Inside Politics

Plain nonsense

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell dismissed a Washington Post report published yesterday that said Mr. Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, would leave their posts in 2005.

“It’s nonsense. I don’t know what they are talking about. I serve at the pleasure of the president,” Mr. Powell said yesterday in an interview with Radio Sawa, a U.S.-funded broadcaster in the Middle East.

“The president and I have not discussed anything other than my continuing to do my job for him, and this is just one of those stories that emerge in Washington that reflects nothing more than gossip. And the gossip leads to a rash of speculation about who might fill a vacancy that does not exist,” Mr. Powell said.

The White House concurred.

“The president thinks he is doing an outstanding job and appreciates the job that he is doing,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday. “The president looks forward to Secretary Powell continuing to work with him in our foreign-policy realm.”

“There was no conversation between the deputy secretary and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice concerning any plans for ‘stepping down,’” said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker in a statement released yesterday.

Blood-thirsty conservatives

Do “agenda-setting” liberal and conservative editorial pages differ?

A study released yesterday by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy finds “conservative papers are more partisan — often far more partisan — with regard to the intensity with which they criticize the other side.”

The study examined 510 editorials that appeared in The Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and The Washington Post over the last decade to reveal — surprise — conservative papers play hardball.

The Washington Times and Wall Street Journal praised the Bush administration 77 percent of the time, offered mixed reviews 16 percent of the time and criticism 7 percent of the time. Both papers praised former President Clinton 3 percent of the time, gave mixed reviews 9 percent of the time — and criticized Mr. Clinton 89 percent of the time.

The New York Times and Washington Post praised the Bush administration 10 percent, offered mixed review 23 percent and negative reviews 67 percent of the time. Both papers praised Mr. Clinton 36 percent of the time, had mixed reviews 35 percent of the time and criticized him 30 percent of the time.

Republicans are more “ideologically homogenous” than Democrats, and conservatives have more “message discipline” than liberals, concluded author Michael Tomasky, who said that the discipline was present in newspapers, think tanks and the Republican Party itself.

Story Continues →