I Guess Powerline Will Have To Find A New Scandal Now

by hilzoy

If you read right-wing blogs, you've probably encountered a lot of breathless speculation about the authorship of the memo, attributed to Senate Republicans, that described the Terri Schiavo case as "a great political issue." Powerline's Hindrocket has been out front on this one, starting on March 21, when he wrote: "I question its authenticity. It does not sound like something written by a conservative; it sounds like a liberal fantasy of how conservatives talk. What conservative would write that the case of a woman condemned to death by starvation is "a great political issue"? Maybe such a person exists, but I doubt it." Two days later, the possibility "that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick" "looks most likely". Later posts have quotes like these: "the apparently fake "GOP talking points memo" that Democratic aides circulated last week" (cite), "there are excellent reasons to believe it is a hoax perpetrated by still-unidentified Democrats" (cite), "Someone at the Post swallowed the fake memo hook, line, and sinker" cite), "The Washington Post isn't the perpetrator of the underlying offense here, but it is in the middle of its own Watergate-style cover-up" (cite), a post whose title is: "Answer: Yes", which begins: "Brian DeBoseand Stephen Dinan ask in today's Washington Times; "Was the Schiavo memo a fake?" ", and, in an article in the Daily Standard, this: "A reasonable conclusion would be that the "talking points memo" might be a fake, created by Democrats to cast aspersions on the motives of the Republican leadership. Every Republican who has been asked about the memo has denied knowing anything about it. Unless someone talks--at a minimum, identifying the Democratic aides who distributed the memo on March 17--we likely will never know who, exactly, created it." I could have pulled more quotes like these from Hindrocket's dozen or so posts on this topic, but you get the general idea.

Personally, I think it's generally a mistake to jump to conclusions.

From tomorrow's Washington Post:

"The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian Darling, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue." "

Oops.

Comments

[Anarch]

Yes, but have you seen Powerline's subsequent, uh, "defense" -- I use the term loosely -- of its previous claims?

[Tad Brennan]

poor hilzoy--

I know you did it as a public service for the rest of us, but powerline is one of those places I just don't have the stomach to go. Or 'the corner' or 'instapundit', or any of the other right-wing idiocy factories.

I read reports about them now and then, and every now and then a link will send me to one, but--lord--to have to trawl through them collecting citations like this. gives me the shudders.

you deserve a special commendation, for bravery or ability to hold the nose or something of the sort.

[Frank]

lol

thanks

[cleek]

does anyone know if they've tried font analysis on this? maybe the th's are from IBM Democrat model typewriters!

[Sally]

Most Americans recognize the political motivations behind the Conservative espousal of the Schiavo cause. They don't need a printed smoking gun to prove to them the mean-mindedness and opportunistic behavior of the Republican right. Delaney is a walking, talking embodiment of all that has gone wrong with the GOP, and truly represents the heart and mind of this current inglorious administration.

[Roxanne]

The evil Ms. Malkin will need to find one too.

[Slartibartfast]

I think it's generally a mistake to jump to conclusions.

Note to self: get cracking on rereading The Phantom Tollbooth, ok?

[Edward]

hmmm...

Powerline is trying to spin this one into dust particles.

My, how quickly the mighty will fall.

Of course, there's another notion that captures what's happened here: karma.

[Ugh]

Don't care, don't care, don't care. All we want is our Okama Gamesphere.

[CaseyL]

Turns out Darling's former employer, the Alexander Strategy Group, was created by Tom DeLay's former Chief of Staff:

"Now that Brian Darling of the Alexander Strategy Group has been penned as the author, it connects the dots to why Tom DeLay also used the talking points. The Alexander Strategy Group is a firm created by former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham (and yet another place from where DeLay's wife has cashed checks)."

...from myDD.

DeLay is the new Rome; all roads lead to him.

[tonydismukes]

Slartibartfast - that's right, we're still waiting on that Tollbooth post.

Man, I loved that book as a kid.

[Jeremy Osner]

Slart -- I recently reread Tollbooth in the context of reading it to my daughter (who is a little young to get some of the lessons but who loved the characters and stories) and I had the thought that many things that I currently think of as problems with my life could be attributed in part to not having absorbed the lessons in Tollbooth fully enough as a child.

[hilzoy]

When I was writing this, I went looking for an illustration from the Phantom Tollbooth to put in, but couldn't find one online. Alas.

[LizardBreath]

So it's not actually from the book, but this is a mural of the map that I (and a bunch of other people) spent a couple of weeks painting in college, on a wall of the co-op I lived in. If the page I found is current, it's still there fifteen years later.

