memeorandum: Wes Clark Interview, Part One: The Petraeus Ad (Matt Stoller/Open Left)

12:10 AM ET, September 21, 2007

Top Items:

Reso Condemning MoveOn Passes Overwhelmingly, With Lots Of Dems — The GOP-introduced resolution condemning MoveOn just passed by a huge margin, 72-25. Roughly half the Democrats in the Senate supported it. — A couple of the more interesting votes: Jim Webb, who just yesterday was a Netroots hero …

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

25 Senate Democrats Support "Betray Us", Including Hillary — The Senate passed the Jon Cornyn amendment condemning the MoveOn.org ad that called General David Petraeus a liar and potential traitor, 72-25. All 25 Senators who voted in support of these smears against an American military commander …

Discussion: Mitt Romney For President News, Baltimore Sun, The Anchoress, Stop The ACLU, Daily Kos, TPM Election Central, The Huffington Post, Capitol Briefing, Infidels Are Cool, NYT, Redstate, Done With Mirrors, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Blue Crab Boulevard

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Obama opts out — The empty, symbolic fight over the MoveOn ad also appears to be testing something that was, from the beginning, a central question in the primary: Do Democrats want somebody who will be above partisan fighting (Obama), or do they want a partisan fighter (Clinton)?

Discussion: QandO, The Huffington Post, Think Progress, Open Left, The Oxford Medievalist, The Carpetbagger Report and MyDD

Paul Begala / The Huffington Post:

Democrats Should Attack Bush, Not MoveOn — Before a single Democrat condemns MoveOn's ad, they should insist that George W. Bush and the Republican Party repudiate the anti-military smears on war heroes that have been the hallmark of Mr. Bush's political career.

Discussion: The Fix, Crooks and Liars, Rook's Rant and bustardblog

Byron York / The Corner:
Senate Condemns MoveOn Ad, Still More

Discussion: A Tiny Revolution, NewsBusters.org and Open Left

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Obama Misses Vote On MoveOn — Right After Voting On Boxer Measure

Discussion: MSNBC, Firedoglake, Hot Air, The Corner, Stop The ACLU, Big Lizards, BeldarBlog, Hang Right Politics, The Politico, Wake up America, Suitably Flip and The American Mind

Todd Beeton / MyDD:
Senate Votes To...Condemn An Ad?

Discussion: Hot Air, MSNBC, TPM Election Central, The Washington Note and QandO

Ryan Grim / The Politico:
Senate votes to do PR for MoveOn

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

GROW UP — Am I the only one embarrassed by the dingbat brouhaha over Iranian President Ahmadinejad's attempt to visit Ground Zero to lay a wreath? Given relations between our countries I could see denying him a visa, but as long as we're hosting the UN that's not an option.

Discussion: Liberty Street, Viking Pundit, Attytood, At-Largely, PoliBlog (TM) and The Corner

Drudge Report:

AHMADINEJAD SAYS HE WILL NOT PUSH TO VISIT GROUND ZERO; 'AMAZED' GESTURE WOULD INSULT AMERICANS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not press his plan — just denied by New York City Police for security reasons — to visit Ground Zero in New York City, he tells 60 MINUTES' Scott Pelley …

Discussion: Infidels Are Cool, Blue Crab Boulevard, JammieWearingFool, Reason Magazine, New York Post, Wake up America, The American Pundit, Captain's Quarters and Sister Toldjah

Kristen Breitweiser / The Huffington Post:
Stunt or Statesmanship? Ahmandinejad Goes to Ground Zero

Discussion: LiberalOasis and Attytood

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Audio: Ahmadinejad should be "physically restrained" …

Discussion: The Blotter, Classical Values, MSNBC, Cox & Forkum, Scared Monkeys, Gateway Pundit, The Corner, Death and The American Pundit

Matt Stoller / Open Left:

Wes Clark Interview, Part One: The Petraeus Ad — If anyone can recommend an audio hosting service, please email me at stoller at gmail.com so I can post the audio file of the interview. — I just did an interview with Wes Clark, and there's a bunch of newsworthy stuff in there …

Discussion: The Garlic, Booman Tribune, skippy the bush kangaroo, Interesting Times, Macsmind and Don Surber

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Hey All You Anti-War Crazies....

Discussion: The Democratic Daily and DownWithTyranny!

Ian Welsh / The Agonist:
MoveOn And the Kabuki Congress

Discussion: Corrente

Michael Kinsley / Time:

How Dare You! — Goodness gracious. oh, my paws and whiskers. Some of the meanest, most ornery hombres around are suddenly feeling faint. Notorious tough guys are swooning with the vapors. The biggest beasts in the barnyard are all aflutter over something they read in the New York Times.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, NewsBusters.org, Stop The ACLU, Taylor Marsh and Middle Earth Journal

Matt Stoller / Open Left:

Obama Betrays Us, Of Course — In Dante's Inferno, the Opportunists were "the people who refused to take sides on the whole good vs. evil thing, but just looked after themselves. As a result, they're doomed to forever run after a banner while being stung by wasps and hornets... These people aren't technically in hell.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and WorkingForChange

Mary Mapes / The Huffington Post:

Courage for Dan Rather — Gee, just when I was all excited about Wednesday's big premiere of the new CBS cultural triumph Kid Nation, my old friend Dan Rather went and blew my whole evening out of the water by filing a massive lawsuit against the company. — Here we go again.

Discussion: Winds of Change.NET, Macsmind and Little Green Footballs

Sarah Lovenheim / Fact Checker:

GENERAL BETRAY US? — THE ANTI-WAR GROUP MOVEON.ORG ATTACKED GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS IN A SEPTEMBER 10 FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENT IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, ACCUSING HIM OF BEING "CONSTANTLY AT WAR WITH THE FACTS." HERE IS AN ANNOTATED FACT CHECK OF MOVEON.ORG'S BROADSIDE AGAINST PETRAEUS.

Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:

Countdown Special Comment: The President Of Hypocrisy — In light of President Bush's disgraceful presser today, Keith Olbermann decided to make a Special Comment on tonight's Countdown and wow, did he make the most of it. Olbermann blasts the president for his cowardly and un-American behavior …

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

Grand jury targets ex-DeLay adviser — A federal grand jury has subpoenaed payroll records from the House for Ed Buckham, former chief of staff to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). — The subpoena, issued by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., is the first formal notification …

Discussion: Think Progress, Sunlight Foundation blogs, MyDD and TPMmuckraker

White House:

Press Conference by the President — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. In just 10 days the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as S-CHIP, is set to expire. This important program helps children whose families cannot afford private health insurance, but do not qualify for Medicaid to get coverage they need.