The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Revolving Doors: Freire Exits Examiner, Joins NMS; Klein Exits Spectator, Joins Examiner; Hot Air Is Hiring (Not Me)

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 10 Comments

One of the things that has always amazed me about D.C. is how frequently young people change jobs here. You go to a cocktail reception and run into a think-tank guy you met at a reception six weeks ago: “Hey, how are things at [name of think tank]?” And he says, “Oh, I’m at [name of consulting firm] now.” So you say, “Oh, I know so-and-so who works there.” And the guy says, “No, she left. She’s working for [name of congressman] now.”

It’s a constant career merry-go-round and, apparently, the rule of this job-hopper game is: “He who has the most employers on his resume, wins.” And so anybody inside the Beltway who works anywhere more than two years is considered a loser.

Which is why, less than two years after former American Spectator managing editor J.P. Freire joined the Examiner, he’s gone:

J.P. Freire, associate editor of the Washington Examiner‘s Commentary section, is leaving his post for a gig at New Media Strategies (NMS). At NMS Freire will flex his news knowledge as a senior communications strategist. . . .
Freire has held his position with the Examiner for nearly two years. He was previously the managing editor of the American Spectator magazine.

J.P. is a smart guy who, a couple years ago, expressed a great truth in saying that what conservative journalism needs is fewer Bill Buckleys and more Robert Novaks — which is to say, more reporters and fewer pundits. And to replace Freire, Tapscott brings in brilliant young American Spectator staffer Philip Klein to fill the opening:

Philip has been Washington correspondent for the American Spectator for several years and before that was a reporter at Reuters in New York City. At both Reuters and the Spectator, Philip displayed the kind of detailed, thorough writing and reporting that will make him a key member of the Commentary staff.

Phil is a wonk. The guy loves policy like a squirrel loves nuts. Yes, he is a reporter and a very good one, but in his heart of hearts, the guy is about policy, not politics. (His writing on the health-care debate was some of the best stuff out there.) Knowing Phil as I do, I’m prepared to make a bold prediction: By summer 2012, Phil will be working as a policy guy for a GOP presidential campaign and, if Republicans take back the White House, will join the new administration, either in the speechwriting shop or as a policy assistant.

Now, finally, to something I mentioned at the bottom of a post last week:

NEW JOB
HotAir.com – Writer
Description: HotAir.com is seeking a third writer to join the current duo of Ed Morrissey and Allahpundit. HotAir is the largest conservative blog, has a readership of over two million readers a month and is cited daily by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Bill Bennett and pundits across the airwaves and online. Blogging at HotAir is the perfect opportunity for a writer with a quick wit and a nose for news. Competitive salary commensurate with experience plus full benefits. Please send inquiries to [email protected] or fax to 703-247-1257, Attention: Jonathan Garthwaite, General Manager.
Added 03/08/11.

Running a “help wanted” ad for such a plum job is extremely unusual. Notice, by contrast, how Tapscott filled the Examiner opening vacated by Freire’s departure almost instantly after Freire’s departure became known, and with a staffer from the same magazine where Freire had formerly been managing editor.

Most openings like that, you see, are never advertised, but are instead filled by friends recommending friends to their friends.

Therefore, from my perspective, this cattle-call ad can have only one meaning: The proprietors of Hot Air don’t consider me “a writer with a quick wit and a nose for news.”

Otherwise, why the ad? They could have just called me and said, “Hey, want a job?” Putting out the cattle call like this is therefore tantamount to a public declaration that nobody at Hot Air is interested in “the ugliest girl on the cheerleading squad.”

Meanwhile, at least two people have asked me to recommend them for the Hot Air job, but given this evidence of what extremely low regard the proprietors have for me, I suppose that a recommendation from me would hurt more than it would help.

So, if any of my friends are interested in appling for that job, pretend you don’t know me. If you think it will help you get the job, just say the word and I’ll be happy denounce you as a candy-ass RINO.

