The 10 Worst Media Moments Of 2008

OK, now that we’ve celebrated all the good things that media professionals managed to grace our world with this year, let’s skip ahead to a listicle of lowlights, which is probably what you all really want anyway, since everyone runs on schadenfreude these days and is filled with impotent rage!

Anyway, as before, many of you will agree and many will disagree, and that’s cool! Please do! Especially if you want to comment or send an email about it! But note that I’ve left off a lot of examples that many of you will no doubt feel are obligatory inclusions. For instance, I can already predict an email complaining that Bill O’Reilly doesn’t make this list. It seems to me that some examples of stupidity are far too ubiquitous to be remarkable. Nevertheless, the comments are there for all of you to cherish the moments I missed.

TEN THINGS THAT SUCKED OUT LOUD IN 2008, MEDIA EDITION

1. The Economy Kills Everyone
Some greet the effects of the down economy on the media with mockery, some with mournfulness, some with a combination of the two I shall call mournckery. Eventually though, a writer you admire gets laid off, or a reporter you’ve depended on has to take a buyout, or RADAR Magazine folds and their fantastic web operation comes under the rule of a bunch of gibbering twits with birdcrap for brains and it all hits home. And look, everyone knows that the web is going to solve all of the world’s problems, but tell me: how does the imminent failure of, say, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger grab you? Worried about that at all? Of course not! Everyone knows that the State of New Jersey is filled with affluent laptop/iPhone owners and their politicians are the most honest people in the ever-loving world!

2. ABC’s Terrible Debate
Political debates are all alike; every terrible debate is terrible in its own way. And yet the ridiculous attempt by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson nevertheless ranks as the supreme example of incompetence. It didn’t matter that every single one of their gotcha questions, save Gibson’s high-toned bitchery over his investment portfolio, had already been asked 4,751 times: George and Charlie were bound and determined to be the 4,752nd to do so! As such, the entire debate played like something ABC News took all of fifteen minutes to prepare for, right down to the tatty production values and asinine, utterly tone-deaf references to the Constitution. The resulting debate wasn’t fair to either candidate and was an insult to every viewer who tuned in. “The crowd’s turning on me,” Gibson quipped, after it was over. Would they had done so earlier!

Oh, and did Stephanopoulos hypocritically engage in the sort of behavior that he once decried as a political operative? OF COURSE HE DID.

On the bright side, this happened.

3. The Day of Lipstick On A Pig
I don’t think a single event managed to sum up the media’s inability to distinguish activity from achievement, their willingness to delve deeply into irrelevant minutiae, or their tendency to obsess themselves with transparently stupid meta-narratives any better than they day we all woke up to discover that the commonly used phrase “lipstick on a pig” had become transformed into some sort of sexist insult. It was a sickening and foul display - media professionals on all networks and platforms hurling this loafer of high-toned nonsense at our heads. Naturally, the very premise of their argument was unremittingly false, and the resulting blockstop coverage and commentary was nothing more than widespread platform abuse. Then, as soon as this zombie contagion struck the media, it was gone, and no one ever talked about it again. NEVER FORGET THAT ADULTS - ACTUAL GROWN-UPS! - PERPETRATED THIS NONSENSE.

4. NYT’s Vicki Iseman story
Speaking of platform abuse, how is it that we all know that the New York Times knew full well that their John McCain-Vicki Iseman story was a stinkfest on arrival? For me, it was the way the shuffled it out online during evening rush-hour, as if they wanted viewers to be moving in the opposite direction of their journalistic turd when it fell to earth. The story may have had some viability, but whatever truth there was in McCain’s interactions with Washington lobbyists came sandwiched between sensationalistic and salacious intimations of sexual infidelities between John McCain and a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman. You had to love the way the Times worked their drizzle of sizzle up into the lede and then spent three pages avoiding the matter before veering back to it. The Iseman part of the saga is supported by precisely one on-the-record source, former McCain confidant and adviser John Weaver. In my opinion, Weaver’s quotes are, uhm…woven to make it look like he is confirming the Iseman-McCain relationship. Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt faulted the paper as well, saying, “The newspaper found itself in the uncomfortable position of being the story as much as publishing the story, in large part because, although it raised one of the most toxic subjects in politics — sex — it offered readers no proof that McCain and Iseman had a romance.”

