idiocy of the whole "liberal versus conservative" meme

* christy:

"The liberal versus conservative framing is so last election cycle. Let's try "real world versus Beltway fantasy" on for size and see how much more appropriate that is.
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Here's the idiocy of the whole "liberal versus conservative" meme that the media keeps pushing: the frame is all wrong. It ought to be Beltway Insiders and Power-grabbing Status Quo Pushers versus the rest of the real people who live their lives, working their butts off every single day in the rest of the country outside that unreality Beltway bubble."

* trex:

"But, in the words of Mr. Wolf, "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet.""

* christy:

"Here's a suggestion for all the booking folks: more Pat Leahy and more Henry Waxman. You want to talk oversight — those ought to be your go-to guys. If you add in Byron Dorgan or John Conyers or Russ Feingold or Jane Harman to that mix, you might actually get a decent show. Accountability, it's the new black."

* taibbi:

"Our national political press is narrowly focused, schooled in inch-deep analysis, and completely results-obsessed. It's a huge and expensive mechanism bedecked with every conceivable bell and whistle (did anyone else catch the giant cyber-globe display frantically spinning behind Anderson Cooper's head? I thought I was going to have an aneurysm) and designed to roam the intellectual range of a chimpanzee. It also has no sense of humor. When the Daily Show spoofed the networks with its "Midterm Midtacular," dragging the venerable Dan Rather out and coaxing a scripted piece of instant "homespun" analysis out of him (he said Hillary Clinton ran away with her race like "a hobo with a sweet potato pie"), the real journalists freaked out. Joe Scarborough led a panel of experts who denounced the show as not that funny; one guest compared Rather's bit to Muhammad Ali's crudely scripted appearances on Diff'rent Strokes, saying it was "awkward."

The reality is that Stewart's array of grotesquely pointless special effects and intentionally buffoonish commentary is an improvement on the real thing, and the real thing is an accurate reflection of our actual politics. Which means, basically, that we're fucked, stuck in an endless cycle of retarded lottery coverage -- 300 million people watching a bunch of half-bright millionaires in ties guess the next number to come out of the chute. I hope we're all insane. Otherwise, what's our excuse?"

* Kleiman:

"Nobody's happier than I am that we won. But if Bush had left a competent viceroy in Iraq, or if Mark Foley had used the telephone instead of IM's, we might not have taken back the House. And if S.R. Sidarth had suffered a flat tire on the way to the event at which George Allen called him "macaca," or if Rush Limbaugh had kept his nasty little mind and flapping tongue off Michael J. Fox, we certainly wouldn't have taken back the Senate. This election was a payoff for an astonishing amount of blood, sweat, and tears (to say nothing of money) donated by Democrats. But it was also a gift from the Republicans. In gratitude for their generosity, let's make that gift keep on giving by using some of the power we just regained to level the playing field for the future."

* ftr, tradesports has a dem president in 08 @ 50% - Clinton is at 50% to get the dem nom, mccain at 50% to get the GOP nom.