed the CIA leak case as "gossip" and chided Patrick Fitzgerald as a "bull-dog", himself was told of Valerie Plame's identity in June... more Posted on November 22, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Top 10 GOP Sound Bites: Rewriting History Edition The past week has seen another shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites. After the President's shameless Veterans Day speech, the smash hit "Rewriting History", performed by George Bush, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, jumped to the top of the charts. Kay Bailey Hutchison's ode to Scooter Libby, "No Underlying Crime," dropped two places to #3, while Scott McClellan's ballad "Ongoing Investigation" held firm at #2. For the first time since January 2002, George... more Posted on November 14, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Hard Liners, Soft Porn One of most ironic - and enjoyable - side stories of the CIA Leak/PlameGate investigation has been the discovery of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trashy 2001 novel, "The Apprentice." As the New Yorker describes at length, Libby, the right-hand man for staunchly conservative Vice President Dick Cheney, seemed quite comfortable writing about prostitution, deviant sexual acts and bestiality in his bizarre coming of age tale set in 1903 Japan. No doubt Libby's "man-on-deer" and "bear-on-girl" forbidden love scenes would make Rick... more Posted on November 10, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	The Last Abortion Clinic Just as the Senate prepares to begin the confirmation process for staunchly anti-choice nominee Sam Alito, the PBS series Frontline aired a powerful and important documentary on the latest developments in the war over reproductive rights. The segment, "The Last Abortion Clinic", was a sobering assessment for pro-choice advocates. Frontline charted the growing strength - and success - of the anti-choice movement in Mississippi from the 1973 Roe v Wade decision through the present day. Constantly testing the "undue burden"... more Posted on November 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	God and The Man at the Air Force Academy While the American military is bravely defending our freedoms and values abroad, the Air Force Academy is undermining them at home. Only weeks after the Academy acknowledged its hostile religious atmosphere and inappropriate born-again evangelization, Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry added racial stereotyping to its woes. Following his team's loss to TCU last week, DeBerry attributed his opponent's success to the 11 African-Americans fielded on the defensive side of the ball. TCU, DeBerry said: "...had a lot more African-American... more Posted on October 26, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Predicting the Democrats' Slogan in '06 The Hill is reporting that the Democratic Party may have settled on a slogan for the 2006 mid-term elections. The Democratic tag line being explored is "Together, America Can Do Better" or "Together We Can Do Better." Even at this early date, I can say that I wholeheartedly approve. Why? Because I suggested the exact same slogan to the Kerry campaign on July 14, 2004. In a memo titled "The Pessimism Gap", I argued over a year ago that the... more Posted on October 25, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	What the President Knew and When He Knew It President Bush, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, has some 'splaining to do. Thanks to a piece in the New York Daily News, we now know the President's claims throughout the fall of 2003 that he had no knowledge of the identity of the Valerie Plame leaker are simply untrue. The article ("Bush Whacked Rove on CIA Leak") cites White House sources who describe a furious George W. Bush dressing down Rove in September 2003 for his role in the... more Posted on October 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Fox in the Hen House One of the recurring themes at Perrspectives is the growing Achilles Heel of the conservative movement. Dormant for two presidential elections, the yawning chasm between economic and social conservatives is reemerging, and with it, a serious threat to the Republicans' majority status. In the wake of its Schiavo disaster and the revolt over the Harriet Miers nomination, conservatives are coming to blows yet again. This time, the battleground is television content. The family values merchants at the Parents Television Council... more Posted on October 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Tom Delay's Media War Anyone who thought indicted Congressman Tom Delay would pass quietly into the night learned otherwise this week. The former House Majority Leader unleashed a full-scale assault against Travis County DA Ronnie Earle in court, on television and on the Internet. In so doing, Delay showed he is both ethically-challenged and media savvy. The legal challenges came as a surprise to no one. Delay's attorney Dick DeGuerin began by filing a motion to dismiss the case against his client. Ronnie Earle... more Posted on October 15, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Stirling Work on the Delay Case Over the last several months, Perrspectives has amassed a large and growing document library regarding Tom Delay and his laundry list of scandals. One of the most important additions to the Tom Delay Scandal Document Center comes from Stirling Newberry of Blogging the President. Over at BOP and in a post at DailyKos, Newberry has unearthed a treasure trove of memos, emails and other correspondence involving Delay's TRMPAC, Texas legislators, Texas Republican contributors, and the Hammer's own staff. Last week,... more Posted on October 6, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	On W's Words of Wisdom President Bush' s struggles with his mother tongue are legendary. Collections and analyses of "Bushisms" even predate his ascendence to the White House. But in defending his refusal to meet with grieving Iraq war mother Cindy Sheehan, George W. Bush reached a new plateau of verbal incontinence: "But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job. And I think it's important for... more Posted on August 14, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	The Cindy Sheehan Rorschach Test The vigil of Cindy Sheehan outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch has come to embody all the anger and division of the increasingly counterproductive American debate over Iraq. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, says she wants to meet again with President Bush to ask him, "why did you kill my son?" But while she is lionized by the left and vilified by the right, Washington fiddles and Baghdad burns. The reaction to Sheehan by the Bush White... more Posted on August 10, 2005 \| Comments (25)

	The Global War on Error In a rhetorical shift last week, the Bush administration unveiled a new name for its worldwide war against an abstraction. The old moniker "Global War on Terror" (or GWOT) has been exchanged for the new label, the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" (or G-SAVE). The results for America and the world, sadly, will be the same. This is not a case, as Shakespeare might have said, of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet. The United States is... more Posted on August 1, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Turd Blossom Tournament Ends Wednesday! This is a last reminder that Perrspectives' own Karl Rove Whack-a-Mole Contest ends on Thursday, August 3rd. While the grand jury may not issue any indictments for months, you can be Karl Rove's judge and jury today. Just sentence Rove for his outrageous crimes and you could win an Apple iPod Shuffle or other great prizes. This is one time when justice delayed doesn't have to be justice denied. Enter today!... more Posted on July 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Top 10 Bush Sound Bites With the Karl Rove PlameGate scandal now in high gear, the Bush White House and the GOP leadership as usual have everyone singing the same tune. Over the last three weeks, their latest smash sound bite hit, "Don't Prejudge An Ongoing Investigation", has jumped to the top of the charts: Click here for performances of "Ongoing Investigation" by President Bush, Scott McClellan, and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.... more Posted on July 27, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	The Plot Thickens It's amazing what a difference a day makes. On Friday morning, Republicans proclaimed Karl Rove's exhonoration in the PlameGate affair, after a source close to investigation claimed that it was columnist Robert Novak who informed Karl Rove of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, and not visa versa. But RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman's gloating notwithstanding, the mountain of evidence continues to build against Rove and the Bush White House. By Friday afternoon, a New York Times article revealed the existence of... more Posted on July 17, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	The Goldberg 100 List Alternative Right-wing media hatchet man and former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg is shilling his latest tome of venomous conservative rage, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37). In it, Goldberg aims to protect American culture from the likes of supposed liberal icons such as Michael Moore, Jimmy Carter, Barbara Streisand and more. While Goldberg has already been definitively bitch-slapped by the likes of Al Franken and Jon Stewart, the Avenging Angel is only too happy... more Posted on July 16, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	McClellan in a Persistent Vegetative State? Over the past several months, some of the most insightful commentary and current events has come from Don Asmussen's Bad Reporter political cartoons. His July 13 contribution on the Karl Rove affair is no exception: "GOP: McClellan Not Stonewalling, He's In Persistent Vegetative State." Bad Reporter, which appears twice a week in the San Francisco Chronicle, is brutally direct, often offensive and consistently irreverent. A sampling of some of his best this year touch on the biggest stories of 2005,... more Posted on July 15, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Rove-Plame Scandal Document Library The Perrspectives Document Library has been expanded to include background articles and documents on the Karl Rove outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The Rove documents include the original Joseph Wilson New York Times op-ed, Robert Novak's column outing Wilson's wife Valerie Plame and key 2003 White House press briefings by Scott McClellan and President Bush. The Library also features key 2003 and 2005 articles on the scandal, as well as a timeline of entire affair. For future reference, links... more Posted on July 12, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Rove Defense: No Controlling Legal Authority Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has just published a damning article clearly identifying Karl Rove as Time journalist Matt Cooper's source in the Valerie Plame CIA outing case. Isikoff does more than use Cooper's email threads to show that Rove was in fact Cooper's "double super secret" source. His Newsweek piece reveals the outlines of the coming Rove defense. For Democrats still smarting from Al Gore's pounding in the Buddhist temple fundraising scandal, it is a hauntingly familiar: "No Controlling Legal Authority."