5. Endless Talk of the “Gender Card”
Everyone talked about how sexist the media was this year, and everyone had their own idea as to where this sexism was most glaringly revealed. I’ll tell you what set my teeth on edge: every time someone made mention of Hillary Clinton playing the “gender card.”

Let me get this straight. It’s okay for Barack Obama to put his racial background to advantageous use. It’s okay for John McCain to put his war-hero past to advantageous use. It’s okay for John Edwards to put his Son-of-a-mill-worker-hood to advantageous use. It’s okay for Rudy Guiliani to put his proximity to the September 11th attacks to advantageous use. But if Hillary Clinton attempts to leverage her femininity to her advantage, suddenly everyone has to debate the relative fairness of it? Is American politics a milieu in which the participants often forego their natural advantages in competition, out of a spirit of fairness? No? Then suggesting Hillary Clinton be tied to a different set of standards is horseshit, the end.

6. Thrill Up The Leg
The sad curse of immortality is that it is often our moments of folly that end up outliving us. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews will come to understand this in time. While covering the 2008 “Potomac Primary,” Matthews enthused that Barack Obama’s oratory caused a physiological reaction, specifically:

I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.

Matthews thus became a symbol for everyone who has ever complained, or will complain, about “Obama adulation” in the media. In all likelihood, Matthews will never live this down. Not ever.

7. 32 Important Words The Media Missed
Back when Henry Paulson wrote up the proposed $700 billion bailout package, it contained this part called “Section 8,” whose thirty-two words basically precluded any or all efforts to hold anyone involved in the disbursement of these monies accountable:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

The mainstream media totally missed this. Today, they are all yelling at banks, wondering what happened to all the money. It’s quite pathetic, really.

8. Message Force Multipliers
On April 20th, David Barstow of the New York Times told the incredibly true story of how the Pentagon unleashed a platoon of administration shills with extensive conflicts of interest upon the television media, presented as neutral “miltary analysts,” to serve as a “Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” The complacent/complicit networks did little to shoulder the responsibility of their failure to vet and/or disclose to the public the true affiliations of these P.R. agents. But hey, were it not for Barstow himself, following up on the matter months later, it’s not like the New York Times took all that active an interest in their own story. So, yes, America: you are entitled to your cynicism!

9. NYT Mission Accomplished Panel
In May, the New York Times commemorated the anniversary of the “Mission Accomplished” banner by hosting a symposium from celebrated thinkers, most of whom were well-known as people who got the Iraq War wrong. They were allowed, in that symposium, to continue to get the Iraq War wrong. Mission accomplished!

10 (tie). Charlotte Allen/Bill Kristol
How do you prefer your op-ed idiocy America? Rendered in a thousand cuts from Bill Kristol, phoning in his obligation to the New York Times? Or delivered in one sharp, shock-and-awesome example of stupidity, a la Charlotte Allen in the Washington Post?

_____________

As for (dis)honorable mentions, where do begin and end? CNN capped off their year of election overkill with their infinitely mockable “holograms,” which will now stand in for the human talent they’ve been shedding. Portfolio inexplicably put American Apparel’s Dov Charney on their cover at a time when everyone else was chronicling the economic catastrophe. Amy Chozick wrote an idiotic piece for the Wall Street Journal about whether Obama was “too fit” to be President - some of her “sources” were anonymous message-board denizens who she prodded into participating. Barbara West went after Joe Biden with every GOP talking point she could stuff into her head, and later claimed that zeroed the balance. And MSNBC’s The Race For The White House was the dumbest political show ever conceived by sentient beings.

Read more: Video, 2008, Media Criticism, Media News

2008: The Year In Media Highlights

It’s the end of the year, and so I must answer the call for summative listicles of things. So, why not a list of stuff I liked that people in the mass media did this year? Okay! Obviously this is by no means meant to be complete or offered despotically as the be-all-end-all list on this subject. Maybe you’d like to add your own highlights in the comments, or send me an email with your own nomination? That way, I’ll have the fodder for something to write on New Year’s Eve as well! Anyway, i hope you enjoy this!

