The liberal Buckeye State Blog is not at all impressed with the performances of Kos/Armstrong in Ohio—nor are they falling in line with Greenwald, et al., and trying to change the subject of the “Ko$ola” story to the “ethics” of the TNR (which issued a correction). Instead, the staff at BSB keeps its attention focused on the real issues at play here:
Does kos have influence over other bloggers? Of course! He may not have direct financial influence over them, at best those claims are tendentious—but some other bloggers feel intimidated, as Mike Stark indicated in a Townhouse message
I might be digging my grave here, but before I put my credibility on the line ofr anyone, I want to know I’m standing on solid ground.
Why would he think he was digging his grave by being contrary to kos if there wasn’t some air of intimidation, real or perceived? People want to be in the kool kids klub—it’s human nature.
To date kos has failed to directly address the central issues. Does Armstrong barter his services with clients to include the editorial influence of kos, if so is kos party to this? Instead he has diverted attention from this question by attacking those asking these questions.
kos at the end of the day I think has poor judgement and is naive—Hackett flip flop, the DLC attack that never came, Warner and Yearlykos—all leave many wondering. While Armstrong and kos have a symbiotic relationship, and some business ties (in the past, and with their recent book) I don’t believe there is any transfer of money for editorial influence—I think Jerome simply gets some of that for free, that at least is my impression.
I personally don’t care how this story turns out, the netroots in the Ohio Senate race are now poisoned beyond recovery thanks to these bozo’s—I just hope I don’t have to witness them screw up any more races in the state I live.
[my emphasis]
I noted in an earlier post that what interests me about all this is not so much any impropriety on Kos’ part (I’ll let the real investigators ferret out if there’s any there there before I get all giddy), but rather the progressivist mindset revealed by the very existence of an elite group of message puppeteers—namely, its fanatical desire to control the narrative and define the parameters of identitarian “authenticity.â€Â
Sadly, every follow-up—from Kos’ attempt to excommunicate The New Republic from the church of authentic liberals, to Greenwald and Gilliard and Beyerstein’s attempts (dutifully parroted by several people right here in the comments) to shift the focus away from both the Kos/Armstrong relationship and the revelation of a secret group of journos and bloggers who are coordinating and manipulating the “people-powered movement” by directing its messaging and perhaps freezing out those who dare to challenge the “unified” front—has borne out my characterization.
BSB likely doesn’t want an endorsement from the likes of me (evil paste-eating hausfrau that I am), but nevertheless, the staff there has shown that there are indeed some “netroots” constituents who refuse to trade their intellectual honesty for appearances on “Air America,” and for that I commend them, whether they like it or not.
So maybe there’s hope yet that the grassroots Dems can cast out the totalitarian element (“the message MUST BE UNIFIED!”) that too often speaks for them and help forge a strong and viable Democratic party once again. Because this country certainly needs it—if only to make sure that Trent Lott doesn’t hold power forever, or that Sean Hannity will have to come up with a new set of easy-to-remember talking points.
****
update: Kos, he been SWIFTBOATED! BY KILLARY AND CREW!:
Whether the grown ups (Peretz, Lieberman, Hillary) actually set the Swiftboat in motion, or just watched approvingly (“Who shall rid us of this meddlesome blogger?”) as their hatchet boys did what comes natural, is almost irrelevant. The important thing to understand is that we have reached the point where the Dinos and their media allies are willing to use Rovian tactics against anyone who challenges their entrenched position
Or they can, you know, just print what Kos and his gang of people-powered people’s people say. That seems to do the trick about as well as any elaborate conspiracy…
(h/t Gary Schamburg; more here; and Instapundit has a nice little roundup)
You know, the thing that has always struck me about Dem types is their belief that the Republicans have a unified message.
Republicans aren’t any more unified that the Democrats in their message; but on some topics, its just logical that a large group of people who think similarly would share pretty much the same opinion.
For example: The NY Times story on terror financing. Could you find nuance there someplace if you looked hard enough? I suppose. But that would just defy logic. Republicans are UNIFIED in their condemnation of the Times for needlessly endangering the program and the nation with their immature posturing on this story, but that’s not because we got our bullet points and spin from the TownRove “secret” email list (like they do.)
They think they need such un-transparent “unifying” because they think that’s what the Republicans have. They’re building a vast left-wing conspiracy machine, because they think, honestly, that the moon really is in the second house, and that Hillary was right when she “exposed” the vast right-wing conspiracy.
What a bunch of high-schoolers.
Really—for all their looniness—the Dems are caught in a quandary. Do they support the message puppeteers of Kerry/KoS or Clinton/DLC?
I guess I was wrong about this whole affair.
I honestly believed I couldn’t care any less.
Apparently, I can.
Can we just save time and put Kos’s picture next to ad hominem in the dictionary?
Ah, billmon. Can’t rhyme worth a da…
…”sacred alliance with Israel”?
Oh.
With the Democrat Party casting out its last standing Democrat, Joe Lieberman, I won’t hold out any hope that Democrats will remain a viable party today or in the future. Actually, the last time Democrats acted like Democrats was when JFK held office. After he died the Socialists overpowered Liberalism changing the American mantra ‘truth, justice and the American way’ to ‘groupthink, equalized misery for all and capitalism sucks’.
I thought hate-speech violation took Trent Lott out of the power game?
Rightnum…pretty much. It’s denial really. They need a reason why they aren’t winning, and it just can’t be the ideas! It must be the RWNMachine is just better at duping all the stupid voters and so they must adopt what they think the GOP is doing.
What I’ve enjoyed the most about this whole episode is that it showed how disconnected from reality the “netroots” movement is. Everything is a conspiracy; every entrenched interest is out to stop them; anyone opposed to them is, by definition, a neocon, etc. etc.
