Vacancy

Joe, where is Joseph Welch (“have you no decency”) when you need him most. This guilt by association crap has got to stop!

Hope you read this post, Scherer.

Joe, here’s hoping Scherer reads your post. He’s nearly in “it would be irresponsible NOT to speculate mode again.” Poor guy. Has he been palling around with Sprinkles Sidoti, again?

Clearly from now on a public servant must be prescient enough that his or her soul enter a fetus residing in a state devoid of controversial characters. Of course, failing this they must at least have the ability to unmeet anyone who could be construed at some point down the road as a negative association.

Dee hard to do if you’re from Illinois, or from this planet.

Anagram for Rod Blagojevich: “Jihad Blog Cover.” You fools!

Reposted for your perusal Joe. Note the marked difference in approach, and while they were not written by the same author, I’m sure not even you would claim that Carney would have written anything markedly different than Scherer. Obama. Bush. Let me think….what’s the difference between the two? Can’t quite put my finger on it.
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“Of course! It all makes perfect conspiratorial sense! Except for one thing: in this case some liberals are seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist.”
(translation: sure theres smoke but come on people there’s no fire here. Move along.)
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2007/01/17/running_massacre/
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“What’s more, as far as anyone seems to know, Barack Obama has nothing to hide. He says he never talked to Gov. Blagojevich about any of this. So what’s up? ”
(translation: sure there’s no fire here, but mind if I roll up the windows and hot box these right wing talking points?)
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/12/10/the-ongoing-investigation-thing/

You know, Hilary Clinton was originally from Illinois, too! I just know this all ties into TravelWhitewaterBlowjobGate somehow.
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Nice to see the media wakening from its slumber… hopefully they’ll get around to, you know, scrutinizing the stuff the president actually does.

That f–ker Cincinnatus, he always posts stuff like 10 seconds before I do…

I notice no reporters are digging around for a Durbin-Blag connection. This whole thing is weird.

Thank you, Joe. It is driving me nuts. He gets called a “M*****F*****”, along with multiple “F*** Him’s” because he would only give Blago “appreciation” or “nothing” for appointing someone he wants and this makes him a crook or something.

I don’t think the tapes could make it more crystal clear yet to hear the yapping heads, he was in on Blago’s pay to play.

It is really starting to piss me off.

I live in Iowa and I visited Chicago over the summer – had a great time – I feel like I must be a crook now simply by proximity.

That’s Mr. F@cker to you Elvis. Kidding.

Hee hee hee.

Let’s see, was Obama behind the death of Studs Terkel, too?

Barack Obama comes from the same state as Rod Blagoyevich. That is really suspicious!

Truly “suspicious” indeed. That’d be like saying that because of Sarah Palin, all Republicans had a bottom-of-the-barrel IQ.

Joe:
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You know, this may seem irrelevant, but really, it’s not!
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I was talking with the lady next door, and in the middle of our conversation, she reach into her pocket and pulled out a $5 bill.
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She said: “Wow! I had no idea that was in there!”. Then, the sun came out from behind the clouds (this is Seattle…).
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I replied:
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“Look at it this way: The sun is out, gas is $1.67 a gallon, Obama’s our new president (yes! I know…), and you just found five bucks! What more could you ask for?
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She laughed.
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And I still havn’t changed my mind. FOX can go to hell…

great to have you back Joe. The worst has been the RNC chair demanding! that in the name of transparency Obama has to determine what the SEIU knew – and Ron Brownstein basically agreeing.

“That’d be like saying that because of Sarah Palin, all Republicans had a bottom-of-the-barrel IQ.”
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That’s only true of the Republicans who still think she’s their wave of the future…

Finally the RNC sees a ray of hope! Maybe the Blago scandal will become ‘Obama’s Burden’. We could spend years complaining about all of the ‘unanswered questions’ we can dream up. Think of the fun we could have and the innuendo we could peddle.
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Maybe someone should call Ken Starr and see if he’s still available. He worked out great last time. Got the president impeached for a BJ and the press pretty much ignored the conclusion of the investigation he was actually hired to do (i.e., Whitewater).
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Better get a memo off to Bush, though. It wouldn’t look good if he pardoned the currently imprisoned Republican Illinois governor and didn’t pardon the soon to be imprisoned Democratic one. Sorry Ryan.