TEN THINGS THAT MANAGED TO NOT SUCK IN 2008, MEDIA EDITION

1. FiveThirtyEight.com
The uncanny, poll-wrangling, stats-freaking Nate Silver took it upon himself to demonstrate that some level of governable, rational reality could be brought to bear on the confusing world of competing tracking polls, and along the way all but cemented the geek-chic trajectory of this election season. But FiveThirtyEight did flesh-and-blood reportage just as well as they did number crunching. Vastly undersung were the wonderful series of posts that Silver’s partners in crime authored as they traveled the country assessing the ground-games of both campaigns. Their only worry now is what will happen in four years when their terrifying accuracy inspires the electorate to stay home and avoid the polls out of existential overconfidence.

2. Rachel Maddow
While many cheer the stellar rise of Rachel Maddow as further proof of the viability of progressive voices on primetime cable news, I’d rather celebrate the rise of a voice that’s not endlessly yelling or yammering away with all of the dull and insensate tonality of a pair of pecans inside a tin can. Genial, witty, and composed, Maddow runs her MSNBC show with a unique-to-cable-news understanding that amplified stridency is not a substitute for a strong set of beliefs. Plus, she’s fun. Don’t people like to have fun, anymore? For Pete’s sake! If you’re going to watch cable news in prime time when you could be doing ANYTHING ELSE IN WORLD, shouldn’t it not be like grim punishment?

3. Compassion Forum
Did you ever imagine that they could stuff four hundred debates inside a single election season? Me neither! And most of them ranged between awful and excremental. But one of the few I enjoyed was the Compassion Forum, despite its resolutely stupid name. As representatives of the media, Campbell Brown and Jon Meacham’s questions tended toward the reductionist and the cliched. But the various religious officials who were on hand to question Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were OUTSTANDING, asking deep and involved questions on both faith and policy. The forum’s quality questions inspired both candidates to offer some of their most engaging responses. More importantly, it was a lovely example of the value of a contemplative life.

4. Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald, on torture
The torture of human beings is an unquestionable moral failure and a rank-smelling blot on a society that permits it, and yet who knows where those of us who would take up this seemingly futile cause would be without the relentless rational ballast provided by the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, who have relentlessly added to the case against these crimes and who show no sign of discontinuing that effort.

5. Peter Schiff, on the economy
There were a few voices in the wilderness, gravely warning of the imminent collapse of the economy, to whom no one listened. Euro Pacific Capital’s Peter Schiff was made to endure the relentless mocking of idiots on the TV, and for that, we salute him.

6. “Katrina’s Hidden Race War,” in The Nation
A.C. Thompson’s epic, harrowing piece for The Nation, which describes in detail the way racist vigilantes ran their own little campaign of ethnic cleansing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is investigative journalism done right. More importantly, it’s a necessary reminder that our past is not done with us by a long shot. And by the “past,” I’m not simply referring to the three years that have transpired since Katrina leveled a city.

7. Alex Pareene
For most of the people who ply their trade in political “analysis,” the essential task is one of superficial dazzle, to see how much mystical crap they can get dancing on the head of a pin. Witness Mark Halperin, who turns his idiocy into painful Zen koans and is thought of by important people as a sage authority. Gawker’s Alex Pareene is an antidote. Through his relentless refusal to indulge himself in the senseless, masturbatory mystification of the simple, Pareene manages to strip down a political event or a media obsession to its essential, understandable elements. He’s just not that impressed with the people who populate the political milieu. And he’d fracking hate being included on this listicle. God bless him for that. Now, can we find Pareene a perch where his paymasters aren’t bent on burning him out?

