TightyRighty.net

… for correcting me of the mistaken notion that my hometown newspaper is not a liberal tool. The Saturday front page headline stating that Sarah Palin’s Alaska pipeline is only a partial victory (I can’t quote it directly since I don’t have the paper and the headline on the DMN website is different) was clearly a shot at Palin’s claim she had gotten a (long delayed) Alaska natural gas pipeline project started. While it is true that there are no contracts in place from the oil and gas companies to tranport their gas via this pipeline, and there is currently a lot of posturing going on and much negotiation to be done, this is a significant achievement which has been a long time coming. How about a little credit where credit is due!

Why didn’t the DMN print a front page, above the fold headline that Barack Obama’s claim at the Saddleback Civil Forum to have worked across the aisle with John McCain on ethics reform was a partial truth? He told the Saddleback forum he agreed to work with McCain but he must have forgotten the Democratic leadership told him “no way” so then he leaked a memo to the press dissing McCain’s efforts. That “work across the aisle” prompted this response from John McCain:

“Dear Senator Obama: I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your…decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussion. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again…. Sincerely, John McCain.”

If this is bipartisonship and working across the aisle, we need a lot less of this.

Partial victory indeed!