David Broder, the arbiter of the smarty pants D.C. conventional wisdom (CW), has absolved John McCain of all responsibility for his ties to Bush, his flip-flopping, his campaign finance law breaking, his previousunethical behavior, the smarmy lobbyists who run his campaign, and all of the right-wing positions McCain has taken that are outside of the mainstream:
McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes. His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura.
Broder thinks the McCain town hall gimmick and Obama's decision not to accept public financing are the key issues for 2008. (And, like most of the political media, Broder ignores McCain's own campaign finance illegality even though it was first reported in Broder's own paper.) Can't let facts get in the way. Actually, it seems like Obama hasn't paid due deference to Broder or maybe Broder spent too much time on the McCain bus.
So, Broder has issued his edict. The "insiders" who "define" the conventional wisdom don't really know Obama -- and that's bad, they say. McCain's many foibles and the issues don't matter, just the egos of the punditry. On cue, Chris Cillizza, who is such a CW wannabe, swoons. If Broder says it, Cillizza is going to believe it and write about it and repeat it.
This is what we're up against this year: Broder and his trusty sidekick, Cillizza, have spoken. Fortunately, the CW is usually just flat out wrong -- as we've seen over and over and over.
Yesterday, David Broder launched a bizarre, bitter, partisan attack on Harry Reid about which John wrote:
David Broder, like much of Washington journalism, and much of the country, fell for the Republicans' lies over the past six-plus years. Broder drank the Kool-Aid, kicked Lucy's football, and came running when George Bush cried "wolf." And now, rather than slinking away with a terminal case of professional humiliation, Broder is still fighting the last war. No, not the war in Iraq. George Bush's other war. The war against the truth.
Today, every single Democratic Senator signed a letter to the editor of the Washington Post rebutting Broder and praising their leader:
We, the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, contest the attack on Sen. Harry Reid's leadership by David S. Broder in his April 26 column, "The Democrats' Gonzales."
In contrast to Mr. Broder's insinuations, we believe Mr. Reid is an extraordinary leader who has effectively guided the new Democratic majority through these first few months with skill and aplomb.
The Democratic caucus is diverse, and Mr. Reid has worked tirelessly to make sure that the views of each member are heard and represented. No one ideology dominates the caucus, so that a consensus can be reached and unity achieved. It is hard to imagine a better model for leadership.
Because Mr. Reid has the support of members of the caucus, is a good listener and has an amazing ability to synthesize views and bring people together, the Senate has accomplished a great deal during his time as majority leader. Armed with his years of service in the Senate and with a mastery of procedure, Mr. Reid has led the chamber with a slim majority and a minority that is, at times, determined to stop legislation with which it disagrees.
In the first 100 days alone, we made great strides under his leadership on long-neglected legislation concerning stem cell research, the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations and the minimum wage, to name three. In addition, under Mr. Reid's leadership, we have fulfilled our obligation, left uncompleted by last year's Republican-led Senate, to fund the federal government. He has accomplished all of this in the face of stiff opposition and with a commitment to giving ideas full opportunity for debate.
Finally, in this age of scripted politicians speaking only to their base or claiming that they "don't recall" anything, the fact that Mr. Reid speaks his mind should be applauded, not derided. His brand of straight talk is honest, comes from the heart and speaks directly to the people.
THE MEMBERS
OF THE SENATE
DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS
Washington
This letter was signed by Sen. Reid's 50 colleagues in the caucus.
The Washington press corps hasn't heard straight talk for years. They've been lied to and spun by the Bush team for so long that they can't handle the truth.
Washington Post columnist David Broder used to be "the dean" of Washington journalism. That was before he lost his mind.
To be more precise, Broder hasn't actually gone crazy. He's gone Republican. You know, that shadow world between reason and insanity that George Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and Joe Lieberman inhabit. It's a world of hyper-partisanship. A world in which Republicans lie, and lose wars, and Democrats get the blame.
I used to like Broder. Long after the blogosphere gave up on him, I still defended him. I've lived in Washington since 1985. Broder, like Cokie Roberts, has always, for me, been a hard-sell moderate. He was rock solid in the middle of American politics. The Peoria of journalism. If you could sell it to Broder, or Cokie, then you could sell it to middle America.
And while I still like Cokie, Broder has become a bit of a partisan jerk. His columns are now peppered with insults and personal attacks against Democrats and people on the left of politics. Union members, according to a recent Broder column, have no "sympathy" for our soldiers in harm's way. That they hate the troops will likely come as a surprise to blue collar Americans toiling away in factories and companies and sweatshops across America. I would imagine you couldn't find a more patriotic crew than a guy in a union bar. But David Broder tells us that union guys hate the troops, so who are we to question?
Much of American journalism has moved jarringly to the right. The Republicans have played the refs for years, and reporters in newsrooms across America are desperate to not be seen as "liberals." So they overplay their hand, over extend their bias, and skew to the right in the hopes that Rush and Michelle won't criticize them for simply doing their job.
But Broder is far worse. He doesn't lean right in an effort to overcompensate. His illness is far more serious, and symptomatic of the Republican party more generally. He's grown bitter, and angry. There has been a marked turn to the nasty among Broder Republicans in the past ten years. Take George Will. I used to love the guy. Made a great read, even if I didn't always agree with him. Now he's just angry. Charles Krauthammer, same thing - the guy was just brilliant. Now he's just mean. Whether they're the cause or the symptom, the rise of FOX News and GOP talk radio have led to a coarsening of Republican culture. Rush Limbaugh isn't the extreme, he's the new Peoria. If it plays on Rush, it'll play in the GOP.
It's no coincidence that the day after a leading Republican Senator calls Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "un-American" and suggest that he be forcibly removed from office, and the week that another former leader of the Republican party, now under indictment, accuses both Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of "treason" (implying they should be shot), David Broder is more concerned that Senator Reid once called George Bush "a loser." (Of course, Broder himself called General Wesley Clark a "loser" just two months ago. But just like his flip-flopping, hypocritical president before him, it's okay when he does it.) Sure, Broder's own vice president, Dick Cheney, told a sitting Democratic US Senator, on the Senate floor no less, to "go fuck yourself." Sure, George Bush and Dick Cheney both called a New York Times reporter a "major league asshole." Sure, George Bush routinely flips the middle finger to reporters and has been caught on film at least twice so doing. And sure, just this week, again, George Bush and Dick Cheney said that Democrats don't care about the troops (perhaps they thought all Democrats are union members).
But Harry Reid called George Bush "a loser." And Harry Reid is a bad, bad man.
David Broder, like much of Washington journalism, and much of the country, fell for the Republicans' lies over the past six-plus years. Broder drank the Kool-Aid, kicked Lucy's football, and came running when George Bush cried "wolf." And now, rather than slinking away with a terminal case of professional humiliation, Broder is still fighting the last war. No, not the war in Iraq. George Bush's other war. The war against the truth.
