Fact-esque

What? You Don't Like "Kill Obama" As A Campaign Theme?

If you're the Goebbels & Braun of the NYT, Adam Nagourney & Liz Bumiller, the best possible spin you can put on the crumbling McC campaign is that "John's message isn't getting across". So here's what they wrote. Together. (It took both of them.)

Again and again, [GOP] leaders said in interviews that while they still believed that Mr. McCain could win over voters in the next 30 days, they were concerned that he and his advisers seemed to be adrift in dealing with an extraordinarily challenging political battleground and a crisis on Wall Street.

The expressions of concern came after a particularly difficult week for Mr. McCain. On Friday night, new questions arose about his choice of Ms. Palin as his running mate after an investigation by the Alaska Legislature concluded that she had abused her power in trying to orchestrate the firing of her former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

“I think you’re seeing a turning point,” said Saul Anuzis, the Republican chairman in Michigan, where Mr. McCain has decided to stop campaigning. “You’re starting to feel real frustration because we are running out of time. Our message, the campaign’s message, isn’t connecting.”

Of course it's connecting. It's just that "Kill the Terrorist Traitor Obama!" is more a comic book than a political message and, like, nobody is on board with it except the 23% who think Bush is Batman and Obama is The Joker.

If McC has a message other than that, then yes, it's not connecting and maybe he ought to spend more time talking about whatever it is than accusing Barack of murdering Bambi and raping Orphan Annie.

The McCain Narrative, Brought to You By...The NYT

Not that I should probably pick on them more than anyone else. Even the usually reliable Boston Globe had a set-piece about how Saint John was going to be a "maverick" again and how "moving" his speech was.

McCain spoke movingly about his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and how it changed him from a selfish and brash young man to a mature "servant" of his country. "I've never lived a day, in good times or in bad, that I don't thank God for that privilege," he said.

It's just that the ever-predictable Adam Nagourney outdid himself praising McC's manliness. He was "firm", he "pledged", he's "an iconoclast", a locution I don't mind him using because it's so esoteric very few people know what it means, even educated people. But it sounds positive (if it isn't, you know, dirty). You don't find out about the less attractive aspects of St John's evening until well down in the article, stuff like protesters and an unresponsive audience sitting on its hands.

it was often offered in a monotone as he stood before a solid-color backdrop that flicked from green to blue. The reaction was far more subdued than it was the night before for his running mate, Ms. Palin. There were stretches in which he drew only a smattering of applause.

***

One of the livelier moments of the evening came when Mr. McCain was interrupted by several antiwar protestors who had infiltrated the hall. Their signs were quickly ripped from their hands, and they were carried out of the arena as the crowd shouted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Mr. McCain, who by now has become accustomed to these kinds of interruptions, responded with a smile. “Please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static,” Mr. McCain said, before adding “Americans want us to stop yelling at each other.”

Then why did Sarah Palin spend half her speech last night yelling at Obama and liberals?

I Guess Ken Mehlman's Plan to Increase the GOP Vote Among AfAms Has Been Shelved for 2006

Yesterday the NYT ran a front page, above-the-fold Rutengourney story with this headline: 

Rallied by Bush, Skittish G.O.P. Now Embraces War as an Issue
Senators Join in Assailing Democrats as Defeatist

So in the wake of the crushing GOP embarassment of not being able to get the Voting Rights Act renewed in a timely manner and forcing the bill past the July 4 recess, I'll be waiting to see the front page, above-the-fold story with this headline:

Absent Leadership from Weakened Bush, G.O.P. Fails to Renew VRA
Democrats Join in Assailing Republicans as Hopelessly Disarrayed

One of the hold ups on the renewal is the whining from a Lynn Westmoreland (R-19th century) who can't stand it that nine southern states with  notoriously bad records on voting rights have to pre-clear their voting laws with the DOJ.  As Prometheus 6 points out, there is already a provision in the VRA that lets states prove they've improved their voting procedures so it seems like Westmoreland (R-Twelve Oaks) is fighting for the honor of the South, such as it is on this point.  I've heard that  s/he wants all fifty states to be subject to DOJ approval of changes in their election law as are those nine states.  I'm not sure I'm opposed to that.   There's plenty of nonsense that happens in non-southern states when it comes to supressing the minority vote.  Plus it would take some more energy out of the south's Eternal Martyr Complex. 

