
And now we come to the part of our day where I call Fred Hiatt a bloviating fact challenged tool:
...This claim is directly contradicted by the Post's own reporting this morning, which states, "Foreign policy experts generally agree that Pelosi's dealings with Middle East leaders have not strayed far, if at all, from those typical for a congressional trip." Pelosi herself has "described the trip as little different than the visit paid to Syria the same week led by Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)," and she went to great lengths to express her unity of purpose with President Bush on terrorism issues. The Post's own reporting today also cites several instances of members of Congress meeting with foreign leaders during the past 30 years. As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, in contrast with Pelosi's trip, previous congressional actions abroad attempted to directly undermine President Clinton....
There is more, and ThinkProgress hits the whole op-ed, but seriously -- why is Fred Hiatt writing editorial blather without even reading the reporting done by journalists within the same damn paper in which his bloviating fact free missives appear? Doesn't Hiatt find it the least bit embarrassing that he is contradicted not once, but multiple times, in the same paper on the same day? Hello??!!?? (And, honestly, how many times does this have to happen before someone -- anyone -- at the WaPo gets embarrassed on behalf of Hiatt and plans a fact intervention? Unless, of course, Donald Graham is doing special requests for the editorial page again. Not exactly holding my breath on this one...)
Matt Stoller at MyDD, quoting Josh at TPM, has this exactly right:
...what Josh Marshall is saying is largely correct.
Pelosi's trip is an embarrassment for the president because it shows an American actually involving herself in realities on the world stage rather than stuck in denial and fantasy. That may sound a bit starry-eyed. But think about it and I'll think you'll see that that's a lot of what this is about.Pelosi is acting as a real Secretary of State or President would in foreign affairs. She is negotiating and representing an America that offers itself as a trusted partner for peace and collective security.
Much of what America did in international affairs prior to the Bush Presidency was to act as sort of buoy, or a neutral third party in negotiations, a bulwark that other nations could broadly trust. America didn't always keep its word, and it wasn't always a perfectly done role, but there really was no alternative. And I think what the Iraq war has shown is that the alternative really is total chaos, and that means that America can reclaim a leading role in global affairs if we begin to rebuild our credibility....
That Nancy Pelosi is acting like a grown-up, as opposed to a petulant bully throwing a tantrum because the world isn't living up to his abysmally low standards of unreality? Apparently, Fred Hiatt's understanding of diplomacy is as in depth as his understanding of recent history and those pesky things we like to call "facts."
Runners-up in the goober department this morning: CNN. Crooks and Liars helps them re-do their headlines for consistency's sake (do click thru, you'll be glad you did). Because, heaven forbid, that there should be any consistency whatsoever in their treatment of both sides of the political aisle. And Media Matters does a bit of fact-checking on Suzanne Malveaux, and finds her lacking...substantially.
Honestly, some days...well, you finish the sentence, because I know you are thinking the same damn thing. Sheeeesh.
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Pelosi for President!
Christy!
Jane!
nancy is truly the most inspiring politician of her era.
Damn, I got EPU’d!
Acting-President Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi as the next Secretary of State in the next Dem Administration. From the NYTimes:
I think Michael Gerson wrote that trash with Fred Hiatt looking over his shoulder.
I did thank them for providing a place for “the base” to drool.
I wouldn’t wipe my dog’s ass with the Washington Post.
Well, even a broken watch is right twice a day…suffice it to say that this is not one of ol’ Freds times
My bad in # 6 above. No. Pelosi for Vice-President! From the NYTimes:
Calling Fred Hiatt a goober is an insult to peanuts everywhere.
Impeach Bush for Blowing the Job.
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.....ntest.html
CSH:
You say of Hiatt: “why is Fred Hiatt writing editorial blather without even reading the reporting done by journalists within the same damn paper in which his bloviating fact free missives appear”.
I’m a former subscriber who sent dozens of versions of this complaint to the Letters and Ombudsman, until finally understanding, viscerally, that Hiatt is a dead-ender interested in accomplishing certain objectives. He is not “fact-free”, he’s interested in suppressing the facts.
