Brad DeLong Interviews John Harris. “It didn’t go very well,” he writes….
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by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
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There’s an aspect of this that could be so sleazy that it pains me to think it could be true. The timing so nicely coincides with Dan’s announcement that he plans to take time off when his child is born shortly. Attacking him when he may be feeling vunerable (or at least preoccupied) with the imminent birth is the lowest kind of BS and, unfortunately, typical of the type of people in the Bush White House and their codependent syncophants in the press.
There’s an aspect of this that could be so sleazy that it pains me to think it could be true. The timing so nicely coincides with Dan’s announcement that he plans to take time off when his child is born shortly. Attacking him when he may be feeling vunerable (or at least preoccupied) with the imminent birth is the lowest kind of BS and, unfortunately, typical of the type of people in the Bush White House and their codependent syncophants in the press.
Also, I’ve noticed that Froomkin’s column is often delayed due to “technical difficulties” with the WaPo website so that I can’t read it until afternoon on the west coast. Maybe it’s just a little paranoia on my part, or a valid observation … or a touch of both.
I’m pretty sure those have, so far, been genuine technical issues.
Harris has managed to flush his own credibility down the toilet, while enhancing Dan’s.
The most damning aspect of the DeLong interview was Harris’s willingness to “answer” a question about his prior knowledge of Patrick Ruffini with some (supposedly) exculpatory information (i.e. that RUffini may have been between stints as a paid political operative for the GOP when he wrote his “critique” of Dan in March, 2005), but then clammed up when DeLong asked the question again, this time phrased more specifically.
Harris refused to say if he knew that Ruffini was the Bush/Cheney ’04 webmaster when he cited him.
Harris refused to say if he knew that Ruffini had recently been hired to run the RNC “eCampaign” when he cited him.
Harris refused to say how he ran across the Ruffini “critique” in the first place (remember, it was written way back in March, Ruffini’s blog is unknown outside of far-right wing hyper-political types, and there was only one “trackback” to the “critique” from another obscure blogger—so how did this particular blog get noticed by Harris?)
Then Harris goes on-line at wpost.com for his semi-weekly “politics chat”….and avoids the whole issue of how he wound up citing a paid GOP wingnut operative as a credible critique of Dan Froomkin….until AFTER the end of the chat session. (I was reading the chat session, refreshing every minute or two. At noon, Harris stopped taking questions. It took at least 10 minutes before the next, and final, question was answered. Harris starts out by saying he will address the Ruffini question….
then doesn’t.
BTW, Harris appears to be bucking for a “Ministry of Truth” award now. The Post had deleted the ENTIRE exchange from its “washingtonpostblog” page — you can still find Deborah Howell ombudsman column in its “usual” place, but its (and the comments related to it) and not on the blog. Froomkin’s response (and the comments) are not on the blog. Harris’s response (and the comments) are not on the blog.
No explanation. Nothing. Inconvenient facts have been wiped clean from the pages of history, as if they never existed.
I suspect the deleted exchanges from washingtonpost.com are only temporary: I suspect washingtonpost.com is using typepad as its server, and typepad is having real disk troubles today…
I suspect the deleted exchanges from washingtonpost.com are only temporary: I suspect washingtonpost.com is using typepad as its server, and typepad is having real disk troubles today…
yeah? Well I’m sticking to my theory of John Harris putting on a black nylon jumpsuit, breaking into Six Apart, and smashing a bunch of computers until its proven otherwise 🙂