Like I wrote earlier, people are burned out on the economy and the war. Bored media and sour Republicans ginning up an as yet unproven link between this scandal and Obama for the sake of making noise. Come back to me when you actually have proof that Obama was really aware of any of this. Until then, I remain unmoved.

Poor Mikey, to be mocked like that by Swampland’s Elder Statesman.

Barack Obama hid Al Capone from his enemies in NY when he fell out w/ the Five Points gang and may have been behind the Valentine’s Day massacre, or at least he won’t refute the charges. He’s also the guy that poked Jim McMahon in the eye w/ a pencil. He also wrote several of Chicago’s albums(a bad thing) and was the one that pressured Lovie Smith into going w/ Rex Grossman and not going after Jeff Garcia.

But Joe!
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Haven’t you read this completely responsible piece of pure fact-finding by some other writer no-one’s heard of?
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I quote:
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…Fitzgerald is going to continue to follow the facts, which means many more questions for people close to Obama. So regardless of Obama’s innocence, this will continue to be a burden for the president-elect and those around him. Politics, like life, is not fair.
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Don’t you see, Joe? “Many more questions for people close to Obama” will magically appear out of thin air, relentlessly posed by angels, fairies and other invisible beings apparently responsible for the substance of our daily political discourse. The behavior of a vapid, disconnected national political press corps (and an individual writer or editor) has nothing to do with this phenomenon. It’s just, you know, “life”. It happens. We don’t know why it’s this way, we just know that it’s “unfair”. Oh well!~
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When pressed on the reasons for this bizarre set of events with no cause and no interested parties apart from innocent bystanders like himself, the young writer explained:
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“My point was not about Obama’s guilt. My point was more basic: In politics, scandal has its own gravity, drawing in even the innocent…I am just describing the physics of political scandal.”
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So you see, Joe, it isn’t that there’s something fundamentally wrong with an industry that happens to be specifically enumerated in the Constitution, assumed by our Founding Fathers to be tasked with (and consciences encumbered with) protected duties inextricably bound to the dissemination of truth –no, not at all!
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It’s the very Laws of Nature that compel nauseatingly repetitive speculation and worthless smearing gossip into their flatulent creation!
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It’s physics, don’t you see, Joe? Like gravity…
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We, all of us –you and your young colleague the Newtonian savant, I and the rest of the dupe public, and Barack Obama the potentially land-deal-in-Arkensas-involved President-elect– are all simply whistling spectators and gape-mouthed bystanders in this mechanical carnival over which we have no influence. It’s the “physics of scandal”, man!
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What gods would we imagine ourselves to be if we were to cry out into the machinery of this cold universe “Why? Why must it always be this way?“, and expect an answer?
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Well, Joe? Is it or is it not inevitable that Barack Obama must be tainted with guilt? Is the political press corps squarely to blame for taking our national eye off of the ball in this time of crisis? Who is right: you (and I) or this genius colleague of yours?

Short ‘N Sweet Joe…you nailed the whole thing in just one small paragraph! Thanks…

Btw, Joe… it’s not just “cable news.” Might want to check your own house, before throwing stones at the teevee:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1865370,00.html

“Can Obama Escape the Taint of Blagojevich?”

(And all of Scherer’s posts, as well… as all have noted above.)

What is it with msm (okay obviously not you Joe) all this demand for Obama to come clean, Republicans like Eric Cantor and Pat Buchanan. Give me a break I don’t remember anyone clamoring to question Cheney or Bush about myriad violations of the constitution. Jeez have these people no shame. Is it really just about self-interest for the GOP and the media? I know the media GOP is becoming increasingly irrelevant despite their recent wins in GA and LA — their base is shrinking and they have become a more regional player. The media world is also shrinking and a lot of your colleagues are worried about losing their jobs maybe they are of the mindset of misery loving company or seeing their last chance to grab the brass ring before they are phased out and have little chance for a Pulitzer. But God this is messed up. We are just on the verge of reclaiming an American identity with some kind of character and integrity associated with it and frankly, the media has just as much ability as Blago to keep us mucking around in the dirt.