What the changed political circumstances in this country after 2006 mean is that the masks are now falling away and people who control the press at key nodes, like Hiatt, no longer feel they can indulge the luxury of toning down their “neoconservatism” (to use that deceptively technocratic term, which obscures more than it reveals). It would be premature to call them “desperate” because they might yet get their attack on Iran and permanent occupation of Iraq.
I’m sure this is not news to someone who played a role in the Lamont-Lieberman campaign, but the way you’re talking about Hiatt — as if he were befuddled and just needed to be grabbed by the lapels and shown the facts — needs to be updated. His mug shot needs to be placed alongside Perle’s and Black’s in readers’ minds.
Hiatt is also big on the nepotism, as you know: not just the multiple, seemingly endless proliferating Kagans, or the Elizabeth Cheney piece — his wife, a Ms. Shapiro, is editor of the Post’s flimsy Sunday magazine.
FROM THE EPU QUEEN ;)
I’d really appreciate any FDL feedback on the following, since I cannot confirm what I’ve heard these last couple of days on Air America
EPU’d
My apologies for being OT, but I’d really love some feedback on this:
Two things I’ve heard on Air America yesterday & today which I find deeply disturbing and downright, spit-nails enraging:
1. I heard on the Rachel Maddow show that ABC has done a report on findings from the CIA that we are now funding a Sunni terrorist group to kidnap and execute Iranians on film. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate a report on the ABC news website. She said that, other than the ABC coverage, the story remains buried.
2. Heard on Air America news this morning that because of her Syria visit, Bush says Nancy Pelosi supports Hamas and Hezbollah, e.g., Nancy is a terrorist!
Umm, I believe #1, if true, provides a vital clue as to who the real terrorists are in this country.
In spite of having been, by now, sufficiently acclimated to the insanity that is the Bush administration, I must admit that, if true, both of these tidbits were jaw-droppers.
Again, I can’t find confirmation of the above so if anyone has links, I would very much appreciate same!
And, IF TRUE: DEMS, IT’S PAST TIME TO TAKE THE GLOVES OFF, PEOPLE!!!!!
Maybe Fred Hiatt is in the ‘last throes’. He is certainly making a lowe of other people throw.
scarlet p. @
12
Oh, Yeah!
Maybe all this is a result of Poppy’s family intervention via Gates and the Iraq Study Group. Maybe W has been somewhat “marginalized”. Because Cheney is still behind the scenes (and bushes), I’m still worried, as someone mentioned on another thread, that we’ll wake up to hear that they have bombed Iran. I pray not. If Gates has taken over in an attempt to soften the Bush legacy, I don’t think it will happen. The problem is Gate’s attitude during Iran-Contra. If he still thinks that way and Cheney is still in control, it sure could.
scory @
1
We’re only two articles of impeachment away.
We’re talking about perhaps the most immature president in history, and now comes a girl, an icky girl, ruining my game of world domination!!! That’s what we’re dealing with here. An immature, spoiled brat 60 yr. old man!!!
Maybe Fred Hiatt is in the ‘last throes’. He is certainly making a lot of other people throw.
Pelosi, skilled diplomat, with a carrot and a stick. From AP:
Much better to have her land in Syria and engagement in dialogue then to have an army land and engage in war.
CNN’s “Talking to Terrorists” headline is also inherently racist. As far as I know, there are no accusations of terrorism by Syria against the U.S. But because they are in the Mideast, Syrians are labeled “terrorists.”
Why is it okay for the U.S. to send prisoners to Syria for torture, but it’s not okay to speak with them?
Without in any way standing up for Hiatt, Josh of TPM is quite one-eyed in his unswerving support for Ms A*PAC Pelosi.
Going to Syria, especially to the golan heights and seeing them occupied by Israel, just as going to the West Bank and seeing how Israel has made it completely unco-ordinatable is good for any of our politicians. Rice demonstrates just what a shill she is by continually going there and not exploding with righteous indignation at Israel’s actions.
