GeekPol's evil twin

Sweet Monkeyed Crap

Here's the cycle - lazy reporter turns in a story about candidate's threads - brainless pundits (I'm looking at you, Margaret Carlson) drone on and on about, "What does the meeeeeeean?" Before it was Al Gore and his earth tones. Now it appears to be Wesley Clark and his argyle sweater. And how do we know that it's because he wants to soften his image as opposed to just simply having a personal affinity for argyle sweaters? Simple. His pollster Geoffrey Garin said something very general, and the reporter spun it from there. "There is a gender gap," Garin says. But it disappears once people actually find out about Clark, he says. No word on what argyle sweaters, which will be the focus of the corrupt pundit class, have to do with this.

On the plus side, buried deep inside, there's some RNC spin that's actually identified as RNC spin, instead of typed up as news as the media tends to do. About the ever-present "abortion issue":

[...]General Clark was quoted saying, "I don't have litmus tests." But he then called back a reporter to clarify, saying, "I'm not going to be appointing judges who are pro-life."

But with "journalism" like Edward Wyatt's, Bob Somerby will never finish his incomparable takedown of Zig Zag Zell Miller.

[special mention to Jesse Taylor for coming up with "Sweet Monkeyed Crap"]

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

What else can be said about this execrable editorial from the New York Times? It should be considered old and irrelevant news, but if the NYTimes editorial board is going to be as dishonest as their own Bill Safire, someone has to call 'em on it. In ascribing venal motives to Howard Dean's sealing of a bit less than half of his records as Vermont governor, the Times has this to say (emphasis mine):

Whatever the public response, Dr. Dean has certainly made things worse with his own actions. He anticipated this vetting of his past when he first considered a presidential run. And he opted to keep almost half of his records as governor sealed longer than usual, safely beyond the time limits of the eight-year White House incumbency that he covets.

OK, so how long is the time frame for record sealing? 10 years. "Unprecedented!" says the Boston Globe at the top of their article. That is until you actually read past the first two grafs. Here's something about the procedure for sealing records in Vermont, way down in graf 12 (once again, emphasis mine):

In sealing his papers, Dean invoked the doctrine of executive privilege, which the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in 1990 extended to governor's papers.

Theoretically, a governor could indefinitely seal his or her papers under the ruling, said Gregory Sanford, Vermont's archivist. In practice, governors have sought six-year seals. Madeleine Kunin, a Democrat, requested a six-year seal on nearly half her papers. The sealing period starts at the time of her departure from office in 1991. The papers of Richard Snelling, a Republican who died in office in 1991, were also sealed for six years.

Representatives of Kunin and Snelling initially requested 20- to 30-year seals, as did Dean. Dean agreed to 10 years in the course of negotiations, Sanford said.

So much for "longer than usual", eh?. Also note that the sealing period for Madeleine Kunin's and Richard Snelling's records approximately matched their time in office. Dean was in office for more than 10 years.

Oh and Globe reporter, way to contradict yourself after a whole paragraph. Gaffes like that, as well as that rahter transparently dishonest piece of editorial writing at the Times is why we have to have The Daily Howler and the Media Horse.

Link from Daily Kos frequent contributor DHinMI.

Have I mentioned that I like Arianna?

Anyways, Arianna Huffington's latest column has a really interesting comparison of Howard Dean to a past Democratic candidate. No, not McGovern. And not Dukakis, to those DLC twits. Here's the money quote. Who said it and about whom?

"He could be intemperate and impulsive ... the image of wrath -- his forefinger pointing, his fist pounding his palm, his eyes ablaze."

Some interchangeable media 'ho about Howard Dean? Nope. It's Theodore White about Bobby Kennedy.

(Yeah, I know. Salon. Premium. Just take the 15 seconds to sit thru the ad.) And read the whole thing.

Shorter Bill Safire:

Dean sure has chutzpah for being right about Job with respect to himself.

We know what some of the more strident anti-Bush partisans (I'm one, as if you didn't know) say about Josh Marshall (I'm not of that subgroup). He was for the war; he's not pure; he's too accommodating. Well, he's got a few comments about the Shrubbery's budget priorities for the coming year. Namely, that they're entirely politically motivated and pushes on constituencies that are not likely to help Bush in the election, ones that aren't likely to push back. And if you didn't think that Marshall was totally on our side, here's the money quote where Marshall puts himself in CREEP's shoes:

How do we push the budget discipline issue without pressuring any of our interest groups (for whom we've been looting the fisc for the last couple years) and do it in a way that the consequences won't be clear until we're well into the second term?

Ouch. Pretty strong language, eh?