Arkansas Blog

"At the risk of appearing
holier than thou, I suspect this
red wine ought to be aged a
few more years, about eight, I
predict."

I guess he's referring to appearing holier than the legislators who can't seem to resist lobbyists' offers of red wine and much more.

Good for Brummett for having some self-respect and will power. In the mean time, I'm sure those in power will find somebody at the DG to share their wine with.

Perhaps we should establish the Journalist Fund that would be tapped by those upstanding members of the journalistic community who might at a moment of weakness feel the need to indulge in offers of wine or food.

But this does bring up a point of what is and is not appropriate. Does merely the appearance of impropriety lead to problems? You could argue that this kind of familiarity makes it possible for the strong willed reporter who is not easily bought to have easier access to gain information from sources.

The reality is that if a reporter (or editor) can be bought for a glass of wine then it would not have taken much anyway.

"...if a reporter (or editor) can
be bought for a glass of wine
then it would not have taken
much anyway.
Posted by: Stump"

Logic says you're right, but in reality, human nature being what it is, tiny gestures can have tiny beneficial effects. A bottle of wine might not buy a journalist who will lie for you or cover up for you, but it could generate one who'll give you the benefit of a doubt.

A half hour spent in convivial conversation over a bottle of wine can probably go a long way toward softening a journalist's feelings toward someone he otherwise wouldn't know personally at all.

I may get over it, but I'm still steaming from Brummett's Pryor anti-wimp article from the other day. And while still in that mood, I find it a little hard to read the scolding he's heaping on the national press.

Tells me one of 2 things are going on here in the state of Arkansas. That Brummett is giving Pryor the same pass the national media gave Bush. He's doing it because he's friends with the Pryor family. Or he's doing it because he believes as Pryor does, or both. Neither has much to do with good reporting though both cases may tell us why our national press failed us too.

Mark (his vote next to Bush's 73% of the time) Pryor (to him starting to worry about re-election) has been a disaster for the Democratic Party and the State of Arkansas. A thinking man with no strings attached would not have his voting record.

Many people I know including myself and members of my immediate family have no PhDs, yet were smart enough to know Bush & Co., were feral beasts before his year 2000 gift of the White House by the Supreme Court. We were smart enough to check the facts (not rely on how we "felt") enough to know that attacking Iraq was stupid, dangerous and unjustified.

We were smart enough to know that Alberto Gonzales was a bad man and shouldn't have ever had a job in Texas, much less DC. We were smart enough about politics to know the damage supporting a rogue Independent over one of your own party, the party that got you elected, was not only a mistake, but a fool's game and a slap in the face of every Democrat in the US. And playing once again into Bush's hand.

Voting for the big credit card companies have hurt more families than anything Osama has done to the US. If we all had Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln's health care coverage it wouldn't matter, but notice......we don't get free health care. They do.

Torture....voting FOR torture....there aren't enough pixels in the world to list the reasons that vote is inexcusable. But it appears Mr. Brummett has swept that under the rug and now thinks Mark (his support for torture) Pryor (to figuring out Bush was happy to kill people) is hunky-dory and of all Arkansas's 3 million people, only he can be elected in 2008.

How is Brummett's treatment any different than the Washington Press Corp's treatment of the criminal Bush administration? If Mark Pryor isn't one of them, he's too dumb to be ahead of their game and by being so dumb, has enabled every Bush outrage from Iraq to Katrina to Halliburton to Gitmo.

I remain unconvinced and unimpressed and un-trusting of Arkansas's media coverage of our junior Senator. I think those bottles of wine are being passed freely and it shows.

Thank you, DBI. I had not been able to figure out why people were calling Pryor "73"; I appreciate your explaining it.

Brummett is certainly far from my favorite columnist, and I am even more clueless than usual about what got him all atwitter about bloggers. I don't remember anybody calling Pryor a wimp. I don't even THINK he's a wimp. I believe that he is voting his conscience on these issues (unlike the more calculating Lincoln), which makes him a dumbass, not a wimp.

