Bad Hair Day?

"We've repeatedly failed to distinguish among capital crimes, misdemeanors and innocence. We summon the same level of indignation for someone like Gonzales, who apparently tried to turn a professional corps of attorneys into a partisan prosecutorial force, as for someone like the hapless John Kerry after he bungled a joke about the troops last fall and was almost forced into premature retirement . . .

"Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, for instance, inadvertently plagiarized -- and was mercilessly pilloried in the media for it. She was subsequently removed from various positions, even though she (unlike the unrepentant historian Stephen Ambrose) apologized at length and resolved to make amends. Some moralists called for another eminent historian, Joseph Ellis of Mount Holyoke College, to be sacked for telling tall tales in the classroom about having served in Vietnam; he was suspended for a year. The sloppy, sexist remarks that former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers made about women and science deserved a reprimand, but they didn't justify the loss of his job, which came fast and furious last spring."

So much for journalistic standards; check out this San Francisco Chronicle piece:

"Former Chronicle Managing Editor Jerry Roberts on Sunday denounced a front-page story in the Santa Barbara News-Press concerning images found on the hard drive of a computer he used when he worked at the News-Press before quitting last year in a bitter dispute over the ethics of the paper's owner and management.

"The paper, Santa Barbara's largest, said in the story -- which appeared Sunday -- that a data recovery expert it hired last summer found images of child and adult pornography on the hard drive. Police, the paper said, later found more than 15,000 such images.

"Eric Hanson, chief trial deputy for Santa Barbara County District Attorney Christie Stanley, told Santa Barbara police in a letter March 2 that there is no way of knowing who put the images on the computer 'given that multiple persons had either access to or use of the computer during its several-year existence at the News-Press.' The newspaper purchased the computer secondhand . . .

"Roberts said at a news conference Sunday that he was considering legal action against the newspaper over the story. 'Today's front page story smearing and libeling me is utterly false, defamatory and malicious -- and published with knowledge that, as to me, it is completely untrue,' Roberts said. 'My family and I are outraged beyond measure at this desperate attempt to ruin my reputation.'

"Roberts said that whoever wrote the story -- which ran without a byline -- did not contact him for a response before publication."

Nice piece of work, huh?

Is McCain getting more unpopular? TPM's Greg Sargent says that has been overlooked:

"So is it possible that John McCain has the same 'electability' problem -- or even conceivably a worse one -- than Hillary does? A new poll suggests that it's time to at least ask this question. But will the pundits ask it?

"As you all know, the notion that Hillary is so polarizing and disliked that she may not be electable in a general election is etched deeply into the sacred tablets bearing the Pundit Codes of 2008. Here, for instance, is a very partial list of all the pundits/commentators/reporters who have raised the 'electability' question about Hillary:

"Stuart Rothenberg, Tucker Carlson, Chris Matthews, Kenneth Walsh, Karen Tumulty, Charlie Cook, Adam Nagourney, etc.

"But now check out these numbers buried in the new Washington Post/ABC News poll:

" If (NAME) wins the (Democratic/Republican) nomination for president would you definitely vote for (him/her) in the general election for president in 2008, would you consider voting for (him/her) or would you definitely not vote for (him/her)?

"Hillary Clinton: Definitely would, 27%; Would consider, 26%; Definitely would not, 45%

"John McCain: Definitely would, 12%; Would consider, 39%; Definitely would not, 47%

"As you can see, McCain has edged higher than Hillary in the 'definitely would not' category."

The first call for Harry Reid to quit, from Bill Kristol on Fox News:

"If he believes it is lost, he has an absolute responsibility to cut off that funding and bring those troops home as soon as possible -- three months, six months, maybe, not 15 months, which is the appropriations bill that he just supported with this gradual withdrawal. I really think it's a disgrace. And Trent Lott, who was Senate majority leader in December 2002, was forced to resign by a rebellion within his own party because he had praised Strom Thurmond at a 100th birthday dinner for him. He had made it seem that the country would have been better off if we had followed segregationist policies back 40 years ago. What Harry Reid said is much more disgraceful than anything Trent Lott said. And I do think Democrats should ask Harry Reid step down."

Turning back to Edwards, the Nation's John Nichols-- without even mentioning the haircut!--analyzes his hiring of Howard Dean guru Joe Trippi:

"The hire is another indication of how hard the Edwards Campaign is working to win over the netroots. Former Bush Campaign webmaster Patrick Ruffini even argues that bringing Trippi on board effectively 'solidifies Edwards as the candidate of the netroots.' Edwards did win this week's Daily Kos straw poll by his widest margin yet. But the same poll showed Obama with a solid 25 percent, and he won this month's MoveOn straw poll on Iraq.

"The big difference is that Obama's online support is growing without major netroots outreach -- he is definitely the only candidate to criticize Daily Kos as predictable and uninteresting -- while Edwards is making the most deliberate appeals, from leading the charge against Fox News to offering bloggers a direct line to senior staff (like Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince) to recruiting Trippi."

Hey--I'd also like a direct line. I wonder if there's a special red phone that he picks up.

Television democracy? From the jury selection in the Phil Spector murder trial:

"One prospective juror said she believes Spector is guilty and did not think she could keep an open mind. The juror said her opinion was influenced by Nancy Grace, an acerbic CNN crime show host who has said of Spector on her program 'he's got mommy issues or wife issues or girl issues -- I don't care.' "

Kim Basinger says she didn't leak the voice-mail of ex-hubby Alec Baldwin's rant at their 11-year-old daughter, but: "She called Baldwin 'unstable' and 'irrational,' and said she had hired security after the media storm that followed the release of the voicemail, 'to allow Ireland to maintain her regular routine.' "

Notice she didn't say that nobody leaked it on her behalf.