We all knew this before, but it’s nice that fair-minded liberals like some of those at TNR and, um…Anyway, it’s nice that they get to see it first hand.
Second favorite thing: It’s demonstrated how Kos is dim bulb with a God complex.
This has been good times all around. I can’t wait till the turn this thing into a movie. Any suggestions for casting? I see Chris Kattan as Kos.
Sounds like puttin’ the stink-eye on the DLC might have been one of his less brilliant ideas, huh?
Old age and treachery will overcome youth and energy every time.
SB: hard
nose the highway
The Kossian Left is copying something that they think they know – Rovian Evil Tactics – and the result is a poor knock-off.
Off toic, but, damn, Lindsay sure cleans up nice, don’t she?
Billmon may be on to something, but he uses the term “swiftboating” negatively, to imply dirty tricks. Trouble is, the Swifties just shone some light on Lurch’s Vietnam service and his claims about it. The same is true with markos and friends. The truth is being reported, people are looking into their background (which comes with political notoriety, duh!), and they don’t like it.
I’ve got two words: Jeff Gannon.
If I were in Hillary’s position, I’d squash the little bug eyed shit too. By modern day rules, it’s common practice and there’s nothing ethically wrong with it. Deal with it, kossacks.
From buckeyestateblog:
Nice research and analysis. RTWT.
fwiw, at start of WWI you had pilots giving each other professional courtesy, breaking off dogfights if the opponents gun had jammed, et cetera.
By 1918 opposing pilots said ‘fuck it’ and strafed pilots who had bailed out and were hanging in harness.
so it’s not like this there isn’t precedent here for new technology adopters abandoning civility over time.
Just take a look at Jeff’s archives – does anybody think that beneath Atrios’s at-times polite back-and-forthing with Jeff lay a vicious ‘Open Thread’ just waiting to burst out onto the blogosphere once it had the chance?
Hmmmmmmmmm?
Good, goooood. Keep telling them that. Yesssssss…
*strokes white cat on lap*
Billmon may be righ-, er, correct. It only makes sense to realize that the Kos-wing of the Democrats has an abysmal electoral record and that its influence must be controlled (reduced, marginalized). The arithmetic is simple: the numbers of Kos-wingnuts lost would pale in comparison to the number of those gained who have recently voted Republican.
And besides as the Kerry campaign after the Iowa caucuses showed (not to mention the eight years of Clinton), the Kos-wing will shut up and support anyone so long as they’re not a Republican.
Maybe swiftboated means exposed.
This weekend I utterly f*cked up my back at a MMA seminar, so I’m pretty much been following this whole affair in a drug-induced haze.
You’d think it would help me make sense of it all.
It hasn’t. Whatsoever.
However, the gist I’m getting is that there is some cannibalism going on. And I’m all about the cannibalism, so please, someone, videotape this all for me so I can enjoy it when the skelaxin/Valium cocktail wears off.
I second Chris Kattan as Kos.
Definitely Chris Kattan as Mango as Kos.
Kos to a tee.
“(evil paste-eating hausfrau that I am)”
Jeff, Jeff, Jeff. You’re not evil. You’re stupid. Never attribute to evil what can be explained by incompetence.
“the Swifties just shone some light on Lurch’s Vietnam service”
yeah, those noble Swiftboaters and their commitment to truth and honesty {chortle}.
tw: there, to wit: there’s no there there
Damn that fickle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango_(Saturday_Night_Live) , foiled by a feathery url!
I agree with Kattan as Kos, but I think it’s more that ape-boy character Mr. Peepers rather than mango.
Perhaps a hybrid of the two?
Uh, just cut ‘n’ paste or whatever. I give. :(
You’re an annoying little asswipe, lo. The equivalent of a herpes blister on a blog comments section.
And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddlesome Kidz.
About the only true thing I’ve ever seen this creature post.
So, what did you think of that election (guffaw)?
Lo and behold:
The Swiftboat veterans merely highlighted a truism about Kerry:
Kerry was born a dickhead; raised a dickhead. He was a dickhead in highschool and college. He was a dickhead in Vietnam and was a dickhead after Vietnam. He was a dickhead as a Mass. ‘pol’, as Senator and a dickhead as a presidential candidate. Kerry always was and always will be the very embodiment of a dickhead.
Sorry, lo –
Kerry’s response to the Swift Boat stuff was reason enough to disqualify him as presidential material.
If he can’t decisively analyze threats and respond in a campaign what makes you think Kerry could do so as President?
nobody important, make that “self-aggrandizing dickhead” and I’ll take it!
Because Kerry wasn’t Bush, BumperStickerist. D’oh!!!
You got it, Pablo.
tw: given – it’s a given that Kerry is a self-aggrandizing dickhead.
You think he’s that noticable and stinging? Nah…more like a little, ingrown hair. Pus-filled, but never hurts.
Cordially…
I love reading a good biography.
It’s got to be Jon Cryer playing Kos.
Okay but what I find remarkable is this:
Okay,…so the moderates, the people you are opposed to are the “grown ups”? What does that make you by implication? How long till Kos and his merry band of moonbats self-identify as the loony left? Ooohhh, maybe they can differentiate from the moderates by noting that Lieberman, et al. can’t be truly certified as Democrats. Kos, on the other hand is entirely certifiable.
Q: Kos and Hillary enter an untimed steel cage death match with hatchets, chainsaws, maces and sulfuric acid-dipped clubs. Who wins?
A: Everybody!
The Hildabeast just needs to be careful she don’t choke on his bones.
Percy, I don’t want to alarm you but the meds wore off three days ago. What you’ve been reading is undiluted lefty.
You’ve just produced a perfect summarization of the blog “mission statement” for Firedoglake.
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