Eric Boehlert on: Why did the press ignore Ted Kennedy in 2002?

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200805280002

h/t Atrios ...

Ignoring Ted

Boehlert [linked above] has an important column about how the press ignored Ted Kennedy in 2002 when he spoke out against their grand and glorious adventure in Iraq. One of the excuses that the press gives for ignoring people who thought that this was a really stupid fucking idea is that the Democrats didn't really oppose it. Well, Ted Kennedy did and so did plenty of others. And Kennedy isn't some no-name senator, he's one with a big history, stature, and name recognition. He give a big speech. It was ignored.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_05_25_archive.html#7834482293112993939

In any case, I hereby pledge to never again write about how angry Hillary makes me. I will henceforth limit my comments to Bill.

Bill is criss-crossing the country. He is working hard for his wife's candidacy. He is also hurting the Democratic party.

Torn from the front pages of TPM:

Bill, Bill, Bill . . .
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/197106.php

Bill over the weekend on the campaign stump, [was] riffing about how no one has ever tried to run the also-ran candidates out of the Democratic race once there's a presumptive nominee, until this year, when it happened to Hillary.

Bill
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/192773.php

Former President Bill Clinton was in West Virginia on his wife's behalf. In Clarksburg, he called her a scrapper and contrasted her appeal among working-class voters with the elitists he said support Obama.

"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said. "In West Virginia and Arkansas, we know that when we see it."

Bill Clinton needs to shut up already if all he's got left to sell is resentment to voters we'd like to have onboard come November.

The only thing that pisses me off more than mendacious politicians who try to manipulate me are the Fourth Estate types who treat me with equal disdain and then think they deserve a pass when the public gets wise to the lies.

No doubt we'll be hearing these same Fourth Estate types, who ignored Ted Kennedy's opposition to the Iraq war in 2002, now wax eloquent about how Scotty McC doesn't deserve a pass for his role in disseminating Bush's disinformation.

And they'll be right. He doesn't. But neither do they.

By the way, click on the first link:

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_05_25_archive.html#1426275251855217117

Or this link:

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9609.html

Either one will make your day.

God bless these guys:

http://www.89infdivww2.org

Or this:

Long time conservative activist Richard Viguerie:

Conservatives need to face reality. If John McCain ever was a conservative, he has not been one for many years. It's been at least a decade and a half ago since he veered off the conservative path. In 2000, he blamed us for his defeat and for the unfair treatment he received in that campaign, and it appears that he decided to teach us a lesson.

As Digby says ... These hardcore movement conservatives really don't want to win this one.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/with-friends-like-these-by-digby-long.html

Is it breaking my aforementioned pledge if I quietly link here:

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/05/21/clinton-calvinball/

As if the URL doesn't give the game away. Oh well.

Barry Nolan, journalist.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/27/barry-nolan/

So, I’m that TV guy who got fired by Comcast over Bill O’Reilly. I protested the fact that O’Reilly was chosen to receive the Governors Award at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony. That’s the highest honor that they hand out. The important word here is: honor ...

So, on May 10th at the Emmy Awards dinner, I quietly passed out a document that contained – not my opinion – but O’Reilly’s own words and quotes from his sexual harassment lawsuit. And that is what got me fired. I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people ...

So, when exactly do they think we have the right to speak up? To speak the quiet simple truth, to people who have more power than us?

Well, I think now would be a good time ...

Meanwhile, if anyone needs any lawn work done or his or her car detailed – give me a call.

Barry Nolan. Journalist.

Like Amarillo Slim said, "Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker."

And like Gore Vidal said, "It's not enough to succeed. Others must fail."

If your opponent's not losing, you can't be winning, no matter how many successes you might be able to point to.

And if you're not winning, it's best to cut losses short and get out of the game.

I'm out.

No, don't scratch that.

I'm still out.

Emotional appeals are problematic in the sense that they generally work both ways depending on one's confirmation bias.

We all quote the Dixie Chicks at our own peril.

It ain't sexy, but there it is.

Process. Either it's fair or it's not. My caterwauling or the Dixie Chicks' canorous contributions aside.

Disheartening, but not unexpected:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/until-the-votes-are-cast.php

As I commented over at Don's thread:

I've had an inkling that the plan was to take this to the convention ever since catching a BBC broadcast a few months ago in which a - purportedly neutral - American observer came on and offered the view that "taking it to the convention" was not so uncommon in the American system and not something to get overly-concerned about.

I subsequently tried, and failed, to locate that broadcast online. As an expat American, whose only broadcast news source at home happens to be the BBC, it was particularly chilling, in the sense that it led me to understand that this was the line that was being propagated by the campaign "under the radar" to the BBC-viewing demographic.

Since then, I've watched the spin unfold online with a sinking feeling in my gut that my initial reaction was spot on. The plan is to take this to the convention. It will only be thwarted if it's rendered totally unpalatable.

This is genius/madness. I love it.

The assumption was that Bush (and even more to the point, Colin Powell) would never have told us the war was necessary if that weren't the case -- because who would do that? No one we'd put in charge. Just as Hillary would never have stirred the pot on purpose—because that would be evil and she isn't evil, thus she couldn't have done it.

Bingo.

It's tough for most people to admit they're wrong. Often more so when the error involves endorsement of another, exempli gratia casting a ballot.

I suspect this phenomenon is at least partly responsible for supplying King George with so lengthy a free-ride, and why we now see some till-death-do-us-part support for Senator Clinton.

David Kurtz is the best thing that ever happened to TPM, outside of Josh, but "DECIDELY" is still not a word.

Apparently, the lack of an EDIT function extends beyond the Café.

David, fwiw, we feel your pain.

Which gets me to 12. Awesome. I might as well be posting at Hillaryis44.org. Didn't y'all get the memo? Obama is my Morrison, the Morrison of Five to One:

The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
We're takin' over
Come on!

Yeah!

...

12?

"12" is not a number, and nowhere near "numbers" ...

Sorry, Jim. I tried. The TPM culture just ain't where it needs to be yet to properly honor your legacy.

Don't mind me.

I just resent that a certain Andrew Golis now has something like 224 responses to his post.

Who exactly does he think he is?

You'd think he worked here or something.

As if making this all possible is supposed to count for something.

:-)

Just in case it doesn't display properly, that's a smiley face directly above this line.

And just in case it doesn't display properly, it's all Andrew's fault.

This has needed to be said! I don't need to be adding my remarks at this point, but - job well done.

It is maddening at times:

Q: Why would you stay in the race?
A: Because my opponent could be assassinated, remember RFK?

As I, along with many Americans, reacted with shock and amazement that she could be even contemplating such an event ocurring between now and june (in THIS race); her supporters are flat out telling me and others not to be upset, because that is NOT what she said. I saw and heard it, it is what she said.

It is not only this occasion. They've given her the benefit of the doubt everytime!

You know why you're getting so few comments, Mr. Blanco? You're too good. Posting here feels almost like sacrilege. Or at least stepping all over someone's freshly cleaned carpet in dirty old shoes. It's disturbing the pattern. Please continue.