8. Ross Douthat and Reihan Salaam
Hey, have you heard about this “Republican Party?” If you wander into the deep woods, they’ll be the ones naked and howling, with sadness. Yes, the 2008 election has sent a fractured group off to do some of that soul-searching. Some of them will be aligning themselves with the Aerial Wolf Huntress From Wasilla. Some will choose an even blander course. But the GOP that survives to once again be a formidable opponent will be the ones who’ve got a dog-eared copy of Grand New Party on their nightstands. Authors Ross Douthat and Reihan Salaam aren’t the only ones working the return-to-the-working-class territory, but they have the added advantages of being new-media and new-blood.

9. Bob Costas interviews George Bush
Is it sort of dumb to include Bob Costas on a year-end list of the finest media moments? Well, if more people demonstrated the ability to conduct a substantive interview with President Bush, then yes! But they don’t! Seriously: can’t you see Costas hosting Meet The Press?

10. Damon Weaver
Damon Weaver is the ten-year old kid from Florida who interviewed Joe Biden and who wants to interview Barack Obama over Inauguration Weekend. He is JUST THE BEST. I want him to get his interview with Obama, and so do many of you, and together, we will MAKE THIS HAPPEN. Damon just makes you feel like there’s some stuff going on in this world that’s RIGHT. Here’s some details from one of his teachers, Brian Zimmerman:

Since Damon has been a reporter for our school’s television station his grades have improved. He is not a gifted student. He is an average student who has been working very hard. I asked him why his grades have improved since being a reporter and he told me that people out in Pahokee practice a lot to get better at football so he thinks it’s important to try harder in school so that he could become a journalist. Over the years, Damon’s has had some behavior issues in his classes, but since he has been involved with being a reporter the behavior issues have gone away. I must also mention, through all of the attention Damon has stayed well-grounded and never brags to the other students.

Kathryn E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary consists of a lower socio-economic student population. 96% of the students are on free or reduced lunches. 80% of our students are African-American. In Florida the schools are given grades based on their test scores. Our school was a failing school we had a low “D”. The past couple of years our school has raised its grade to a “B” and we are trying for an “A” this year.

This kid is doing it right folks, and he’s reflecting the larger efforts of a lot of other people who are also doing it right.

______________________

Honorable mentions? Well, I’ve been a fan all year of McClatchy’s great coverage of Iraq. And I’m fond of The Washington Independent as well, especially the work of Spencer Ackerman and Laura McGann. Public Service Administration has put out some of my favorite political parodies. Campbell Brown made beating up on McCain punishment-junkie Tucker Bounds cool, and I loved her humane, histrionic-free defense of Arab-Americans. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs was delightful in his confrontation with Fox’s Sean Hannity. And this Bloggingheads conversation between Brian Beutler and Ta-Nehisi Coates is probably the best thing Bloggingheads has ever done.

Read more: 2008, Media Criticism, Holiday Season Commentary, Media News

Bob Burnett: 2008: The Best and Worst

In a tumultuous year, ten political events stood out.

The Worst
5. “Just say no.” Republican Senators Block Critical Legislation: The 110th Congress saw Republican Senators invoke cloture motions - to limit debate and head off filibusters - a record 138 times, more than double the previous ignominious standard. The do-nothing GOP killed legislation with broad support - bills that had already passed in the House of Representatives - including renewable energy tax credits, a windfall profits tax on oil companies, negotiations with drug companies over Medicare drug prices, DC voting rights, and withdrawal from Iraq. As a result Republicans lost eight Senate seats in the general election.

4. “Gimme the money.” Paulson Demands $700 Billion Bailout Blank Check: On September 18th, in a one-page memo to Congress, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, demanding $700 billion to purchase mortgage-backed securities, as well as unlimited discretion spending the funds. Congress modified his proposal to release funds in stages and provide oversight. Nonetheless, many believe the TARP program has been a waste of tax-payer funds.

3. “Running on empty.” McCain Suspends Campaign: While the conventional wisdom claims John McCain lost the presidential election because of the economy, he failed because he ran a terrible campaign, consistently making bad decisions. In early September, at the end of the Republican convention, McCain was surging: his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate had galvanized the Republican base and some national polls showed him ahead of Obama. Then came the Paulson’s TARP proposal, which many Republicans refused to support. McCain “suspended” his campaign to return to Washington and broker a deal. And then did nothing. Instead of being viewed as a strong leader, McCain was revealed as confused and erratic.