Notice the clearly orchestrated smears in the comments section.
hiatt has clearly decided that the ComPost future lies in becoming the broadsheet version of the NY Post.
Saw Suzanne Malveaux yesterday “talking” to the Syrian ambassador, except that she wasn’t talking. She was literally shouting at him and over what he was trying to say. It was bizarre.
Maybe if Bush and Condi would do their jobs, Nancy wouldn’t have to do it for them.
I’m really gonna have to make nice with my husband’s grandmother though. She’s friends with the Pelosi family. At the rate Nancy is going, she might be Prez before long, and I’d like some good tickets for the Inauguration.
The Fox Newsbot on America’s Morning(?) this morning gleefully informed the world that the Democrats were calling off the War on Terror, even though there were still plenty of terrorists out there.
Albatross @ 23
Because this is the Bush administration, where despicable violence always trumps diplomacy.
I would follow Nancy anywhere.
Hillary, not so much.
The Post is suffering from “Wall Street Journal Syndrome,” where the often fine reporting done by the news side is absolutely, positively ignored by the whackos writing the editorials, and everyone knows it. Last week, I heard the WaPo’s deputy foreign editor, Peter Eisner, who has just written “The Italian Letter,” about the fake letter that set off the Niger uranium scandal, interviewed on the local Pacifica outlet. He made a big point of noting the news side of the Post has nothing to do with the editorial side, and that most of the real reporters never believed any of the bullshit the Bush regime was spewing in their run-up to the war.
Biodun @ 21
What army? The surge is petering out already. One of brigades that just arrived is being diverted from Bagdad to Mosul to deal with the upsurge in violence there.
Darrell Issa was visiting with Assad in Syria too. For a Repub he does advocate dialogue. From the Raw Story:
Issa Story
LJ/Aquaria @ 27
Can you get some for the rest of us, too?
*g*
Mandrake #14:
I was amazed to actually see the ABC piece on “Nightline”, which I rarely have the stomach to watch. I was rather amazed at the timing (British sailors were still being held) and tone of it: it sympathetically portrayed Iranian fears that we and the British are stoking separatism among Iranian minorities.
The MEK is an old story, but this one was about Baluchistani (Pakistan based) Sunni terrorists attacking border posts, military installations. Of course, the piece referred to these as “military actions” or “guerilla attack”, not “terrorism”, but you can’t have everything. The story clarified something for me: our relationship has nothing to do with Al Quaeda, but is, rather, about having another front to attack Iraq.
By the way, stoking ethnic separatism is equivalent to stoking genocide.
I’ll have to let you know how things turn out with my husband’s grandmother. She hates my guts. Called me Jezebel!
Mandrake #14:
Meant “our relationship with Pakistan”.
Albatross @ 23
Patrick Leahy slammed Gonzo with basically the same question. It was a beautiful moment.
Agreed Brendan, ask the Serbs and the Croats how that worked…
Fred Hiatt - Hurling for the Home Team.
LJ/Aquaria @ 36
Ouch. I’d have a few choice things to call her. Or maybe I’d just hang up on her.
I hope Pelosi stays as Speaker to keep a handle on any administration’s abuse of power. And I would like Feingold to be Senate majority leader for the same reason. If Bush thinks he can win a battle of the wills with Pelosi & Murtha, he really is living on Fantasy Island.
Mad Dogs @ 40
Fred makes me want to hurl
EvilDrPuma @ 41
Other than that incident, I have the perfect relationship with my in-laws: I’ve never met them in person. Ever. Don’t know if I ever will.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
And yea for my Congressman:
My bold.
brendan says @ 35
yep.
