The Whole Delivery

Hackio's Mike Allen displayed once again the type of credentialed reporter he and his work place is this morning on the brainless Hugh Hewitt's radio show. In fact, Allen's very candid assessment of what the D.C. stenographers and gossip writers yearn for represents not only his sorry publication's hopes, but all of his Beltway colleagues' top wishes in full glaore. It is an interview that both Instaputz and Atrios have been all over this today. And it sure is disgusting to see and hear : Hugh Hewitt: Well you know, Mike, I read John Harris’ piece at Politico, and I’ve got to say, the one thing I didn’t see covered well, Jane Norton got more votes losing than Michael Bennet got winning. It’s the same thing we saw in Missouri, the same thing we saw in Georgia. Yeah, the left turned out… Mike Allen: Yeah, so you’re saying there’s an intensity issue. HH: Yes, I’m saying that Michael Bennet’s going to get wiped out by Ken Buck. What do you think? MA: (laughing...

Photo from USDA Oh dear as me : Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia director of Rural Development, said she received a phone call from the USDA's deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook on Monday while she was in a car. Cook told her that the White House wanted her to call it quits. "They called me twice," Sherrod told the Associated Press. "The last time they asked me to pull over the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did." The Obama Administration sure is looking more and more like cowards. And Shirley Sherrod will not be quiet about. Thank goodness she isn't practicing silence on this. Now you have some claiming this proves the NAACP resolution on the Tea Party was indeed wrong, leading Sherrod to be angry at the NAACP with Politico gleefully for to cover it. Although I fear Sherrod is clearly letting the obvious justified anger be based on Jealous' terrible knee jerk tweets last night form her tho...

What a bunch of idiot Beltway hacks : Polls show most self-described liberals still strongly support Obama. But an elite group of commentators on the left — many of whom are unhappy with him and are rewarded with more attention by being critical of a fellow Democrat — has a disproportionate influence on perceptions. The liberal blogosphere grew in response to Bush. But it is still a movement marked by immaturity and impetuousness — unaccustomed to its own side holding power and the responsibilities and choices that come with that. So many liberals seem shocked and dismayed that Obama is governing as a self-protective politician first and a liberal second, even though that is also how he campaigned. The liberal blogs cheer the fact that Stan McCrystal’s scalp has been replaced with David Petreaus’s, even though both men are equally hawkish on Afghanistan, but barely clapped for the passage of health care. They treat the firing of a blogger from the Washington Post as an event of hi...

The esteemed Service Employees International Union is set to officially name a new President. And that President is poised to be the first women President in the union's history, as well as the first openly gay leader of the SEIU. With the retirement of current President Andy Stern, the big union groups from across the country have chosen Mary Kay Henry over Stern's preferrer choice Anna Burger as the next person to lead the SEIU (and guarantee her position on the chalk board next week of the Goldboy nutty one). As Ben Smith notes in one of the rare Politico pieces I will ever link in a post coming from me, the SEIU wanted a change from the pace they were clearly on in regards to their focus : Stern turned SEIU into a political juggernaut, with millions of members, an activist tradition, and a willingness to spend more than $30 million electing President Obama the ultimate mark of its emergence as arguably the most important independent political force in America. Stern wa...

Just as stupid as CNN , but at least they are admitting who they truly are to the folks (click to enlargen): Though I take it being very difficult to compete with TMZ if they fully go into that angle. But it will do us all a good service if they totally went that route instead of the crap one they present to us now. Or maybe they can just create a badge for this guy .... ....Like CNN did.

We all know he is the most inconsistent news guy in television. Today was one of those rare days where he actually was sort of was meaningful. The first target was pretty easy though: The second one was really funny though, as he stunned Hackio's Jon Martin real good here on why their site is Cheney's PR team. Just watch Martin's stunned silence for a second. He is still a hothead idiot most of the times. But just some days he can produce some worthy TV moments.

It really says something about how the Pulitzer isn't worth a damn anymore : The White House is shooting down a report in Politico claiming that Obama advisers are pushing Harry Reid to cut a deal to dump the Medicare buy-in to make Joe Lieberman happy. White House senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer emails me: “The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible.” They truly are the Mediatakeout of the political world.

Photo from John Shinkle Something that should be in the The Onion The punchline: it appears Politico's Editor Jim VandeHei was elected to the position because he represents the brave new world of online journalism. Yep, the Pulitzer Board arrives roughly six years late to that media revolution and ends up tapping the old school, CW-worshiping Politico as its agent of change. So if you are obsessed to having Matt Fudge give you a link on his craptacular page that has lost its power to spread news and misinformation as time progressed, and if you are a Cheney stenographer, then you are deemed worthy if being on the Pulitzer Board. Fledgling journalism writers with hopes of winning a Pulitzer really shouldn't give a damn anymore about it after seeing this news today.

