Dogs and cats living together

Mercury Public Affairs, LLC needed a lobbyist in California. Fabien Nunez needed a job. Now they both have what they want.

Nunez, former speaker of the California Assembly, will become a partner and co-chair in Mercury. He'll work in the company's California office alongside Steve Schmidt, former campaign manager for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain's fall presidential bid, and Adam Mendelsohn, former spokesman for Schwarzenegger.

Schmidt and Mendelsohn continue to advise the governor. Nunez, a Democrat, will be a helpful link to the California Legislature, which may not be able to resolve the budget crisis but will continue to have a Democratic majority for years to come.

Beware the bait of September

In light of McCain campaign chief strategist Steve Schmidt's assertion that the New York Times has become a "pro-Obama organization," Jay Rosen asks a question over at the Poynter Forum:

If the McCain campaign says, on the record and before the national press, that the New York Times is not a legitimate news organization, or a journalistic enterprise at all, but a political action committee working for Obama (and that is what Steve Schmidt said to reporters; listen to it...) then why does the Times have to treat the McCain crew as a "normal" campaign organization, rather than a bunch of rogue operators willing to say absolutely anything to gain power and lie to the nation once in office?

The first step is to recognize that Schmidt's assertion is illegitimate and let the argument stop there. It's part of Schmidt's strategy to label all news outlets as having partisan bias. Unless the New York Times got the facts wrong, and it didn't, then the paper shouldn't take any action.

Indeed, in taking action the New York Times would play into Schmidt's hands. Recognizing what is bait and not swallowing it is a tactic employed by most good journalists. There is no smart way to argue your legitimacy - just as there's no smart way to explain when you stopped beating your wife. Times Editor Bill Keller's response to Howard Kurtz seems sufficient.

Here's a question of my own: Is it a good idea for members of the media to declare what constitutes a legitimate political ad?

Who Steve Schmidt is*

If John McCain walks into the Oval Office next January, the credit will belong to Steve Schmidt. The New York Times looks at his influence on the McCain campaign and includes a gem that says more effectively than any media analyst has what's at risk as newspapers disintegrate and journalism standards decline:

Mr. Schmidt is considered by members of both parties to have a superior sense of a greatly altered news media environment, caused by the proliferation of political Web sites and blogs, providing all different ways of getting out information. This new environment, he has told friends, is easily manipulated because of round-the-clock thirst for news, increased competition, lowered standards created by the proliferation of outlets and hunger for the outrageous.

It was Mr. Schmidt, a fan of both pop culture and Ultimate Fighting, who pressed for the campaign to include Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in advertisements attacking Mr. Obama, aides said. It was Mr. Schmidt, they said, who pushed to drive blogs and other media organizations to present Mr. Obama’s outdoor convention setting as a pretentious temple by circulating photographs of columns and sending out a news release calling it the “Temple of Obama,” which were gobbled up by Web sites and cable television shows.

*Media manipulation is a big reason Palin was picked; already you'll see a marked shift in the tone on such aggregator sites as RealClearPolitics and Drudge Report, fewer analysis pieces and more stories and commentary that mimic the sarcastic line of attack heard at the Republican convention. Television media is the worst at handling this type of campaign. It cows them. Notice how anchors are busy praising Palin's political gifts and meekly explaining why they're delving into Palin's record. They become overly deferential. Mark Leibovich considers the media-bashing strategy in today's New York Times.