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!
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