Just like the right-wing movement in this nation, it is crazy how low Politico will go each and every day. Here's Hackio again, it's main ring leader Mike Allen, causing trouble with a bogus report that the House all of a sudden DIDN'T have the votes for a public option in their Health care bill. With that "story" flouting around, Pelosi and the White House had to slap that down as soon as possible . Nancy Pelosi called an "emergency meeting" of House Democrats this morning in an attempt to beat back rumors that she and other congressional leaders have abandoned the so-called robust public option. The House Speaker insisted that, despite reports to the contrary, the public option is very much alive as Democrats draft the health reform bill they hope to send to the House floor next month. Allen thought he was real slick, hearing what conservative or Blue dog Democrats in the House were saying to him about the House number not reaching the ultimate 218 nu...

I'm giving Hackio some credit here . Though if it wasn't for Greg Sargent, I wouldn't have known at all . Can a liberal blog launched in the midst of the Bush era – a blog that once obsessed over Alberto Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and the outing of Valerie Plame – still make its mark in the age of Obama? In the case of Think Progress, the answer so far is yes. Now this one of the few errors that Politico got wrong, coming up Since January, the online arm of the Center for American Progress Action Fund has embraced its new role as the pin to prick the air out of Obama opposition — largely by offering up evidence that powerful Washington interests are fertilizing grassroots conservative anger. Think Progress mission really is to combat all conservative agenda and lies by doing reporting and fact checking, not being the defender of the Obama Administration. That writing by Politico still gives a viewpoint that Think Progress won't call out the powerful and the sp...

I know it is hard to top that from yesterday. But hey, this is the same magazine that put Glenn Beck on its cover . So, it was very possible to do so . You know what'll ruin your day like nothing else? Winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Time magazine explains, in two separate pieces : Why Winning the Nobel Peace Prize Could Hurt Obama Obama's Nobel: The Last Thing He Needs This is so true. Sure, some people may think finding out you have cancer is the last thing you need. Or that your kid has cancer. But not me. I spend every day of my life grateful that I'm never going to win a Nobel Peace Prize. 'Cause that would really be terrible. It's literally the last thing anyone needs. You know, what with it being the most prestigious award in the entire world and all. Nobody wants that. Politico, it's your turn now again to upstage this.

I heard besides Polansky donors that David Letterman donors gave money to Obama, so tell Politico !

That's basically what Hackio's headline should be : Behold the wonder of Politico. This beaut comes courtesy of Kenneth Vogel: Headline: Roman Polanski backers Gave $34K To Barack Obama, DNC Lede: 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. But topical Hackio/Drudgico stupidity, they defend their motives : “We will look for the political angle in virtually any story,” responded top Politico editor Jim VandeHei. “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.” Those people there are just pathetic. Let's have them next link Obama to John Gotti or OJ Simpson supporters. GENIUS!

From the audio yesterday to now the video. On a serious note here, journalism is rolling in its grave again as this spreads. How in the world did a supposedly off the record interview be not only audio recorded, but now shot at the same time? Now of course, pre recording is a norm sometimes when the camera is rolling before an interview. You don't need to have taken a few broadcast journalism classes to know that. Still, the fact that Politico got this from CNBC speaks volumes of how we are continuing on a full scale deterioration of journalism ethics in this country. Off the record use to mean "off the record." Update : Politico Has Taken Down the video. I wonder why, hmmmmmm? Key words in that last sentence: "use to." Update 2 : Once it is online, you just can't take it down. And once a network gets it, it stays.

It's what they are all about at days end.

Ben Nelson is a Democrat...not a Republican. And you guys are suppose to be the ultimate insiders in D.C.

Speaking of the post below , one of the links from Think Progress was from the Politico post from Glenn Thrush showing Senator Franken's response to real clown Senator Inhofe. Thrush said this after typing Franken's quote: I don't know how Sen. Inhofe regards clowns, but it might be an incredible compliment," said the former SNL star, whose dignity, sobriety and determination not to inhabit the GOP caricature of himself is really getting on my nerves. Huh? Getting on your nerves? Did Thrush just show his bias? Or was he just kidding? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I will give him that. He wouldn't be that stupid. Politico/Hackio can't be that dumb. Can they? (No image needed for this post)

It's not a pretty sight For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The Washington Post, continuing on the journey away from what it used to be.

Yes Mr. Calderone, like this is a serious thing you need to report on ? Barack Obama hasn't yet made a statement on the death of Michael Jackson, which was confirmed around 7 p.m. last night. The good folks for Hackio there for you. I wonder where is the post about Obama not releasing a statement about Farrah Fawcett? Or the post about Obama not releasing a statement on Ed McMahon? Or any other well known figure who dies? That's the hacks for you at Politico.

Here's one of Matt Fudgehead's fail lines And here's one of Politico's headlines Monkey see, monkey dooooooooooooo!