Hack Extraordinaire Rick Stengel 

Okay, so much has been made in the blogosphere today of Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel’s essential hackery.  On the off-chance that you missed it, the nutshell version is this:  Stengel went on tweety’s show and regurgitated the MSM-Pelosi/Emanuel-BeltwayElite line that Dems should shut up.  To wit:

I think it’s unfortunate and perhaps short-sighted for Democrats to be perceived as focusing on the past rather than the future. If people see the Democrats as obsessively concerned with settling scores, that’s not good for the Democrats or the country.

Which, of course, is precisely the opposite of what Democrats should be doing. Which is where my hero comes in:  "If D.C. Pundits Say ‘Stop,’ Go."

I love Joe Conason.  When I lived in New York, I read him religiously; I was overjoyed when Salon showed enough foresight to pick up his column.  He’s a down-to-earth kind of guy, one who (unlike the endless parade of concern troll hacks Stengel employs; yeah, JokeLine, I’m lookin’ at you) has never been threatened by the blogosphere.  In fact, Joe was an early supporter:  About four years ago, liberal bloggers set aside a day to piss off bigoted wingnut Michael Savage, who was trying to shut down a blog that had had the temerity to make him look bad by, um, quoting him directly.  Joe even got in on the act, writing about our campaign.  I shot him an e-mail to thank him for plugging our collective efforts (no, he didn’t plug my blog or anything), because I thought it was important to let a "real" journalist know that his recognition was appreciated.  And he replied.  Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but when most of the media spend their time wailing about the "vitriol" of the liberal blogosphere, it’s nice to know that some reporters are willing to recognize bloggers’ efforts, and even to respond to the e-mail of a lowly and unknown blogger.

Anyway, Joe makes short work of the notion that anyone should heed the advice of the Beltway pundit class about anything.  Here’s his lede:

Someday the Democrats may learn an important lesson about the collective wisdom of the media in the nation’s capital: On important questions of policy and politics, the Washington press corps is almost always wrong. They are always full of opinions about everything from clothing, haircuts and marital problems to political tactics, but the safest course is always to ignore their advice.

Yeah, baby!  But wait - there’s more: 

At the moment, the most popular line among the certified pundits is that the Congressional Democrats are in danger of displaying excessive zeal in probing Bush administration corruption—and specifically the apparent politicization of the federal law-enforcement system by the White House and the Justice Department.
 
On television and in print, the wise folk of Washington warn that if the Democrats insist on dragging White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove up to Capitol Hill to testify about the purging of eight United States attorneys, the public will turn on them for being too “political.” These finger-wagging journalists insist that the Democrats must “legislate” rather than “investigate.”
 
Certainly that was the message delivered by The Chris Matthews Show on Sunday, March 25. Host and guests agreed that the Democrats were demanding Mr. Rove’s testimony only to punish him for inflicting political defeats on their party in the past.
And then Joe turns his guns on - wait for it - none other than Stengel: 
As his fellow guests nodded, Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel dismissed the unfolding scandal as “small-bore politics” and declared himself annoyed by the Democrats’ insistent pursuit. “I am so uninterested in the Democrats wanting Karl Rove, because it is so bad for them. Because it shows business as usual, tit-for-tat vengeance …. That’s not what voters want to see.” MSNBC White House correspondent Norah O’Donnell chimed in: “The Democrats have to be very careful that they look like they’re not the party of investigation rather than legislation in trying to change things.”

But Joe’s not done yet; he takes on Broder and Harwood and Nagourney, too.  And I laughed out loud at his description of Broder:  "the ‘dean’ of the Washington press corps, whose magnificently consistent wrongness dates back to the Nixon era."  And yes, the quotes around "dean" are Joe’s own.

In fact, he slams the whole Beltway press corps for their hacktacular insistence on ignoring the real story here - i.e., the illegitimate purging of prosecutors and other corrupt behavior.  He concludes:

The Washington press corps is just as remote from American views and values as when it was howling for President Clinton’s head. By now, the Democrats should know that when these soothsayers warn against your present course, it is best to keep going straight ahead. And when they complain that you’re barking up the wrong tree, it is time to bark louder.

Go read the whole thing.  And then send Joe a thank-you.