Ace of Spades HQ

« Help Wanted | Main | Howard Dean Plans a Multi-Course Meal »

February 14, 2005

The Leftosphere Got Its Scalps, Too, and I Don't Mean St. Gannon

In the Johnny Carson "I did not know that" file:

The New Republic's Ryan Lizza has a fascinating account of how "a guerrilla squad of Democratic bloggers" knocked down every other contender for the post [to clear the field for Howard Dean]. An example is ex-Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, who had the backing of Harry Pelosi and Nancy Reid:
The entire field of candidates, in concert with the insular liberal blogosphere, rose up and destroyed Roemer.
The hit was silent and deadly. One day I received by messenger a dirty and smudged envelope with no return address. Inside were five pages of anti-Roemer opposition research about his positions on everything from Israel and abortion to labor and Social Security. The same information was fed to numerous blogs, which quickly declared Roemer anathema. "Unless Roemer publicly, loudly, and completely repudiates his recent [pro-privatization] position on Social Security, he is utterly unacceptable as DNC chair," said a post on the pro-Dean site MyDD.com, which served as a key clearinghouse of information about the race. (Roemer did repudiate that position, but it wasn't enough.)

By the time Roemer showed up on "This Week" for a Sunday morning announcement of his candidacy, which, in the old days, might have helped solidify him as the establishment choice, he was badly damaged. He spent most of his interview with George Stephanopoulos defensively responding to bloggers he had clearly never heard of, like MyDD and The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum. . . .

Roemer never recovered. ...

What's interesting here isn't the medium--the rise of bloggers is old news--but the message. In a column presumably filed before Jordan quit, U.S. News & World Report's Michael Barone contrasts the Howard Dean ascendancy with the Dan Rather scandal:

What hath the blogosphere wrought? The left blogosphere has moved the Democrats off to the left, and the right blogosphere has undermined the credibility of the Republicans' adversaries in Old Media. Both changes help Bush and the Republicans.

Interesting. I had no idea that left-wing bloggers had cleared the field for Dean. I thought they were too busy working on this HUGE ENORMOUS JEFF GANNON MEGA-SCANDAL.

So they got their scalps, too.

But, as BOTW notes, the dynamic here is right bloggers dragging leftwing institutions closer to the center, and left bloggers dragging leftwing institutions closer to the left wing.

We'll see how that works out for them.

posted by Ace at 11:18 PM

Comments

Pretty funny. Success for them means eating their own.

Posted by: recon on February 15, 2005 12:49 AM

The smaller the stakes, the sharper the knives.

Posted by: Iblis on February 15, 2005 01:34 AM

Sometimes I have to wonder if they aren't working for our side, and this is one of those times. If they aren't working for our side they must be dreaming of getting some of that sweet Soros crazy blog money.

Posted by: on February 15, 2005 07:11 AM

Interest that the article uses the word "DESTROYED" when they mean "told the truth about".

I love the tone, too. "The hit was silent and deadly". "A dirty and smudged envelope". "No return address". Spooky, no? Very John le Carre. Yet what exactly is in that menacing envelope?

A list of the guy's positions on stuff.

What, are we not supposed to know that?

The MSM's relationship with the truth is growing more and more nuanced.

Posted by: Brian on February 15, 2005 07:37 AM

Excuse me, but .... Harry Pelosi and Nancy Reid???

Are they THAT interchangeable?

Posted by: Doug on February 15, 2005 07:57 AM

classic left-side political strategy from as far back as the 1920's:
(1) regroup and assemble forces
(2) agitators shove moderates down and out
(3) the purge begins
(4) re-indoctrinate the troops
(5) usually amounts to a guerilla war against the opposition

2&4 are usually where you get people coming out and telling you 'what they're up to'

this is not healthly
it's on the verge of obsessive-compulsive

Posted by: ed in texas on February 15, 2005 07:58 AM

The entire field of candidates, in concert with the insular liberal blogosphere, rose up and destroyed Roemer.
The hit was silent and deadly.

Not to pick nits, but I believe the preferred nomenclature is "silent but deadly" -- these bloggers obviously need an editor.

Posted by: capitano on February 15, 2005 08:54 AM

capitano - Whoever smelt it dealt it, dude.

Posted by: Brian on February 15, 2005 09:09 AM

Amusing that of all the Seven Dwarfs the Dems chose Dopey to be head of the DNC.
What more could we ask for?

Posted by: 72VIRGINS on February 15, 2005 09:37 AM

Maybe that's what Willis meant when he
wrote (about a week ago) that "we won."

Posted by: Ira on February 15, 2005 10:27 AM

it's on the verge of obsessive-compulsive

Verge? I believe all the post-election coverage of Dems depressed enough to seek psychiatric help demonstrated that verge had already been passed.

The lot of 'em should be 5150'd

Posted by: Darleen on February 15, 2005 04:04 PM

Hey, if these are the scalps they are bagging, how can we help?

Posted by: Sortelli on February 15, 2005 04:51 PM

So conservatives have an interest in promoting new media over MSM regardless of which new media outlet people chose to listen to. If more liberals empower liberal blogs by reading and supporting them that will hurt Democrats and help Republicans (dragging everyone on the left farther to the left). Even when liberal blogs are blasting away at the right they are picking the wrong targets. Today it is an obscure conservative website and a previously unknown "journalist" that asked friendly questions at the White House (yawn). Meanwhile the administration continues marching forward toward Social Security reform. Seems like a good trade to me. They can try to smear as many people as they want as long as that will mean the Republican agenda will continue to be fulfilled.

Posted by: Theodore on February 15, 2005 07:23 PM

Posted by: on June 6, 2005 07:50 PM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

Hamas is Humiliating Trump's 'Board of Peace'
[Hat Tip: TC] [CBD]

Tucker Carlson is pretty sure Trump is a wizard

Ted Turner Dies At 87 [CBD]

Podcast: Starting a new season, CBD and Sefton discuss their personal journeys to conservative principles, is Nick Shirley the beginning of a trend?, Iran trying to reignite the war, the Left attacks itself, even on "Best Guitarist" lists, and more!

TJM definitively ranks the films of Billy Wilder, like Some Like It Hot

TJM talks about Billy Wilder