Maureen Dowd gets caught lifting a passage from Josh Marshall. Granted she isn’t known for eye-popping originality of thought — or unique insights — but this is a new low, even for her.
Ben Smith is the first to invoke Joe Biden. That really is a low blow.
Others point out that Dowd’s excuse is odd: she lifted the paragraph from an emailer, not realizing it was Marshall’s work. So she plagiarized someone else? I’m imagining a press conference in the Pelosi-style. (“Now where did I put my notes. . . Let me read my statement again. I did not, I repeat I did not realize I was copying someone who was so widely read.”)
A peek into the collapse of a liberal Democratic welfare state — California is broke and the voters are rejecting new taxes.
Sen. Mitch McConnell on the about-faces in Obama’s national security policy: “Well, these are serious issues. And I think it’s noteworthy that in the last week the president himself has been adjusting his positions. He’s no longer decided to release additional photos from Abu Ghraib. He has revisited the issue of whether or not the military commissions that we passed a couple of years ago are an appropriate way to try terrorists. We know he changed his mind in Iraq and decided to follow the advice of the military generals. And we also know that he’s now ordered a surge in Afghanistan just like the one that was successful in Iraq. So I think the administration has responded to the critique of the vice president and others that it might have had the — might be drifting off in the wrong direction on national security issues.”
And is this a vindication of George W. Bush’s policies? “Absolutely. I mean, it’s no accident that we’ve been safe since 9/11. The policies of the Bush administration in the war on terror kept us safe since 9/11. It’s not in dispute.”
Commenting on the Pelosi-Panetta duel, Nina Easton observes that ” if she thought Leon Panetta was going to throw her a lifeline, he instead, I think, threw her an anchor. Leon Panetta’s not a CIA careerist. He’s an Obama appointee. He’s a Democratic pol.”
The president of the association of former intelligence officers isn’t amused by Pelosi’s performance.
Rep. John Boehner calls for Pelosi to “come clean” — come up with the evidence to support her claim or apologize. Neither is happening, so the issue just lingers. Perhaps the media will start to give up the notion the Dick Cheney is a dark cloud hanging over the GOP and realize Pelosi now fits that description for her party.
“What did Rahm Emanuel know and when did he know it?” Bill Kristol wonders. Perhaps both the White House and the GOP benefit from a weakened Pelosi.
Two key Red state Democrats throw cold water on the idea a card check compromise is imminent.