Because that’s what friends are for.

Category: American Spectator, Hot Air, Journalism, Washington Examiner

Obi’s Sister: Her Pi Are Square

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 5 Comments

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, OK?

Anyway, Ginny at Obi’s Sister celebrates her five-year bloggiversary by getting her geek on — today is “Pi Day” (3-14, get it?) and so she’s all geometric and stuff.

Ginny got a birthday ‘Lanche, but didn’t even bother to link her Lithia Springs homeboy. Sigh. Now that she’s a big-deal contributor at Peach Pundit, she can’t be bothered to notice The Little People.

Category: Obi's Sister

Shepard Smith, Live From Tokyo

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 18 Comments

“. . . blackouts across this nation . . . epic earthquake . . . monster tsunami . . . nightmare scene from Hell . . . . a quickly growing humanitarian crisis . . . an economy teetering on the brink of collapse . . .”

Fuck you, Shep. Fuck you and fuck your purple prose.

Your over-excited International Drama Queen act is starting to grate on my last nerve, and I’m not in a mood for further annoyances today.

WARNING TO JAPANESE: If Shepard Smith wants your parking space, get out of his way.

Category: Fox News, Japan

What I Said to Pete

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 17 Comments

Pete Da Tech Guy took a gander at my recent go-rounds with Little Miss Attila — as I’ve called it, “blogospheric badminton with ‘feminism’ for a shuttlecock” — and expressed his enjoyment of the discourse. So I left this comment at Pete’s post:

Glad you enjoyed the spectacle. Joy is one of my favorite people in the blogosphere, but as a self-described “recovering lefty,” she needs to complete the full 12-step program, which includes rejecting the rhetoric and ideology of the Left.
Conservative women trying to co-opt the “feminist” brand is counter-productive from a strategic standpoint. Women who think of themselves as “feminists” are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats. Most women don’t like the “feminist” label and, therefore, the proper conservative strategy is to make liberals own that term and its pejorative radical connotations. Conservative rhetoric ought to be crafted to appeal to the mainstream (i.e., non-”feminist”) woman — for she constitutes the “swing” vote — rather than pandering to whatever sentimental attachment a relative handful of ex-lefties may have to that term.
This is nothing new, nor is it specific to feminism or conservatism. Successful political movements very often require that intellectual activists bite their tongues about the movement’s public rhetoric — intended to sway the undecided — when that rhetoric conflicts with particularistic ideals that the intellectuals (as they typically do) cherish as totems. In the pre-Internet age, such inevitable tensions were generally resolved behind the scenes. Nowadays, blog wars bring these tensions out into the open, at least for those who pay attention to such squabbles.

That goes a bit deeper into Political Theory than is my habit. The gap between the exoteric language of politics (arguments made to rally public support to one’s cause) and the esoteric rationale of politics (the logic of the movement as understood by insiders) is a subject of study that, among conservative intellectuals in recent times, has been most associated with the so-called Straussians. I’m an anti-Straussian.

There is no need for a full-blown discussion of the esoteric/exoteric distinction here, except so far as it bears on the public nature of intra-conservative dialogue on the blogosphere. What offended me very deeply in Little Miss Attila’s initial post — published before I’d commented on the Barbara Kay column — was that it constituted a direct attack upon my prestige within the movement.

By pre-emptively accusing me of “oversimplified fiddle-faddle,” what Attila was proclaiming was: Stacy is an idiot who can make no useful contribution to the discourse. Do not listen to him. Read more

Category: Conservatism 101, Da Tech Guy, Feminism, Little Miss Attila, Tea Party

Judd Gregg Succumbs to Palinphobia

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 44 Comments

In a column for The Hill, the former New Hampshire senator surveys the 2012 GOP presidential primary field and confronts his dread fear that You-Know-Who might win the nomination:

Because the nominating process has become so dominated by primary elections, with the vast majority of the delegates chosen by direct vote, it is entirely possible that with no presumptive winner or even favorites, a candidate who runs second or third in a great many primaries could go into the convention with a sizable block of delegates.
Who would this favor? Does Sarah Palin come to mind? Although she is not viewed by most as strong enough to win, she is viewed by many as a person worth voting for to make a statement. And primaries tend to be populated by people who go to the polls with the purpose of making a statement.
Finishing second and third isn’t really a big deal — until you get enough delegates to be the nominee. And picking a nominee who it seems would be easily defeated by President Obama might not be the best statement.