Someone a while back mentioned Wesley Clark as a possible opponent for Pryor. Is this just wishful thinking or is there any possibility it might happen?

i try to keep up but i also did not know the 73,, it must have slipped by or my very bad memory must have just have kicked in. to me the torture and bankrupcy also are unforgivable. i do have a problem though, i will never under any circumstances vote for a republican. not voting in an election or voting for a minority party in a close election will give the election to the republican. after nixon my wife and i made vows and have kept them. it has been hard at times.

i really don't think of pryor in the wimp catageory. he tries to make too many people happy. he made a number of liberal votes in a row last year when we were in the minority. i was proud for his standing up there and i called his office each time as we all should when they do something we like. he also tried to please some people he shouldn't have. i am not apologizing for him. there are some votes such torture that frankly a decent person shouldn't not have considered under any circumstances. i cannot imagine trying to sleep after making that vote. maybe the bankruptcy law needed adjusting but what we have now is just a gift to the credit card industry when the biggest problem is most bankruptcies occur when people get sick under our horrible health care system. perhaps we should fix that problem first then fix the financial after. what we have now is a double whammy, people go broke at the time of their worst need. thanks.

I have tried faithfullly to boycott CNN Headline in the evening since they put their cons pundit and Rove clone Beck or Bock on the air. This evening, however, I flicked by and a statement about the dead and wounded in Iraq by Senator Gravel atractec my attention, but then I noticed that fat, arrogant jerk in the background on screen grinning, smirking and laughing while the Senator somberly enumerated the sacrifice of our service people in Iraq.

That is unconscionable and worse disrespect than anything Fox and the Bush jerks have done. I won't be watching headline news until they remove him from the air and instruct their commentators that there is nothing risible or remotely funny about our servicepeople dying in Iraq.

Beck's an ass, doc.
I didn't see what you described, but I can imagine it. I watched his show a few times and I think he is trying to be Rush Limbaugh, who also acts like a fool. These people are sick, sick, sick.
I just e-mailed CNN and bitched about Beck.

I have also thought about Sunday with Brummett a few times since. As I mentioned late in that thread I still believe the facts are not in dispute, nor anonymous in the vast majority of the conversations here.
What is anonymous? The facts in newspapers today. Brummett may not use the google or read why informed people are upset and fact check against that. I don't know, maybe the Magna Carta that gave birth to Habeas Corpus and has been a valued part of our laws and treaties is not important. Maybe rooting for a new new Robber Barron USA excites him a little. Perhaps he just wants to write like Dean Broder and flip flop faster than the critics can keep up.

The way Teague was used in that article it was sometimes difficult to decipher who was slinging what mud where.

I looked up the senate oath of office text.
http://www.senate.gov/reference/
reference
_index_subjects/Oath_vrd.htm

Though I never thought of the word whimp, I cetainly see the actions of our Senator as that of a small man who is incapable and a proven failure at "supporting and defending" the constitution as all senators are supposed to regardless of party. He is not alone in his failure but he is our failure Arkansas.

We don't need to treat our Senate seat to a new set of training wheels when he doesn't even understand he is on a bicycle. We must have a Senator who can stand up for the people and their constitution from day one. We have a cabal going on inside the Administration and we need Senators who will fight tooth and nail to restore and preserve our democracy, our dignity.

Not a person who finally begrudgingly votes with every member of his party when they stand up to a rogue mad man President gone round the bend. And only says he voted for it so the President could have all the new war toys he ever would asked for. Well now the veto has happened and we will be watching closer than ever with every single move for peace and responsibility. Will you admit Bush is insane when he threatened on national news to fund the illegal occupation, illegally anyway? Wake up, it was wrong and it still is and our president is mentally off, with utter contempt for the rule of law and the will of the people. enough!

Liberty is not nor should it ever be disposable, even in war time.,. Lies leading to wrong wars should have grave consequences for the liars and even enablers who know what the heck is going on. Senator Pryor has no acceptable excuse nor does Brummett, enough time has passed for Senators and members of the forth estate to stand up with the facts.

Why should we have a 27 percenter and not demand someone else?
(thanks DBI..dont know why but I always just assumed (see what happens when you don't use the google) he was born in '73.

Thanks Blue Ridge,

It was really ignited me. I couldn't believe even one of the Elephant Echo Chamber could be so blatant callous toward the people sacrificing for them in Iraq.

But I'll bet you will hear nothing about it again.

>>The mainstream media, losing ground daily to the Internet's hyperactive blogosphere, where anything goes, are having an especially bad time lately. It's pretty much deserved.<<

I think Brummett ,as well as Arkansas' erudite and experienced Hoyt Purvis, need to recognize one overlooked principle:
The blogosphere and MSM serve different purposes.

The blogosphere reduces any and all to Warhol's 15 min of fame in the form of commentary which is its purpose.

The Web as an information-news source is growing much faster than conventional media outlets of newspapers and TV. It's vastly more resourceful place to find any information source imagineable. It's faster than TV or papers and it's custom tailored for the "on demand" culture.

In less than a decade there will be no MSM.
_