Buffalo News writer Greg Connors profiled The Moderate Voice in his op-ed column BLOGARHYTHMS. Here’s the key section of the piece, titled “A place for all things in moderation..”:
Chrisse Hynde once sang that “in the middle of the road you see the darndest things.” That could be the motto of Joe Gandelman, a former journalist in San Diego, who heads TheModerateVoice.com, a thoughtful blog planted firmly in the political center.
“This doesn’t mean that . . . I don’t take a strong stand,” Gandelman explained in an e-mail interview. “I do and throughout American history centrists and moderates have taken positions, often strong ones.”
One of Gandelman’s posts about DeLay was typically anti-knee-jerk: “The reaction of the two parties and their partisans has been breathtakingly predictable. . . . In 21st century America actual facts are less important than – above all – winning a game of political domination; the whips and chains are news outlets and blogs.”
The Moderate Voice – which includes the work of Gandelman and eight other co-bloggers – has been an equal-opportunity offender, criticizing Republicans and Democrats alike.
When Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, referred to the Republicans as belonging to “pretty much a white Christian party,” Gandelman wrote: “Attention Democratic Party power brokers: Call CostCo fast and order a big box of duct tape and use all of it on Howard Dean’s mouth.”
Gandelman on DeLay: “Additional reports say [temporary House majority leader Rep. Roy Blunt] will continue DeLay’s political agenda – so GOP Congressional leadership will go from “The Hammer to The Photocopier.’ ”
During the last presidential campaign, Gandelman said, “Democrats were mad at me because I said I could care less about Bush’s military record. And Republicans were mad at me because I said I could care less about the Swift Boat issue. I felt – and feel – neither issue was what this country should have been focused on, given all of our problems.”
Political junkies of all stripes will find plenty of suggested reading on TMV’s blogroll, or list of links, broken down into Left Voices, Right Voices, Center Voices and Other Voices.
“(This) is a working blogroll that I actually use,” Gandelman points out. “It is not for show.”
Many thanks for the kind words, Greg. We will try to continue to live up to them.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.