Palfrey names unsaid

DC escort business caters to power elite, madam releases phone records, blah blah blah. Yawn. Unless you've got some kind of technical account of the erotic use of a cigar by a head of state, or homemade heiress night vision porn, I am so over your sex scandal muckraking...

But anyhow, I'm a little torn about ABC News's cherry-picking of which of Palfrey's clientele to expose publicly. (WP) "Brian Ross of ABC confirmed that some fairly important people had used her escort service." Yet ABC has acknowledged the identity of only two (to this blogger's knowledge): Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, and Harlan Ullman, of the Washington Times and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The rest, producers considered too "anonymous" to publicize.

Well, okay; Palfrey is arguing that the services her firm provided were all legal. If that turns out to be true, it does seem unethical to expose all of these people, possibly ruin their lives, over whatever legal activities in which they may be engaged in their spare time. And there may be no compelling public interest in revealing that the non-public-figure down the street is in Palfrey's black book, no matter what service he or she has received.

But who gets to make that judgement call? Why do any of the public officials implicated deserve a pass? And how do we know that ABC excluded them all based on their lack of importance or name recognition rather than some other, more political factor? (They include "A federal prosecutor, who recently died. A handful of military officers, including the head of an Air Force intelligence squadron. A senior official at the World Bank and other officials at NASA and the International Monetary Fund. Corporate CEOs. And lobbyists, both Democratic and Republican.")

Fell victim to one of the classic blunders...

The most famous of which is never get involved in a land war in Asia.* But only slightly less well known is this: never go in against Bill Clinton when his legacy is on the line.

Silly Chris Wallace. Why on earth would you, on Fox News, ask Bill Clinton a question that was certain to enrage him? (transcript at ThinkProgress) A lesser debater would have gotten angry and flustered and come out looking worse for the wear. But you forget, this is Bill Clinton. So he got angry and articulate and cleaned your clock. It's hard to tell whether the intent was to throw Clinton off balance or what, but either way, you had it coming. Observe.

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I’ve got to say, I was surprised. Most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn’t you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaida out of business when you were president? [I buy that most Fox viewers wanted to have this question asked. And all things being equal it is a fair question, until Wallace adds the following...]

There’s a new book out, I suspect you’ve already read, called The Looming Tower. And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said, I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops. Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole. [Yeah, that's right, first accuse Clinton of being weak on terror. Then tie that to Somalia. In an interview that's supposed to be about the Clinton Global Initiative. There's no way that would piss him off]

Later, it gets worse:

WALLACE: One of the main parts of the Global Initiative this year is religion and reconciliation. President Bush says that the fight against Islamic extremism is the central conflict of this century. And his answer is promoting democracy and reform.
Do you think he has that right?

Oh, man. Again, sort of a fair question...until you get to the part where they segue from "Bill Clinton Inititative" to "President Bush is the bestest president ever" and the credulous repetitition of White House talking points. Anyhow, do check out the transcript, or better yet, watch the interview. It's a hoot.

*I don't know exactly what inspired me to quote The Princess Bride here. But the whole "land war in Asia" part is oddly appropo, don't you think?

Do not miss this important motivational conference

Have any of you ever actually attended one of these things? For some reason I have always had the sneaking suspicion that you would go in burned out and unmotivated, and come out believing in Scientology.

That being said, it's harder than ever for America's working people, and it's important to keep everybody inspired and focused with posters and screensavers.

A Floyd Landis stream of consciousness

Let down by another hero. It's looking increasingly likely--though by no means certain--that Floyd Landis will get busted for testosterone doping and stripped of his Tour de France title. (Yahoo)

I feel a little bit like I did when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. For context, I really idolized Bill Clinton during his first term, despite NAFTA and the health plan failure and so forth. (In high school my backpack sported a button with his photo and the slogan,"Democrat Women Stand By Their Man," which I had picked up at the Tennessee Democratic Party's booth at the Appalachian Regional Fair in 1992. Really wish I still had that awesome button.)

Anyway, when the Lewinsky/perjury allegations surfaced, I was pissed. Not exactly surprised or suddenly disillusioned, but pissed, the way you might be pissed at your little brother for doing something stupid, like egging the neighbors' house and getting caught. It's like, "You jackass. It's bad enough you did it. But to do it and then sign your name in spray paint on the driveway--that's just idiotic."

And that is somewhat how I feel about Landis right now...I mean, sure, "everyone dopes." But you shoot up testosterone during the Tour? And then make sure to win the stage so you'll definitely get tested? C'mon, man.

As a side note on the Clinton thing, I would later find it oddly prophetic that Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" was chosen as a Clinton-Gore theme song during the 1992 campaign season. Consider the following verse.

Who'll be my role-model?
Now that my role-model is ....
Gone ...... gone,
He ducked back down the alley
With some... roly-poly, little bat-faced girl.
All along .... along ....
There were incidents and accidents,
There were hints and allegations .....

It's so easy it's not even fun anymore

Coulter-bashing, that is.

Today: Ann Coulter outs Bill Clinton on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Seriously, you won't believe this. (Wonkette) Further proof, as if we needed it, that book learnin' don't teach you nothin.

Sometimes I wonder whether Ann is afflicted by some kind of reverse Bulworth phenomenon--compelled to say the exact opposite of the truth in the most absurd way possible. It just doesn't compute, otherwise.