Durbin: Anatomy of a Political Firestorm>>Chicago Trib article

[Gabi Hayes]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506230185jun23,1,1916601.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

ANATOMY OF A POLITICAL FIRESTORM
Talk radio, blogs fanned the flames on Durbin for remarks on detainees

By Jill Zuckman
Washington Bureau
Published June 23, 2005


WASHINGTON -- It was the last speech of the day to a virtually empty Senate chamber.

At 7:19 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, Sen. Dick Durbin left the floor after delivering an impassioned talk expressing deep misgivings about the way prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba were being treated.

Over at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee, the operatives paid to keep an eye on Democrats missed Durbin's now infamous line about Nazis, Soviets and Pol Pot. That's because most Republican officials in town were at the President's Dinner, a major fundraising event for the GOP with a speech by President Bush.

"You've got to hand it to him. If you're going to say something controversial, that was a good time. The cooks were away from the kitchen," said Brian Nick, a spokesman for the NRSC.

Nevertheless, Durbin's words that night managed to take on a life of their own because of talk radio and bloggers on the Internet. Over the course of a week, a speech that nobody heard had turned into Topic A on Capitol Hill and across the airwaves. Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, was forced to explain himself to Republican senators on the floor, in a statement released to the public and finally, voice trembling, in an emotional apology.

this is front page, and covers much of what has been said here, in a fairly even-handed way, though it characterizes Laura Ingraham as a "hard hitting conservative", rather than lying, homophobic, gun-wielding psychpath.

but, I digress

one more snip:

"Peter Daou, who compiles blogs from both the right and the left and summarizes what they're talking about for Salon.com, said the effect of so much chatter eventually can become overpowering, seeping into the mainstream media.

'What Durbin faced was the bubbling up from the blogs and the pounding of the drums,' said Daou, who first began monitoring the bloggers and feeding them information when he worked for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. 'This is a political tool, and it's manufactured outrage, it's feigned outrage, and it's extremely effective.'"

[Cha]

1. It was Durbin's turn..the

week before it was Dean's..who knows who will be next to be DEMANDED an apology from?

Oh, that's right..rove needs to apologize now..only he won't.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. great point.....they've become expert at honing this aspect of their

omni-message

of course, there's a gigantic reason they've been so successful: the fricking MEEEEdia. without them giving total, constant, slavishly credulous access to every vicious word from the mouths of Bernay's descendants (contrasted with skeptical coverage==when it happens at all==of democratic attempts at countering the lies), we wouldn't be where we are today: slipping very quickly down the muddy bank into the River Fascia

or something

[Cha]

6. That's right!

"the fricking MEEEEdia"

[BOSSHOG]

2. Fake Outrage. Wow. Whoda thunk it?

Actually the fakeness is very telling of conservative republican elected officials, because they cannot be sincere about anything. They have to pander to those who own them. They must say only what the religiously insane will accept.

[Larkspur]

4. Mayor Daley was a jerk

He's undergoing a major scandal, so he must have felt the need for some cheap PR points and it's easier to screw one of your own than attack the enemy, Repukes.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. what a gaping, flaming, ASS hole that guy is

I hope he ends up in a buddy cell with George Ryan