Don’t usually comment but here goes. Surely there must be a mentoring programme at Time. Please Joe, KT can you teach Michael Scherer the role of a real journalist is? His reporting is a constant disservice to the profession.

Dee, “some say” these guys think a chance for a “Pulitzer” is a night on the town with Roxanne. And Sigma Delta Chi is a sorority Sarah Palin belonged to.
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They don’t understand what journalistic ethics are and they hide behind the first amendment at any sign of critique.

stuartzechman… Oh to find a way to force Scherer to read aloud your last post (above). The spasms of false incomprehension in his face — and the quivver in his voice — bliss!

The problem incandezah and stuart is that Scherer can’t see the forest for the trees…he really, earnestly, piously, believes these questions need to be asked and will ask them ad nauseum, despite the fact they’re incomptent, irrelevant and immaterial.

incandenzah:

I sincerely hope that Scherer reads that last bit, laughs out loud, and then lets his mind return to that post he wrote recently about some guy proposing some supposed “Commentariat”.

Andy in MA:

Scherer sometimes seems to write from some alternate universe in which Jay Rosen doesn’t exist.

I’m posting this again because:
a)it’s a nice take down of Scherer, and
b)it’s impetus was my incessant emailing of CJR w/ Scherer horror stories:
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/beg_borrow_or_steal_an_opinion.php?page=all

I’m posting this again because:
a)it’s a nice take down of Scherer, and
b)it’s impetus was my incessant emailing of CJR w/ Scherer horror stories:
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/beg_borrow_or_steal_an_opinion.php?page=all

Since we’re all bandying association guilt about, can we discuss the cloud forming over Norm Coleman?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1208/FBI_investigating_Coleman_paper_reports.html

Great post at 23 Stuart. Rock solid.

Okay one more.
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Gunny:

Did I really write “…compel nauseatingly repetitive speculation and worthless smearing gossip into their flatulent creation“?

It appears that I did so…

Related topic (the topic being stupid republicans and their water carriers, Specter is slowing down the confirmation hearings on Holder because, I kid you not: "We need to be sure the attorney general does not bend his views in any way that is partisan or political,".

It’s sad, because Scherer was actually doing decently for a while, with those posts on Feinstein and the torture issue.
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Then he swings right back into the vapid journalism orbit.

Stuart-this video sums up what you are thinking. Sorry in advance.
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1 toilet for every 6,849 people on Inauguration Day
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Metro is planning to carry upwards of 1 million riders itself on Inauguration Day, but the transit agency says it will shut down all of its public restrooms due to security concerns.
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Instead, 146 portable restrooms will be set up outside of selected rail stations.
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Even if the transit agency carries 1 million people on Jan. 20 — and that could be a conservative estimate — that means there would be one bathroom for every 6,849 customers.
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http://www.wtop.com/?nid=780&sid=1544907

gunny, I guess I’ll need to get a catheter.
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Cliff on MS “right back into the vapid journalism orbit.” I really don’t believe that, just as I believe he is not clueless. I see no sign that he does not see his job as transmitting RW talking points, which means he’s part of “the machine.” Don’t know if you have noticed, but the echo machine is gearing back up rapidly.

I just posted a comment on Joe’s previous blog about Pakistan, noting the paucity of comment (mine was #12). Then refreshed to see newer blogs, including this one. The hint, insinuation, suggestion, even thought of a taint of Obama from the latest political scandal out of Chicago certainly stirs the folks up.
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I understand. The desperation to reclaim our country.

Scherer was actually doing decently for a while – Then he swings right back

I get the feeling he simply doesn’t like Obama and never did. I too appreciate when he delves into the interrogation issue or (during the Conventions), first amendment issues, in particular the right to peaceful protest.

Joe, how do you manage to survive working with hacks like Scherer? He’s already playing against Obama every smarmy, negative thing he can find, no matter how paltry the evidence or connection — and the man’s not even president yet!

