memeorandum: Think-Tank Confidential — What I learned during two decades … (Christopher Demuth/Opinion Journal)

4:10 PM ET, October 11, 2007

Top Items:

EXCLUSIVE: E-mail Reveals That McConnell Staffer Propagated Smear Campaign Against Graeme Frost — Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that there was mounting evidence that a staffer for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may have been involved in the right-wing campaign to smear Graeme Frost and his family.

Discussion: Eschaton, The Carpetbagger Report, Matt Ortega, Balloon Juice, Shakespeare's Sister, Firedoglake, CommonDreams.org, The Garlic, Interesting Times, WHAS11 Political Blog and The Liberal Avenger

Faiz / Think Progress:

CNN Pins Blame On Democrats For Right-Wing Smear Of 12-Year Old Boy — This morning, CNN aired its first report on the right-wing smear campaign against 12-year old SCHIP recipient Graeme Frost. CNN pinned the blame on Democrats for assault on the Frost family.

Discussion: QandO, The Newshoggers, Townhall.com, Wake up America, Norwegianity, D-Day, Riehl World View, Suburban Guerrilla and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Sadly, No!:

Stalkin' Malkin Is Losing It — It's getting funnier and funnier. She's plunged straight off the deep end with this one: … Gad, it's like watching one of the Heathers write in her personal pity diary. All that's missing is angry complaints about Confederate Yankee and Ace turning into Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads.

Discussion: RADAMISTO and Angry Bear

Time:

The Swift-Boating of Graeme Frost — A 12-year-old causes an Internet storm for speaking out in favor of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Says his father: "My family does not deserve this retribution"

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Macsmind, Right Wing Nut House, The Huffington Post, The Democratic Daily, The Sundries Shack, Grasping Reality …, Cliff Schecter, The Heretik, The American Street, The Carpetbagger Report and TIME: Swampland

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

THE FEVER SWAMP....A plainly disgusted Karen Tumulty recaps Graeme Frost's introduction to the modern conservative fever swamp in Time magazine and concludes with this: … But of course, that's the whole point. The slavering hordes of Malkin-land might or might not have made a difference …

Discussion: Brian Beutler

Ezra Klein:
An Answer! — Michelle Malkin replies to my challenge for a debate about S-CHIP.

Discussion: D-Day

Michelle Malkin:
My reply to Respectable Liberal Blogger Ezra Klein and his fellow …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Balloon Juice, Ezra Klein, The Moderate Voice, UrbanGrounds, The Newshoggers, Sadly, No!, Flopping Aces, The New Republic, Lean Left, The Mahablog, Pandagon, Bark Bark Woof Woof, All Spin Zone, protein wisdom, The Bellows, TBogg and Wizbang

Carla Marinucci / SFGate:

UPDATE - Gore cancels appearance at Boxer fundraiser — Sen. Barbara Boxer's office just contacted us to say former Vice President Al Gore has been called "overseas" for a trip related to his work on global warming and has canceled his scheduled appearance Thursday in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Boxer's re-election effort.

Discussion: On Deadline, michellemalkin.com, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air and Taylor Marsh

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

Will Gore add Nobel to Oscar and Emmy? — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Will Al Gore add a Nobel Peace Prize to his Oscar and Emmy honors? — "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary featuring the former vice president captured two Academy Awards in February. The film focuses on Gore and his worldwide travels …

Discussion: Times of London, Gates of Vienna, The Democratic Daily, Gateway Pundit, Connecting.the.Dots and Balloon Juice

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Movement From the Gore-acle? — As regular Fix readers know …

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Could Nobel Prize Spur Gore To Run In '08?

Discussion: MSNBC, If I Ran the Zoo, Attytood and Sister Toldjah

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:
Al Gore for President

Discussion: The Swamp, The Huffington Post and Make Them Accountable

Editor and Publisher:

Ann Coulter on CNBC Show: Jews Need 'Perfecting' — NEW YORK Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they had "perfected" themselves into — Christians.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, Eschaton, NewsBusters.org, Roger L. Simon, The Anchoress, Air America Radio, Cliff Schecter and Israellycool

Fox News:

Columnist Ann Coulter Shocks Cable TV Show, Declaring 'Jews Need to Be Perfected by Becoming Christians' — Slash-and-burn columnist Ann Coulter shocked a cable TV talk-show audience Monday when she declared that Jews need to be "perfected" by becoming Christians, and that America would be better off if everyone were Christian.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Mere Rhetoric, Hot Air, Sweetness & Light, Wonkette and FreeSpeech.com

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:

Not Ready To Make Nice — Well this gets a big, fat "hell, no" from me. Via e-mail from Liz Rose of the ACLU on the draft Senate version of the FISA bill, which is not yet publicly available and not being widely shared for review either: … If they didn't do anything wrong, why should they get retroactive immunity?

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Open Left, Taylor Marsh, Corrente and Balloon Juice

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

GLENN GREENWALD: Warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — There is a lot of debate about what accounts for the decrepit state of our political press, but often overlooked is the sheer sloth and ignorance of journalists, who repeat what they are told without having any idea what they are talking about.

Discussion: TalkLeft

FactCheck.org:

Fred's Facts Check Out; Rudy's Don't — Thompson avoids error at his GOP debate debut. But Giuliani commits multiple gaffes. — Former Sen. Fred Thompson got the facts straight for his GOP debate debut Oct. 9. But former Mayor Rudy Giuliani added to a lengthening string of exaggerations and misstatements:

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Fred File and Liberal Values

David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Another Voice in the Choir

Discussion: New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Garlic, The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, The Politico, PrairiePundit and Redstate

Marcella Bombardieri / Boston Globe:

Clinton vows to check executive power — Would curb use of signing statements — Senator Hillary Clinton said yesterday that if she is elected president, she intends to roll back President Bush's expansion of executive authority, including his use of presidential signing statements to put …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Moonbattery, MSNBC, TigerHawk and Reason Magazine

Rocky Mountain News:

Documents: Qwest was targeted — 'Classified info' was not allowed at ex-CEO's trial — The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Next Hurrah and The Carpetbagger Report

Michelle Malkin:

Why did Google ban anti-MoveOn.org ads? — Update 10:45am Eastern. Want to see the banned ads? Here's the scoop from the guy who tried to place them. — Over the past few weeks, I've been driving home the little-noticed story about MoveOn.org bullying mom-and-pop Internet shop owners who criticized the General Petraeus ads.

Discussion: Maine blog, NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View, Conservative Belle and Daily Pundit

Christopher Demuth / Opinion Journal:

Think-Tank Confidential — What I learned during two decades as head of America's most influential policy shop. — I have been presiding at the American Enterprise Institute for 21 years. Today I am announcing that I will step down before the end of 2008.

Discussion: Chicago Boyz, The Corner, Outside The Beltway and The Volokh Conspiracy

New York Times:

Turks Angry Over House Armenian Genocide Vote — Turkey reacted angrily today to a House committee vote in Washington on Wednesday that condemned the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as an act of genocide, calling the decision "unacceptable."

Discussion: Associated Press, PoliBlog (TM), D-Day, The Glittering Eye, Guardian, Outside The Beltway, normblog and Central Sanity

WorldNetDaily:

Giuliani 'doesn't deserve to live' — Terrorists threaten presidential candidate, cite Rudy's war stance, Arafat treatment — Saying Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani "doesn't deserve to live," Palestinian terror leaders are threatening to harm the former New York mayor …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Israel Matzav, The Newshoggers, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and PrairiePundit