Ashley Parker gets it right!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

With Kevin Drum on deck:
Early this morning, a cheer went up from the team of youthful analysts who had been assigned to read the Washington Post.

Ashley Parker had gotten it right! Our years of hard work had finally begun to pay off!

At that start of January, Parker moved from the New York Times over to the Post. She'd spent her whole career at the Times, starting as "research assistant to Maureen Dowd," whatever that could possibly have meant.

How bad have things been along the way? As recently as November 2011, Parker co-wrote a front-page profile for the Times—a front-page profile of Leon de Magistris, "Mitt Romney's longtime hair stylist!"

No, really! It appeared on page one of the Times!

We could have given up on Parker right then and there. But like Tom Brady in last night's game, we skillfully kept our eye on the prize, offering the types of helpful advice a kid like Parker should have gotten from the big major stars at the Times.

This very morning, our years of hard work paid off! At her new Washington home, Parker was reporting on the latest absurd development from Donald J. Trump's house of gongs. Mike Pence will probe those voting issues! Right at the start of Parker's report, the analysts found reason to cheer:
PARKER (2/6/17): Vice President Pence will lead a commission to investigate voter registration issues, President Trump said Sunday.

In an interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly before Super Bowl LI, Trump—who shortly after taking office told congressional lawmakers that 3 to 5 million illegal votes had cost him the popular vote against Hillary Clinton—reiterated his concerns about voter irregularities, saying he planned to task his vice president with looking into concerns about voter registration.

“I’m going to set up a commission...headed by Vice President Mike Pence, and we’re going to look at it very, very carefully,” Trump said.

Despite no credible evidence that any massive voter fraud occurred during the 2016 presidential race, especially on the scale Trump suggested, the president has continued to push the theory, much to the chagrin of some of his aides and many congressional leaders.
Despite the great feeling it would have provided, Ashley Parker didn't say that Donald J. Trump had lied. As a good reporter should, she managed to restrict herself to the things she actually knows.

There is "no credible evidence that any massive voter fraud occurred during the 2016 presidential race, especially on the scale Trump suggested," Parker successfully reported. A drumbeat of such disciplined work will soon overtake the gorilla dust churned by those who excite the base by pretending to divine the fact that some loathed figure has lied.

The analysts cheered the person they now call "the new Ashley Parker." Earlier, though, they'd been grinding their teeth over the newly puzzling figure they've long described as their "Uncle Drum."

In response to a highly controversial post, the analysts had been comparing their Uncle Drum to the haughty quarterback, Matt Ryan, who failed to show sufficient respect for the aforementioned Brady last night. We could of course see the analysts' point.

Showing Parker-like restraint, we refused to affirm their claims.

"At long last, your Uncle Drum has started talking about it," we said. Indeed, in the controversial post in question, Drum had come clean about what had become of the old Kevin Drum.

What have they done with the old Kevin Drum? The new Kevin Drum gave an explicit answer this weekend. We'd say that his explicit answer only tends to support our point about his recent unruly behavior.

The new Kevin Drum has arrived on the scene as many as twenty-fives years late. Tomorrow, we'll survey the transient damage, even as we praise the Drumcat's years of invaluable work.

25 comments:

  1. "As a good reporter should, she managed to restrict herself to the things she actually knows."

    Really? How does Parker "know" that no such evidence exists? Perhaps the evidence exists and has yet to be noticed by Parker and the Times!

    A good reporter following the moral guidance of the Daily Howler mustn't assume, prior to an exhaustive investigation, the nonexistence of facts (no matter how fanciful) that have been supposed by any speaker, anywhere.

    To do so would be just as presumptuous as accusing the speaker of lying, wouldn't it? Far better not to make any suggestion that favors any unprovable assertions of fact.

    After all, that might just give Fox News all the ammunition they need to further trounce Our Clueless Tribe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When a person makes an extreme claim,the burden of proof is on them, not on others to disprove them. There has been no evidence put forth to support Trump's assertions. It isn't Parker's job to do an exhaustive search before saying there is no proof. It is Trump's responsibility to support his claims.

