As Heads is Tails

While Zhou Enlai apparently never said, “The impact of the French Revolution? Too early to say,” whoever misquoted him was certainly onto something. In February and March, we learned that Bob Woodward was now so bad a person for reporting on the current president, that some of his fellow Washington Post employees were reduced to saying things such as this:

And Bob Redford doesn’t think too highly of Bob Woodward these days, either. (He prefers his current heroes to be a bit more, umm, action-oriented.) And apparently, President Nixon is now so rehabilitated in the left’s eyes that Watergate is now a how-to guide, not a warning:

CNN reports:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign is “working with the FBI” on how Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, obtained a recording of political aides meeting with McConnell and discussing opposition research on Ashley Judd, McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton told CNN Tuesday….

“Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished will presumably be the subject of a criminal investigation,” Benton said in a statement.

Either this kind of bugging is acceptable or it’s not. I’m surprised Corn went forward with it when the material isn’t even shocking. It’s actually quite bland… in comparison to what I assume is batted around within all the various campaigns as they decide how to attack opponents. Can we get transcripts of all that crap? I’d love to blog it.

Suddenly, I realize why Corn may believe this material is worth printing: These are attacks on a sweet and pretty lady. Corn’s decision to publish is — ironically — evidence of sexism.

Incidentally, the woman who was debating going up against McConnell to represent the voters of Kentucky in the US Senate has a “Psychological Support Dog.”

Which she sometimes takes on media interviews.

Apparently, this is a thing, Ace writes:

So, within two hours, I went from never having heard of a Psychological Support Dog at all to writing about it on my blog and then listening to Adam Carolla complaining about them for an extended period of time.  From zero times in all my life, to twice within 120 minutes.

And I notice this happens with some frequency.

Anyone else have this happen?

And what’s it called?  I always say the Germans must have a word for it because they have words for everything.

Update:  There is a word for it, and it turns out it is rooted in German. It’s called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

How the phenomenon came to be known as “Baader-Meinhof” is uncertain. It seems likely that some individual learned of the existence of the historic German urban guerrilla group which went by that name, and then heard the name again soon afterwards. This plucky wordsmith may then have named the phenomenon after the very subject which triggered it. But it is certainly a mouthful; a shorter name might have more hope of penetrating the lexicon.

The Germans have always been a comforting people.

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Update: Right now, I’ll bet you’re asking, “What on earth could Shug the Psychological Support Dog be thinking as its being lugged from interview to interview?” Jim Treacher posits that it’s something along the lines of, “Somebody please help me. Every night I have to sit with her as she watches Kiss the Girls and eats ice cream and cries.”

But let’s get back to Mother Jones and the scandal at hand. “The whole thing reminds me of the Washington Post‘s ongoing (and rather pathetic) attempts to recreate that one, perfect fix that the WaPo had in 2006 when they destroyed George Allen’s Senate career,” Moe Lane writes. “Yes, David Corn, last year you folks got your hands on a video that harmed a Republican campaign.  Congratulations.  Have a cookie.  But it’s never as good the second time, huh?”

By the way, remember when the left pretended that they thought somebody like Donald Segretti was a bad guy?

Or to put it another way, “Mother Jones either published audio which was illegally recorded or endorsed @JamesOKeefeIII’s style of journalism.” Not to mention, “Hypocrisy: Mother Jones Writer Behind McConnell Bugging Railed Against Bush Wiretapping.”