We have done this in Iraq already…
Fred Green
ComatoseTomatoes.LJ/Aquaria @ 44
I take it that Mr. Aquaria doesn’t have a lot to do with his family? Believe me, there are days when I wish GoodMrsPuma didn’t….
maunga @
24
Josh Marshall is the poster boy for how sensitive many American Jews are about the Israeli government’s wars of aggression. Many of the most prominent Americans protesting Israeli government polcies are Jewish - Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein (yeah, I consider Canadians Americans, maybe more American than we are), Seymour Hersh, and so on. Al Franken’s comment about Franken’s AA program might fit Josh - “We don’t do Israel here.” I’ve found Marshall’s protestations in the past about his lack of courage on this to be self serving and rather uninformed - especially for such a bright, open-minded person. The bottom line for me, though, is that in creating TMP Muckraker, Marshall has provided some of the most valuable public service in recent American history.
And IMHO, Pelosi is more fashionista than Condi:
OT
Josh has this about Abu this morning:
Former Ashcroft Spokesman: Gonzales Should Resign
WikiBio of Corallo:
Rats overboard!
Twisted at #39:
Ironically or not, one of the big constituencies for our war with Serbia (which I noisily supported at the time, but probably would not now, at least not the Kosovo phase) was neoconservatives. They were eager for a precedent for intervention at the time, and “genuine conservatives” at the time were very wary of the venture (James Baker famously said of Bosnia, “we don’t have a dog in that fight”).
CNN has lost it. I rarely watch it anymore. And the Drama Kings, Tom Foreman and Rich Sanchez make my skin crawl
By the way, isn’t it sad that we have to go to the German media to find out that Darrell Issa is one of the three Republican Congressmen currently in Damascus chatting it up with Assad?
So we’ve got Joe Pitts, Darrell Issa — and who else? Or will we need to go to the German press for that, too? The WaPo’s Fred Hiatt’s too busy reciting RNC talking points to care, I guess.
can someone give me a bit of history about who (or WHAT) Hiatt is, where he came from, and what transformed the Post from the somewhat respectable publication it once was into this licking lapdog of the Bush administration? I’ve been reading the thing since the ’80’s and somehow managed to not know what the hell happened.
Ed*ard Teller @ 49:
I would add Tony Judt to the list. He’s British but IIRC he’s also a US citizen.
jayt @ 26
Suzanne Malveaux is a has been that never was. She’s dead to me now, and she has been ever since her interview with John Bolten a few days ago.
Doesn’t seem that all of this fuss from Bush/Cheney and their media shills about Speaker Pelosi as well as the Congressional funding for the war is really some kind of desparate attempt to set the stage for withdrawing and saying “well, we would have won if only those Dems hadn’t interfered.” They gotta know this war is lost yet somehow, they think they’ll be able to turn the tables and blame the Dems.
not all Hiatts are bad: here’s a John Hiatt youtube -
Have a Little Faith
mc @ 30
That’s because Hillary isn’t even the best female politician, much less the best candidate for president. I would say Hillary was cut from the same pattern as Jane Harman.
Yawn. I follow the news pretty closely, and I don’t really get the hysteria behind this story. “OH MY GOD!!! NANCY PELOSI IS IN SYRIA!!! SHE’S WEARING A SCARF!!! SHE’S TALKING TO THE SYRIAN PRESIDENT ABOUT…ABOUT…UM…UH…PEACE!!! ABOUT PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!!! SHE’S A TRAITOR!!! A TRAITOR I TELL YOU!!!” Whatever. If you’re going to accuse her of undermining US policy on the Middle East, you need to first formulate a US policy on the Middle East. And no, I don’t consider “Talk to the hand” to be a policy.
Ed*ard Teller @ 49
Ya but, Ed. “Sensitivity” about Israeli actions is all very well, but it is time for these souls to repudiate Israel publicly and especially with their check books. I shall believe it all when A*PAC is declared a foreign country representative, any Zionist-supporting organization is prevented from giving money to politicians, this country stops giving this minute “country” populated largely by Russians such ludicrous sums of money, and lastly forces Israel to comply with all the Sec Cncl Resolutions we help them defy.
How is the thaw up there?
Al Franken works for American Airlines?
Josh’s flip-flops do not, as you say, detract from the wonderful work TPM does in other respects.