... more Posted on July 10, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Karl Rove Whack-a-Mole Contest Ever feel like there?s no justice? While the New York Times? Judith Miller sits in jail for protecting the identity of the Valerie Plame turncoat, Bush White House grand inquisitor and likely leaker Karl Rove remains at large. That?s why you need to play Karl Rove Whack-a-Mole, the Perrspectives contest that lets you be Karl Rove?s judge and jury (though not executioner). How to Play The contest is simple. You get to sentence Karl Rove for his crimes; the best... more Posted on July 7, 2005 \| Comments (49)

	A Wink and a Nod: Bush on the Plame Scandal Now that things are heating up once again in the Valerie Plame CIA outing case, it is worth turning back the clock and remembering President Bush's take on the scandal. During his October 7, 2003 Cabinet meeting, George W. Bush, the same man who as presidential candidate who promised to "uphold the honor and dignity of the office" had this to say about the despicable act of treason committed by his White House: "Well, the investigators will ask our staff... more Posted on July 2, 2005 \| Comments (11)

	A Guide to the Bush Address on Iraq On Tuesday night, President Bush will take to the stage at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in a nationally televised address aimed at rebuilding public support for the war in Iraq. And well he should. Recent polls (from Gallup and Rasmussen, respectively) show that only 39% of Americans approve of the war in Iraq and that more people in the United States blame Bush (49%) than Saddam (44%) for the conflict. The torrent of revelations in 2002 pre-war British documents confirm... more Posted on June 27, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Did Editor & Publisher Plagiarize Perrspectives? Question: What would be more ironic than George W. Bush's 2000 promise to to "uphold the honor and dignity" of the White House? Answer: For Editor & Publisher magazine, "America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry", to publish a column possibly plagiarized from a one-year old blog. That may be exactly what has happened to Perrspectives. On Monday, June 20, 2005, Perrspectives published a piece titled "DC Dick and Baghdad Bob", comparing the Dick Cheney's statements on Iraq to those... more Posted on June 24, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Bush on Iraq: That Was Then, This Is Now The Downing Street Memo and a host of new British documents are increasingly focusing national attention on the duplicity and incompetence of President Bush�s Iraq war planning. With criticism building, poll numbers plummeting and facing defections from his own party, the President used today�s weekly radio address to begin a new PR offensive to bolster support for Iraq policies. If that performance is any indication, George Bush has moved from profound deception and deep denial to outright fantasy. In one... more Posted on June 19, 2005 \| Comments (16)

	Bill O'Reilly's Videogate Over the years, Fox's Bill O'Reilly has accumulated an impressive record of distortions, lies, and even falafel lust. Now, it would seem, he's finally committed what should be a firing offense, even for Fox. Less than a year after savaging Dan Rather over his use of dubious documents in the Bush National Guard case, The O'Reilly Factor massively - and without disclosure - doctored video to distort comments by Senator Joe Biden. As reported on The Al Franken Show, O'Reilly... more Posted on June 8, 2005 \| Comments (59)

	The Great Pretender The truth, the saying goes, will set you free. Not so for Massachusetts governor and certain 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In this week's National Review, Michael Murphy (Romney's version of Karl Rove) for once offered veracity to the public. About Mitt, Murphy said, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." As a former resident of the Bay State, I can attest to the truthfulness of Murphy's admission and to the dissembling of his recantation.... more Posted on June 3, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Deep Throat Irony Watch: Linda Tripp Edition As I wrote yesterday in "Gagging on Deep Throat", the mouthpieces of the conservative ascendancy have had two predictable responses to the revelation that former FBI #2 man Mark Felt was Watergate's "Deep Throat." First, they rushed to Nixon's defense, seeking to rewrite history by calling his crimes no different in kind or degree than those supposedly committed by Kennedy, Johnson or Clinton, and his downfall the result of the perfidy of liberal media. (More on this topic in a... more Posted on June 2, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	Bob Woodward Comes Clean Bob Woodward has just published in the Washington Post an account of how the FBI's #2 man Mark Felt became Deep Throat. A key sound bite from Woodward's account, "There is little doubt Felt thought the Nixon team were Nazis." For more on the demonization of Mark Felt by both Nixon and Bush apologists, see "Gagging on Deep Throat."