Politico: where Republican complaints of partisanship are actual news

[babylonsister]

Whaaaa! Franken won't talk to politico 'reporters'. Good for him!


http://mediamatters.org/blog/200912020026

Politico: where Republican complaints of partisanship are actual news

December 02, 2009 4:21 pm ET by Matt Gertz


This morning, Politico published a story, the premise of which appears to be that Republican senators are mad at Al Franken for having proposed an amendment - which passed two months ago - banning federal contracts from being awarded to companies who require their employees to use their firms arbitration process - rather than the courts - for workplace discrimination claims. Why was this article published? I have no idea.

A Franken press release sent out after the amendment passed stated that Franken had been "inspired" to offer the amendment by the story of Jamie Leigh Jones, "a 19-yr-old employee of defense contractor KBR (formerly a Halliburton subsidiary) stationed in Iraq who was gang raped by her co-workers and imprisoned in a shipping container when she tried to report the crime" who subsequently "learned a fine-print clause in her KBR contract banned her from taking her case to court, instead forcing her into an "arbitration" process that would be run by KBR itself."

According to the Politico article, the amendment has - horror of horrors! - "spawned attacks like the satirical website RepublicansforRape.org." And so, the Republican senators in the article are complaining that Franken has been excessively partisan, demanding that he come out and say that opponents of his amendment are not effectively pro-rape, and claiming that until that happens, Franken's ability to work with Republicans in the future will be undermined.

Why has the Politico decided to let Republicans like John Cornyn - the head of the Republican National Senate Committee, i.e., the chief Republican partisan in the Senate - decide what constitutes excessive partisanship? No idea.

Does the Politico think it's somewhat unusual for Senators to be criticized for the votes they cast, and respond by complaining? Sure looks like it.

Why is the article running now, two months after Franken's amendment passed? Dunno.

But I'm sure it has nothing to do with this blog post (at link), in which a different Politico reporter complains that Franken won't talk to him in the halls.

[malaise]

1. Politico is Rethug.com

Fuck them. Go Al Franken!!

[annabanana]

2. Politico was spawned (and bankrolled) by corporate media when

they decided they needed an "online presence" to counter the independent websites that were kicking their collective butts.

They are CNN without a studio and their frames and positions should be considered identical.

[Major Hogwash]

4. True that.

They have had some of the worst reporters from the Washington Post work there as well.

[Lasher]

3. Excessively partisan?

[ck4829]

5. Yeah, Republicans were just playing around when they said people against the Iraq War were traitors

Seriously!

[FSogol]

6. I remember during the Primaries, the Wash. Post ran a story on Hillary Clinton

claiming that she was....ambitious. Really? Someone running for President is ambitious? Wow, great journalism. Politico is also a joke.

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. I noticed that in the original post and this too

“I don’t know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won’t see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership.

Um Johnny - you think people who read Daily Kos don't vote??? Also, why is it that only the GOP can do purely partisan things? When a Dem does something like this, it's terrible and we're only doing it to hurt their poor wittle feelwings...

Also, I didn't notice that Senator Franken's bill was taking on the GOP. I interpreted it as being a big smack at Haliburton. I'm glad to see that they are finally admitting that the GOP is a subsidiary of Haliburton/KBR or whatever they call themselves nowadays.

[blondeatlast]

8. Uh-oh, how dare we have a smart, savvy Senator who knows the m$m inside out on OUR side?!

Of all the nerve of the Left! Well!

Edited to add: and yet, Politico is STILL sourced by the unwise here at DU. :mad: