A high level Bush “former aide” comes forward to Mike Allen to “emphatically” rebut Scott McClellan, when we know that a White House smear and discredit campaign is underway. Gee, why does that sound familiar?
Oh yeah. I TOLD you on December 31 how the same modus operandi showed its Medusa’s face in the “Giuliani used public funds — hidden in the books — to visit his mistress” scandal (which turned out to be false) and in the “eyewitnesses came forward” to corroborate Mitt Romney’s bogus claim that he’d “watched” his father marching with Martin Luther King (in a march that never transpired). Which also wasn’t ever proven true, but which ended the MSM’s coverage of the outrageous lie. (Along with slick ad hominem attacks on the Boston alternative paper that spotted the lie.)
Mike Allen is the “go to” guy for … well you be the judge:
McClellan cocaine tale challenged
By: Mike Allen
May 30, 2008 11:11 AM ESTA close former aide to President Bush has come forward to emphatically rebut Scott McClellan’s allegation that Bush had once said that he did not remember if he had ever used cocaine.
Logan Walters, who as Bush’s longtime personal aide would have been present for a supporter phone call like the one McClellan describes, told Politico that he never heard such a conversation and that the idea of it is completely implausible.
“I never heard him say, ‘I don’t remember whether or not I’ve used cocaine’ — never heard him say anything like that,” Walters said. “It would be so strikingly out of character and inconsistent with the way he typically responded to issues and questions, it would have stood out in my mind.”
McClellan, the former White House press secretary, makes the sensational allegation in his hostile new memoir, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.”
The book includes the index entry, “Bush, George W., drug use and, 47-9.” [more]
Today’s Glenn Greenwald blog posting in Salon finally caught up with me. Precisely 150 days late, perhaps, but he DID catch up:
Friday May 30, 2008 06:51 EDTThe right-wing Politico cesspool
Politico reporter Mike Allen, formerly of The Washington Post and Time, appeared yesterday on the show of right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher. The two of them guffawed together at how absurd are Scott McCellan’s claims that the media was “deferential” to the Bush administration and then Allen said this:
ALLEN: And indeed, Scott does adopt the vocabulary, rhetoric of the left wing haters. Can you believe it in here he says the White House press corps was too deferential to the administration?
Think Progress has the audio, which makes even clearer how eager Mike Allen was “to adopt the vocabulary, rhetoric” of the right-wing operatives which Politico exists to serve. Actually, not even Karl Rove — who gave Allen and comrades their marching orders earlier this week when he said during an interview with Sean Hannity that McClellan “sounds like a left-wing blogger” — goes so far as to refer to those critical of the media’s war coverage as “left wing haters.” But Politico “reporter” Mike Allen does….
I finished 2007 with Mike Allen and the questionableness of Politico’s political leanings. Nice to know that somebody “legitimate” backs me up, now. Golly, I might even manage to eventually advance to SECOND-CLASS media citizen status … some day.
It is to dream. Castes tend to be horribly inelastic, and a nobody from nowhere (born to a Nebraska railroad worker named Joe Williams? Nobody from nowhere, trust me.) might aspire to the notice of the digerati, but one need not hold one’s breath.
Here’s what I said on December 31, 2007:
31 December 2007…3:15 pm
For Whose Campaign Is Mike Allen Working?
I’m not sold on Politico.
[UPDATE, Jan 4: Neither does RedState: "Crack Whores Run The Politico"]
Rolled out by Washington insiders as an attempt to stanch the bleeding of the print media, a sort of internet/print hybrid, they’ve been hungry in this, their first year.
Perhaps a bit TOO hungry.
The first big “scoop” was, of course, Ben Smith’s revelation that John Edwards was going to DROP OUT of the presidential race because of his wife’s cancer.
(Whoops!)
The next big scoop was Mike Allen’s revelation that Rudy Giuliani had been caching his travel expenses in obscure accounts … purportedly to hide his visits to his mistress. You might recall the media firestorm about it, on November 30.
Only one problem: Turned out not to be exactly true….
And, I noted Allen’s background and pedigree in Rightie circles:
And listen to Mike Allen ladle it on (note his “conclusion” not backed by the facts):
Until this week, that was just a vivid memory for a sweet retiree who now lives in Pompano Beach, Fla.
But Basore’s memory became important this week when news accounts questioned the recollections of the late Michigan governor’s son, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor.