      So, no. This is not an excellent comment. It does however illustrate how Trump got elected.

      Delete
    2. No. It illustrates how far Bob has fallen and how imperceptive his readers are.

      Delete
    3. Trump got elected because Democrats nominated someone who proved in 2008 she could be knocked out by a nobdy with no name ID despite a seemingly insurmountable lead.

      Trump got elected because a septuagenarian
      Socialist with no real Democratic Party identity or Congressional accomplishments could not quite duplicate Barack Obama's 2008 primary upset in 2016.

      Trump got elected because Hillary Clinton was never a good candidate for office.

      Delete
    4. All those reasons for why Trump got elected are true. So are a thousand others. The margins that allowed it to happen were slim enough that any number of events could have shifted the election. Comey's eleventh-hour head fake was another big one.

      I agree with Bob. My personal guess is that Trump is one of those kinds of people who finds it very easy to believe anything that supports his egocentric narrative. That's my very amateurish analysis, and I wouldn't put any real weight behind it. I just mention it to point out that it's very believable that some of these outrageous statements are not 100% intentional lies.

      And there is a real risk even with saying the claims aren't true. Obviously, the 3-5 million thing is absolute bullshit. But if progressives make the mistake of denying any voter fraud and it turns out that there IS some kind of surprising fraud... That's the sort of thing that could whip the right wing into new heights of paranoia (not that they ever need much help). It would take only one really egregious case to justify voter suppression like we've never seen.

      Delete
    5. If Clinton was such a terrible candidate, how come she got 3 million more votes than her opponent?

      Delete
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  2. Note that there are two somewhat separate questions:

    1. Did massive voter fraud occur during the 2016 presidential race on the scale Trump suggested?

    2. Is there a substantial amount of voter fraud?

    If the answer to #1 is NO, then Trump exaggerated or worse. I suspect this to be the case

    If the answer to #2 is "MAYBE", then some sort of check or analysis is justified and appropriate. I suspect this is the case.

    BTW politicians on all sides routinely exaggerate to get their desired action. Trump will probably get what he wants, namely some sort of analysis of voter fraud.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The analysis is more likely to be of Trump's fraud.

      Delete
    2. There is not voter fraud, David. In CA, the law that lets unauthorized immigrants to get driver licenses does not permit them to register to vote. To register to vote through the DMV you have to already be an eligible voter which requires proof of citizenship.

      Delete
  3. So I guess Bob may be going to argue the key to recovering from all this is to never suggest Trump and his gang are lying, which of course everyone knows including his fans. He seems to believe this all comes down to some sort of passive aggressive game of chicken. Oh that the stakes were so comically low, and we could just give O"Reilly a pass.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Has Bob ever mentioned how much O'Reilly is paid?

      Delete
  4. Lewis -- I'm concerned about the possibility that my vote is being offset by significant number of illegal Democratic votes in CA. If this is happening, I cannot expect the Dems who control the state to aggressively fix the situation, since it would be helping them win elections. So, I'd like to see an analysis. If the analysis shows that there are few illegal votes, then at least we will know that there isn't a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I suggest you call Senator Mitch McConnell then DinC.

    ****************************************
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he doesn’t want to spend federal funds to investigate what President Trump claimed was massive voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.

    While McConnell says there is voter fraud, he doesn’t believe it’s as widespread as Trump claims or requires federal intervention. He says that cleaning up voter rolls is best left to the states.

    “Election fraud does occur,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” But he added that “there’s no evidence that occurred in such a significant number that it would have changed the presidential election.”

    “I don’t think we ought to spend any federal money investigating that. I think the states can take a look at this issue. Many of them have tried to tighten their voter rolls, tried to purge people who are dead,” he added.

    ReplyDelete
  6. One thing I'm sure of: When David in Cal moves from one state to another, he registers to vote in his new state and cancels his registration in his old state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not illegal to be registered in two states, as long as one doesn't vote for President in both of them, as you no doubt know impCaesar.

      Delete
  7. Election fraud is real.
    Voter fraud is not real.
    Two entirely different things. It's why Trump doesn't want to look into election fraud.

    ReplyDelete
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