Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty
April 23, 2010
In This Issue . . .
1. We Take Everything Blago Says with a Grain of Hair . . . Salt. I Meant Salt.
2. This Looks Like a Job for Team America
3. He's Ready to Chuck This Middle East Policy
4. Addenda
TGIF!
Enjoy,
Jim
1. We Take Everything Blago Says with a Grain of Hair . . . Salt. I Meant Salt.
My instinct is to be wary of anything relating to Rod Blagojevich, but the revelations reported by NBC's Chicago affiliate and Mediaite have the potential to be pretty darn big. In our guts, we won't be that surprised if the official explanations of what Obama and his allies knew about Blago's auction of the Senate seat turn out to be bunk, but it will take the "expiration date" meme one giant step further in the eyes of those losing faith in Obama. It's not just that the president forgets, ignores, or discards his campaign promises when enacting them gets too hard; it's that he and those around him lie, casually and shamelessly.
During the campaign, some insisted the Rezko dealings were a pretty big deal. This bit from Blagojevich's legal team suggests that the president lied through his teeth to federal investigators: "In a recent in camera proceeding, the government tendered a three paragraph letter indicating that Rezko 'has stated in interviews with the government that he engaged in election law violations by personally contributing a large sum of cash to the campaign of a public official who is not Rod Blagojevich. . . . Further, the public official denies being aware of cash contributions to his campaign by Rezko or others and denies having conversations with Rezko related to cash contributions. . . . Rezko has also stated in interviews with the government that he believed he transmitted a quid pro quo offer from a lobbyist to the public official, whereby the lobbyist would hold a fundraiser for the official in exchange for favorable official action, but that the public official rejected the offer. The public official denies any such conversation. In addition, Rezko has stated to the government that he and the public official had certain conversations about gaming legislation and administration, which the public official denies having had.' Redacted footnote: The defense has a good faith belief that this public official is Barack Obama."
Tom Bevan: "Needless to say, if what Blagojevich's attorneys are alleging is grounded in fact, this could be a major headache for the President of the United States."
A bit of intriguing analysis from the left-of-center crime-oriented site TalkLeft: "Blago cites the 6th Amendment right to confront witnesses. But, it's not absolute and a witness can have a competing constitutional right -- such as the right not to incriminate himself -- or in Obama's case, some other legal privilege. Blago's right may or may not trump the witness' rights. Blago takes a pre-emptive swing at executive privilege: Here, President Obama is a critical witness. All of President Obama's testimony would entail evidence he witnessed before he became president and does not involve Executive Privilege."
Confederate Yankee is not quite filled with glee: "What the subpoena alleges Obama did is at odds about what he claimed publicly. We know Barack Obama lies. What we don't know is whether or not he has been dumb enough to get exposed as a criminal as well. I certainly hope not. The thought of 'President Biden' is almost too much to bear."
2. This Looks Like a Job for Team America
I played Devil's advocate to Cam last night: Pretend you're the Comedy Central official who makes the call on what gets bleeped on South Park. You know that while the show offends everyone, when Muslims get offended, things start blowing up and insurance rates go up. You know that if material that offends Muslims gets out there, somebody might do something to your company and your coworkers. And while some would-be jihadists might target creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they also might just firebomb your corporate offices and incinerate some nice receptionist who had nothing to do with the show's production. Are you willing to risk the life of that receptionist, when you know bleeping the controversial sections might make the threat go away, at least partially, at least for a while?
I don't buy into the Devil's advocate argument; ultimately, while the hesitation to expose a receptionist to a terrible terror attack is understandable, knuckling under effectively replaces this official as programming director and gives creative control to Islamic Rage Boy. Sure, Parker and Stone offend him, but everything non-Islamic, including visual images, offends him.
The capitulation of Comedy Central shouldn't be that surprising; remember, very few papers ran the Mohammed cartoons. The bomber's veto is very much in effect in our society.
The news: "On Thursday morning, a spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed that the network had added more bleeps to the episode than were in the cut delivered by South Park Studios, and that it was not giving permission for the episode to run on the studio's Web site."
At Hot Air, AllahPundit gives it to us straight -- the news media does not see its job as telling us what's going on; it believes its mission is to tell us what to think: "As InstaGlenn says, this is actually the perfect ironic conclusion to the media's post-Tax Day binge of hyperventilating about tea party extremism. Cranks holding up 'Impeach the Kenyan!' signs at a right-wing rally are grist for a thousand NYT op-eds about Oklahoma City, but have jihadis intimidate the parent company of one of the most highly regarded comedies on television into blacking out its shows and it's essentially a curio for the TV beat."
At Big Hollywood, Woody Hochswender asks a fairly good question about the reports of threats against creators Parker and Stone: "Where is Homeland Security on this? (Oh, never mind, they're most likely busy infiltrating Tea Parties.)"
At Contentions, Abe Greenwald notes that the New York Times feels the need to soft-pedal the obvious, when they note that a "Muslim group" suggested Stone and Parker could face violent consequences: "What's a 'Muslim Group'? Call me old-fashioned, but I thought bodies that reportedly threatened violence and murder because of the portrayal of religious figures were called alleged terrorists. I just hope someone tracks this angry bunch down before they're able to pull off a deadly act of groupism."
3. He's Ready to Chuck This Middle East Policy
Newly elected congressman Ted Deutch, this is how a real friend of Israel does it: Chuck Schumer, senator from New York, reveals he's been giving the administration earfuls of grief for its handing of Israel -- an approach so ham-fisted there's no way it can be kosher.
I told the president, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk. Palestinians don't really believe in a state of Israel. Unlike the majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a two-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there. If the U.S. says certain things and takes certain stands, the Palestinians say, "Why should we negotiate?"
For what it's worth, Schumer's remarks are enough to get Steve Clemons going straight to the dual-loyalty worries: "Schumer's screed gets to the edge of sounding as if he is more a Senator working in the Knesset than working in the United States Senate."
Jen Rubin acknowledges a surprising fact that some friends of Israel overlook, or haven't wanted to confront: For a lot of Jewish voters, Israel just isn't that big a deal. "It's certainly heartening to see that a large percentage of Jews (67 percent) have woken up to Obama's anti-Israel bent and disapprove of his Middle East policy. Unfortunately, the same pollsters show that 59 percent of Jews still approve of his overall performance. What that tells us is that a large number of Jews just don't care all that much about Obama's policy. This, unfortunately, fits with findings of the McLaughlin poll: most Jews, especially Reform Jews, remain extremely liberal and focused on domestic issues. Obama's given them nationalized health care and is going to deliver another pro-Roe v. Wade Supreme Court justice. So what that he's anti-Israel. That's what it comes down to for a very significant segment of American Jews."
4. Addenda
I like the Jets' pick, Kyle Wilson, cornerback from Boise State, more than my prediction of yesterday. |
