The Republicans have not won a Presidential election since 1928 without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket.  

The predictive value of this interesting trivia is about the same as Hillary Clinton's claim today that no Democrat has won a Presidential election without winning the Ohio primary.  

The New York Times op-ed page brought in reinforcements today for David Brooks. Lou Cannon tries to defend Reagan (and support David Brooks) without really confronting the arguments of Krugman and Herbert that Reagan made deliberate appeals to racists as part of the Republican Party's Southern Strategy.

Many younger readers may not remember Lou Cannon. Cannon gained fame and fortune in the 1980s as a political reporter covering Reagan for the L.A. Times in the 1980s mostly through frequent television appearances in which he softened Reagan's image for moderates and liberals while earning scoops from the Administration and later publishing a largely favorable biography -- a case of access journalism that many reporters have emulated since then.

I'm not a fan of either Howie or Katie, but this item from Kurtz's column today is revealing about political pressures at NBC News in 2004.  Liberal media critics have long asserted that Jack Welch and other corporate executives at NBC sought to influence NBC News coverage to favor George Bush in 2000 and 2004.  Katie Couric provides a bit of confirmation

 

According to Bush's infamous pronouncement on an aircraft carrier, major combat operations in Iraq ended on May 1, 2003.  The U.S. lost its first soldiers in Iraq on March 21, 2003.  In 43 days of major combat operations from March 21 to May 1, 2003, 140 American troops died.  The last 43 days have been significantly more deadly for our forces. From April 19 to May 31, 2007, 167 American troops have been killed in Iraq (and there will probably be additional deaths announced for today).  

http://icasualties.org/...

 

 In an online chat at the Washington Post today, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias stated his belief that "Ms. Lam, Mr. Bogden, Mr. McKay and me" were forced out in an attempt "to derail or interfere with on-going cases or investigations."  I don't think Iglesias has been so explicit before about his belief that Lam, McKay, Bogden and himself were fired illegally.  

The first question to Washington Post reporter Lois Romano this morning was:

Crestwood, N.Y.: If you were in charge of the 2008 GOP Convention, at what time would you schedule George W. Bush's speech?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

I've been mystified over the last decade by how much the perceptions of "opinion-makers and followers" in Washington, D.C. differ from those of similar background outside the beltway.

I've come to believe that a lot can be explained by the effect of the Washington social network in shaping and legitimating opinions.  A shared consensus is seen as critical to maintaining a degree of social comity. Cartoonist Tom Toles seems to agree.  

Scott Simon is the host of Weekend Saturday on NPR stations. Until his coverage of the Balkan wars, he claims he was a pacifist.  Like many newly converted, he seems to exercise his new faith in military solutions to moral dilemmas without much wisdom or judgment.  It was apparent from his Saturday morning broadcasts before the Iraq war that he supported the Iraq war and was dismissive of, and mischaracterized, opposition to the war.

The Iraq War is unquestionably fanning the flames of terrorism, and there is nobody in the Intelligence community who disputes this.  So says the Washington Post's intelligence reporter.

There were many good reasons to oppose the war in Iraq.  One that seemed irrefutable at the time (except for flower-strewn fantasyland inhabitants) was that an invasion and occupation of Iraq would fan the flames of anti-American sentiment and terrorism.  No one who knows disputes this anymore.

Last year, British occupied Basra was portrayed as one of the relative success stories of the occupation and a model for the rest of Iraq.  No longer. Washington Post reporter Anthony Shadid remarked in a chat earlier today that Iran has more influence in Basra and most of Southern Iraq than the U.S. or Britain, and that Basra has become one of the riskiest places in Iraq for journalists to work.  

Shadid Chat

Todd Purdum is hardly the worst in the stable of New York Times journalists.  

But his article today provides more disillusioning evidence as to the cluelessness of much of the corporate media. The article is not terrible in all respects, but it continues the trend for the Times (which Bill Keller's "go-to-guy" David Sanger amplified yesterday) of miniminizing the significance of the Downing Street Minutes.

The discussion on Meet the Press was not that bad.

In particular, Gwen Ifill surprised me by noting that the criticism of Dean is coming from Washington Democrats who strongly opposed his election as Party chair and not from Democrats outside of Washington (even in the South).  When Russert showed Harold Ford's comments about Dean's comments not playing in Tennessee, Ifill pointed out that Ford is one of those Washington Democrats she was talking about.  

While I wouldn't make too much of it, it seems that a little bit of reality may finally be seeping into the fantasy-based community when it comes to Iraq.  The National Review publishes a surprisingly negative article on developments in Basra, Iraq.

Back in Basra

And, because of its relative stability compared with Baghdad, Basra is usually presented as one of the successes of the occupation.

Here is an interesting article by someone who knows how the newspaper and magazine journalism world works.

The Answer is Fear

Robert Parry, who as an AP reporter helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal, writes that the timidity of the major media in dealing with the Bush Administration scandals is principally driven by career fear among news executives, senior editors and reporters.  

Parry maintains that it is this fear that has led the major media to minimize and limit its coverage of the Downing Street Memo of July 2002.

For those who need a refresher, this memo  summarized a report from the head of British intelligence that Bush was determined to go to war in Iraq and that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

This is incredible.  New York Times Ombudsman Daniel Okrent writes in his final column today:

Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults.... [S]some of Krugman's enemies are every bit as ideological (and consequently unfair) as he is."

I didn't give Krugman, Dowd or Safire the chance to respond before writing the last two paragraphs. I decided to impersonate an opinion columnist.

... about themselves.  Politicians have to pretend to have one sometimes; journalists are so much more thin-skinned.

Al Franken at Reporters Committee for Freedom dinner:

Then he turned toward The New York Times table in the front of the room, where sat Judith Miller, best known these days for two things: her articles on weapons of mass destruction that didn't quite pan out and the possibility she will go to jail for not revealing sources in the Valerie Plame case. "Judy,"" Franken said, "maybe you can find some WMD in your cell." Silence. "OK, I shouldn't have told that joke."

Perhaps, not the best joke in the world, but come on .... it's a little funny.

Franken on Miller

From link at Poynter Romenesko

Here's the link to the Sunday Mail story on the Goldsmith memo that was leaked to the Mail:

Proof Blair was told war could be ruled illegal

For more on this story, see this recommended diary:
UK Atty General advice to Blair on Iraq leaked!

Unfortunately, the Mail hasn't published a copy of the actual March 7, 2003 memo from Goldsmith.  

Dear Congresswoman Bean:

On election night last November, we were cheered by your election to Congress from Illinois, one of few bright spots in an otherwise very disappointing evening.

Unfortunately, your recent votes for the bankruptcy bill and for the abolishment of the estate tax are causing us to reconsider our glee over your victory.