The other hold up is a sickening, tranparent political stunt involving ending the requirement to print ballots and other voting materials in languages other than English.   That one should be kicked to the curb along with Steve King (R-Iowa), who's pimping it.  Of course, that would take some leadership from the White House, which, we can see, is clearly not forthcoming.

Nagourney is Worried

From the Noggin' of Nagourney:

In one welcome turn for Democrats, two Republican members of Congress are vulnerable, victims of the curdled political environment, analysts said.

But Democratic hopes of knocking out a third Republican, Representative Bob Ney, who has been linked to the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation, were set back when the Democrats' favored candidate, Mayor Joe Sulzer of Chillicothe, lost to a lesser-known and politically inexperienced challenger, Zack Space.

Oops:

Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) who went to work for Jack Abramoff in 2002, is pleading guilty at 10:30 this morning. Volz is expected to help prosecutors advance their investigation into possible bribery schemes between Abramoff and Ney.

Volz's plea is thought to include admissions of "conspiracy to commit fraud and to violating the one-year ban on lobbying after leaving congressional employment," according to Reuters.

Well, it's not like anyone could have seen that coming.  Let's wait for Nagourney the Noble's next front pager, which will posit that although Ney is no longer running for the seat, having left the race to spend more time with his lawyers, he has a better chance of winning than the Dems' "lesser-known and politically inexperienced" challenger.

Related: I don't know anything about Ohio politics, but I know the Democratic party.  If some "leaders of the party" are telling Nagourney that the Zack Space's chances against the criminal Ney were bad, then Space had better get his campaign as far away from the Party and as close to the people who got him elected as he can or else he will go down in flames.  Democrats do nothing as well as they destroy fellow Democrats.

Getting Something On the Record

I'm way behind on this story in blogtime but I feel like someone ought to stand up for Nagourney the Noble when someone beats his time.  Since I've been on the Nagourney beat for quite some time, I stepped up to defend his worried honor.   Chris Bowers found this story in the pro-War WaPo on Tuesday:

Democrats Struggle To Seize Opportunity
Amid GOP Troubles, No Unified Message
By Shailagh Murray and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 7, 2006; Page A01

News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.

But the Noble Nagourney, who owns this beat, baby, don't ever doubt it,  was 24 hours ahead of pikers Murray and Babington with one of his trademark Democrats are Worried pieces:

These scattershot messages reflect what officials in both parties say are vulnerabilities among Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well as President Bush's weakened political condition in this election year.

But they also reflect splits within the party about what it means to be a Democrat — and what a winning Democratic formula will be — after years in which conservative ideas have dominated the national policy debate and helped win elections.

And they complicate the basic strategy being pursued by Democratic leaders in Washington to capture control of Congress: to turn this election into a national referendum on the party in power, much the way Republicans did against Democrats in 1994.

Bowers answers both stories,  since they are identical, by asking the pro-war WaPo reporters a question:

I have a question for Murray and Babbington: how large does our lead in the polls have to be before we are "seizing the opportunity?" 20 points? 40?

The answer is a diabolical nevah!  This particular narrative is set in stone by the powers that be and don't kid yourself, there are powers that be.  The subtheme, sing it with me, is "sure the GOP is tanking in the polls but have the Dems been able to show anything for it or are they in the exact same position?"  Scattered, mired in low poll numbers, fighting among themselves, rudderless ... weak.  Everything old is new again.

