Straw men
The straw man argument is a time-tested argumentative tool where one characterizes (or mischaracterizes) their opponent's argument and then knocks it down -- as easily as one would a straw man.
The Associated Press' Jennifer Loven (whose husband is a Democrat/environmentalist operative) wrote an article published over the weekend that attempts to make the case that President Bush is using straw man after straw man to attack the Democrats. There's one problem with the article, Loven fails to make the case, and Powerline's John Hinderaker eviscerates her arguments. For every alleged straw man that Loven identifies, Hinderaker finds a Democrat who has actually made the very argument that Bush is attacking.
As I was heading home this evening I was mulling the Powerline piece and was reminded of similar, yet even more foolish, straw man expose' several months back, but I couldn't remember the details. As I was waiting at the KFC for my brutally-tortured chicken dinner, I called up Powerline on my Treo 600 phone and Eureka!
Dan Froomkin at Washington Post.com praises Jennifer Loven for writing "a whole story on Saturday about Bush's extensive and generally unchallenged use of straw-man arguments." Froomkin calls this a "bold departure for the AP." Loven's piece is, of course, the one John demolished yesterday. As John demonstrated, the story is bold (though not really a departure) only in its illogic and lack of factual support.
Froomkin's logic is just as bad. He infers from the fact that Bush uses phrases like "some say," instead of identifying particular speakers, that Bush is attacking arguments no one made. But as John showed, in the examples selected by Loven (presumably the best ones available) the statements Bush took on had been made by leading Democrats. Thus, the use of the "some say" locution appears to be nothing more than a reflection of Bush's commendable reluctance to single out particular individuals for presidential criticism.
Sure enough, a search of Hoystory's archives looking for Dan Froomkin turns up this gem. It would be really funny, if it didn't make Froomkin look so foolish. Strike that, it is really funny.
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[...] Editor & Publisher notices the Associated Press’ “straw man story” and then does something sadly predictable when it comes to recounting conservatives’ criticisms of the piece. Reaction also came from Loven’s critics, such as Powerlineblog.org, the Minnesota-based site that has chronicled Loven going back to her coverage of the 2004 presidential election. Among its complaints is Loven’s alleged conflict as the wife of Roger Ballentine, an environmental consultant who has worked in the Clinton Administration and has written for liberal outlets such as New Democrats Online. “Loven has written some astonishingly biased ‘news’ articles attacking President Bush,” Powerlineblog.com claimed this week. It then called the straw-man piece “a new low” that “masquerades as a straight news article, but reads like a DNC press release.” It ends by saying “there must be someone at AP who wants the organization to be taken seriously as a news source. If that’s true, sacking Jennifer Loven would be a good first step.” [...]