via The Carpet Bagger

I hesitate to criticize Hugh Hewitt's Weekly Standard articles, not because they're awful on the merits, but because it’s practically a blogging cliché. It’s almost too predictable to bother. Hewitt's latest, however, was too offensive to ignore....read on

Indeed, the piece is filled with ad hominem attacks against Americans United and it's director, the Rev. Barry Lynn. (Like too many conservatives, Hewitt finds it easier to make personal attacks than persuasive arguments.) Hewitt's argument follows a certain child-like reasoning: Lynn is bad, Lynn is presenting an argument, therefore the argument is bad.

It's a shame Hewitt didn't think this through a little more. It's not Lynn and Americans United who have gone after the Air Force Academy; it's current and former cadets who’ve been the victim of discrimination and are looking for help. It’s not “hearsay” if the cadets have seen — and been the victim of — the harassment fist hand....

This is an important story, but as usual Hewitt is incapable of sustaining an intelligent argument...whoops...I started an ad hominem attack...Steve is right. It is pretty easy to do.

Harold's Left: The socialism of Firemen

Majikthise: Emerging narrative: Shut up liberals, you're ruining it. But the squeeky wheel gets the grease

Mondoweiss: LA Times columnist: Jerusalem is 'apartheid city' in 'apartheid country'

Calitics: The deliberate strangulation of democracy

Threat Level: Guantanamo defense lawyers being investigated over CIA photos

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Anatomy of a column...Don Hewitt, RIP...I. F. Stone and Robert Novak...When wingnut CEOs write op/ed pieces...Murdoch outs Rove as a liar...The Anal Cyst...Where do they find these people?...Apparently this business rag is run by hacks...News Corp. pushing for consortium...An explosion of truthiness...Ask This...Zell sells the Cubs...A Taylor-made Globe?

The Nixon library

Venturing into that room, visitors learned that Watergate, which provoked a constitutional crisis and became an enduring byword for abuses of executive power, was really a "coup" engineered by Nixon enemies. The exhibit accused Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — without evidence — of "offering bribes" to further their famous coverage.

Digby: "I'm sure you must be wondering what kind of low-life historical hack would allow himself or herself to be associated with such an affront to truth and decency."

Yet from the start, the library had trouble being taken seriously. Its first director, Hugh Hewitt, announced that researchers deemed unfriendly would be banned from the archives, singling out the Washington Post's Bob Woodward as a candidate for exclusion. Scholars cried foul; Hewitt revoked the plan...read on

Joe Klein and Hugh Hewitt are splitsville. And the pundit world mourns....

Nieman Watchdog: Lieutenant General William E. Odom, who was director of the National Security Agency under President Reagan, spanked Hugh Hewitt in a wideranging and lusty interview.  All democrats should study the way Odom handled this neocon groupie

The Orstrahyun: Dick Cheney to flaunt his boyish charm Down Under...Part 2

Editor & Publisher: Frank Gaffney is back, claiming that while his bogus "Lincoln" quote was not real, it was a “paraphrase” of Lincoln’s actual views on dissent in wartime.  Just another jackal in a pack of craven demagogues.

netZoo: This 19-year veteran isn't getting full benefits, despite losing her leg when a tank crashed into her tent in Baghdad

Horses Mouth: GOP pollster says 'poll' showing war support is bogus

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Let's Try Democracy...Make Them Accountable...Breaking News USA...Hardliner Blog

I guess Broder approves because they don't use dirty f*&king hippie words, but Greenwald nails it:

Nonetheless, Campos' central point is entirely accurate. It is long past time to cease treating people like Glenn Reynolds (and his fellow Bush evangelist, Hugh Hewitt) as though they are within the bounds of mainstream decency. What they advocate on a daily basis is as extreme and contrary to our country's political values and traditions as can be. The fact that Reynolds refrains from using vulgar words when espousing these obscene views does not in any way mitigate what he is.

This is too funny. Hugh Hewitt is made to look like a fool on his own radio show.

TM: It’s not how Catholic I am. I’m an Irish Catholic kid from Syracuse. It’s probably mentioned five times, Hugh, so please don’t incorrectly characterize my book to your listeners.

HH: Well, it’s in here a lot…

TM: If you want to talk about the book, talk about the facts as they exist. I know you’re a right wing whacko, but don’t make things up.

HH: All right, let’s got to Page 113. Oh, I just quoted to you the page that that was on.

Wouldn't you think Hewitt would protest at being called a "right wing wacko?" tBogg has an explanation:

Need I point out that Hugh didn't correct Terry's assertion that Hugh is a "right wing wacko" who makes things up. To deny it would be a sin on Hugh's part and he's got enough on his hands at the moment after threatening a Knights of Malta whack job on McAuliffe the next time he visits Rome.

William K. Wolfrum: When wingers collide...Hitchens goes off on Hewitt during an interview

Whippersnapp: The Bushistas sure have some strange allies...

Mick LaSalle: Looking at G-dub's real choices

Mccs1977: Pre-Nov.7th thinking...fringe-dwellers in total denial of the results of the recent mid-terms

CorrenteWire: Hey, maybe they won't get to send us all to the camps after all!

The Carpetbagger Report: The corruption capital of the United States is...

Sadly, No! Republicans weep tonight not for their actual losses but because they know they’ll not have a blank check again for perhaps a generation

Alas, a blog: Fundamentalist Jews and Muslims unite in their hatred of gays...why can't they be more like this pious asshat?

Attytood: Sh*t-for-brains shill claims U.S. suburbs "more violent than Iraq"...and driven mad by the election results, Hewitt is reduced to posting inane gibberish.

King of Zembla: Terrorists pitch a shutout

Opinions You Should Have: A prominent male hooker was forced to step down amid accusations of sex with a sleazy Evangelical leader

More problems in Ohio...this Buckeye also had problems trying to cast his vote...MELTDOWN '06: Machines Down....Polling places turn to paper ballots after glitches'....Bogus VA voter calls point to Allen campaign

I really had to laugh at this interview between Mark Halperin and Hugh Hewitt the other day. He's the political director at ABC and engaged in a whining email exchange trying to prove that he's not part of the "liberal" media to the likes of Hewitt. Now that's good fun. Usually a person with Halperin's job would know that the Cowardly Lion is one of the most biased and dishonest right wing talkies there is.

It makes no difference what Halperin does or says to Hewitt. NONE. He will ridicule Halperin no matter what. It's part of the conservative shtick, but what's so telling about this exchange is that Halperin actually thinks he'd be allowed into their club. Mark, please wake up. Wolf Blitzer was just treated the same way by Lynne Cheney and yet he expressed similar outage that the Lynnster would question his patriotism. As Greenwald says:

Isn't there something extremely unseemly about the political director of ABC News engaging in such an intense campaign to win the approval of one of the most blindly partisan, extremist Bush followers in the country?

As Ezra notes:

It is now a matter of public record, however, that Mark Halperin is writing with an eye towards Hugh Hewitt's approval. Everything he writes must be judged through that lens. Much of it must be discarded for that reason. He's no longer a journalist, can no longer protect his pretensions of intellectual independence. He's no longer, if he ever was, worth reading.

Is there any clearer indication why our media is so screwed up?