It's not always possible or practical for a blogger to do original reporting. Most of us have day jobs which make it hard to get away and attend press conferences. A lot of the "value added" that bloggers bring to the discourse is their ability to lay back and look for patterns in the stream of news stories going by. I think I've found something.
It was announced late yesterday that Senator Barack Obama will now be under the protection of the Secret Service. Such decisions are not made lightly:
The decision to present the information to the advisory board was a bipartisan one, Durbin said, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also participating, he said.
Previously, two Democratic Senate sources told CNN that after Reid decided to take the matter to Chertoff as an advisory board issue, further discussions with the Obama campaign ensued and the official request for Secret Service protection was made.
The Secret Service said in a written statement that Chertoff, "after consultation with the congressional advisory committee, authorized the United States Secret Service to protect presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama."
The decision to extend protection to Obama involved the Secretary of Homeland Defense and the leadership of both parties in the U.S. Senate.
Of the other Democratic front runners, Hillary Clinton is already under Secret Service protection because of her status as a former First Lady. This morning, I learned that Senator John Edwards' campaign headquarters has been the target of two attacks involving envelopes filled with white powder being sent in the mail.
Also yesterday, I noticed the following bullet list entitled "Fred Thompson Facts" on a couple of Republican websites.
Fred Thompson Facts
- Fred Thompson's favorite color is the blood of his enemies.
- Fred Thompson's favorite book is a battered copy of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress which he used to beat a hippy to death with.
- In an election, it costs ten dollars to vote for Fred Thompson since voting for him is a privilege, not a right.
- What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Fred Thompson appears out of nowhere and beats the crap out of both of them.
- Fred Thompson never has to stop at a traffic light because of a Homeland Security directive requiring all lights to turn green whenever he approaches.
- Does a bear @#$% in the woods? Only with signed notarized permission in triplicate from Fred Thompson.
- When Fred Thompson empties his pistol at the firing range, it reloads itself out of respect.
- If you play Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" backwards, you will hear Fred Thompson loading his shotgun.
- You can safely view Fred Thompson using a shoe box with a pin-sized hole in one end.
- While he is opposed to gay marriage, Fred Thompson is very compassionate towards gays since, in comparison to him, every man is a flaming homosexual.
Notice anything a little
"off" about this list?
I did.
The list itself is an obvious takeoff on the various "Legends of Jim" that were jokingly passed around the Lefty Blogosphere last year ("Jim Webb's tears cure cancer; too bad Jim Webb never cries.") What struck me as odd is the level of violent rhetoric used by the person who wrote this list. In fairness to Fred Thompson, I doubt he'd approve of the list in its present form. Thompson is not, to the best of my knowledge, an especially violent or bloodthirsty man.
Rather, I think the list's author projected all of his or her own emotional baggage onto Thompson. In doing so, they did Thompson a dis-service. I think Republicans have badly misread the mood of the country if they believe that violent, threatening rhetoric is the message our nation and commonwealth is seeking at this particular moment in time. It's not my intention to tell anyone what they should or should not write. At the same time I would be remiss if I didn't point out that voters--and the Secret Service--are free to make whatever judgements they like based on what they read.