Phoenix Woman:
This is all wiki has on the man:
Phoenix Woman @ 54
Looks like it was Frank Wolf R-VA. Here is a link I found in Huffington Post: Here
Frank at 61 — That was great. I may have to use that at some point soon. :)
Biodun @
50
When I went to Saudi Arabia in 84, we girls had to wear long sleeves/dresses/pants and a hat. But it was so hot that you couldn’t really go bare-headed without risking heat stroke.
Sagacity @ 58
It would take an anormous amount of money to withdraw now from Iraq, and then turn around and have to send everyone back to Iran.
Biodun @ 63
Wiki has often been hacked in order to delete unflattering stuff, or add puffery by someone using House servers - they have also visited my site…
ET — I wouldn’t actually count Amy Goodman as one who “protests” Israeli policies. She merely reports the truth, and the truth sounds like protest, compared with what else is out there.
I agree with you re Josh Marshall; he and his colleagues’ work is so valuable that it’s a fair bargain to have to shop elsewhere for the very few issues they won’t touch. I feel the same way about Steve Clemons of Washington Note (who did such stellar consciousness raising about John Bolton), as well as the boys at Americablog.
And sucking up to the Saudis is not a foreign policy either.
So the MSM is having fits about Pelosi going to Syria and ignoring the fact that some Repubs are there too.
Do you prefer your bullshit smeared or spattered?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 64
Blessed by a goddess. My week is complete. :)
The f*cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth really worked hard to earn his title.
TPM has Feith’s pre-war presentations regarding the Iraq/Al Qaeda “connection”. Specious doesn’t begin to describe it.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....013457.php
The Kagan’s are as ubiquitous as Agent Smith in The Matrix.
-GSD
From the WashPo website:
My bold. He and Scooter Libby have bad novels about Japan in common.
Could someone let Hiatt know that while the concept of the “firewall” is that editorial positions shouldn’t affect news reporting, it doesn’t mean that news reporting should have no effect on editorial positions.
ET It is really hard for Josh when the things he is really Up on, like Feith and WHIG and the Niger yellowcake are so absolutely core to ‘A Clean
Break’, PNAC/the neocons/the proxy war for Israel (Iraq), is it not? I think he will get there in the end, poor fellow.
The titles of Hiatt’s children’s books are, shall we say, interesting as well.
Why the hell was Car Theft Issa in Syria anyway?
Business trip maybe.
Buying rugs.
Do they have editors or fact checkers at the WaPo? (oh, nevermind… I should know better).
OT to Ed*ard Teller - I saw your post from last night about your friend’s health. I’m really sorry.
rar3 @
75
LOL
sofistic @
78
Issa is Lebanese-American and has an above-average interest in ME politics. I don’t need to say which side of the divide he is on.
OT: Can Goodling be subpoened to testify regarding WH methods of communication between the Justice Department in a general sense, and without being asked questions about the fired attorneys. Could she still invoke the 5th if the questions are not related to the firings?
it’s worth saying again: Pelosi for President!
This is the heart of Hiatt’s criticism. If it is the other way around it’s OK. As Glenn Greenwald noted yesterday with multiple citations, Denny Hastert overtly tried to usurp Clinton’s South American policy.
I also have to disagree with Hiatt’s assertion that
Shoes were not involved, Fred.
And then there is brainless conclusion:
Well golly gee! Hiatt claims (without any evidence) that he’s been critical of the boy king from time to time. And yet faced with the worst President in our history, he still goes into a hissy fit when an adult actually do something about one of junior’s disasters. Why does Fred Hiatt hate America?
Speaker Pelosi knows how to conduct herself far better than what we are stuck with in the White house….
Maybe a bit of jealousy on the part of Bush, no?…
file this under extremely shallow comments:
Nancy Pelosi is a lot easier on the eyes than Denny Hastert.