2. “He’s a terrorist.” Palin Accuses Obama of Being a Terrorist: On October 4th, Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” This charge, repeated by McCain, prompted shouted death threats at Republican rallies and the waving of pitchforks. While most Americans - and the Secret Service - saw the terrorist charge as contemptible and incendiary, Palin and McCain persisted for more than a week.

1. “I’m the decider.”Economy Slides into Recession, Bush Does Nothing: For the first six months, President Bush pronounced the American economy “sound” and spurned calls for action. In mid September, Bush reversed course declaring the US was on the brink of economic collapse. On December 1st, economists announced what most Americans had known already, the economy had been in recession since December of 2007. First Bush lied and then he panicked.

The Best
5. “No McCain.” Clinton Endorses Obama: After a sometimes bitter campaign, where Hillary Clinton continued her candidacy long after most observers had written her off, Democrats worried the New York Senator might offer only a half-hearted endorsement of Barack Obama. On August 26th, speaking at the Democratic Convention, Clinton strongly supported Obama giving one of the most memorable speeches of her career.

4. “I can see Russia from my house.”Tina Fey Mimics Sarah Palin: In 2008 Saturday Night Live reinvented itself as a bastion of political comedy. Tina Fey’s dead on imitation of Palin mocked Alaska’s Governor as a vapid airhead totally unprepared for the vice-presidency.

3. “Respect, Empower, Include.” Obama’s Field Organization From the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd to the twenty-five-state get-out-the-vote effort on November 4th, Barack Obama put together the most impressive field organization ever seen in U.S. politics. First, Obamacons took down Hillary Clinton, the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Then they defeated John McCain, despite his despicable attempt to label Obama a terrorist and closet Muslim. On Election Day, Obama won the critical swing states because he had a ground game and McCain didn’t. American politics will never be the same.

2. “This is a goodbye kiss, you dog.” Bush insulted by Iraqi journalist: In a vain effort to resurrect his reputation, George Bush took a December “victory” tour of Iraq. In the middle of a Baghdad press conference, where he touted the “success” of his strategy, Bush was the target of two shoes thrown by Iraqi journalist Muntathar al Zaidi, who cursed him in Arabic. The incident symbolized Bush’s Iraq legacy.

1. “Yes we can.”Obama wins Presidency: When was the point you knew Barack was going to be America’s 44th President? Was it after his Iowa victory? Or when it became clear he had out-organized Hillary? Was it his speech on race? Or when we knew Obama was going to win all the debates because of his thoughtful, unflappable demeanor? Or did you bite your nails until the evening of November 4th, expecting something awful to happen that would snatch victory from his grasp? However you experienced the campaign, Barack Obama Obama’s candidacy was an once-in-a-lifetime political thrill; capped by his dazzling victory speech on November 4th. We can and we did.

An Encounter With Hogs On The Road To Alabama

Our guest blogger is Barry Nolan, a veteran TV journalist who was fired by Comcast Cable’s CN8 channel in Boston for protesting an award honoring Bill O’Reilly.

According to an article in the New York Times, a typical salary in the Smithfield Packing slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, NC is $11.90 per hour, or $476 for a 40 hour week. Because I am a considerate person, I will spare you any description of the grisly jobs performed by those workers in that slaughterhouse.

The base salary of a U.S. senator is $169,300 a year or $3,255 a week. Because I am a considerate person, I will spare you any description of the job some of those senators are doing on us these days.

The slaughterhouse story in the New York Times looked back on the 16-year long struggle to bring union representation to the 5,000 or so workers in Tar Heel, which ended up in court at one point. In 2006, after seven years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Smithfield had engaged in “intense and widespread” coercion and ordered Smithfield to reinstate four union supporters it found were illegally fired, one of whom was beaten by the plant’s police on the day of the 1997 election.

The court also said Smithfield had engaged in other illegal activities: spying on workers’ union activities, confiscating union materials, threatening to fire workers who voted for the union and threatening to freeze wages and shut the plant.