... more Posted on June 2, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Gagging on Deep Throat Karl Marx once remarked that historical events occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. When it comes to the scandal machines in the Nixon and Bush administrations, he could not have been more wrong. The reactions of Nixon contemporaries and today's Bush sycophants to yesterday's Deep Throat revelations are predictably - and eerily - similar. But the Bush team's own overt war against anonymous single sources and brutal retribution against whistle-blowers is no joke.... more Posted on June 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Conservatives Gone Wild: Powerline Drool Edition In February, Perrspectives reported on (and Wonkette duly noted) the bizarre pubescent spectacle of right wing bloggers publicly drooling over women at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Now, Powerline, of Rathergate fame and supposed "blog of the year", adds its drool to the conservative bucket with its coverage and photos of the Miss Universe contest. And Powerline is not alone in the hormonal raging of the Right, as wingnut utopia Free Republic shows. It's nice to see the conservative... more Posted on May 27, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Paris Hilton and the Right Wing Food Fight The Parents Television Council is taking to the air waves to protest the new Paris Hilton ad campaign from West Coast burger chain Carl's Jr. The controversial and widely viewed ad depicts the vapid and scantily clad Hilton gorging on Carl's burger while performing a masturbatory car wash. But while right-wing watchdogs like PTC's L. Brent Bozell are predictably up in arms over the raunchy and tasteless promo, one aspect of the story has gotten virtually no attention. That is,... more Posted on May 25, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Stem Selling: The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act The momentum of politics and science is now with the Democrats in the battle to drive stem cell research in the United States. This week's announcement by South Korean researchers successfully producing healthy stem cells from the DNA of damaged tissue brought home the danger of the United States losing its leadership in the biotech sector. And new bi-partisan legislation in the House co-sponsored by Mike Castle (R-DE) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) shows that increasing numbers of Congressional Republicans will... more Posted on May 24, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Nuclear Freeze and Bipolar Disorder AP has reported that the Senate 12 have brokered an 11th hour deal to avert a showdown over the nuclear option. The deal announced by Senator John McCain preserves the Democrats right to filibuster, but gives Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor a vote on the Senate floor. If the early blogosphere feedback is any indication, the Right and Left share a common sense of rage and betrayal at the outcome: "Cowards. A Bunch of M-Fing Cowards!!!! "Trust"?... more Posted on May 23, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Separated at Birth Far too much has already been made in the press about perceived parallels between the Bush administration and the new Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith. That much said, on deeper inspection, the similarities between Darth Vader and George W. Bush are striking:... more Posted on May 22, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Yoda Translates George Bush Back in 1983, Star Wars technology became both the inspiration and name for Ronald Reagan's seemingly fantastic (or at least, fantastically expensive) space-based missile defense system. Twenty-two years and a $100 billion later, we still don't know if that system will actually work. But it is easy to imagine advances from a new Star Wars film bringing immediate benefits to the White House and the American people alike. Here is an artist's rendering of Yoda, fresh off his performance... more Posted on May 22, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Single Sorcerers The ongoing Newsweek saga has given the Bush White House and its right wing jihadists what they see as a golden opportunity. Their simple goal is to use the Newsweek case and the Rathergate episode before it to wage a full scale assault on the credibility and objectivity of "mainstream press." In its place, they seek to substitute their own manufactured, alternate reality. Central to this campaign is the assault on media reliance on anonymous, single-sources. As Scott McClellan put... more Posted on May 19, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Newsweek Aftermath: The Bush Mea Culpa Watch As the Bush administration heaps scorn on Newsweek magazine for its Koran desecration story, it's worth remembering the President's own words during his April 13, 2004 press conference last year. Asked to name his biggest mistake, a modest (and incoherent) Bush responded: "I'm sure something will pop into my head here...maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." With the White House and its conservative media goose-steppers pressuring Newsweek for an... more Posted on May 17, 2005 \| Comments (10)

