Spin, Or Worse?

"The Baghdad Press Club was created last year by the U.S. military as a way to promote progress amid the violence and chaos of Iraq, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman.

"The Army acknowledges funding the club and offering 'reporter compensation,' but insists officers did not demand favorable coverage. 'Members are not required nor asked to write favorably,' said Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone. 'They are simply invited to report on events.'"

And just how do they decide who gets into this "club"?

The latest flap over Dean? The New Republic's John Judis says the DNC chief is getting a bum rap:

"Howard Dean is being vilified again--not only by Republicans in the White House and Congress, but by his fellow Democrats as well. And once again it's for making a critical comment about the administration's conduct of the Iraq war. In an interview Monday with a San Antonio radio station, Dean, comparing the conflicts in Iraq and Vietnam, said, 'The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.' Dean also likened the Bush administration's lack of candor about the war to that of the Nixon administration. 'What we see today is very much like what was going on in Watergate,' he said."

The question, says Judis, is whether Dean's "judgment on Iraq has been sound. And there I would say that it certainly has been. During the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and during the invasion and occupation, Dean has been almost consistently correct in his statements. He has been the Democrats' and the nation's Cassandra--willing to reveal bitter truths about which Republicans and his fellow Democrats would prefer that he remain silent.

"Dean's statements perfectly fit Michael Kinsley's definition of a 'gaffe'--an assertion that is impolitic but true."

For the record, here's what Dean said on CNN yesterday about the Republican attacks:

"It was a little out of context. They kind of cherry-picked that one the same way the president cherry-picked the intelligence going into Iraq. We can only win the war, which we have to win, if we change our strategy dramatically. The Democrats are coalescing around a very different strategy. We hope the president will join us. This is a strategy of strategic redeployment . . .

"The president has said himself we couldn't win this war . . . The truth of the matter is this president got us into this war without telling us the truth. He didn't listen to his own military advisers. This sounds an awful lot like Vietnam, when the government's not truthful with our soldiers, our citizens or our allies. We will be, as Democrats. We can, and we have to, win the war on terror. We can't do it with this kind of approach and with this leadership that the president is showing, as he's going in the wrong direction."

The GOP isn't letting the matter drop, according to Matt Drudge :

"The Drudge Report has learned from a top GOP operative that the Republican National Committee will provide state parties with a web video prior to release tomorrow afternoon that shows a white flag waving over images of Democrat leaders making anti-war remarks. "The ad is in response to the controversial comments Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry made earlier in the week."