Why is the USA scandal a joke?
In his second update, to this post Glenn Greenwald includes a clip of the Chris Matthews show that reduces the USA case as just an attempt by the democrats to get Karl Rove. All five of them say that voters aren't interested in this, that the democrats are overreaching and they better be careful. My last two posts here involved five other national media sources who dismiss this as trivial, not worthy of attention.
That's ten Beltway journalists, all unanimously saying "Move along people. Nothing to see here."
What is going on here? They're all right on republican message, talking point by talking point.
Not a single one of these ten people expressed any concern about the impact on the justice system caused by these actions, even though there is not shortage of commentary from people within the justice system decrying.
Why? What motivates these people? Is it really just Sally Quinn's circle? And, if so, how did Karl Rove get in there?
Make that 11 Beltway journalists:
It seems doubtful that Democrats can help themselves a great deal just by tearing down an already discredited Republican administration with more investigations such as the current attack on the Justice Department and White House over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
At some point, Democrats have to give people something to vote for. People already know what they're against -- the Republicans.
--David Broder
March 26, 2007 6:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fixing the judicial systems of the Federal, State, and local government is something to vote for!
No matter the stimulus, the Federal Prosecutors could not come forward to give their story without the protections of congress.
We citizens lead our life under a roulette game called the legal system.
A discussion by the citizenry is needed to understand and informed ourselves of the failure of the system as it works in reality is urgently needed.
The discussion would allow those of good will in the system to come forward and explain the need for change. An active and full throted public discussion would provide protection from politicians.
This discussion and renewal must happen or the system is headed for collapse with prosecutors facing the inability to have a jury convict anyone, guilty or innocent.
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Today, are we searching for I deals or Ideals?
-Thinking
March 26, 2007 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't the first time talking heads have said that something wasn't important "outside the beltway" and would not hurt Republicans. Leading up to the Nov. elections, they said that nobody cared about corruption in the Republican party. But voting-site polls said that people DID care.
I think this is just symptomatic of the disconnect between the traditional news media/political machine and the rapidly changing world of Internet news, blogs, websites, petitions, and so on. They can sit up there and SAY that "nobody outside the beltway" cares--as if the rest of us are all a bunch of blithering baboons who wouldn't know WHAT to think if those slick insiders didn't TELL us.
They keep getting it wrong. They've been wrong ever since they tried to impale Clinton's head on a spike, only to be frustrated by polls that consistently showed him as popular with voters.
Out here in the world NOT the Beltway...we care. They'd better figure that out if they want to survive in the news biz.
March 26, 2007 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
What motivates these people?
Damned if I know. It's a good question though. Greenwald offers up this as a motivator:
But I'm not sure I buy it. Would a "prevailing Republican power system" really be any more beneficial to them than a "prevailing Democratic power system"? I doubt it.
If anything, the Democrats seem to take mainstream opinion-maker types more seriously than Republicans do. Dick Cheney's perfectly happy to bypass the mainstream news shows and get his message out via Limbaugh. Would a Democratic vice president bypass Chris Matthews for Randi Rhodes?
March 26, 2007 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
They certainly didn't lay out the red carpet for Clinton. Or Carter.
Atrios wrote about this a little while ago--saying that successive years of republican presidencies Nixon/Ford, Reagan/Bush with just a little Carter in between, created a republican town.
On your last question, if Randi got Rush's ratings, they would bypass in a heartbeat. The problem, though, is that we know Cheney believes that MtP is his best venue for getting out an uncontested message. Doing Rush is just feeding the base.
March 26, 2007 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Atrios wrote about this a little while ago--saying that successive years of republican presidencies Nixon/Ford, Reagan/Bush with just a little Carter in between, created a republican town.
Hmm... makes more sense to me than the "Republican rule is more beneficial to media elites than Democratic rule" theory. Still doesn't strike me as quite right, though -- not that I can articulate why, or have anything better to offer ;-)
On your last question, if Randi got Rush's ratings, they would bypass in a heartbeat.
I kinda wish they wouldn't, but you're probably right. I wish we had a political culture where any pres. or VP would be embarrassed to do much feeding of the base while in office. The leadership of the executive branch should represent, and speak to, the whole nation, bring people together, etc. Let their proxies feed the base (she said, cynically).
March 29, 2007 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watching Chris Matthews hear the news of Monica Goodlings 5th was revealing. Matthews was stunned.Maybe he finally realised that when people start taking the fifth instead of Executive Priveledge and hire million dollar lawyer John Dowd, that there is a there there(so to speak) and he better pay attention.
March 26, 2007 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
SeeDee
The 'beltway bamboozlers' (aka MSM) to a large extent are made up of that extended class of goof-balls posing as journalists that were the products of R M Scaife and friends over the past 35 years or so. (As identified by D. Brock in his 'The Republican Noise Machine').
The scandals and mis-deeds of the present Bush administration have now become so egregious, and the 'opposition' party now in control of Congress has taken away the 'shield', so the only thing right-wing pundits can do is try to minimize the bad stuff...they can no longer ignore it completely.
March 27, 2007 2:05 AM | Reply | Permalink