Lying in Ponds

Bob Somerby’s website The Daily Howler was one of the very first links on Lying in Ponds when it started in 2002, and I’ve praised him and criticized him quite a bit over the years. I keep reading because, regardless of how much I may disagree with him on particular issues, I am always impressed by his passion for facts and logic. Lately he’s been writing some sharp commentary on education:

When we start our new web site in the new year, we’ll try to suggest things that might work in our low-achieving minority schools. But it was silly when Kaiser made his simple comparison of US schools to those of Finland, and we can think of no reason to assume that those Japanese teacher-development strategies in which teachers work cooperatively and intensively to improve their methods (yawn) will produce any real results inside our most challenged schools.

I have no special background or professional interest in education, but watching my own three kids go through the public schools has made me wish that I had time to really study these issues. If you’re interested, keep an eye on what Mr. Somerby is doing.

Mark Steyn continues to lead Republican pundits in partisanship this year — he has still not made a single positive Democratic reference (against 139 negative references) in his 22 columns since being added to the roster in July. It’s a relatively small sample, but it seems obvious that Mr. Steyn is an extremely partisan columnist. For comparison, Ann Coulter also has had no positive Democratic references over the same period, but her overall score is lower because of her increasing criticism of Republicans this year.

Sorry for the lack of posts and getting behind on columns; I’ve been traveling this week in Chicago and Albany, NY. Back to normal next week.

Betsy Newmark likes Richard Cohen’s take on Ted Stevens and Congressional pork:

Richard Cohen is smack on correct today as he ridicules Ted Stevens high-flown language defending his pork for Alaska and Stevens’ threats to resign if the Senate voted on the Coburn bill to take the money for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere and spend it on Katrina relief. Stevens is a pompous windbag up there with Robert Byrd (whom he replaced as President Pro Tem of the Senate - there is a depressing thought). But Cohen is also correct that the Democrats missed a great opportunity to score points against Bush who had signed the pork-filled transportation bill. In this case, the senators’ desire for pork outweighed the partisan points they could have scored. And that is a bipartisan shame.

Many have linked to a lengthy, interesting profile of Maureen Dowd by Ariel Levy in New York magazine. Here’s a bit about her role in the partisan wars:

“I put Barbara’s comment in my book because I know it isn’t the same for everyone,” says Dowd. “I was just saying how it felt for me.” Dowd is not a partisan. She was as merciless with Clinton as she was with Bush, and she is as skeptical of feminism as she is of communism. As Wieseltier puts it, “She insists that the human logic of events is their primary logic. She’s never distracted by the political or economic explanation.”

Dowd is assumed by most people to be a Democrat. But a certain brand of lefty will never forgive her for her coverage of the Clinton impeachment, the work that won her a Pulitzer. “A lot of people thought, Well, Maureen Dowd should be a liberal columnist and sticking up for our side,” says Mike McCurry. “They thought that she was aiding and abetting Ken Starr and the Republican hate machine, and in reality she was part of this kind of Irish-Catholic mafia that included Chris Matthews and Mike Kelly that thought Clinton’s sins were beyond the pale.”

I agree that Ms. Dowd is not extremely partisan — though her partisanship score is very high this year, she has clearly demonstrated a willingness to sharply criticize both parties.

Her mom, like the rest of the Dowd family, was thoroughly Republican. “Oh, God,” says Dowd’s sister, also named Peggy. “Crimson.” They rarely discuss politics. “There are times when her columns get to me, but then I gotta think, you know, at the end of my life, George Bush is not going to be knocking on my door,” says Peggy Dowd. “It doesn’t matter how much money I send him or how many times I vote for him, if I’m in the hospital, he won’t come and hold my hand, and I know Maureen will.”

Along the same lines, remember when Ms. Dowd devoted an entire column to her Republican brother’s views?

UPDATE (11/10): More on Dowd from Howard Kurtz and Eileen McNamara, both via Romensko.

Romenesko pointed to a column by Eric Deggans in the St. Petersburg Times, which gives some helpful background on the Brown/Allbaugh roommate error.