The Dish

The press is getting its act together. But why were we so negligent with Bush’s factual errors? Brendan Nyhan suggests:

(a) Rudy’s bluster invites more critical coverage — he _seems_ like more of a dissembler than the supposedly straight-talking Bush;
(b) Bush’s statistics were carefully parsed to be half-true, making them harder to debunk within the framework of supposedly "objective" journalism (this is the argument we make in ATPS), while Rudy’s are often just wrong;
(c) Reporters are becoming more skeptical about the use of statistics of the Bush administration;
(d) The political environment is pushing reporters toward more critical coverage of Republicans;
(e) All of the above.

The evidence is accumulating that she has tried to rig the Black and Brown event in Iowa tomorrow night – by packing the crowd with her supporters. This isn’t just unethical; it’s illegal.

From the annals of self-hatred:

"I cannot escape a simple conclusion: If men are going to be full human beings, we first have to stop being men."

You first, buddy. I’m still grieving for my foreskin.

Pat Robertson puts his weight behind the notion that a highway running through the US

"is the highway spoken of in Isaiah 35:8 – ‘And a highway will be there; it will be called the way of holiness.’"

They have begun purity sieges around the road. Their targets? Gay bars, among other places.

Companies with net worth of over $4 trillion sign the Bali Communique:

We believe that tackling climate change is the pro-growth strategy. Ignoring it will ultimately undermine economic growth.

Meanwhile, a new draft of the Warner-Lieberman climate change bill butches it up.

Ross dreams. The logic is strong. The politics not so much, alas. But surely the profound weaknesses of Romney and Giuliani are beginning to sink in.

Some interesting new ARG data in Iowa:

56% of those saying they support Romney say their support is definite. 89% of those saying they support Huckabee say their support is definite.

Then this:

Among men, Huckabee is at 34%, Romney 15%, and Thompson 17%.
Among women, Huckabee is at 19%, Romney 43%, and Thompson 11%.

In South Carolina, Huckabee has gone from 5 percent to 18 percent in a month. Romney has gone from  29 to 21 percent in the same period. New Hampshire is critical to Romney now. But one gets the feeling that he is sitting atop a souffle. If he loses Iowa, it could drop suddenly. And the South will never vote for a Mormon. That’s awful; but it’s true.

Dick Polman gives a run-down of Giuliani’s explanations for mistress-security-money. All five of them, at last count.