News stories suggested that Romney was exaggerating. It turns out that he may not have attended the Grosse Pointe march, but it certainly happened. (emphasis added)
Because Mike Allen says so? Don’t make me laugh. He’s overstepped his bounds as a reporter and drifted into partisan land. But then, he seems to have pretty straightforward button-down conservative GOP and newspaper credentials. From his bio on Politico:
Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.
So, I have to wonder why he’s pimping so hard for a point of view.
Mike Allen is the chief political correspondent for Politico. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush’s first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000.
OK, he’s hobnobbed in what seems to be Establishment Republican circles for a long time (you don’t cover ‘em that long if they hate your coverage, especially in the Bush White House). So we can draw some inferences there. And from the stickers on his suitcase.
But I weight documentary evidence above partisan (remember, they CONTACTED the Romney campaign, not a reporter) recollections spoon-fed to a seemingly sympathetic reporter. The Giuliani “scoop” seems logical. But the Romney “scoop” calls both into question.
Who is Mike Allen working for?
Greenwald adds new fuel to Allen’s bonfire of the journalistic vanities:
Allen recently conducted an “interview” with George Bush that was so vapid and sycophantic that the normally polite Dan Froomkin of The Washington Post detailed the “questions” Allen posed and then asked rhetorically: “Has there ever been a more moronic interview of a president of the United States than the one conducted yesterday by Mike Allen?”
Speaking of Politico‘s sycophantic service to the GOP, Allen’s colleague, Daniel Paul Kuhn, today has an article about how gay marriage is going to help McCain win the election and doom Obama among independents and working class voters. Last week, Kuhn wrote an article reporting that GOP operatives were excited about the prospects of McCain winning in a “blowout.” Several weeks before that, Kuhn wrote an article about how the Iraq War’s growing popularity among Americans would be a huge asset for McCain and doom the Democratic candidate. Not even the most shameless GOP hack makes such absurdly optimistic claims about the GOP’s electoral chances — at least not out in the open. They just have Kuhn and Politico do it for them.
I once thought that Politico would be a pernicious new addition to our rotted media culture. Instead, it actually provides a valuable service by packing every destructive and corrupt journalistic attribute, in its most vivid form, into one single cesspool.
– Glenn Greenwald
Which is pretty much the conclusion I reached last year:
And the whole post-coverup “spin” only serves to underscore Mitt’s mendacity.
Some “scoop” Mike Allen. Yessireebob.
But the fascinating story here is how quickly the media dropped the story when a reporter — who was admittedly being set up by the Romney campaign — published his second “scoop” in a month materially affecting the GOP presidential campaign from what one might infer is a less than disinterested basis.
And, of course, that’s the hat trick for Politico. Three phony major “scoops” this year. I think they’re trying so hard to put themselves “on the map” that they’re being dangerously sloppy. And, in this presidential season, that’s three strikes for the pompous pundits at Politico.
No, I’m not sold on Politico.
Quod erat demonstrandum. (Another good Greenwald column here, wherein he uncovers and delineates at least one major reason for Politico’s seemingly corrupt and surely creepy coverage.)
This has been precognition month, here at his vorpal sword:
17 May 2008
Tar, Babies
Well, it never fails. After yesterday’s linking to my Br’er Rabbit post on the Tar Baby AND the Briar Patch, somebody finds a Republican has used the term ….
And
24 May 2008
Hillary, Precognitively
Don’t ask me: I didn’t MEAN to roll out of bed at four o’clock yesterday morning with a fever-dream imperative saying: YOU HAVE TO WRITE THIS … NOW!
And those, combined with the Jack Bog blog situation, have conspired to turn May’s blogging into something resembling a Psychic Fair. Hopefully June will be a little less spooky. Happy Decoration/Memorial Day (actual). Here’s the Jack Bog Blog bit (from his last Sunday’s “The Sky May Be Actually Falling“):
Er … thanks for catching up to my March 17 post. (see link) I’ll be glad to forward them to you in future, if you can use ‘em.
Just think, six or eight months hence, some “major” blogger will maybe note the coordination of the hatey-rightie blogs as a political tool, (“A Tale of Two (Half) Witties — REVISED” 5-28), or Limbaugh’s and Fox’s use of ‘crazy black preachers’ (“Osama Bin Limbaugh” 5-16) and, while it will be too late to do progressives any good, I can, at least, write another petulant, “Told You So!” juvenile blog entry.
Just like this one.
And call me Cassandra …
Courage.
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