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The Wikipedia wars in the House and Senate
Via Michael Tofias, here’s an amusing story on the battle to control politicians’ biographies on Wikipedia: The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on a Web site that bills
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Stuart Rothenberg: “A good Democratic year is building”
Wow. Based in large part on the Abramoff scandal, Stuart Rothenberg projects an eight-seat Democratic gain in the House of Representatives, and no longer thinks a takeover of the chamber is impossible: With a little over nine months to go until Election Day, Democrats are headed for gains in the United States House of Representatives.
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Matt Bai and the problems with “objective” journalism
Matt Bai, the New York Times Magazine’s political reporter, illustrates the essential formula for “objective” journalism: all criticisms must be balanced with praise, no matter how strained or implausible. That gives rise to incoherence like this: Unlike most of his Democratic detractors, Bush has shown the vision to rethink time-honored orthodoxy, even at his own
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What is Andrew Kohut talking about?
The director of the Pew Research Center discusses the vain hope for a third party or a “strong, independent political figure” with the Christian Science Monitor: If there is a genuine desire to bring the country together over policy issues, says Mr. Kohut, the more productive avenue would come via the rise of a third
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What is Mike Pence talking about?
Mike Pence claims President Bush is “a man of unimpeachable integrity” and that “[t]he American people have profound confidence in him”: Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who appeared with Thune on “Fox News Sunday,”, said all White House correspondence, phone calls and meetings with Abramoff “absolutely” should be released. “I think this president is a man
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Steven Spielberg denies 9/11 analogy in “Munich”
In an interview with the German newspaper Spiegel linked on Drudge, Steven Spielberg denies the obvious implication of the closing shot of “Munich”: SPIEGEL: In a long closing sequence you show the — then still standing — Twin Towers of Manhattan, implying that you see a link between September 5, 1972 in Munich and September
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Hurrah for Drum and Yglesias
With so many pundits making absurd claims about a third party in the US, it’s refreshing to see Kevin Drum and Matthew Yglesias taking a more sophisticated approach to the analysis of politics. Drum writes in response to a New Republic article by an ABC News correspondent who notes the parallels between 1994 and 2006,
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Oprah’s shaming of James Frey and Random House
One of the reasons we started Spinsanity, frankly, was to embarrass those in politics who would try to deceive the public. Even though we knew that we could never catch all the spin, we figured we could at least strengthen the norm against deception, which had atrophied in recent years. Oprah Winfrey’s belated public shaming
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Retracted Reid document hit Allen
Last week, Harry Reid’s office released a document that attacked a number of Republican senators. Although Reid later apologized, it’s noteworthy that the document included early criticism of Senator George Allen’s ugly racial history, which is likely to become an issue in Allen’s 2008 presidential run: [T]he document reached back into GOP Sen. George Allen’s
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The Georgetown protest against Alberto Gonzales
This picture, from a New York Times article on Alberto Gonzales’ speech at Georgetown, is a case study in effective protest: Amen.