But the big news in the Times story, especially if you pack meat, was that after the long struggle with Smithfield, the union finally won. The slaughterhouse is going union.

On the same day MSNBC had a story about a GOP memo titled “Action Alert,” which went out to the Republican senators just before their “No” vote on the Big Three Auto Makers bailout bill. The GOP memo contained this pithy paragraph:

This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

It has been a longstanding part of the conservative’s core philosophy that unions are simply bad for business. That is why is why conservatives who are making $169 K per year for standing around arguing, just can’t understand why someone who is making the princely salary of $24,752 for working 40 hours a week in a slaughterhouse would ever want to join a union. It could eat into a company’s profits. Never mind that as a non-union hog butcher, you may bring home a little bacon, but good luck sending your kids to college.

The Federal Poverty guideline for 2008, sets $22,200 as the poverty level for a family of four. Those who do the hard spirit killing, tendon ripping work of slaughtering hogs, forty hours a week, 52 weeks a year, are just barely, faintly above the poverty level.

So just who are these people the GOP sees as the enemy? These awful, greedy, lazy Union people? More »

Rove Reportedly Will ‘Help Lead’ GOP’s Fight Against Eric Holder For Attorney General

Senate Republicans, including Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), are trying delay confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder, raising questions about Holder’s role in the 2001 pardon of Marc Rich. Grassley even tried to tie Holder to Gov. Rod Blajogevich, saying last week, “Public reports have just emerged that in 2004, the Governor of Illinois hired or sought to hire Mr. Holder.”

On Dec. 1, just one day after Holder’s nomination, Karl Rove told the Today Show that Holder’s record “will be examined” because he was the “one controversial nominee“:

ROVE: He was deeply involved as the Deputy Attorney General in the controversial pardon of Marc Rich. … I think it’s going to be clearly examined, if for no other reason that people want to lay down markers that that kind of behavior is inappropriate. … But again, there will be some attention paid to this.

On Friday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) released a statement noting that the Republicans initially praised Holder, but now seem to be taking their marching orders from Rove:

LEAHY: In addition, Senator Grassley has acknowledged Mr. Holder’s impeccable credentials while reserving judgment. But of course since then, Karl Rove has appeared on the Today Show and signaled that Republicans ought to go after Mr. Holder. Right-wing talk radio took up the drum beat.

Today on MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Show, Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly revealed that Rove is indeed “helping lead” the effort against Holder:

CONNOLLY: Word on the street is that Karl Rove is going to be helping lead the fight against Eric Holder when his nomination for Attorney General heads up to the Senate.

Watch it:

A year after he resigned from public office, all roads still lead to Rove.

Specter delivers tasteless Polish jokes at swanky New York City luncheon.

On Friday night, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) offered up some “tasteless ethnic jokes” at a swanky Pennsylvania Society luncheon in New York City. The senator asked the audience if anyone present was Polish. Reportedly, about 10 people raised their hands. Callous to their concerns, Specter then proceeded to let loose with a stream of Polish jokes:

Specter deemed the number insignificant and forged ahead with some supposedly funny Polish jokes, including the old one about the man who interrupted him once, saying, “Hey, careful. I’m Polish!” Specter said he responded, “That’s OK - I’ll tell it more slowly.” Specter also told two other tasteless jokes in the same Polish vein. “No one walked out, but it was offensive,” said our source. “I was offended, and I’m not Polish.”

McCain Whacks RNC, Defends Obama Over Blagojevich (VIDEO)

John McCain sideswiped the Republican National Committee on Sunday for the intense focus it has placed on Barack Obama’s relationship (however thin) to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Saying he was confident that information would be made public regarding the president-elect’s contacts with the embattled Illinois governor — who is accused of putting up Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder — McCain urged his Republican colleagues to keep their political priorities in order.

“I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary,” said the Arizona Republican. “You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don’t know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama’s campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.”

McCain’s remarks, delivered during an interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, come amidst a blitz of statements, press releases and web videos from the Republican Party on the Blaojevich subject.

