WaPo Weighs In

In an editorial discussing President Bush's new plan for Iraq, the Washington Post, while recognizing that things have to change in Iraq, isn't all that supportive of the changes.

The president could have adopted a course that would have attracted broad support domestically and from Iraqis. That was the strategy — outlined with small variations by U.S. military commanders, the Iraqi government and the Iraq Study Group — that called for an acceleration of training of the Iraqi army and a gradual handing over of responsibility for fighting insurgents. The U.S. military presence would have decreased in the coming year, but enough troops would have remained to prevent the government's collapse, strike al-Qaeda and prevent intervention by Iraq's neighbors.

This little bit of wishful thinking is the problem, I think. The ISG called for more training, but training is already going on. From what I have heard, it has been about at the maximum that the Iraqi government has been able to support. There have to be troops and police to train in the first place, don't there? Part of the problem right now is the public's perception that all of Iraq is a problem. In fact, most of the violence is centered within Baghdad and its environs.

We have to do something differently and we cannot allow ourselves to fail. We can't revert to the old, failed "realities" of the James Baker era. The WaPo should know better.

Pajamas In Court

The Media Bloggers Association, after long negotiations, has managed to obtain two sets of press credentials for bloggers to cover the Libby trial when it begins. The seats in the press section will be allocated to members on a rotating basis. This is quite a coup for bloggers and the media isn't particularly happy about it.

When the trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice opens next week, scores of journalists are expected to throng the federal courtroom in Washington, far too many for the 100 seats set aside for the media.

But for the first time in a federal court, two of these seats will be reserved for bloggers. After two years of negotiations with judicial officials across the country, the Media Bloggers Association, a nonpartisan group with about 1,000 members working to extend the powers of the press to bloggers, has won credentials to rotate among his members. The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the highest-ranking Bush administration official to face criminal charges, could "catalyze" the association's efforts to win respect and access for bloggers in federal and state courthouses, said Robert Cox, the association's president.

The new validation doesn't necessarily clarify the blurry line between bloggers and traditional journalists at a time when millions of people are discovering that they can project their opinions and expertise around the world with just a few keystrokes. The debates over the traditional checks-and-balances process that journalists follow are continuing, and some bloggers are resisting efforts to be put under the umbrella of the traditional news media.

Since just lately the "checks and balances" a lot of the traditional media are applying seems to be checking if anyone is looking and balancing how much they can get away with versus whether they think they'll get caught, I wouldn't put much stock in that, myself. Was that snarky? Good.

The common journalistic practices of verifying facts, seeking both sides of a story and subjecting an article to editing are honored mostly in the breach. Innuendo and rumor ricochet around the Internet as blogs link from one to another, at times making defamatory voices indistinguishable from the many others involved in this experiment of free expression.

Yet, after detailed talks with Cox, officials at the U.S. District Court decided that public awareness of court proceedings could be enhanced by his group's members, among them documentary filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor ( http://www.roryoconnor.org/blog) and freelance writer James Joyner ( http://www.outsidethebeltway.com).

"Bloggers can bring a depth of reporting that some traditional media organizations aren't able to achieve because of space and time limitations," said Sheldon Snook, administrative assistant to Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan. Snook added that some bloggers also bring expertise that is welcome in court.

Several media experts have been predicting a greater presence of bloggers in court — as defendants. For instance, Kunkel, who is also president of the American Journalism Review, said courts might soon draw the limits of what is acceptable by imposing hefty libel and defamation judgments on bloggers, many of whom do not realize their writings can have expensive legal consequences.

According to the Media Law Resource Center, 69 lawsuits have been brought against bloggers nationwide, including a $1 million suit filed last year against Maine blogger Lance Dutson, who accused his state's tourism department of wasting taxpayer money in a promotional campaign. The advertising agency that developed it sued for libel, defamation and copyright infringement but ended up dropping the suit after advocates rallied to Dutson's defense.

The MBA is working to raise standards for bloggers. Getting those seats at the trial goes a long way toward getting official recognition of bloggers as journalists.

The Time Warp

David Broder has a large bucket of cold water to throw on some of the triumphalism and media-moment catch phrase-driven posturing going on right now, especially from the House leadership. The would be a description of the problems the Democrats face in the Senate. Those problems are very real and are not ideological, they are institutional.

So as the role of the minority whip has become easier, the role of the majority whip has become harder. While Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada leads the policy debates and handles the public relations, the onus is on Durbin to produce the votes at critical moments.

Having served in both the House and Senate over 24 years, he understands the differences between them. "The Senate is designed to stop things," he said, and that poses a challenge to ambitious Democrats.

Ask Durbin what will happen when the flood of bills — raising the minimum wage and achieving other Democratic goals — coming out of the House during the ballyhooed "100 hours" reaches the Senate, he laughs and recalls the words of former House speaker Tom Foley to his colleagues: "Remember, the Republicans are the opposition. The enemy is the Senate."

No doubt, Durbin says, House members and perhaps some of the public will be frustrated because "it's going to take us longer, and it will be done differently."

"They will finish their 100 hours with great pride, and then we will begin 100 days," he said.

The role of the Senate was always supposed to be to stop the excesses of potential mob rule by acting exactly as it does - like a brake on the worst excesses. It is not as strong a brake as it was originally designed to be since the elections of Senators was changed to allow popular vote, but that role is still there even if in modified form. But then, even 100 hours becomes something far different in political time since the definition of how long that is keeps changing. Which may actually be part of the strategy for 2008. If they keep redefining that 100 hours, they may be able to use it in their next campaign cycle! "Vote for us, we still have 28 hours left!"