Bob Somerby correctly describes what to me is the essential press dynamic that needs to be confronted over the next two years…

Indeed, what happened in 1994 has happened quite often in the past fifteen years. Let’s flesh out Edsall’s history a bit. In 1994, skillful pseudo-conservative think-tanks generated talking-points which made “midnight basketball” sound like a troubling sop to the blacks. Then, scripted serfs on pseudo-con radio pimped these points to the skies. And here’s where the key transaction occurred—members of Edsall’s “establishment media” soon began to pimp these points too! At the time, they didn’t say that Dems had proposed modest funding in pursuit of a “laudable goal.” Instead, they rolled over, put their feet in the air—and recited words from Rush Limbaugh’s mouth. “Soon,” midnight basketball “became a liability.” Twelve years later, Edsall recalls how “laudable” the idea really was.

What’s interesting here is Edsall’s reaction to this familiar process. Does he suggest that we stop the “establishment media” from reciting talk radio’s points? No! His solution is vastly different! He suggests that Democrats should drop their pursuit of such laudable goals! That way, Rush won’t have to come up with his points—and Edsall’s colleagues won’t have to repeat them! Things will be simpler all around if they’ll just give up their proposals!

With great accuracy, Edsall describes the way our politics have worked over the course of the past fifteen years. Sadly, he seems to want that process to continue. He doesn’t ask his weak-minded colleagues to stop reciting talk-radio lines. His solution is cleaner and simpler: Democrats should stop—right now!—pursuing laudable outcomes. Dems should please stop putting his colleagues in the middle. Democrats, please! the pundit cries. Don’t make us prove that we’re Edsels.

Yes, I’ve said it many times before (and likely will many times more), but it’s imperative that leading Democrats fully recognize and seek to change this process.

Greg Sargent at Horse’s Mouth shows yet another example of why the myth of John McCain the straight talker must be confronted early and aggressively.

Sargent writes…

In addition to the media’s constant presumption of sincerity on the part of John McCain, there’s another category of McCain-fellatio from commentators that’s worth keeping an eye out for: The willingness of pundits to let McCain off the hook for pandering, usually to the right, because he supposedly doesn’t actually mean what he says when he’s doing it.

There was some of this back when McCain flirted with Jerry Falwell, an unsightly dalliance which was explained away by some pundits who said McCain was merely doing what he had to do in order to be competitive in the 2008 GOP Primary. Of course, it’s not easy to see how the view that (a) McCain’s pandering should be excused because he doesn’t mean what he says can be reconciled with the view that (b) he’s a straight-talker, but such is life on Pundit Planet.

At any rate, the latest example of this comes courtesy of Eleanor Clift in Newsweek.

Now, Eleanor Clift was rather unusual in her cohort during the 2004 election cycle for suggesting on multiple occasions that Emperor Bush was all but naked. And dared to write some of the few positive articles about Howard “Fiddy State” Dean. And, of course, she deserves praise for much of her work over the years. Sadly, though, she’s not immune to some aspects of the inside-the-beltway pundit class.

Disclosure: My wife went to high school with Eleanor Clift’s son, and during the 2004 election she very nicely responded to an email I sent her as thanks for a good article she had written on “Fiddy State.” By the way, “disclosure” for bloggers — or at least in my case — really should just be shorthand for “Upcoming Blatant Name-Dropping Alert.”

Vermont This Week featured Philip Baruth, Bill Simmon and Cathy Resmer talking with the almost departed Chris Graff about the blogging on the Internets. Philip was nice enough to mention my name.

Here’s an mp3 of the of the broadcast from Candleblog.

The Dream Theater project debuted right before Thanksgiving with the “League of Two Extraordinary Republican Gentlemen.”

It’s a political satire project spearheaded by VDB, with mondo voice and production work from Alex Ball of Rip & Read. And Philip’s been nice enough to invite me along for the ride, too.

Not sure anyone’s exactly clear on where it’s going, but it should be an awful lot of fun getting there.

And “Fiddy State” is sweeping the land.

OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but my campaign to promote “Fiddy State” as Howard Dean’s official nickname has generated a tee-shirt, some Kos comments, and a mention on someone’s MySpace account.

Courtesy of some cat named Clay Johnson

There are no references on the Google to Howard “Fiddy State” Dean prior to my Dean/Spears post on November 8th.

So, before the big, big money starts flowing in, I’m staking my claim now.