I'm kinda DOWN on Harry Reid these days...here's something from Josh Marshall's Site:

Two More Bloggers Deny Politico Report About Reid Disparaging Generals
By Greg Sargent | bio

Okay, we've just spoken to two more bloggers who were on the conference call with Harry Reid.

John Aravosis, who founded and runs the popular AmericaBlog, and Joe Sudbay, a D.C. political strategist who also writes for AmericaBlog, told me in interviews that say they don't remember Reid describing General Pace as incompetent or hear Reid disparaging Petraeus, as The Politico is reporting.

"I don't remember him saying this," Aravosis told us when asked about the assertion that Reid had called Paced "incompetent."

Sudbay, meanwhile, added: "If he had said something really juicy, we would have posted that ourselves."

Both Aravosis and Sudbay remember Reid discussing the two Generals, but said they don't remember him talking about them in the way that the Politico characterized the discussion. The Politico story claimed that Reid had called Pace "incompetent," and added that Reid had made "similar disparaging remarks" about Petraeus. Both Aravosis and Sudbay said they didn't remember Reid making any disparaging remarks about Petraeus.

The Politico story has set off an uproar, with Drudge linking it, John McCain and other leading Republicans attacking Reid over it, and White House press secretary Tony Snow using the story to slam Reid as anti-military at his press briefing today. But as we reported below, three other prominent bloggers on the call -- with Aravosis and Sudbay, that makes five total now -- didn't hear Reid say any such thing.

The Politico reporter who wrote the story is declining to comment on the bloggers' assertion and declining to comment on whether he spoke to anyone who was on the call. All five of these bloggers say they didn't hear from the Politico reporter.

Aravosis, meanwhile, pointed out that it was unlikely that the Politico could have gotten this from anyone on the call.

"Why would somebody on this call, which was on the record, hear something so newsworthy, and instead of posting it, call the Politico and tell them this on background?" Aravosis asked. "We would have written about it ourselves."

Intriguingly, Reid isn't denying directly that he said the remarks attributed to him, but he did say at a press conference today that he held Petraeus in high regard.

To be clear: We don't know what was said on the call, and we're not sure why Reid's office won't say so more directly. We're just trying to find out as much as we can by talking to the people who were on it.

It's possible, for instance, that Reid did mildly criticize Pace, and even conceivably Petraeus, without using the word "incompetent." Of course, without that one-word quote on the front page of the Politico, and then on Drudge, it almost certainly wouldn't have created the explosion that it did.

Meanwhile, AmericaBlog has much more on this in this post, which addresses this and an another important but overlooked aspect of this whole story. Check it out.

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/06/politico-fails- journalism-100.html
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/14/two_more_bloggers_deny_politico_report_about_reid_disparaging_generals

I seem not to be fully aware of the facts in this case so I don't want to shoot my mouth off to far.

why would you delete a post on this...but just modify and repost. I'd like to hear what you have to say. :shrug:

this stuff about Petraeus is a made up third hand report that got distributed to Drudge, Tony Snow and so on, and criticizing a general who ISN'T being fired is being used as a mackeral to slap Reid around with.

hard to know but if you see it on Drudge first and then it makes the rounds...it's likely to be RW Stuff.

:-( Their echo chamber is still alive and well and feeds into the M$M.

They're burning out quick.

so...you kind of know what that's about :-( For a new publication it's just AMAZING how much coverage with quotes from their RW Hack Reporters seem to drift around the Cables, C-Span and even on the internet.

told Pace TO HIS FACE that he was incompetent, and was merely recounting the story (this according to Bob Geiger). As Markos referred to in a post just put up, McCain went full out after Gen. Casey, yet nothing much was said about it at the time like this faux outrage.

You do know this is simply right wing claptrap faux outrage, right? Pace didn't get reappointed, so obviously a LOT of people think he is incompetent. Of course, not as incompetent as his boss.

I'm really sick of the gotcha stuff. Democrats are held to a different standard than Republicans, who are allowed to say what they want no matter how ridiculous, while Reid gets full scale attacked for a not very newsworthy comment.

(Politico is just a new Drudge Report) Also gotta love, how the White House grabbed onto it, and had a prepared comment. I have seen other Democrats set up like this in the past (but Drudge was the one doing it, not Politico), and it just makes me SICK.

the lack of a real majority to push things forward. Yeah, they screwed up a bit but, they also have their backs against the wall with a very very slim majority