Cozy and Bookmarkable
I have a terrific new site you really ought to visit - probably on a regular basis. This is a well-conceived and terrifically-orchestrated spinoff of the original "Talking Points Memo" (TPM) site that I have ballyhooed before. TPM is the great site run by one Josh Marshall that features, merely as an example, this recent, timely, and ever-so-spot-on post:
TPM Reader LG chimes in on Mark Felt, et al.
Josh: Is there anything more despicable than allowing the likes of Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy, and even Pat Buchanan (although he was never implicated in Watergate) to go on TV and call Mark Felt a bum and a disgrace. That Matthews and others have, with either little or no objection to Colson and Liddy’s slander, is outrageous. Mark Felt may or may not be a genuine hero, but what he did was honorable and took courage – and he is certainly not a bum like his accusers.
This hadn't occurred to me. Or rather I hadn't realized it because I barely watch any political TV anymore. But if this is the case, it really is outrageous.
Nixon was a crook, as were most of his cronies. And Felt was a law man who ended up getting that all busted. As I note below, Felt's motives may not be black and white. But it's hard for me to see where any of these jokers gets off passing judgment on him.
I thought Chuck Colson's whole redemption shtick made at least some pro forma nod toward conceding that his Watergate era criminality maybe wasn't such a great thing after all. I guess not.
As for Gordon Liddy, he has, I guess, been accepted back into polite society, of a sort, for a mix of his character (and I'd say I mean that in the descriptive rather than than evaluative sense), his sense of humor and the undeniable fact that he never tried to make excuses for what he did. Took his lumps, etc.
Having said that, he's a crook, a bit nutty, and rightly did time for his crimes not only of the ordinary sort but actually against the constitution itself.
I guess these points don't cut much with DC's chatterati.
-- Josh Marshal
The new TPM Cafe site features a great collection of "captive" regular contributors as well as weekly guest bloggers, including for this kickoff week the one and only John Edwards (yes, that one!). I am very impressed with the first couple days of site operation and commend it to anyone trying to keep apprised of the news.
Just a taste here from latest new site post. Look at that artwork and layout! Please visit, bookmark, and regularly check in on the site. I assure you that you will find something to think about at TPM Cafe.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/
Foxes Deplore Henhouse Expose by Deep Beak
By Todd Gitlin Section: Media
Josh asks the right rhetorical question. The newspapers' recourse to commentary by Charles Colson, Pat Buchanan & Co. on the Mark Felt revelation--and not so much, say, former Nixonian whistleblower John Dean, and not at all former Watergate committee staffer Hillary Rodham Clinton or former committee members like Elizabeth Holtzman (so far as I can see)--tells us who the established media think are the significant players in Watergate. It was left to Larry King to prompt a reaction from Bill Clinton.
Continue Reading Here... (1 comment, 201 words in story)
Jun 02, 2005 -- 12:31:14 AM EST
Fair and Balanced?
By Joshua Micah Marshall Section: Media
Does it say something about Washington today, or the state of the Washington press corps today, that in reporting on whether Mark Felt is a hero or a rogue, so much of the comment and opinion is being solicited from the crooks, scoundrels and former Batista enforcers he helped, indirectly, land in jail? I couldn't help but notice, in addition to that, that the president quite conspicuously punted when asked whether he thought Felt had done the right thing in guiding Woodward and Bernstein toward the facts that brought down the Nixon presidency.
Continue Reading Here... (19 comments, 339 words in story)
Jun 01, 2005 -- 10:31:20 PM EST
TPM Reader LG chimes in on Mark Felt, et al.
Josh: Is there anything more despicable than allowing the likes of Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy, and even Pat Buchanan (although he was never implicated in Watergate) to go on TV and call Mark Felt a bum and a disgrace. That Matthews and others have, with either little or no objection to Colson and Liddy’s slander, is outrageous. Mark Felt may or may not be a genuine hero, but what he did was honorable and took courage – and he is certainly not a bum like his accusers.
This hadn't occurred to me. Or rather I hadn't realized it because I barely watch any political TV anymore. But if this is the case, it really is outrageous.
Nixon was a crook, as were most of his cronies. And Felt was a law man who ended up getting that all busted. As I note below, Felt's motives may not be black and white. But it's hard for me to see where any of these jokers gets off passing judgment on him.
I thought Chuck Colson's whole redemption shtick made at least some pro forma nod toward conceding that his Watergate era criminality maybe wasn't such a great thing after all. I guess not.
As for Gordon Liddy, he has, I guess, been accepted back into polite society, of a sort, for a mix of his character (and I'd say I mean that in the descriptive rather than than evaluative sense), his sense of humor and the undeniable fact that he never tried to make excuses for what he did. Took his lumps, etc.
Having said that, he's a crook, a bit nutty, and rightly did time for his crimes not only of the ordinary sort but actually against the constitution itself.
I guess these points don't cut much with DC's chatterati.
-- Josh Marshal
The new TPM Cafe site features a great collection of "captive" regular contributors as well as weekly guest bloggers, including for this kickoff week the one and only John Edwards (yes, that one!). I am very impressed with the first couple days of site operation and commend it to anyone trying to keep apprised of the news.
Just a taste here from latest new site post. Look at that artwork and layout! Please visit, bookmark, and regularly check in on the site. I assure you that you will find something to think about at TPM Cafe.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/
Foxes Deplore Henhouse Expose by Deep Beak
By Todd Gitlin Section: Media
Josh asks the right rhetorical question. The newspapers' recourse to commentary by Charles Colson, Pat Buchanan & Co. on the Mark Felt revelation--and not so much, say, former Nixonian whistleblower John Dean, and not at all former Watergate committee staffer Hillary Rodham Clinton or former committee members like Elizabeth Holtzman (so far as I can see)--tells us who the established media think are the significant players in Watergate. It was left to Larry King to prompt a reaction from Bill Clinton.
Continue Reading Here... (1 comment, 201 words in story)
Jun 02, 2005 -- 12:31:14 AM EST
Fair and Balanced?
By Joshua Micah Marshall Section: Media
Does it say something about Washington today, or the state of the Washington press corps today, that in reporting on whether Mark Felt is a hero or a rogue, so much of the comment and opinion is being solicited from the crooks, scoundrels and former Batista enforcers he helped, indirectly, land in jail? I couldn't help but notice, in addition to that, that the president quite conspicuously punted when asked whether he thought Felt had done the right thing in guiding Woodward and Bernstein toward the facts that brought down the Nixon presidency.
Continue Reading Here... (19 comments, 339 words in story)
Jun 01, 2005 -- 10:31:20 PM EST
posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:04 PM
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