Scherer’s clearly a part of the media problem that you referenced in this post, revealing this his pre-election bias was neither a fluke, nor related to his putative duty to carry water for the candidate he was covering.

Is there any way that a consumer can get the message through to the bosses there at Time that there’s no way they’ll ever get a red cent of my money again so long as they continue to employ those who are unable to overcome their prejudices (political rather than racial) and provide us with the quality, balanced journalism for which Time was once known?

I believe the answer is a resounding “no”, considering they put right-wing shill Halperin in charge of one of their political cornerstones, but it’s still worth the effort to get the message across.

And, no, I won’t include you and Murphy in this one: You’re clear in your affiliations and beliefs. It’s the Scherers and Carneys and Halperins who are as fair and balanced as Fox that draw my ire.

I’ve never posted here before, but I couldn’t resist this link after hearing of the lack of bathrooms for the inauguration. Ever heard David Sedaris on Letterman talk about the “Stadium Pal”? And yes, it really exists:

I really don’t believe that, just as I believe he is not clueless.
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It’s tough for me to tell. Sometimes he seems cagey, sometimes he seems certain that tabloid journalism is the highest calling of man. I honestly don’t know.

Scherer wasn’t doing any better with the Feinstein/Torture posts. He was doing the same thing THEN that he is doing NOW and that to try to cast aspersions on people of the Democratic persuasion. First he posts from the NYTimes which had cut out the most critical part of the statement and then he went on to try to make it seems as if that part of the statement didn’t matter. But like I said at the time,if you reversed the situation and you took away the first two sentences of her statement and kept the last line this is what you would get.
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However my intent is to pass a law that effectively bans torture, complies with all laws and treaties, and provides a single standard across the government.
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I know some other folks thought Scherer was actually doing good journalism but he wasn’t. He was just trying to smear another Democrat but that time he had a somewhat plausible smear as long as you didn’t pay close attention.

bloodofpatriots, it’s worse than you think! Some Time employees really go the extra mile:
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“On December 2, 2005, The New York Times reported that Novak tipped off Karl Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, about the testimony that one of her colleagues at Time Magazine, Matthew Cooper, was giving to the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald. The tip off may have caused Rove to change his testimony [1], and saved him from being indicted on charges of perjury. Rove attributed the changed testimony to the grand jury to faulty memory.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viveca_Novak
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“President Bush nominated two controversial lawyers to the Federal Election Commission yesterday: Hans von Spakovsky who helped Georgia win approval of a disputed voter-identification law, and Robert D. Lenhard, who was part of a legal team that challenged the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Viveca Novak’s husband”
http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t45321.html
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Talk about guilt by association! By using the rules of guilt by association, one could say the entirety of Time magazine’s stable of reporters and pundits were in the tank for the Bush administration. Good thing we have all those factual, hard hitting exposes of Bush administration malfeasance to prove otherwise…oh wait!

“or (during the Conventions), first amendment issues, in particular the right to peaceful protest.”
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One post pre-Denver and not a word about what went on in Minnesota where real abuses occurred.
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MS is a fraud.
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Fraudulent in his coverage of McCain (as Newsweek demonstrated), fraudulent in his concern about “questions” the last two days (as JK demonstrates) and fraudulent about concern for first amendment issues.

This story will never die and I am sick of it already. Blogo could diminish the speculation and hysteria by just asking Obama who he wants and appointing that person. He probably doesn’t have the brains for that monumental task. Can we at least have some discussion of the other Senate vacancy? You know, New York.

Ditto what PNNTO said @#51. Absolutely no reason to be polite. In fact, after the last 60 hours, I’m about ready to draw the battle lines between legitimate journalists and RW noise machine propagandists. Here’s what digby said on teh return to Clinton rules:
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Arlen Specter says he’s going to try to tank the Holder nomination on the basis of a Clinton scandal.
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It’s quite clever. They are just picking up right where they left off in 2000 as if the Bush administration never happened, perhaps even drawing lines between the old and new if they’ play their cards right. And the press seems eager to go there with them.
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I can see why they’d want to pretend the Bush years were just a bad dream. After all, they were exposed as shills and dupes for an immoral, incompetent president. But they still consider their glory days to be those they spent chasing trumped up Clinton corruption scandals and poking around in the president’s pants. To the best of my knowledge they have never admitted in the smallest way that their obsession with tabloid scandal and character assassination was intrinsic to the disgusting, politics that came of age in that era. Why wouldn’t they want to go back there? They had a ball.

