Friday, October 09, 2009
Look folks, there’s plenty we can criticize President Obama about; not repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and DOMA sooner, not controlling the Blue Dog Dems on the public option and, not firing Gen. McCrystal but, Politico has its collective head up its ass for posting a much-criticized story linking Roman Polanski with Obama and the DNC. Politico is wrong. This is a perfect example why I removed them from my blogroll.
From Politico:
Movie industry types calling for the release of director Roman Polanski last year gave $34,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Party, FEC records show.
Polanski’s arrest late last month by Swiss authorities in connection with a three-decade-old California underage sex case has sparked a vigorous national debate about sex, justice and extradition that – thus far – has yet to draw in the Obama administration.
But the most generous Democratic donor of the vocal pro-Polanski contingent, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, in an open letter called on “every US filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the US, where he could face life in jail.”
Weinstein last year gave $28,500 to the DNC and its White House Victory Fund, though he didn’t contribute directly to Obama. In fact, he has been a big supporter of Obama’s presidential rival-turned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose campaigns and committees have received $88,000 from Weinstein over the years.
Meanwhile, among the signatories of a movie-industry petition calling for “the immediate release of Roman Polanski,” were a half-dozen Obama supporters who gave $15,500 to his presidential campaign:
Ariel Dorfman: $4,100
Martin Scorsese: $3,300
Larry Levine: $2,500
Darren Aronofsky: $2,300
Brett Ratner: $2,300
Richard Pena: $1,000
The Plum Line reports:
I’d heard people at the DNC were mightily ticked by the story. When I checked in, Woodhouse uncorked an unusually harsh tirade — the sort the DNC normally reserves for unabashedly ideological right wing outlets.
“You could find a certain number of [our donors] who believe in Scientology,” Woodhouse fumed. “You could find a certain number who are even Redskins fans.”
“It’s a silly story that’s just meant to try to generate a sensational headline and a lot of clicks,” he continued. “It’s really unfortunate that it was written, period. But also, we were blindsided by it. They didn’t contact us. We raised $750 million, and they found that $34,000 of it that was raised by people who know Roman Polanski.”
Politico editor Jim VandeHei defended their actions saying:
“We will look for the political angle in virtually any story. This short blog item was done for the Click page — where we run a lot of entertainment and personality items. It was quick item based on FEC data alone.”
Of course, Jim VandeHei is wrong. There is no “political angle” here. In fact, there’s not even six degrees of separation. I’m sure VandeHei’s position will earn him kudos from Drudge but at cost? Politico, which began so well, has moved increasingly into rightwing territory and in the process, lost much of its credibility. But at least Politico earned a place on Drudge’s blogroll.
From the Left 
Politico thinks it’s 2002 and the GOP controls all branches of the government. This reminds me of photos taken of a politician at some meet-and-greet where 250 hands are shaken and one of the crowd just happened to include a crook, so the politician gets tagged as having ties to the bad guy. It’s ‘gotcha’ politics at its worse.
So…according to Politico…There are earthquakes in California, a state governed by Arnold, therefore Arnold wants to kill all Californian’s?
According to Politico’s logic, Kathleen Blanco was governor of Louisiana in 2005 so its her fault that Hurricane Katrina came ashore and wiped New Orleans off the map?
After all, there’s always a “political angle.”
Jim VandeHei is a conservative Republican.
Jim VandeHei is married to a conservative Republican.
Politico hates President Obama.
There’s your “six degrees of separation.”
What do you want to bet Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity will be chortling about this tonight on their programs?
I always thought Politico was right-leaning even though a lot of my friends read them each day and don’t seem to think so.
It looks like I was correct after all.
In an organization of 400,000, Rushpubliscum flim-flam masters managed to find 2 bad actors.
Immediately, the MSM began screaming the headlines. And in every one of those stories, the MSM mentioned the Rushpubliscum charges of “vote fraud,” which are as bogus as Chimpy’s heart.
Sure, in any organization of 400,000 people, you’ll find some bad actors. But the MSM knows nothing of that, since their purpose is to carry Rushpubliscum water. Any bad actor in an organization like ACORN means that ALL of them are bad actors, according to the FOX imitators of the mainstream media.
Politico is no different. They get sleazier all the time, and I sample from them less and less for precisely that reason.
According to Politico’s logic, Kathleen Blanco was governor of Louisiana in 2005 so its her fault that Hurricane Katrina came ashore and wiped New Orleans off the map?
OF COURSE it was. You don’t remember what Oxy-Moron and the rest of the dildoheads were saying?
Oh, shit. I like Chinatown and The Ninth Gate. Does this mean I’m a Muslim from Kenya?
Politico can go fuck itself. Christopher hit the nail on the head when he correctly observed Politico wanted on Drudge’s website and they got what they sought. I don’t read Politico because they’re too conservative for my taste. If I wanted rightwing, I could hang out at Little Green Footballs.
This is stupid. There is nothing to link Roman Polanski to President Obama. Politico needs to at least try to be professional.
Politico is a right fringe blog, similar to Glenn Beck’s tv show.