	The Pot Calls the Kettle Irresponsible The Bush administration and their amen corner continue to rain down hellfire on Newsweek magazine for the Koran desecration flap. Scott McClellan called it "irresponsible" and Ohio Representative and Tom Delay crony Bob Ney termed it "criminal." As I cautioned yesterday, the administration would do well not to overplay its hand. The image of the United States around the Muslim world was already deeply tarnished. And American credibility, after Abu Ghraib, Iraq WMD, and too many other instances to list... more Posted on May 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Black Eye for Vicente Fox President Vincente Fox of Mexico did not help himself or President Bush with his comments about African-Americans this weekend. In Puerto Vallarta Friday, Fox declared that, "There's no doubt that Mexican men and women � full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work � are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States." His insensitive remarks come at a sensitive time for Mexican-American relations. George Bush is on the defensive over immigration reform... more Posted on May 16, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	White House Irony Watch: Newsweek Edition The disturbing revelation in Newsweek regarding the desecration of the Koran by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay has gotten more disturbing still. Newsweek now concedes that its single-source story may not be credible and has issued an apology to readers for the violence that claimed 15 lives in Afghanistan and produced fury around the Islamic world. Given the impact of its Periscope story, Newsweek's ethical breach if true is a serious one and, as the Pentagon charges, shockingly irresponsible. But... more Posted on May 16, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Syndicate Perrspectives Content! If you feel the need to be constantly up-to-date with the latest from the Perrspectives Blog, we're pleased to (finally) offer a syndication capability. If you have the "need for feed", click here or just click on the XML button in the right column of Perrspectives Blog page.... more Posted on May 13, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	My Conversation with Al Franken In one of my other incarnations as a contributor to BlueOregon, I had the opportunity to speak with Air America radio host and Democratic personality Al Franken. The piece from BlueOregon follows below, in its entirety: Al Franken came to Portland today in the service of both Air America affiliate AM 620 KPOJ and the Democratic Party of Oregon. In between the two events, Franken squeezed in some media time with local television, print and online journalists (including an ersatz... more Posted on May 11, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Still Doing Evil: Google and Political Speech Almost a year after Perrspectives' run-in with Google, it seems that the Internet giant is continuing to arbitrarily trample on the opinion speech of its advertisers. Apparently, the company whose corporate mantra is "do no evil" is persists in doing just that. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Google has gotten embroiled in the Tom Delay ethic wars. While Google was running an anti-Delay and from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), they refused a virtually identical anti-Nancy Pelosi... more Posted on May 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Pat Roberston's Second Term Agenda On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBN mogul and 700 Club host Pat Robertson offered a short summary of his policy preferences for the second Bush term. The former presidential candidate weighed in across a range of issues concerning God and man. On the raging controversy over the judiciary, Robertson claimed that judges are a greater threat to the United States than Al Qaeda. He stated that only Christians and Jews should be judges and in essence called Supreme... more Posted on May 3, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	McClellan's Murky Math When is a benefit cut not a benefit cut? When does the repeal of planned future tax cuts constitute a tax increase? When White House spokesman and idiot non-savant Scott McClellan says so. The day after the President's press conference announcing his support for the Pozen scheme for Social Security progressive price indexing, McClellan was more than a little touchy. The New York Times, the Washington Post and a host of organizations quickly and correctly concluded that the repackaged Bush... more Posted on May 1, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Secret iPod Playlist The political and entertainment worlds are abuzz with discussion and analysis regarding the contents of President Bush's iPod. The list, released by the White House on Tuesday, reveals a bland and predictable mix of rock classics and country. What is much more interesting - and surprising - are the songs comprising Bush's previously secret playlist. Released only this morning under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Bush's other playlist is said to include: - "Head Like a Hole"... more Posted on April 13, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	Martin Peretz: The New Republican In the April 11th issue of The New Republic, Martin Peretz (�The Politics of Churlishness�) takes liberals to task for what he sees as their inability to show even grudging respect for President Bush�s recent successes in the Middle East. Sadly, Peretz reads too much into the supposed triumph of the Bush Doctrine, while not reading enough into the liberal critique of it. For starters, most liberals, like most Americans, are genuinely pleased with the turn of events in Iraq,... more Posted on April 8, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	A Word from Our Sponsor Now for a moment of shameless self-promotion. If you're at all curious to see where Perrsectives content is appearing online, check out the "Perrspectives in the News" page. From newspapers like The Oregonian and the Philadelphia Daily News and magazines like The Nations and Slate to Atrios and Wonkette, you'll find Perrspectives news, kudos and content.... more Posted on April 8, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Conservative Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry Once again, the