Media Hangover

"Boehner's own close ties to the lobbying community made it tricky for him to assail Blunt over earmarks and pork. Whether unfairly or not, he was lumped in with Blunt as a 'K Street Republican.'

"Blunt, however, is closely associated with Tom DeLay, while Boehner isn't. Press coverage of the race has invariably cast DeLay as an albatross. But the reality is a bit more complex. As GOP staffers and congressmen point out, there are actually two Tom DeLays. The first Tom DeLay is the longtime chum of Jack Abramoff; the scandal-tainted lightning rod; the machine-oriented pol who dependably brings home the bacon but has become perhaps too comfortable with big government and the K Street culture. Blunt's connection with this Tom DeLay does him no favors.

"But there's a second Tom DeLay, whom many Republicans still respect: the proud ideological conservative; the bête noire of liberals; the most efficient conservative legislator in decades; the leader who -- despite being a right-wing prince -- successfully managed a big-tent party and rode herd on GOP moderates. Blunt's association with this Tom DeLay is a positive."

Chris Matthews is being hammered -- I mean hammered ! -- in the liberal blogosphere for saying on "Hardball," while analyzing Osama's taped remarks about the "war merchants": "I mean he sounds like an over the top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore."

Salon's Peter Daou cries foul:

"Bin Laden sounds like Ron Silver' -- 'Bin Laden sounds like Rush Limbaugh' -- 'Bin Laden sounds like Bill O'Reilly'-- 'Bin Laden sounds like Mel Gibson' -- 'Bin Laden sounds like Bruce Willis' -- 'Bin Laden sounds like Michelle Malkin'. . . . Imagine the outrage on the right and in the press (but I repeat myself) if a major media figure spat out those words. Well, on Hardball, Chris Matthews just blurted out that Bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore. Simple: Matthews should apologize. On the air. This has NOTHING to do with Michael Moore and everything to do with how far media figures can go slandering the left.

"And last I checked, Michael Moore didn't massacre thousands of innocent Americans."

This is how fast things move these days. Instapundit Glenn Reynolds was on my show two hours ago (as I type), with Arianna Huffington and Jill Zuckman, talking about whether the Web piece questioning Jack Murtha's Vietnam medals was fair or not. Reynolds gets in a post-show point:

" Ian Schwartz has the video. Most striking to me is the bit at the end, where Jill Zuckman of the Chicago Tribune says that Murtha's war record is a fair story, but one that should have been reported by a legitimate news organization, not Cybercast News Service, which she calls a 'right wing part of the blogosphere.' I'm guessing if the Chicago Tribune had been on the story first, CNS would have foregone its own investigation. . . ."

Finally, Slate's Tim Noah gags over another journalist's home, citing "an article in the Jan. 19 New York Times about The New Yorker writer Susan Orlean's weekend place in the Hudson Valley. The damn thing has choked up all my gears and brought my machinery to a stuttering halt.

"Orlean is a marvelous writer, and when I met her many years ago at the wedding of a mutual friend I found her to be delightful company. But this Times piece, and especially the accompanying slide show that she agreed to narrate for nytimes.com, suggests to me that she has lost her mind. Orlean likens her house, which was built by the same architect who built Bill and Melinda Gates' mansion in Medina, Wash., to a 'great piece of sculpture' whose modest entrance with its 'small, beautiful door' gives way to '--and then, gasp!' . . .

"I don't begrudge Orlean her delight in her new abode. But what possessed her to broadcast it to millions of New York Times readers? Yes, dozens of idiots do it in the Times 'Home' section every year, but, perhaps naively, I've always expected journalists to show less inclination to flaunt privilege, especially when the privilege exists on this scale. Among other things, it puts the profession's habitual poor-mouthing in an especially unattractive light. And if we are to believe the growing body of evidence that the acquisition of real estate (especially in an overheated housing market) is somehow related to sex, then isn't showing the entire world your fabulous house a bit like opening your trench coat on Main Street when you've got nothing on underneath?"

In case Noah is tempted to investigate, the proprietor of this column has no summer home, and (don't tell anyone) doesn't even read the Home section.