Thunder on the Left

"As people increasingly tailor their leisure time to suit their lifestyles -- through blogs, MySpace, iPods, video on demand -- politicians and their promoters are facing the same problem as Hollywood and the makers of toothpaste: How do you sell your product to an increasingly fragmented audience?

"To Fowler, a veteran Democratic strategist, the next big thing is the small screen on the cellphone in your purse or pocket. In just a few years, he said, the tiny device will allow you to access the Internet in all its vastness, as though you were seated in front of a computer." But does the world really need podcasting polticians?

Matt Smith of Lieberdem blames Josh Marshall's Web site for the latest mini-flap of the Connecticut campaign:

"The TPM Cafe blog ran a piece saying that Lieberman was 'mulling' a run on the GOP line. The person who wrote the initial post did not speak at the time to anyone other than a rather low-ranking member of his press staff. DailyKos and other outlets quickly picked up on the piece, saying that Lieberman was 'mulling' a GOP bid.

"Such a claim was obviously bogus from the start. The reality is that the people at TPM were simply unable to get ahold of someone sufficiently empowered to speak for Lieberman, and so speculated that the non-response of the staffer somehow meant Lieberman was 'mulling' becoming a GOPer. I doubt even the Kossacks bought into the story; they just wanted another excuse to get 'Lieberman' and 'Republican' in the same sentence for the umpteenth time."

On the other hand, maybe the low-ranking aide should have consulted with a "sufficiently empowered" high-ranking aide and given TPM Cafe an answer.

Are some Republicans ready to join the cutters-and-runners? Dick Polman sees a sign of the times:

"Here's another defeatist, hate-America, cut-and-run complaint about the current conditions on the ground in Baghdad: 'The condition there is worse than I expected....I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem. . . . It's not safe to go anywhere outside of the Green Zone any part of the day . . . All of the information we receive sometimes from the Pentagon and the State Department isn't always true . . . I don't want to predict what will happen if things don't get better . . . What I think we need to do more is withdraw more Americans.'

"Must be Michael Moore taking a quick tour, right? Or maybe a 'liberal' journalist who is too chicken to leave the hotel room? Or maybe a weak-kneed Democratic senator who has succumbed to anti-Bush hysteria? No, those remarks were uttered this week by Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota.

"What does it say about Joe Lieberman when even a conservative back-bencher like Gil Gutknecht seems more willing than he is to question the Bush administration on Iraq?"

On Monday I previewed the upcoming Bravo series "Tabloid Wars," about the New York Daily News. Ex-News staffer Alfred Lubrano has some thoughts about life at his old paper:

"Beating the Post on crime stories was paramount. It was expected that you'd scoop the slow and stodgy New York Times. To do otherwise would be like losing a footrace to your grandfather. . . .