conservative punditocracy and blogosphere is learning the painful lesson that the truth does not necessarily set you free. From Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere, the regiments of right-wing venom were all wrong about the much-hyped "GOP Schiavo talking points memo." Over the past 10 days, they called it a fraud, or in Limbaugh's case, a Democratic forgery, all in the hope of a redux of the CBS Memogate affair. Unfortunately for... more Posted on April 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Peabody Envy Among the certainties of today's American conservative movement is the hostility towards objective truth and the scientific method. As I wrote in "The Potemkin President", the Lysenkoism of the Right requires an attack on any finding that runs counter to its policies or ideology. The Right's same fierce denial, it appears, also applies to journalistic and artistic merit. Throughout the conservative blogosphere, foaming-at-the-mouth contrarians like Michelle Malkin and Powerline are up in arms over the Pulitzer prize selections for photography.... more Posted on April 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Potemkin President Among her legacies, Russian Empress Catherine the Great brought the term "Potemkin Village" into the vernacular. It refers to the elaborate villages erected by Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to impress Catherine with her new Crimean conquests. In today's political parlance, the term has become synonymous with the sophisticated facade and the clever ruse - that is, virtually any accomplishment or policy that "appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance." Fast forward two hundred years after the... more Posted on April 4, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	To Err is Texan Three critical points have been almost entirely absent from the media's discussion of the Terri Schiavo affair. I've written about two and others in the blogosphere have done a great job addressing the third: 1. Moral Arguments Favoring the End of Life Support A thorough discussion of the very strong moral arguments in favor of honoring Terri Schiavo's end-of-life request to her husband has been completely missing in the media. For my take, see: "Schiavo, Mill and the Culture of... more Posted on March 21, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Schiavo, Mill and the Culture of Living President Bush often likes to speak of a �culture of life�, a catch phrase that neatly frames his opposition to reproductive choice and stem cell research. The tragic case of Terri Schiavo, now featuring dangerously irresponsible and unprecedented Congressional intervention, is only latest chapter in his conservative playbook. It is high time to end the melodrama of Republican political opportunism and regain control of this debate. Progressives must do this not because we�re �right� or because our position in this... more Posted on March 20, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Bill Frist: Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hide Like death and taxes, you can always count on Bill Frist's hair to perfect and his politics to be opportunistic. His unprecedented and inappropriate meddling in the case of Terri Schiavo is no exception. Tom Delay is using the Schiavo case to distract attention from his imminent ethical implosion. The Republican Party leadership is using the Schiavo tragedy to energize its anti-choice base. In the case of the Senate Majority Leader, he's abusing his medical credentials and flouting his Hippocratic... more Posted on March 19, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	The Myth of the Bush Doctrine These are pretty heady days for the White House and its fellow travelers. In Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia, movements for popular, democratic change seem to rule the day. The wisdom, rightness and prescience of the Bush Doctrine, they say, have been vindicated. In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and his allies are taking credit for the sweeping reform throughout the Middle East. President Bush proclaimed, "Freedom is on the march." The National Review's Rich... more Posted on March 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Team America: Making Lakoff Work for Democrats George Lakoff's advice for Democrats in Don't Think of An Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate continues to be the focus of much discussion within the left-of-center blogosphere. In the last week, while Perrspectives took Lakoff to task, Matthew Yglesias praised Democratic efforts to stop President Bush on Social Security as an example of successful Lakoffian "framing." Meanwhile, Marc Cooper in his book review in The Atlantic thundered against Lakoff's "neuroscientific hooey." And just today, DailyKos has called... more Posted on March 6, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Framed: Lakoff's Dubious Speech Therapy for Democrats In the wake of November?s disaster for Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes have been seeking guidance and comfort in the work of cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff. All the rage among Democrats, his book Don?t Think of An Elephant has introduced the term ?framing? into the daily lexicon of political animals. For devastated Democrats trying to plot their return from the wilderness, Lakoff has taken on almost mythic status. And that?s probably not a good thing. While... more Posted on March 1, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Today's Quiz It's time to take Today's Quiz. The topic: threats to the American way of life. According