On Sunday alone, the Illinois GOP launched a web site that would reportedly link 12 different state Democrats with the scandal-plagued governor. The RNC, meanwhile, released a web video titled, “Questions Remain,” highlighting Obama’s “evolving explanations” regarding the Blagojevich affair. Last week, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said Obama was undermining his pledges for transparency and the “moderate-type” campaign that he ran on, by not being forthcoming about his contacts with the Illinois Governor.

For all of this, the complaint issued in the Blagojevich case indicates that Obama had no direct ties to the governor’s pay-for-play scheme. The president-elect has said as much. Moreover, Blagojevich is heard in wiretaps repeatedly cursing Obama and complaining that the transition team was offering only “appreciation.”

McCain, who has almost never been popular within deeply partisan Republican circles, seemed to acknowledge the notion that this is, at its heart, a tale of a corrupt Illinois pol, not some massive entanglement involving Obama that the RNC is insinuating.

Read more: McCain RNC, Obama Balgojevich, Rnc Blagojevich, Blagojevich Affair, This Week Mccain, John Mccain Obama, Mccain Blagojevich, John McCain, Sunday Shows, Mccain Rnc Attacks, Video, Politics News

McCain Campaign Sells Blackberries Filled With Confidential Files

When I found out from Wonkette that the McCain-Palin campaign was holding a firesale of campaign sundries — including teevees and laptops — not far from my neighborhood, I briefly thought about driving over to see what deals there were to be had. My wife talked me out of it, telling me that what she wanted for Christmas was a gift “not drenched in the stink of terrible failure.” As it turns out, I should have gone, because the campaign was selling twenty-dollar Blackberries choked with campaign emails and addresses of GOP bigwigs!

A Fox reporter documented the find:

There were only 10 left. All of the batteries had died. There were no chargers for sale. But people were snatching them up. So, we bought a couple.

And ended up with a lot more than we bargained for.

When we charged them up in the newsroom, we found one of the $20 Blackberry phones contained more than 50 phone numbers for people connected with the McCain-Palin campaign, as well as hundreds of emails from early September until a few days after election night.

We traced the Blackberry back to a staffer who worked for “Citizens for McCain,” a group of Democrats who threw their support behind the Republican nominee. The emails contain an insider’s look at how grassroots operations work, full of scheduling questions and rallying cries for support.

But most of the numbers were private cell phones for campaign leaders, politicians, lobbyists and journalists.

We called some of the numbers.

“Somebody made a mistake,” one owner told us. “People’s numbers and addresses were supposed to be erased.”

“They should have wiped that stuff out,” another said. But he added, “Given the way the campaign was run, this is not a surprise.”

You would think the McCain campaign would have known better, seeing how McCain invented the Blackberry in the first place.

Read more: Blackberry, John McCain, McCain-Palin Fire Sale, Sarah Palin, Politics News

Leahy Won’t Give In To GOP On Holder, Blames Rove

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled on Friday that he will not acquiesce to GOP complaints and would stick to his original timeline for considering the nomination of Eric Holder as Attorney General.

In a lengthy statement from his office, Sen. Patrick Leahy offered no indication that he would move hearings on the Holder appointment from their scheduled date of January 8th. Moreover, he called GOP complaints that the nomination was being too quickly considered a fabricated and hypocritical critique driven by former Bush operative Karl Rove.

“In my statement to the Senate on November 20, I commended Senators Hatch, Sessions, Coburn, and Grassley for their nonpartisanship when they praised his selection. Senator Hatch spoke of his support for Mr. Holder, his experience and reputation. Senator Sessions, a former prosecutor, U.S. Attorney, and State Attorney General who is well aware of the problems at the Justice Department, said he was disposed to support him. Senator Coburn called it ‘a good choice.’ In addition, Senator Grassley has acknowledged Mr. Holder’s impeccable credentials while reserving judgment. But of course since then, Karl Rove has appeared on the Today Show and signaled that Republicans ought to go after Mr. Holder. Right-wing talk radio took up the drum beat.”

