The right has a pattern that they automatically fall into when they're down: first, they find a way to deflect their own negative press by blaming it, not on their own actions, not on the vicissitudes of fate, but on ... well ... the press. Then they attempt to hang the reporters for reporting facts that they never actually getting around to disputing. Then, finally, when whatever charges they're making turn out to be bogus, they scare up some secondary supposed wrong and hang their pitiful little hats on that.
Such is the case with Michael Ware, about whom the Drudge Report blared the headline: REPORTER HECKLES MCCAIN! "Heckles"? A reporter? Ware's supposed infraction was that he hurled insults at McCain during the Senator's Green Zone press conference, which followed his little stroll through a Baghdad market about 3 minutes away (surrounded by a phalanx of 100 heavily armed troops, a couple Blackhawk helicopters and three airborne gunships...) McCain was attempting to make the point that Baghdad is far safer since the surge began. Once the Drudge headline broke, the right went ballistic, accusing Ware of violating his oath of independence as a journalist, and of being a tool of the Defeatocrats. (The Young Turks call it what it is:
character assassination.)
Well ... a funny thing happened on the way to the hanging ... Michael Ware
fought back, going on CNN and asserting that not only did he not heckle McCain, he didn't even get a chance to ask a question. And then he said three little words that made all the difference: play ... the ... tape.
So some enterprising bloggers did. And guess what? No heckling. Not a sound from Ware or anybody else while McCain was blathering on about his market stroll.
So what does the right do?
Bitch and moan about what Ware said on CNN, long after the presser... So what did Ware say about McCain and his delegation?
"Essentially they're here to view the impact of the surge on the Baghdad security plan and essentially to sell its merits to say that, yes, it is having an impact and to take that message home to an American people desperate to hear signs of progress..."
By the way, the link above is to Powerline's Paul Miringoff's rant that Ware was lying about how great the surge is going -- which by the way is really, really great! -- because he "holds a grudge" because McCain disagreed with his Iraq assessment on CNN. Problem is, it was Ware who disagreed with McCain's assessment, not the other way around, McCain having given Wolf Blitzer his assessment of the desirability of a pleasant Baghdad stroll before Ware was called upon by Blitzer to respond. ... I refer you to comment #15 on Miringoff's post:
15. I am sure, John McCain with his few days visit can analyze the situation much better than a reporter who has been observing the situation there for years, even stared death in the face. Mirengoff, did you pass the bar?
Ha! Other righties are echoing the same "bias line," including the usual suspects at
Wizbang. I'm still waiting for Drudge's retraction of the original non-story...
And as for Ware's statement on the McCain's trip, what I have to say about that is ...
duh... McCain's political fortunes are now bound up tightly with the Bush policy in Iraq. The surge has to succeed in order for his presidential candidacy to succeed. So yes, he's there to support the policy and make the surge look good, so that Americans will support it. So what was wrong with what Ware said?
Who the hell knows.
And as if things weren't dire enough for the winger nation, their blogger faithful will have to take on a new target: the Iraqi merchants from that lil' ole bazaar. They're
taking their turns paddling Baghdad John, too...
"What are they talking about?" Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. "The security procedures were abnormal!"
The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees - the equivalent of an entire company - and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.
"They paralyzed the market when they came," Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. "This was only for the media."
What say you now, Johnnie?
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