MSNBC's Ratigan Happy GOP 'Renounced' Liz Cheney, Unlike 'Nazi and Racist' Tea Partiers
On Monday's The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan dragged out his standard attack against the tea party movement as he also bashed Liz Cheney for criticizing Justice Department attorneys: "Liz Cheney goes so far off the right-wing deep end, that now even some right-wingers are saying she has gone too far. If only the tea party would do the same with its Nazis and racist members."
In the segment that followed, Ratigan attacked Cheney for an ad put out by her organization KeepAmericaSafe.com, referring to Justice Department lawyers who once defended accused terrorists as the "Al Qaeda Seven." While he condemned Cheney for going "off the right-wing deep end," one of his guests in the segment was Jane Hamsher, founder of the left-wing radical blog FireDogLake.com, which on Monday featured a post on Cheney entitled: "A Blowjob for Liz 'BabyDick' Cheney."
In reaction to the KeepAmericaSafe.com ad, Hamsher declared: "I mean, what she's doing is genuinely McCarthy-esque and un-American." She went so far as to call for Congress to "censure" Cheney. Those proclamations were prompted by Ratigan asking: "Jane, would...are you encouraged by the emergence of other Republican leaders to at least renounce Liz Cheney, which is more than you can say for the tea party when it comes to some of their Nazi and racist members, which they refuse to renounce?"
The segment did featured a Republican, strategist David Winston, who was also critical of Cheney: "In this particular case she went too far with this argument and sort of personally attacking them in terms of a value level. I think she'll find that her style, unfortunately, overshadowed her substance, which wasn't her intent."
Before moving on to the next topic of discussion, Ratigan got off one more shot at the GOP: "Listen, I compliment the GOP for renouncing, effectively, some of that behavior. It maintains at least some of the integrity in the dialog, or at least prevents it from slipping even further downhill."
Ratigan is certainly one to talk about people being on the fringe, considering his numerous rants against the tea parties. In addition to claiming the political movement was full of "Nazis and racists" on Monday, on March 2 he asserted some tea partiers wanted to "kill blacks and jews" and on February 11 he proclaimed "birthers, open racists, and outright Nazis" were part of their make-up.
Here is a full transcript of the Monday segment:
4:13PM TEASE
DYLAN RATIGAN: Liz Cheney goes so far off the right-wing deep end, that now even some right-wingers are saying she has gone too far. If only the tea party would do the same with its Nazis and racist members.
4:17PM
DYLAN RATIGAN: We begin with conservative darling, though, Liz Cheney, and the attacks leveled against her by members of her own party. Cheney under fire for criticizing the values of the Justice Department attorneys that represented accused terrorists. Former independent council Ken Starr, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, joined a group of 19 conservative lawyers that condemned Cheney's comments, calling them quote, 'shameful and destructive.' Here to mix it up today, founder of FireDogLake.com Jane Hamsher and Republican pollster and strategist David Winston. David, your thoughts?
DAVID WINSTON: Well, I mean, look. Liz Cheney clearly is frustrated by the fact that she thinks that these folks should be treated as enemy combatants and not someone who should go through the U.S. trial system. And so she was trying to express herself. I think she went too far. I mean clearly, you know, the idea that you can disagree but not be disagreeable. In this particular case she went too far with this argument and sort of personally attacking them in terms of a value level. I think she'll find that her style, unfortunately, overshadowed her substance, which wasn't her intent.
RATIGAN: Yeah. Jane, would you - are you encouraged by the emergence of other Republican leaders to at least renounce Liz Cheney, which is more than you can say for the tea party when it comes to some of their Nazi and racist members, which they refuse to renounce?
JANE HAMSHER: I think it's a good thing, it's a sign of how off-base she is. That people like Ken Starr and David Rivkin have come forward and denounced her in what she did. I mean, what she's doing is genuinely McCarthy-esque and un-American. She's claiming that Repub- lawyers who the Bush administration, the Department of Defense, reached out to and said 'please help us on this,' should be shamed and intimidated by being rebuked. That they're somehow un-American. And so, you know, it's a ridiculous proposition and I would hope that Congress would treat it with the seriousness they did with - they treated MoveOn with, when decided to censure them.
WINSTON: But if I - but if I may add one more thing.
RATIGAN: Please.
WINSTON: I mean, the other dynamic here, too, is when there was some Bush folks who - the lawyers that the Obama team were thinking about potentially bringing up on charges in terms of some of the things they did during the Bush years, again, that also got politicized. I think to some degree, like, look, we have a Justice Department, they're trying to do a lot of very difficult things. We can disagree and have real serious policy discussions. But let's not make this personal. Unfortunately, I think that's what she did.
RATIGAN: Listen, I compliment the GOP for renouncing, effectively, some of that behavior. It maintains at least some of the integrity in the dialog, or at least prevents it from slipping even further downhill.
-Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
