Freedom Line Blog

The folks over at Reason.tv have a wicked sense of humor.  Their latest target is newly (and indefinitely) suspended pundit Keith Olbermann from MSNBC.  Apparently, all it took was $7,200 in near meaningless campaign donations to Democratic candidates to finally convince the network that Olbermann was too partisan to be on-air.

Here’s a sample of some his classic work:

With the JournoList fiasco mercifully wheezing through its final lap, TIME contributor Joe Klein laments the death of his favorite online clubhouse.  Though Klein makes a manful effort to equate sharing emails off the record with sharing information and banter over drinks or dinner, he’s ultimately unconvincing.  The biggest difference between informal emails and informal person-to-person chats is that the former is written down, the latter is not.  A 40 year veteran of journalism like Klein ought to know that; especially when the substance of the correspondence is so nakedly partisan.

Besides, if it’s ever revealed that a group of U.S. Senators maintain a semi-secret email list for sharing off-color riffs and strategy sessions for undermining rivals, I suspect Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors, won’t hesitate to make a few bucks off being the first to break the story.

John Podhoretz pens a spirited defense of sharp-elbowed partisan politics in his piece for Commentary today.  After noting that treating politics as war helps to avoid war itself, Podhoretz crystallizes President Barack Obama’s knee-jerk reaction to claim that “the time for talk is over” whenever he hears criticism.  For President Obama, politics is talking; governing is doing.

The problem for Obama, as Podhoretz points out, is that Republicans in Congress and members of the Tea Party movement agree: the time to engage Democrats as honest partners in public policy is long past gone.  The time for organizing and campaigning against their Statist agenda is now.