Leahy’s statement comes the day after the GOP Senators he mentioned above took to the Senate floor to raise concerns about the Holder nomination. Their complaints focused primarily on Holder’s involvement in the pardon of Marc Rich and other controversial actions taken by the Clinton Justice Department. Several suggested that if they weren’t granted more time to consider the appointment, they would do everything in their power to hold up the nomination.

Leahy, who will have the greatest say in how Holder’s nomination progresses, scoffed at the GOP’s newfound desire for judicial prudence and political patience. Noting that there has been, on average, 29 days between the “announcement of an Attorney General designation and the start of hearings, and 37 days on average from the announcement of the nominee to the Committee vote,” the Vermont Democrat wondered why, with Holder, Senate Republicans felt 39 days to consider the nomination and 50 days before the Judiciary Committee votes was too little time.

“When President Bush nominated Michael Mukasey last year,” he said, “Senator Kyl said: ‘Since the Carter administration, Attorney General nominees have been confirmed, on average, in approximately three weeks, with some being confirmed even more quickly. The Senate should immediately move to consider Judge Mukasey’s nomination and ensure he is confirmed before Congress recesses for Columbus Day.’ I held that hearing within 30 days. We should not change the standards now that a Democrat is making the selection.”

Read more: Rove Holder Hearings, Timeline Holder, Holder Hearings, Karl Rove, Leahy Holder, Justice Department, Attorney General, Partrick Leahy, Eric Holder, Gop Complaints, Politics News

RNC Chair Drops Country Club Backdrop From Website

This is the state of internal GOP debates these days:

Mike Duncan, who is running for reelection as chair of the Republican National Convention, was apparently compelled by the Twitter feed of a young GOP strategist to erase a backdrop of his website that showcased an elite country club.

David All, of the David All Group, filed several posts on Thursday raising concerns that the backdrop of Duncan’s website — apparently a photo of the high-end Wisconsin Erin Hills Country Club — sent the wrong type of political message.

“Mike Duncan using an elitist golf course as his background image is exactly what is wrong with the GOP. $160 green fees,” read one tweet. “RNC Chairman Mike Duncan’s background image: I believe it sends an elitist message,” he wrote in another.

Later in the afternoon, the backdrop on Duncan’s website was altered. Officials with the Duncan camp denied that All had any effect. They noted that web images — which are only seen on the border of the site — are set to change at random, mainly to shots from the congressman’s home state: Kentucky. But the link to the Erin Hill’s backdrop (which was posted by All and had a Duncan URL) was, it seems, erased.

“Clearly a lot of people responded, it sparked a little discussion, and they listened,” said All, who, It should be mentioned, is volunteering on behalf of Duncan’s competitor for the RNC chair, Saul Anuzis.

Asked to respond, Chris Taylor, a spokesman for Duncan said: “I don’t believe that the decision of the 168 RNC members [who decide on the next chair] will be made over arguing about backdrops to websites. I believe that it comes down to the issues, that is what these members are focused on. And that is what Chairman Duncan is running his campaign on.”

Taylor may be right. But there is a larger point here:

The GOP, perhaps rightly so, is in a very sensitive place right now when it comes to the image it presents. There is an obvious concern, echoed by Karl Rove and others, that the party is in serious danger of being regionalized — forced to pin its hopes on turning out the white vote, primarily in the South. During the course of the Republican primary, the leading candidates all shunned a minority’s issue debate, prompting more moderate figures, including former Rep. Jack Kemp, to wonder whether this was political suicide.

“What are we going to do — meet in a country club in the suburbs one day?” Kemp said. “If we’re going to be competitive with people of color, we’ve got to ask them for their vote.”

UPDATE: A former RNC employee emails a reminder that All is not disinterested in stirring up Republican concern about Duncan’s candidacy. He does, after all, have a horse in the RNC chairman race.

“I saw your post today on Duncan’s reelection site,” he writes. “I can say, without a doubt, Duncan is less interested in golf than he is in electing more Republicans. David’s doing his job, he’s drumming up controversy where none exists.”

Read more: Country Club, All Technology, Mike Duncan, Country Club Setting, Mike Duncan Reelection, GOP Debates, Web Backdrop, All Twitter, David All, Politics News

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