Category Archives: Newpapers
Dossier Doozy
In 1980 Ronald Reagan debated George H W Bush in the New Hampshire primary. The debate was sponsored by the Nashua Telegraph. But the FEC ruled it violated election regulations. So the Reagan Campaign took over sponsorship of the debate.
When the day of the event arrived chairs were only arranged for Reagan, Bush and a moderator. Four other candidates stood awkwardly onstage. Reagan demanded they be included. Editor Jon Breen, the moderator, asked the sound tech to cut off Reagan’s mic. The crowd booed.
The Gipper angrily responded, “I’m paying for this microphone, Mr. Green.” His name was Breen but, whatever. The crowd went nuts.
Dossier
In 2016 Hillary Clinton paid for a dossier on Donald Trump. Among other things, the document claimed Trump paid Russian prostitutes to pee on a bed where Barack and Michelle Obama had slept in Moscow.
Journalists were aware of the dossier but considered it sketchy, unverified and un-newsworthy. At least most did.
The big questions were: Who paid for the dossier and did its allegations contribute to the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Trump for Russian Collusion?
The Washington Post broke the story Tuesday night that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC paid for it. They used the law firm Perkins Coie to hire the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. That way Fusion GPS could claim attorney client privilege when questions were asked. Fusion GPS then subcontracted with British spook Christopher Steele to compile the Dossier.
A Republican donor initially engaged Fusion GPS but dropped out after Trump won the primary.
Update: The Hill reports The Washington Free Beacon hired Fusion GPS first.
Cartoon Magazine Publisher Hugh Hefner Dies
Hugh Hefner was a frustrated cartoonist, so he pursued other interests and founded Playboy magazine.
You probably only read Playboy for the fiction. But I read it for the cartoons. Hefner chose the cartoons for each issue.
Cartoon Magazine Publisher Hugh Hefner
I think he also chose the other pictures that appeared in his magazine. And he developed the “Playboy Philosophy” to help him with that task.
But the world of internet porn and political correctness made things difficult for Playboy. An obit in The Atlantic argues that what Playboy offered was “sanitized – Hefner wanted the centerfolds to exude clean-cut charm rather than exotic allure.”
What it should have offered was more cartoons.
Hef was 91 when he died on Wednesday.
Republican Leaders
Republican leaders told President Trump they had a plan to get things done in Congress. They didn’t. And the swamp remains.
So Trump made a deal with Chuck Schumer to raise the debt ceiling and free up billions for hurricane victims. Now he’s looking at Schumer for more deals.
Republican Leaders
Here’s what Rich Lowry has to say about that:
The idea that Trump, who has been too inept to help his own party in Congress, will team up with perhaps the most deviously shrewd Democrat in the country and come out on top is difficult to credit. Schumer will milk Trump for whatever he can get — every tactical advantage, every bit of new spending — so long as he doesn’t give away anything important and doesn’t materially boost Trump’s political standing.
National Review’s Jonathan Tobin thinks the Republican party means nothing to Trump. Maybe for good reason:
Trump is unbound by any loyalty to the party that nominated him or to men such as House speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell. To the contrary, he regards them as foes in a cold war against a political establishment he neither likes nor trusts.
Hate Group Members
The extremist hate group thing seems a little trumped up to me.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members. The SLPC is the media’s go-to choice for hate stats. They even publish this helpful hate map.
But their definition of hate seems broad. They label some Christian groups that don’t share their views on LGBT issues, like the Family Research Council, as hate groups. Then again, I suppose the Klan also considers itself a Christian group not big on the LGBT agenda.
Anyway, I found the FBI figure of 2,200 Klan members quoted in Newsweek archives. So I went with it.
No Statue of Limitation in Identity Politics
Tear ’em all down.
Mark Lilla is a liberal history professor at Columbia. He blames identity politics for Democrats’ failure to win elections. The professor thinks the left focuses too much on what keeps us apart rather than on what brings us together. He says his conservative students make arguments based on ideas and principles. But his liberal students make their arguments based on identity.
Here’s a link to his latest book The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. And here are a couple of reviews from The Guardian.
