Arts Policy/NEA scandal Blogroll

So, approximately one week after I wrote my post describing how Glenn Beck took up the NEA as his own personal most recent "lets see how many people we can get fired in the National Government" shtick, the Democratic Blogs finally took notice, and commented. Many of the blogs pooh-poohed any instance of artistic manipulation via Obama's NEA. A couple samples:

Ordinary Gentlemen:

Don’t bother looking for recriminations or punishment for artists who don’t produce pro-Obama artwork, or do produce anti-Obama (or anti-Democrat, or anti-government) artwork. There’s no such coercion anywhere– you know, the kind of coercion that the people pimping this pathetic story so desperately want to find. What’s there is precisely the kind of vague, empty bureaucrat speak that suffuses not only every branch of government, regardless of the party of the sitting president, but also every corporate conference call promoting “synergy” and collective effort for collective goals.

Edge of the West:

Wait wait wait—I thought conservatives were upset because the White House created an office, installed it five federal agencies, then used them to fund a clearly partisan policy agenda to the tune of $2.2 billion. You mean to tell me all those links are about an August 10th conference call that tried to wrangle up support for the current President’s National Day of Service—a call in which not one cent of the NEA’s $155million budget was dispensed or even offered?

The Playgoer:

Something to do with the NEA actually supporting Obama's community service initiative? And this is bad because...? Oh, I see, Glenn, because it's going to indoctrinate our children through all that art they see. Well you should be glad they don't see much of that anyway--thanks to the likes of you.

One of my faves, Anonymous Liberal :

In terms of optics, it was certainly not a good idea for the NEA communications director to participate in such a call (which is probably why he is not the communications director anymore). That organization is not supposed to be involved in political advocacy.

But unless Breitbart's got a lot more, this is the political equivalent of jaywalking. Neither the NEA nor the White House organized this call and the staffers on the call basically gave boilerplate cheerleading remarks. There is nothing in the call that suggests that NEA money or grants were being funneled to progressive artists or anything of the sort. And the White House is of course free to participate on calls with supporters and encourage them to be pro-active. That's what the Office of Public Engagement does....

If Breitbart can produce any actual evidence that NEA resources or money were being improperly used for political purposes, I'll join him in calling for an investigation and for accountability. But this recorded call is pretty weak tea, especially by Bush era standards.

And from the Conservative Blog side, Andy McCarthy, with some perspective:

Needless to say, if something like this happened during the Bush administration, there would already be congressional hearings and screams for the appointment of a special prosecutor. We're about to see (yet again) how serious the Pelosi/Reid Democrats are about all that "rule of law" stuff they spout.