Leaking cup via vrogy.

Oh my.  So much for the super secret wingnutty wurlitzer blast faxer-iffic strategery.  The RNC has sprung an unintentional media leak out the wazoo.

Included on the released list were 500 influential Republicans who were the intended recipients of the talking points. Unfortunately for the RNC, so were members of the media.

Here are the talking points:

o President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is an important decision that will have an impact on the United States long after his administration.

o Republicans are committed to a fair confirmation process and will reserve judgment until more is known about Judge Sotomayor’s legal views, judicial record and qualifications.

o Until we have a full view of the facts and comprehensive understanding of Judge Sotomayor’s record, Republicans will avoid partisanship and knee-jerk judgments – which is in stark contrast to how the Democrats responded to the Judge Roberts and Alito nominations.

And there is so much more there. Do read them all.

Not surprisingly, RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s statement tracks these closely:

Supreme Court vacancies are rare, which makes Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination a perfect opportunity for America to have a thoughtful discussion about the role of the Supreme Court in our daily lives. Republicans will reserve judgment on Sonia Sotomayor until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views

Cut, meet paste.

This strikes me as an opportune moment for an news show/article game: how many times can you identify specific reporters/politicians/pundits mouthing these words? Let’s keep track today, shall we?

Infinite walk via DanielaNob.

This, from Digby, is as close to a distilled essence of Village hackitude as anything I’ve read in ages:

Speaking of scapegoats, one of the things that the left can be proud of is that even though The Dean has loathed us DFH’s both then and now, he and his ilk will go down in history as war crimes apologists for four decades and running while we will be on the side of decency and morality. Somebody has to be willing to fight for principle over partisanship even if these tired enablers will sell out their own mothers to avoid upsetting the power structure.

Suddenly, I feel a Hues Corporation song coming on… (YouTube)

Because sometimes? You just need to laugh yer ass off.

Bless you, people at The Onion.  Bless you.

One of the eternal truths of today’s journalism is that its awfully easy to get oppo handed to you and run with it.   

But the real difficulty — and value — is in taking that oppo, reading it critically, and finding the things which a skeptical person might want to question.  Conveniently omitted facts, long-standing ties to lobbying or other client interests involved, or donor conflict of interest questions when it comes from an elected official. The I.F. Stone maxim of “all governments lie” can be amended in this context to “all political operatives have an agenda, for which they are paid handsomely by monied interests who get something out of it.”

Carl Cameron of Fox News is no I.F. Stone. Normally, I wouldn’t even bother with some Fox Fluff, but here? Cameron’s so far up Rep. Paul Ryan’s ass that he can taste the hair gel

Ray Suarez is one of my favorite working journalists. His pieces hit not just the factually meaty and difficult questions that need to be asked, but the heart and gut level issues that need to be exposed to the community as a whole. He did a piece yesterday on HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa that nearly ripped out my heart.

Thomas Frank hits the nail on the overly exuberant financial infotainment head: If the world of financial infotainment can itself be described as a “market,” it is a market where accountability does not seem to exist, where the heaviest of incentives seems to carry no weight, and where consumers, to judge by what they get, seem constantly to choose the lousy over the good….

The WSJ attempted a character assassination on Bill Moyers in an unsigned, vicious editorial a while back. It was notable for two things: (1) that it tried to connect dots between Moyers, who was then LBJ’s chief of staff, and Hoover’s “exploits” (their word) via Lawrence Silberman (yes, THAT Lawrence Silberman)…