First off: I agree with Hugh Hewitt about both Armstrong Williams and DailyKos. But there’s a big distinction. Kos clearly disclosed his payola from the Dean campaign. Williams never told anyone he was on the take from the Education Department. That makes a huge difference. Maybe Kos should have made more of a deal about it, but that’s a quibble, not a major concern. (I’m leaving out any conflicts of interest that we don’t yet know about. Maybe Kos is worse – but we can’t know that right now. And we know that Kos, like Hewitt, is a rabid partisan.) Hewitt defends himself against this obvious point by writing that “defenders of Kos are glossing over the fact that I brought up the Kos disclosure on O’Reilly and then deemed it inadequate.” But this is what Hewitt actually said on O’Reilly: “Now Daily Kos says, this is one of the bloggers from the left, says he disclosed it, but not to the satisfaction of anyone who watches him. I didn’t know.” But Kos doesn’t just say he disclosed it; he did. “Not to the satisfaction of anyone who watches him?” So whence his defenders? I put this glitch down to Hewitt’s partisan blinders. When you treat politics as religion, this is what happens to you.
A NEW IRAQ BLOG: Some great observations here. One of the most striking: how amazing most of the U.S. soldiers are there. We really owe them a huge amount of gratitude and support. Of course, it’s precisely because these guys deserve the highest of praise that we shouldn’t stint in punishing the few bad apples and insane policy directives.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “[W]atching the Williams case unfold makes it feel like someone finally shined a light on a murky old swamp. Media figures have been ‘selling’ themselves to people in government for years. But the pay the toadies traditionally get in return for their supportive opinions isn’t actual money. It’s access, invitations to fancy parties, phone calls from movers and shakers — the feeling of power.” – Bill Powers, National Journal.
IN THE WILL: Annie Leibovitz is second in line only to Susan Sontag’s son, according to the New York Daily News. In Virginia, Leibovitz would, of course, have to fight for this in court. In all those states with bans on civil marriage and civil unions, Sontag’s bequest could be challenged by Sontag’s relatives as well, if they so chose. Still, since Leibovitz and Sontag were just good friends, why should anyone worry?
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “Long time reader, sometime responder, frequent tipper, left-coast lesbian. I don’t read Malkin because I don’t agree with her opinions on a personal and political basis. I read your blog this morning and clicked onto the link and was quite disturbed at the abuse and the scope of the VENOM that is directed toward her. I’m not a gifted writer so what I’m trying to express may not be well worded. The content of the abuse … the sexual objectification of her as a minority/Asian/Phillipina in order to diminish her opinion … the threat of sexual dominance over her in order to silence her opinion…it’s outrageous and disgusting. And, reading it again, I don’t know that this garbage comes from the right. I think my liberal brothers and sisters are letting me down.” I think so too. These kinds of smears are beyond left or right. More feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 