And, while we're talking about the powers that be and narratives set in stone, this week seems to the one for rolling out new product - or products.  So far we've been hit with a coordinated effort to both amp up the dolchstosslegende and the nit-witted saber-rattling aimed at Iran. 

Both new WH products are terrifying.  The latter  because it does more to hurt the country than anything else as it puts our enemies in the position of pounding their chests and asking, "Oh yeah, Boyee?  Now what?"  We, of course, got nothing.

The former is terrifying because there are,in fact, quite a few bullets in that particular gun.  And it's pointed directly at the First Amendment as well as everyone who practices any aspect of it.   In short, that gun is pointed at America.   I'm not going to take time analysing this since so many bloggers have already done a good job with it.  I am, in the style of Paperwight, hoping to keep current a list of examples of Team BushCo's War on the Press - as in "Freedom of."  This is very different from the comparitively ham-fisted and benign War on Media, which has mostly tried to discredit the media by mocking it, badgering it and recreating it as something that Goebbels would smile upon.   

This War on the Press is much more serious as it uses strong themes of the dolchstosslegende I mentioned above.  That's dangerous, serious business and it's the very best sign of how desperate the situation is in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.   Let the listing begin!

 

Hey, Adam! Look Over Here!

After I've spent years  watching Elisabeth Bumiller with the kind of devotion that can only be described as canine and with a balance that must be acknowledged by everyone to be rare among press watchers on the left and completely absent those on the right - after a year spent digesting the poison that dripped from Ruderon's (nee Wilgoren) reporting - after years of reading and watching the NYT political reporting in general, including some good stuff on Nagourney the Noble himself -- if he does a story on political blogs and he doesn't interview me on background ... well, that's just journalistic malpractice. 

CHUCK PENNACCHIO MUST BE ELECTED!

Dear National Democratic Party,

I have an idea for you.  I know you're busy giving interviews to Nagourney the Noble, hoping to see your names linked to presidential-sounding quotes on the front page of the NYT.   Next time you'll remember that he's not so much into making you sound presidential as much as he's into making you sound suicidal.  So okay, it was a disaster but life is for the living; let's move on.  Lucky for you an opportunity to actually do something (instead of talking about what you should be doing) has been presented by none other than Dear Leader himself in the form of his 2007 budget that not even members of his own party take seriously.  And although it goes against your grain to stick your heads out of the foxhole and "go negative," believing as you do that Rove will attack and the mushy middle will hold your criticisms of Dear Leader against you come election day, just close your eyes and pretend you're talking about Howard Dean. 

In all the talk about the budget, one thing is clear: BushCo is setting Congress up to take the fall.  He brings the deficit down by taking away programs like  universal newborn hearing screening, studies looking into the causes of asthma, premature births and autism and by killing the Voice of America, you ring it up again because mothers of newborns, asthmatic and autistic kids vote and if the Voice of America is silenced, the terrists win.  But those moms and those fans of Voice of America can't be outraged if they don't know what's going on.  And trust me, they don't. 

So take a page from Dear Leader's book and hit the road promoting a Democratic Agenda for America or whatever your consultants tell you to call it.   Harry Reid's got that one from January 2005 just hanging around gathering dust.   Now's the time to use it.  And when I say "use it," I don't mean letting Evan Bayh tell Nagourney that the plan isn't strong enough on national security.   I don't mean letting Dick Durbin admit that you're all frightened of the Mighty Rove.  I mean getting back to your states and districts and selling the ideas to the people who will benefit from them.   I mean showing up at town hall meetings all across your states.  Let's see some of that fifty-state strategy fly into action.  I mean talking to bloggers and local papers and high school auditoriums filled with Young Democrats and committee people.  I mean transportation forums, veterans forums, education forums, public health and health care forums highlighting every program on BushCo's chopping block.  If you can't find a thousand parents of newborns with hearing problems, who received early intervention because of the program BushCo wants to kill, give me a call, I'll get you a few names. 

