Category: Uncategorized

More on the Scott Beauchamp saga

Last week I linked to Spencer Ackerman’s report for Radar alleging that the real scandal involving ex-“Baghdad Diarist” Scott Beauchamp was that The New Republic had failed to stand behind Beauchamp’s accounts of loathsome behavior on the part of U.S. troops (himself included) in Iraq.

Today the story gets even more interesting. The blog Moon of Alabama observes that an Army sergeant who’s been implicated in killing four blindfolded, handcuffed Iraqi detainees and then dumping their bodies in a canal has exactly the same name as a sergeant who had denounced Beauchamp’s reporting as fiction — First Sgt. John E. Hatley.

I have no idea who or what Moon of Alabama is. But the story about the alleged murders is in today’s New York Times, and all Mr. or Ms. Moon has done is connect the dots.

Still nothing on The New Republic’s Web site. And a hat tip to Media Nation reader L.A., who sent me to this Laura Rozen blog item.

The speech of her life

Well, that was quite a performance by Hillary Clinton, was it not? Unlike the Mark Warners of the world, she managed to talk about herself and use that in a compelling way to transfer her personal message to Barack Obama. Also, for the first time this week the Democrats were drinking the blood of their enemies. And loving it.

I never would have imagined when Clinton first ran for the Senate eight years ago that the stilted public speaker of that campaign could grow into the accomplished, and even moving, figure that she is today.

Not to get carried away. She was not this good while she was running for president. Not even close. Like Ted Kennedy and Al Gore, to name two other examples, defeat seems to have brought out the best in her.

Patrick’s television freeze-out

Gov. Deval Patrick is speaking right now — quite effectively, too. I did a quick channel flip, and discovered that he’s being carried only by New England Cable News and C-SPAN. The folks at PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all think they have more important things to talk about.

Instant correction: Boston’s WFXT-TV (Channel 25) and WLVI-TV (Channel 56) also broadcast Patrick live. They’re local stations that aren’t stuck with carrying the network feed.

Maddow targets Buchanan’s homophobia

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLHzW7MlEQw&hl=en&fs=1]
If you didn’t catch this on MSNBC last night, you should watch. Rachel Maddow goes off on that old homophobe Pat Buchanan for his 1992 “culture war” speech — the one that the late, great Molly Ivins said “sounded better in the original German.”

Scroll ahead to 3:30 if you’re in a hurry. Here’s Maddow:

I hadn’t planned on talking about this, but I was thinking about 1992, when I was 19 years old. And Pat, that was the year of your famous culture-war speech at the Houston convention.

And when Bill Clinton got elected that year, I remember, as not a very political person, feeling a visceral sense that, you know, I like the idea of the Clinton family being around for the next four years. I like the idea of them being on TV all the time, in the news all the time, them just being around. Because they seem likable, and, more importantly, I think that they don’t hate me.

I think if they knew me, they wouldn’t hate me, and they don’t want an America that doesn’t want me in it. I believe that they would respect me. And after the 1992 convention that year, I didn’t feel that way about the incumbent president or his party.

Buchanan chose to ignore the genuine hurt and emotion behind Maddow’s words, and Maddow wisely didn’t push it any farther. But good for Maddow for calling Buchanan out on his hateful words aimed at gay men and lesbians — words he’s never disavowed, and that he no doubt believes to this day.

A presidential makeover

In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that two contrasting speeches by Michelle Obama show she understands what works in Chicago doesn’t work on the national stage. Unfortunately for Democrats, the Obamas’ efforts to reinvent themselves risk making them seem inauthentic and leave them vulnerable to Republican attack.