NEW MORNINGS! As we rearrange and mop, we come out and say it—we’re bollixed: // link // print // previous // next //

NEW MORNINGS: We’re rearranging our game plans here. Indeed, we may be in the process of becoming the every-other-Daily Howler! But we plan to post tomorrow and Friday—tomorrow on Maureen Dowd’s latest column, Friday on this front-page report from Monday’s New York Times (“Alabama School Rezoning Brings Out Cry of Resegregation”). Scott Lemieux, a favorite of ours, discussed the Times report at Tapped (click here). Our reaction to the piece differed from his. But we’ll save that for week’s end. (Lemieux and Paul Waldman are giving Tapped a nice one-two punch on press issues.)

Beyond that, we’ve been fascinated by Mike Tomasky’s belated review of Gore’s book, in the New York Review of Books (click here). We barely know Mike, but the analysts love him—and we’ve long agreed with their judgment. That said, we were puzzled by large parts of his review.

What explains it? What explains that superb new piece in Vanity Fair, the piece in which Evgenia Peretz describes a history-changing press scandal—seven years after it occurred? As we’ve said, we think Peretz has done a superlative job with her piece—and we’re glad that Vanity Fair published it. But let’s say again what is perfectly obvious: If this had been done to a major Republican, the screaming would have been loud—and instantaneous. (Quite correctly.) What explains our side’s long failure to deal with the world of modern presspolitics? In our view, Mike Tomasky’s as good as it gets. That’s why we’ll admit we’re kerflubbled.

In our view, Mr. T is as good as it gets. Over here, we’re long-time fans. We’ll review his review next week. And we’ll say it one more time—we’re bollixed.