Let’s look at Commentary magazine, the famous neocon rag now edited by John Podhoretz, who can be easily analogized to Bill Kristol, I guess, for having a much more intelligent and talented father and then sort of soiling the family legacy in the name of pride and stupidity. Or hey, for a more zeitgeist-y example Ms. Meghan McCain is also a good comparison. So, John “Blogette” Podhoretz is the Meghan McCain in this situation and Commentary is his monthly Twitter. What has Meghan Podhoretz been tweeting about as of late? Foreign policy, the economy, and, what’s this, long-time New Yorker intern David Denby, whose first foray into cultural relevance has been an unmitigated disaster. MORE »

We gets lots of author spam around here, usually from authors of self-published conspiracy-theory books. But we weren’t cool enough to get spammed by John Podhoretz, whose new book on Hillary comes out tomorrow. Apparently Podhoretz is spamming prominent journalists and opinion leaders, here in D.C. and elsewhere — to snickering from some of them, of the “FW: !!!” variety. (Some might call this mockery; but Random House calls it a “viral marketing campaign.”)

Podhoretz’s author spam includes this plug for his book:

I think it’s full of surprising and unexpected observations and insights. I tried to make it a fun and fast read, and at least one early critic — Matt Drudge at the Drudge Report — described Can She Be Stopped? as “provocative” and “explosive” in a special report on the book last week.

Who needs a starred review from Publishers Weekly, once you’ve gotten a “flashing siren” review from Drudge?

After the jump, the full message from jPod, in all of its spammy glory.

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Silly John Podhoretz: Don’t you read the Note? You’re not supposed to actually identify who the source was for today’s blistering Rove’s-future-in-doubt story in the Washington Post. You’re just supposed to say,”‘It’s SO obvious who those quotes are from,’ with a small shake of the head and a knowing half smile.” (And here we thought all of DC’s journalists had just developed palsy.) Granted, the shake of the head is hard to pull off online, but maybe you should have invented an emoticon for it or something, instead of posting this brilliant thesis: WH press puppy “Scott McClellan’s messy fingerprints are all over the WaPo story, as even Bush will be able to see.” MORE »

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Surprisingly, even the right has problems with re-naming 16th Street “Ronald Reagan Boulevard,” over at The Corner Mark Krikorian called it “statism at its worst” and John Podhoretz opined that it “would embarrass Reagan himself,” all arguments that should please the 100 percent or so of Washingtonians who are Democrats. More than one cabbie of ours has insisted that our actual destination was National Airport; forced to drive on Reagan Boulevard, we imagine they’d be finding some creative alternative routes. MORE »

At the Corner, John Podhoretz sees through the crafty slant the MSM has given the revelation that a CIA spokes person “did not tell Novak directly that [Valerie Plame] was undercover because that was classified.” See, by “warn[ing] Novak in the strongest terms…that Wilson’s wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed,” the CIA flak was actually confirming Novak’s suspicion that Wilson’s wife DID authorize the mission and, of course, that her name should be revealed! It all makes total sense through the magic lens of J-Pod:

When flaks tell you not to say something without saying something like, “It would be a crime to do so,” a veteran of flack spin like Novak might have thought this was an a-ha moment — the revelation of the truth he needed, rather than the direction not to name Valerie Plame.

Novak, veteran of flak spin, eh? Of that we have no doubt. MORE »