to conservatives, which of the following is NOT a threat to the American republic? A) Spongebob Squarepants, rumored front-sponge for the gay agenda. B) Buster Baxter, the PBS cartoon bunny who counts Vermont lesbians among his friends. C) Patty Bouvier, Homer Simpson's lesbian sister-in-law involved in the first animated same-sex wedding. D) Jeff Gannon, the gay male prostitute turned GOP operative turned White House... more Posted on February 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Soulmates Kicking off his European tour in Brussels, President Bush took Russian President Vladimir Putin to task for his steps away from democratic reform. Bush bluntly asserted that in order to take its place among the trans-Atlantic community, Russia "must renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law." Clearly, Bush sent his friend a clear warning regarding his centralization of power, crackdown on independent media and crony capitalism. As the saying goes, though, it takes one to know one.... more Posted on February 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Fresh Air and Gray Skies: An Even Hand at NPR For the raging right, National Public Radio is the poster child for liberal bias in the media. From Accuracy in Media and the Media Research Center to the National Review and Bill O'Reilly, NPR (or "National Palestine Radio" to its detractors), is the bete noir. How very surprised, then, they must have all been while listening last week to NPR's Terry Gross on the Fresh Air program. Over three days last week, Gross brought in some of the heaviest hitters... more Posted on February 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Conservatives Gone Wild: Life Imitates Art at CPAC This year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) shows that life does indeed imitate art. In 1997, faux New Republic writer Stephen Glass fabricated "Spring Breakdown", an expose of young Republicans gone wild for booze, babes and Buchanan during the conference. Now, eight years later, CPAC's own credentialed bloggers are offering a similar (if somewhat milder) view of young conservatives gone wild. Like the Glass piece, CPAC's "Bloggers Corner" and blog aggregator show a fawning, post-pubescent fixation with women, some famous,... more Posted on February 18, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	Turning the Tables The Senate�s passage of the �Class Action Fairness Act� (CAFA) last week showcased two of the Republicans� most successful strategies for dominating political debate � Unopposable Utterances and Opposite Attractions. With the GOP stranglehold on the White House and Congress, it is high time the Democrats fought back using the very same weapons against them. But first a little background. The first of the Bush administration�s troika of tort reform initiatives (malpractice award caps and Asbestos litigation curbs are the... more Posted on February 17, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Banner Day for Republican Fraud Q: What do the new Bush Medicare budget forecast and ex-Talon News reporter Jeff Gannon have in common? A: They are both frauds exposed on the same day. Medicon Today, the Bush administration revealed that its 10 year forecast for Medicare, including the supposed prescription drug benefit, will be $1.2 trillion. That's $1.2 trillion between 2006 and 2015, not the $400 billion sold to Congress in December of 2003 or the $534 billion figure updated only two months later and... more Posted on February 9, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Bush, Race and the State of the Union During the February 3rd segment of the Abrams Report on MSNBC, part of the discussion focused on President Bush's surprising and vocal support for DNA evidence funding during the State of the Union address. Abrams and his guests seemed mystified as to why President Bush, a man who presided over more executions than any other contemporaneous governor, would have a "born-again" revelation as to the importance of DNA evidence in securing defendants' rights. As with virtually everything else with this... more Posted on February 4, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	On the Wrong Side of History Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the Bush second inaugural, and the Iraqi elections, represent a democratic tide sweeping the Middle East, a sea change the whole world is watching. Sometimes, though,... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	George Bush: Making the World Safe for Democracy? In the aftermath of President Bush' second inauguration, there is a widespread consensus that taken literally, his address would commit the United States to a global campaign of democratic proselytization. American friends and foes, puppets and pawns, the wistful and the wary, all are understandably concerned. Before starting a panic over the President's apparent Wilsonian idealism on steroids, it is worth remembering that Bush has not always been the outspoken proponent of democracy, individual liberty and human freedom: "So it... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Name That Bush Scandal Contest Results! To commemorate the Second Inauguration of President George W. Bush, Perrspectives is pleased to announce the winners of the "Name That Bush Scandal" Contest which concluded at noon EST, January 20, 2005. Perrspectives received entries from all over the United States (and the world, for that matter). We'd like to thank everyone who participated for their creativity, spirit, energy and, given the election results, understandable angst. But while America may be the place where , to quote President Bush, "wings... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Google Lovefest on 60 Minutes For those of you who missed, CBS offered a fawning portrait of Google on last night's installment of 60 Minutes. Aside from a brief mention of the Microsoft threat, Leslie Stahl's lovefest had little negative to say about everyone's favorite Internet company. Well, not quite everyone. As we reported last year, Google the Internet darling can also be Google the Internet danger when it comes to respecting the speech and web site content of its advertisers. As Perrspectives, The Nation,... more Posted on January 3, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Bush, Absolute Value and the Time "Man of the Year" Every once in a while, you realize that the apparently pointless concepts you learned back in math class were not completely without value. Or in the case of the Time selection of George W. Bush as its "2004 Man of the Year", absolute value. Bush's second crowning as Man O' Year reminds us of the notion of Absolute Value. As you'll recall, the expression \|x\| meant the positive value of x, regardless of whether x had a positive or negative... more Posted on December 21, 2004 \| Comments (1)

	Rumsfeld and the Aspin Test Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's comments to U.S. troops last week highlight once again the need for new leadership at the Pentagon. But while some Republicans are finally beginning to raise doubts about Rumsfeld, they have yet to hold him to the GOP's "Les Aspin Standard." That is, decisions that needlessly cost American lives in battle cost defense secretaries their jobs, but apparently only if Bill Clinton is president. John McCain, who sold his soul to George Bush in order to... more Posted on December 13, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Yet Another Faux National Tragedy In the latest example of what Perrspectives has called a "Faux National Tragedy", Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Laci. As we described in 1997 after the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide, a Faux National Tragedy has four identifiable traits: Unlimited Media Frenzy. This is the necessary but not sufficient first indicator of an FNT. The event in question, through its pure horror, strangeness or scatology, completely mobilizes the national media, which in turn... more Posted on December 13, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Maple Leaf Rag President Bush's "reaching out" visit to Canada is getting a chilly reception from our neighbors in the Great White North. Protesters holding signs simply stating "please leave" bring back memories of the Chretien cabinet minister who called Bush "a moron." It wasn't always this way. Before the current sad state of affairs, then candidate Bush received the endorsement of a Canadian prime minister. Unfortunately for Bush, this prime minister, like so much of what passes for truth in the Bush... more Posted on November 30, 2004 \| Comments (2)

	Scott Peterson and the Unbearable Whiteness of Being In what is only the latest in a long line of Faux National Tragedies, Scott Peterson was found guilty of murdering his wife Laci. The media's obvious fixation with the tragedies of predictably white, often blond, and usually well-to-do girls continues unabated. Laci Peterson joins BYU student Brooke Wilsberger, Dru, Elizabeth, Jon Benet, Samantha, and Danielle in the pantheon of 24/7 coverage from CNN, Fox, MSNBC et al. These admittedly sad tales, of course, have no real national import. None... more Posted on November 12, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Top 10 Flip Flop List Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God." It has not, of course, worked out that way. As we pointed out... more Posted on October 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	A Google Freedom of Information Act 2004 could be a big year for Internet search giant Google. Its IPO will be one of the biggest crossover business, technology and social news stories of the year. The launch of its Gmail service could put the company in the forefront of web-based email services while creating a major new revenue stream. Its pervasiveness among users (�to Google�) and advertisers alike could make Google a likely candidate to join those lofty iconic, market-defining brands like Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, and... more Posted on July 12, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Google's Gag Order Every once in a while in America�s consumer society, a company, product or service rises above its mere utility to achieve iconic status in the culture. Its very novelty, innovation, or just manufactured �cool� allow it to enter the daily American lexicon. As nouns, brands like Kleenex (facial tissues), Rollerblade (in-line skates), or Coke (any soft drink south of the Mason Dixon Line) are equated with an entire product category, eclipsing all competitors. Others achieve the even loftier status of... more Posted on June 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Faux National Tragedy Did Michael Jackson murder Jon Benet Ramsay? Was Samantha Runyon killed by Scott Peterson? Was Robert Blake behind the abduction of Elizabeth Smart? Aside from the 24/7 media's fixation with young, attractive, well-to-do white children, what do these episodes tell us about the crisis of American values, culture and society? Nothing. As we reported all the way back in 1997 in the aftermath of the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide, these faux national tragedies portend no larger societal breakdown. At... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)