“Florida Restores Felon Voting Rights”
from: http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin.....ts.html?hp
for when all Bush Co retire……….
jayt @ 26, I saw/heard Malveaux screaming at the Syrian ambassador. Seems she didn’t want him to step on her Republic talking points. She should have been fired on the spot. We have so many public fEces to shame us and she did that.
squirrel hiller @ 87
agreed. It is SUCH a relief to be spared the sight of that brain dead lumbering old lug.
Just picked this up over on “Making Light” –
ABC News is reporting that the US has been supporting a Taliban splinter group which has been attacking Iran from bases in Pakistan.
Now tell me again, who were we fighting in Afghanistan?
Pelosi for President: 2007 and 2008.
If one could have learned anything from just the Clinton years, it would be that if a Republican does it, its right! If a Democrat does it, its wrong! Its that simple. Donald Graham lives by that simple criteria, as does Fred Hiatt, as does the current WaPo publisher. I forget his name, but its something like Blanche DuBois. If one can understand the world that Graham, Hiatt and Miss DuBois habit, then it becomes earier to read their tripe.
Joe D. @ 94
Hey, that’s Rush’s formula too. Honestly, why does anyone listen to him? You always know what he’s going to say because he never deviates from the formula.
That Goobers picture is making me really hungry.
wrt Malveaux and others:
Why is it that reporters feel free to scream at/question the credibility of foreign dignitaries who have been maligned by the thugs, but remain simpering bobbleheads/sychophants when it comes to those who are leading this country off a cliff right here at home?
That’s because Hillary isn’t even the best female politician, much less the best candidate for president. I would say Hillary was cut from the same pattern as Jane Harman.
Good point. I first met Hill in 1978 when Billy C. was in his first gov campaign in AR. I was doing some campaigning for Bill. MY first impression of her (that has not been altered since) was that she was a very smart woman, but was humorless.
Hill has all of Bill’s bad political traits and none of the good ones.
The Troll feeding frenzy of comments on Hiatt’s editorial at WaPoo is a sight. Over 55 pages and counting, about ninety percent Trolls. It’s like Karl’s Shoppe is trying out a blogger version of the New Hampshire phone jamming.
OT–but related: Gonzo preps.
My bold. The Dunce appointed him to a cabinet post he’s not qualified for. And The Dunce was thinking about nominating him as a Justice to SCOTUS that he’s also not qualified for.
Brisingamen @ 92
But that was in the last term! [/snark]
Clueless in DC. Also memoryless; it was before the election, so it’s not important any more.
Biodun- Wasn’t Fredo a real estate atty. primarily, I thought I read that somewhere?–Tap
Biodun @ 100
What is really scary is that Gonzales was seen as not conservative enough and so they named someone even whackier Alito.
Re: Malveaux:
That’s all you need to know about her.
Biodun @ 100
Well, we know that all the intense hours of Scotus prep didn’t work for Harriet Miers. It’ll be interesting to see if it works for Abu.
Sally @ 90
Isn’t she their (CNN) White House reporter?
Stockholm Syndrome?
maunga #62
maunga @ 62
maunga –
I had a nice little exchange with you at digby a couple weeks ago. I have to take exception with the “it is time for these souls to repudiate Israel publicly and especially with their check books.” I am a frequent and long-time critic of the Israel lobby and people like Hiatt in the press who shill for it, but saying that Josh Marshall, as a Jew, has some special obligation exceeding yours or mine to put his money into an as yet nonexistent counter-lobby to AIPAC is unreasonable and unfair. It’s a way of thinking I regrettably used to have myself, until I realized how this administration governs: narrowly tailored lobbies pay to play, end of story.
We on the left have to constantly remind ourselves and the public that AIPAC, and accessories like Hiatt, do not represent Jews, and have fatally overplayed their hand with these recent attacks on our Democratic speaker (they booed her at the AIPAC conference right after a standing ovation for Cheney).
We need to stop thinking of AIPAC as a “Jewish” organization (or even an “Israeli” one), but rather a Republican-allied, militant right wing extremist one.
Boehner speaks out about the Pelosi “controversy” hypocricy (hat tip to ThinkProgress:)