You probably won't get front page NYT attention, but let's face it, that's attention you don't seem to know how to use. 

UPDATE:  Glenn Greenwald has the same idea for you on the NSA Scandal:  (emph mine)

Thus, to compel the Administration to face real consequences for their unlawful actions, Bush opponents must do something they virtually never do -- agree on a limited set of clear, focused and principled points, and then activate every instrument of public persuasion which exists, and invent new ones which do not exist, to convey the formulated argument in a coordinated fashion. If that is done, Americans can be convinced that the actions of the Administration and the theories of presidential power they have embraced are deceitful and dangerous, and that these actions constitute a profound assault on the political values on which America was founded and which has made our country both unique and great for the last 225 years.

UPDATE 2: Chuck Currie helps you out on the morality of the budget.  (How is it possible that you need help with that?)  You can add churches to the list of places you want to visit in your home districts.   Honestly, this plan just writes itself.  Tell me again what you're paying those political strategists.  I'm willing to do the job for half.

Perfect Storm

It's worth noting here that the only thing the Democrats seem to be disciplined about is keeping progressives out of the party.   This story by Nagourney the Noble is beautiful in a way.   It's the most perfect meshing of the reporter's talent for bashing Democrats and the Democrats' eagerness to be bashed.  I can't even blame Nagourney - the boobs that gave him quotes like  "We have been in a reactive posture for too long. I think we have been very good at saying no, but not good enough at saying yes." (Obama)  just jumped into the boat. 

Props to Boxer and Pelosi who do a good job of staying on message (Dems can bring positive change)  without beating themselves up in the process:

Ms. Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, did not dispute that argument. But, pointing to the Democratic strategy in defeating Mr. Bush's Social Security proposal last year, she said there was no rush.

"People said, 'You can't beat something with nothing,' " she said, arguing that the Democrats had in fact accomplished precisely that this year. "I feel very confident about where we are."

And Senator Barbara Boxer, also a California Democrat, said: "We have a strategy. First is to convince the American people that what's happening in Washington is not working. We have achieved that. Now we have to, at this stage, convince people that we are the ones to bring positive change."

UPDATE: Call Peter Daou.  Matt Stoller voices the message this article delivers so clearly:

The DNC Communications Shop Prefers Adam Nagourney Over Us

No Permanent Friends, No Permanent Enemies, Only Permanent Troubles for BushCo

I got a nice New Year's present when, while sifting through some recent Bumiller stories, I noticed that BushCo is about to start 2006 in a hole so deep among African American voters that he's been forced to have meetings with the people he didn't feel like he needed to meet at all the first four years of the national affliction he calls his presidency:

For Mr. Gordon, [the new president of the NAACP] the meeting was the third with Mr. Bush in just three months, starting with a private one-on-one session in the Oval Office in September and then a smaller meeting with other black leaders earlier this month.

This emerging relationship between the president of the United States and the president of the N.A.A.C.P. signals that Mr. Bush is seeking a rapprochement with one of his more prominent critics at this troubled time for his administration, Republicans said. [There's that signature refrain "Party members said" from our Noble Nagourney. I miss the worried little guy. - eR]

Roughly the same time last year BushCo was flaunting his disdain for the NAACP and meeting instead with clergy and business leaders who toed his line. This is from January 25 of last year:

President Bush is reaching out this week to black leaders — from pastors to legislators — in an overture to a community that overwhelmingly voted again him.

Mr. Bush told a select group of black leaders Tuesday that his plan to add private accounts to Social Security would benefit blacks since they tend to have shorter lives than some other Americans and end up paying in more than they get out.

Social Security was one of many issues that came up during Mr. Bush's private meeting with 14 clergy and 10 leaders from business and nonprofit groups.

