The Latest in Adam Nagourney’s “Republicans-Are-In-Trouble” Series
 

     Chief political reporter Adam Nagourney’s Friday “news analysis,” “A Cry of Concern by Republicans at Voter Unease on Corruption and Excesses,” is the latest entry in his Republicans-are-in-trouble series.

     “The surprise election of Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio as House majority leader was a cry of concern by an entrenched Republican majority, acutely worried that voter unease about corruption and partisan excesses could threaten its control of Congress this November. Mr. Boehner packaged himself as the reform candidate, methodically distancing himself from Representative Tom DeLay, the hard-driving former majority leader identified with both ethics investigations and a searingly partisan manner. His victory, following the restrained and politically unadventurous State of the Union speech on Tuesday night by President Bush, left the impression of a party on the defensive as it surveys the inhospitable electoral terrain.”

     The Times, which in 1994 was pretty much blindsided by the Democrats’ loss of Congress, has been by contrast hypersensitive to any signs of Republican vulnerability in 2006, and Nagourney is on record several times talking up the chances of Republican losses.

     Last October Nagourney (last item) wrote a similar article on Bush’s troubles. “...the corruption and cronyism allegations that have swirled around Republicans in the White House and Congress are the kind of issues that have historically disturbed moderate swing voters. The White House's response to Hurricane Katrina has undercut any hope that the party might have made gains with African-Americans….Mr. Bush is facing a crush of problems, from high gas prices to growing casualty counts in Iraq. And President Reagan, even during the depths of the Iran-contra scandal, never suffered from approval ratings as low as Mr. Bush's."

     In August, Nagourney co-wrote a piece that began: “A stream of bad news out of Iraq, echoed at home by polls that show growing impatience with the war and rising disapproval of President Bush's Iraq policies, is stirring political concern in Republican circles, party officials said Wednesday. Some said that the perception that the war was faltering was providing a rallying point for dispirited Democrats and could pose problems for Republicans in the Congressional elections next year."

     If all you read about politics were Adam Nagourney pieces, you’d wonder how Bush and Republicans have managed to win at all, never mind beating Democrats three elections in a row.

For more Nagourney, click here.

Columnist Rips “Fact-Free Bloggers”
 

     The wounding in Iraq of ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt spurred Metro columnist Clyde Haberman on Friday to talk about the 61 journalists killed in Iraq during the war.

     “On the list are only two American journalists: Michael Kelly, who wrote for The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post, and Steven Vincent, a freelancer from New York. Mr. Kelly was in a Humvee that turned over after coming under fire in the war's early days. Mr. Vincent was kidnapped last summer, probably by Islamic extremists, then beaten and shot, his body dumped in the street.”

     He uses the death toll to mock bloggers for not doing similar dangerous work: “Journalists. There's a word that has been stretched almost beyond elasticity. It now extends to fact-free bloggers offering little more than attitude. In general, journalists rank far down the food chain when it comes to popularity. But the pain of Messrs. Woodruff and Vogt and the agony of Ms. Carroll remind us how indispensable old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting is to a democracy.”

     Haberman’s knee-jerk anti-blogger snobbery neglects the fact that Vincent, a pro-war journalist, had a blog as well, which is still being maintained by friends. TimesWatch wrote about the murder of Steven Vincent last August.

     And there are indeed some bloggers who are doing the dirty work of reporting from Iraq.

To read the rest of Haberman (TimesSelect required), click here.

“Hamas Can Boast” About Women’s Participation
 

     Friday’s front-page story from Gaza by Ian Fisher marks the role of women in the election of the terrorist group Hamas in “Women, Secret Hamas Strength, Win Votes at Polls and New Role.”

     “Hamas has been known and feared for its men, armed or strapped with suicide bombs. But in its parliamentary election triumph here last week, one secret weapon was its women. To a degree specialists said was new in the conservative Muslim society of the Gaza Strip, Hamas used its women to win, sending them door to door with voter lists and to polling places for last-minute campaigning. Now in surprise control of Palestinians politics, Hamas can boast that women hold 6 of the party's 74 seats in parliament -- giving the women of the radical group, guided in all ways by their understanding of Islam, a new and unaccustomed public role.”

     Ah, diversity among terrorists. Warms the heart, doesn’t it?

     Of course, the Times can’t let a Hamas story pass without mentioning how, as well as “fighting Israel,” (a euphemism for blowing up pizza parlors full of civilians) Hamas also has a social network: “If the men's most visible role has been fighting Israel, Hamas's social programs have attracted the loyalty of women. Hamas offers assistance programs for widows of suicide bombers and for poor people, health clinics, day care, kindergartens and preschools, in addition to beauty parlors and women-only gyms.”

For more Fisher on the female side of the terror group Hamas, click here.