Low Temperatures, High Drama: Inside the Iowa Press Corps
As you know, everyone who’s anyone in politics is in Iowa right now. But so is everyone who’s no one! That’s right, we’re talking about the press, the unwashed mass following the candidates around, scribbling and taping and snap-snapping as Hillary, Obama, McCain et al spout platitudes, stuff themselves full of local cuisine and generally attempt to maintain a grip on the love handles of the elusive midwestern vote. That’s who we want to know about. We’ve had enough of Billary and FreJeri Thompson and KuciniHottie. What about the writers, anchors and bloggers who make them who they are?? (Or at least tell us who they want them to be?) For those of you with a lurid curiosity about these sick characters, we did some digging into what the Iowa press corps is up to. And not just the Dana Milbanks and the Adam Nagourneys. (Spotted! The NYT staff having dinner at Lucca, the Italian place in Des Moines’ “East Village” that Ad Nags raved about in the travel section a few weeks ago.) We mean everyone. Take Jodi Kantor from the Times, for example.
in other news
The ‘Times’ Has Great Long-term Memory, Short-term Not As MuchHey, remember yesterday when Salon’s Rob Polner did an awesome, in-depth story looking back over Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani’s last political contest, the 2000 Senate race? It walked you through all of the icky details of Rudy’s self-destruction then, from the time he relentlessly attacked her for accidentally playing “Captain Jack” at a campaign rally to the whole mess with his prostate cancer and surprisingly revolting public affair. Polner also reminded us of the time when a cop killed 26-year-old Patrick Dorismond and instead of apologizing, Giuliani released a statement saying Dorismond was “no altar boy” himself (in case you forgot, he was an altar boy). The Salon piece noted how now Giuliani is using some of the same absurd anti-Hillary attacks that didn’t work the first time, and Hillary is using her same hardworking, calm but tough grassroots strategy. Yeah, it really was a good article. We can only assume that’s why Adam Nagourney wrote the same exact one in the Times today.
When Rudy Met Hillary [Salon]
Senate Race that Fizzled Honed Skills for ‘08 [NYT]