Included in the most recent meeting but missing from the one at the beginning of the year - missing in fact from any White House meeting until last week - was Dr. Willliam Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention and vocal opponant of BushCo's homophobic social policies. I used to think that homophobia was at the core of the GOP's plans to peel off the AfAm vote, but the Black Commentator says I'm wrong; it's vouchers and faith-based bribery: (emph mine)

Black politics is in crisis, reeling under the Republicans' mega-million-dollar assault against the core values of the historical Black Political Consensus—an evolved social democratic compact with an emphasis on justice that is subscribed to by overwhelming majorities of African Americans. The rising tempo of GOP activity among blacks—with no crescendo in sight—is the product of a sea change in right-wing thinking that occurred only about a decade ago, centered at the headquarters of the Bradley Foundation, in Milwaukee.

Under CEO and President (until 2001) Michael Joyce , Bradley invented both faith-based initiatives and the black wing of the voucher "movement." The voucher "movement," of course, was created out of whole cloth in collaboration with the Wal-Mart heirs' Walton Family Foundation. The Republican Party quickly adopted both strategies as tools to drive a wedge between blacks and teachers' unions and to lure opportunistic black clergy into the GOP orbit. Vouchers and faith-based bribery are the strategic battering rams the right hopes will demolish the Black Political Consensus. Gay-baiting, the "Death Tax" and longevity issues related to Social Security are tactical flourishes.

Still, one of those tactical flourishes took a big hit when the plan to destroy Social Security crashed and burned so spectacularly in '05. It looks like the gay-baiting is getting a tiny break for a little while at least, although I expect that to gear up again in time for the midterms. But, those two hits combined with the obvious implications of the lack of response to Katrina comprise what we BushCo watchers call a trifecta. Now, if only the useless Democrats would wake up and start working for the black vote, we might actually get somewhere.

In the Interest of Fairness, I Applaud Nagourney the Noble

The NYT got its chief worry monger, Nagourney the Noble, to file one of his patented Sky-is-Falling stories focused on the problems swamping BushCo's second term.  Nagourney can be counted on to crank these kinds of stories out by the dozen when the Dems are the target so it's good to see one fall at Team BushCo's door. 

Sure, the there aren't nearly enough anonymous sources throwing bombs at their own party to make it a classic Nagourney column and the sources are more balanced than usual, but it does look at  some of the context surrounding the shattered GOP agenda, which includes desperately low poll numbers and an angry, ever-ravenous base:

"It's certainly not going to happen if the president continues on the course he has been operating on," said Richard A. Viguerie, a veteran conservative activist. "The only way you can build a governing coalition is to draw a clear distinction between you and the other side. But the longer George W. Bush is in office, the more like his father he has become. He is uncomfortable with confrontation."  [Ouch -eR]

Political analysts said hopes for creating this coalition had already been strained by the Iraq war and Mr. Bush's unpopular plan to privatize Social Security. But the recent crises that have besieged the Bush administration, beginning with the reaction to Hurricane Katrina, have presented a series of systematic challenges to the central elements of this ambitious plan.

Mr. Bush's nomination of his counsel, Harriet E. Miers, to the Supreme Court, produced a rupture with the conservative base, which was already distressed by Mr. Bush's spending policies. In startlingly blunt language, several said that Mr. Bush would have to produce a nominee to their liking to repair the damage.

"If we don't get a good nominee - if it's somebody else who is a stealth candidate, and we don't know what their judicial philosophy is - well then that will be the end of the Bush coalition," said Paul J. Weyrich, a conservative organizer and founder of the Free Congress Foundation.

Beyond that, the corruption and cronyism allegations and that have swirled around Republicans in the White House and Congress are the kind of issues that have historically disturbed moderate swing voters. The White House's response to Hurricane Katrina has undercut any hope that the party might have made gains with African-Americans.

I honestly don't know what to do with all that context all at once. Finding reality reflected in NYT's poltical reporting is like getting root beer when you expect Coke. Kudos to you, Noble Nagourney!