Joe,

great post.

Unfortunately some of your Time colleagues are breathlessly jumping on the “can Obama get out of this” bandwagon (Michael Scherer in Swampland yesterday, has been roundly trounced by his readership) and now a story in this vein from Massimo Calabresi http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1865370,00.html
although the ridiculous headline may not have his (can you ask him?).

I’m sure part of the dynamic for the media is that after a few weeks of great press for Obama, they don’t want to be left behind on any story that might counter this. Probably a little too willing to listen to the RNC talking points.

As for the Republicans, with all this received wisdom flying around, nobody seems to have noticed that they are playing with fire if they think they can tarnish people, like J.J.Jr, who will most likely turn out to be innocent. The US electorate were repelled by and rejected Republican smearing during the election and they will do it again. Clearly the Republicans have learnt nothing from November 4th. Perhaps not your colleagues either.

At age 60 for the first time ever I have framed a picture of a U.S. president and put it up. To remind me to send him my prayers. We all need to pray for his well being and safety.

Good stuff, Joe. I honestly cannot believe how right-on a lot of your posts are these days.

The whole thing is getting ridiculous day by day. Again, the media are becoming a joke just like they did during the campaign, i’ll argue that the cable news have become totally insane. Journalist shoot firs and ask questions later, they’re bunch of moron that are not worthy of their job. Michael Scherer and his journalist buddy are becoming insane.

For goodness sake, Patrick Fitzgerald said the name mentioned in the indictment are not been investigated; yet, the talking head on TV and print media are already linking Obama to the scandal.

At what point are we going to say enough of guilty by association. Ronald Regan, George H Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush was not ridicule by guilt by association. Even, Dick Durbin of Illinois was not linked to the indicted Governor by guilt by association.

Why is it that Obama is the only one linked to guilt by association? Is it because he is black or different from any other President? I just can’t stomach this stuff that i see on my TV every day. First, it was Wright, Ayers, now it is the Go of IL. When is the media going to judge this guy on his policy rather than what someone else did? If this ridiculous guilt by association didn’t stop, the only conclusion i can draw is that the media fan this story because he is black. It is nothing but racist, period.

Color me stunned. Broder didn’t concern troll Obama over this. MS, take notes:
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The brazenness and utter sleaziness of Blagojevich stunned even veteran FBI men, Fitzgerald said, but it did not surprise people in Chicago or Springfield who had been watching the governor.
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The criminal complaint against Blagojevich, the nominal head of Obama’s home-state party, is a mild embarrassment for the president-elect. But it really does not reflect on Obama, who has kept Blagojevich at arm’s length for a long time.
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As a fellow Illinoisan, I have to admit that this latest example of the Springfield Syndrome that has now tainted four recent governors is a signal that the ethics reforms Obama sponsored as a member of the Illinois Legislature did not go far enough to cleanse the pay-to-play culture. Get out the scrub brushes.

Give Broder time wvng, he’s a hundred and five years old. I’m sure by the weekend he will be filled with more sorry than anger about Obama’s part in this.

You might start by sticking a fork into MS, who could not get enough posts into Swampland as he salivated with each NEW turn. Mourinig Joe had his stable of co-mourners were shedding crocodile tears for Obama while calling on him to say some thing to CLEAR himself. The mournful tone was so transparent. John Fund has a new cause: telling lies about Obama.

You are quite right to stamp on this junk, Joe. Watch out: they are going to blame Obama for having an inauguration given the bad economy. I mean, can’t the man just get sworn in in a small tent and lets get on with life.

PNNTO, I don’t know. Broder didn’t use a single RWTP in his article. It was as straight up as anything he has done in a very very long time.