For crying out loud, Republicans, stop doing this!

In what alternative universe does it make sense for prominent Republicans and conservative pundit to publicly declare that the GOP’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate — clearly one of the favorites of the party’s grassroots — is a guaranteed hopeless loser in 2012?

Who does that help, besides Obama?

Look: Everyone studying the 2012 GOP field has their Please-God-No candidate, or perhaps a short list of them. My own darkest fear is a Draft Jeb Bush movement. (“Read my lips: No more Bushes!“) Among the actual likely candidates, however, the one I absolutely can’t bear to think about is Mike Huckabee. He’s a warm personality but, as Ann Coulter says, Huckabee is essentially a pro-life Democrat.

So obviously, I’m anti-Huck. But what’s the point in beating up on the guy every day when, for all we know, he’ll be up on the stage in Tampa accepting the nomination in August 2012?

Gregg’s name has been bandied about as a 2012 candidate, so perhaps he fancies himself on that stage in Tampa. If so, taking a cheap shot at Sarah Palin — and Clyde Middleton is right, this is a cheap shot — is the best way to move himself to the top of the Please-God-No lists of everyone who supports Palin.

More likely, however, Gregg is trying to play kingmaker. Fine: Let him declare which candidate he supports. Let Gregg tell us whose agenda he is secretly serving by submarining Sarah, and then that candidate can go to the top of the Please-God-No list.

Even if Palin isn’t your first choice for 2012 (my own fondness for Herman Cain is certainly no secret), these public outbursts of Palinphobia are unseemly and counterproductive, unless it is your goal to ensure Obama’s re-election.

DON’T FEAR THE UTERUS!

UPDATE: Linked by Da Tech Guy and The Lonely Conservative — thanks!

Category: Election 2012, New Hampshire, Sarah Palin

Professor William Jacobson Given the Treatment by Fecal Matters

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Media Matters went after Legal Insurrection, reports Prof. Jacobson:

Doesn’t Media Matters, with all its new Soros money, have anything better to do than take my posts out of context?

That is who they are; that is what they do.
The crucial point that all moderate and conservative Americans need to realize is how thoroughly illiberal the Left is. And then focus on NOT becoming that.
Props to Prof J. on being among the most worth-my-time reads going.
As for the post title, while I treat peoples’ names as inviolate, trademarks are fair game to me. Media Matters: mostly merde, merits mockery.

Category: Legal Insurrection

Do Not Succumb To Eric S. Raymond’s Despair

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

ESR seems correct in asserting the apocalypse is nigh. But even if they immanentize the escargot, we can’t fold, as he advocates. If half the battle is showing up, then going radio silent ensures you have not input after the come-to-Beavis moment.
For all the US has gone way off course the next century, the Constitutional fundamentals are rock solid. We merely have to disabuse the Progressives of some Socialist falsehoods, or, failing that, vote them out.
It is the time to double down, not shut down. Hie thee to the gym; gird thy loins; stock up on thy energy beverage of choice. Pay no attention to Stacy McCain’s habits; he’s on the Trained Professional Program, and you should not try his regimen at home.  2012 is going to call for even more effort than 2010.  No whining.

Category: Uncategorized

Props To Obi’s Sister

Posted on | March 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

She’s been in the blogosphere five years now. She’s actually quoted me on occasion, for which my ego is deeply grateful. Here’s to a full decade!

Category: Obi's Sister
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