[LizardBreath]

So it's not actually from the book, but this is a mural of the map that I (and a bunch of other people) spent a couple of weeks painting in college, on a wall of the co-op I lived in. If the page I found is current, it's still there fifteen years later.

[LizardBreath]

Sorry, had some trouble posting that last comment.

[ral]

What better time than Poetry Month for Rhyme and Reason to be restored? Slarti, the clock is ticking (tock, tock, tock...)

[carpeicthus]

The real tragedy here isn't that they are unbelievable hacks -- anyone with a mite of sense knows that. It's the Time didn't have a mite of sense. I don't need a personal fantasy of how conservatives talk when they're hopped up on ideology, fervor, mendaciousness and Vicodin. I can get that from any given post at Powerline.

[Jay C]

I noticed that the InstaHack is dealing with this issue by palming off the "yes, but...." duty to Mickey Kaus, who was reduced to blithering about semantic issues in the Washington Post reporter's Schiavo-memo "claims" to try to -still- make the WP out to be at fault, while glossing over the fundamental fact that the infamous memo was not, after all, a Democratic "fake". Whatta maroon!
Anyway, Hilzoy, I wouldn't hold out much hope that rightwing hackblogs like Powerline, or their "mainstream" counterparts like the Washington Times (OMG, who could ever cite that rag as a serious "news" source"?) will (or even CAN) be emabarrassed enough to avoid faux-muckraking like this - it just ain't in the genes!

[cleek]

any chance this kind of lame hackery will impact their law practice ? could an opposing lawyer say "your honor, just look at the way these clowns make stuff up"

[praktike]

ah, but the most interesting part about this will be how this will be used in Rove's ongoing "fingerprint-free" takedown of DeLay.

[smlook]

Why are you guys ignoring the reporting that Powerline took issue with...

The reporting is still inaccurate, which was the whole issue from the beginning. I guess that is irrelevant to those who post here.

[Edward]

The reporting is still inaccurate, which was the whole issue from the beginning.

If you read the posts that hilzoy points to, smlook, you'll see that the "whole issue" was Powerline's ego and desire to expose another fraud at any cost, including their own credibility.

[cleek]

The reporting is still inaccurate, which was the whole issue from the beginning

don't be silly. their take on it the entire time has been that it's "fake". all the "reporting" stuff was their attempt to bolster their claim that it was fake.

[Gromit]

I dub this "PowerlineGate". They've earned it.

[Edward]

Oh, and if you're not already disgusted enough with those who would exploit a family's tragedy for their own cynical purposes, have a look at the actual memo posted on the Washington Post, (pdf file) via Marshall who, as usual, has the accurate take on this.

[thebhc]

Honestly, this has to be one of the funniest things I've ever read:

'It does not sound like something written by a conservative; it sounds like a liberal fantasy of how conservatives talk. What conservative would write that the case of a woman condemned to death by starvation is "a great political issue"?'

For one, no one claimed that the memo was written by a "conservative." Republicans hardly qualify for that moniker anymore. The right wing, esp. the milk sponges at Powerline, seems to have no bloody idea what the word conservative means anymore, let alone that the GOP has strayed far, far away from that philosophy's ethos.

[Desert Donkey]

'a gaffe in DC is when someone accidentally tells the truth'. Credit to Kinsley I believe.

[Ginger Yellow]

You'd think, 30 years after the Nixon tapes, the American public wouldn't have any illusions about the sort of things a conservative would say. Or for that matter, what a US president would do. But sadly you'd be wrong.

[Donny]

My, how quickly the mighty will fall.

Quickly????!!!! It's taken f*cking years to nail these bastards! And I'm still not sure we've succeeded.

[jerry]

Ah, but the typographicals! That's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with geometric logic, that a democratic author to the Schiavo memo did exist! And I'd have produced that author if they hadn't pulled Brian Darling out of action! I-I-I know now they were only trying to protect their senatorial friends and!......
Naturally, I can only cover these things from memory if I've left anything out, why, just ask me specific questions and I'll be glad to answer them...one-by-one..(Hindrocket removes the steel balls from his pocket and he spins them in his palm insistently as he speaks.)

[Jon H]

There must be some mistake!

Hinquarters' awesome powers of Memonalysis have never failed before!

This is clearly a setup, intended to discredit Powerline.

[Anarch]

Still waiting for that magic auto-correction-of-the-blogosphere trick I've been hearing about...

[ral]

"Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat."

"But that trick never works."

"This time, for sure! Presto. .... No doubt about it, I've got to get another hat."

[moe]

I understand the staff at Powerline have changed their monikers as a result. No more Hindrocket. Just John. Will the staff at Obsidian Wings follow suit?

Just wondering.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

Yes. I will now go by "Sebastian".