Bitter- Fund, with his history, passing judgement on anyone about anything is laughable.

Let’s face it, Joe, many of your journalistic colleagues from Time, Politico, CNN are just mindless whores who live for this because they can’t come up with anything to talk about.

Thank God for someone like you who sees it for what it is, pure garbage. Fox you can expect to be stupid but CNN is the worst.

I figured the Press that looked the other way during most of Bush’s transgressions would suddenly show the same willingness to speak truth to power they showed in the Clinton years when another Dem took the office. Frankly, it hasn’t been as bad as I thought (he’s not even President yet, I know.) The old politics has lost its traction, thankfully.

Broder is Old School. He can’t/won’t report that’s not supported by an official record. Broder’s weakness is the forced balance. “Yes, Hitler did bad things, but he also built the autobahn.” Or “If Obama had only played fair and agreed to more Town Hall Meetings, than McCain would not have been forced to go negative.”
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It’s the New Kids like MS who aren’t hampered by facts. Whisper campaigns, rumors and innuendo hold equal weight with indictments and official documents. I mean, they’re just asking questions. It’s how the game is played.

[...] Klein captures the ridiculousness of it perfectly, writing, “Barack Obama comes from the same state as Rod Blagoyevich. That is really suspicious! What [...]

[...] 11, 2008 but thank you, Joe Klein Posted by hotfiler Filed in [...]

As CNN was waiting for Obama to announce Dashle, who is going to try to fix our national health policy – something the whole country cares about, they were giggling like school girls at the prospect of asking questions about Blago.
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Is it possible for them to be embarrassed by their actions?
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Rhetorical question.

Wow they actually had one person ask a question about Health Care at a press conference about Health Care. She must be in the tank for Obama lol

sgw, and now the CNN host is asking a Politico reporter “how effectively did Obama distance himself from this scandal?”
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MS would be so proud.
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BTW, I repeat my call for not bothering to engage on MS’ posts. There is really no purpose.

Paulntto: Sorry to throw in Fund: that man simply enrages me. I know he has zero credibility. But that is one qualification to get on some parts of the gasbags circuit.

wvng
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I am taking up the pledge to never comment on any of Scherer posts again. I wonder what the bosses will say if he has 0 comments every time he posts something.

Totally off topic but they think they just found Caylee Anthony’s remains in Orlando near the family home

sgw, good for you. Thanks. I think he uses his posts for two purposes: 1) to distribute RW talking points; and 2) to encourage “shrill” responses that wingers read with glee (plenty of examples over the last few days).

Dear Mr. Klein,

Your DFH membership card and decoder ring have been shipped.

[...] Second, if your main concerns are the terrible economy, the war, the budget, and the hundred other pressing issues out there, then when faced with the question “Will you explain your true connection to all your corrupt buddies?”, the most blatant of the questions Ben originally caught as flagged, not only do you vote it down, but you would be perfectly warranted to flag it as inappropriate. Given the number of issues we face, it certainly is. Ben thinks I am misreading him, but I understand exactly what is happening- folks are flagging questions as inappropriate, even when many people voted for it. I understand that, and as Ben notes, this sort of system can be problematic. That does not, however, mean wrong-doing or some nefarious scheme on the part of team Obama. It means that some people are “misusing” a publicly available system. Additionally, it is not like we are not going to see this questions aired elsewhere: [...]

It is true that for the last 8 years the Bush administration has dodged questions and used to talking points to evade scandals. It is also true that Obama ran a campaign against McCain based on McCain being more of the same(a Bush clone) and that he(Obama) was the change candidate, different from the business as usual politician. I know he is not in office yet, but Obama has not followed through on that promise of change.

He must be forthcoming on all of this Blago scandal. If Blago asked Obama(or one of Obama’s staff) for favors in return for picking Obama’s candidate of choice, and Obama(or his staff) denied that request(which is what I believe happened with candidate 1), Obama can just come clean and say so because he did nothing wrong.

What reason would he have for not explaining this?

Is he not the “Open and Transparent” president?