Tax Cut "Bad for the Economy"; Hillary's "Modern Fairy Tale"; Gore Has Lost Gumbel & Rivera; Gore to Hijack Air Force Two?
1) CBS's Scott Pelley
pressed George Bush on 60 Minutes II about naming his brother Jeb the
Attorney General. "He didn't go to law school," Bush
observed. Pelley imagined Alan Greenspan would say "an across the
board tax cut is probably bad for the economy" and demanded of
Bush, so "will you listen?"
2) CBS relayed Gore's claim that Democrats and
Republicans were treated differently with absentee ballots, but FNC's
Jim Angle pointed that "the local elections supervisor has given a
sworn statement to the court that no Democratic ballot requests were
thrown out and there is no such allegation in court."
3) NBC Nightly News on Hillary Clinton: "It's a
modern fairy tale. From First Lady entertaining 20,000 guests at 26
Christmas parties to just another freshman Senator today arriving for
orientation in an SUV, no limo....From foie gras to Senate bean
soup."
4) FNC's Brit Hume highlighted how Slate's Jacob
Weisberg undermined the Miami Herald calculation that Gore would have
won a flawless vote by 23,000. More like by barely 400 when you
eliminate the double votes.
5) George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Alter offered
foreboding predictions about a strategy to de-legitimize George Bush:
Liberal groups will count Florida ballots themselves and declare Gore
the true winner.
6) Gore has lost Bryant Gumbel and Geraldo Rivera.
Gumbel: "Your best guess, when's Al Gore concede?" Rivera:
"This thing is all over but the shouting."
7) NBC's Claire Shipman relayed how Gore's team is
joking about how "they could always blockade the vice presidential
residence or take off on Air Force Two and refuse to come down."
1
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don't have to be a lawyer to be Attorney General, but it would help. In
a very odd series of questions, on 60 Minutes II Wednesday night CBS's
Scott Pelley pressed George W. Bush about whether, like John Kennedy,
he'd make his brother the Attorney General. Bush declined the
opportunity, informing Pelley that Jeb "didn't go to law
school." Pelley remained undeterred.
Bush may not be ready yet to accept the title of
"President-elect," but Pelley gave him a preview of how the
networks approach Republican Presidents from the left on issues like
taxes. Pelley imagined a situation in
which Alan Greenspan would say "an across the board tax cut is
probably bad for the economy." To which Pelley demanded: "Will
you listen?"
Earlier, Pelley pointed out Dick Cheney's public
activities and demanded "Who's in charge?" He raised the
complaint that it was "irresponsible" for Cheney to mention the
possibility of a recession, pointed out that the Republican congressional
leadership are "not your kind of Republicans and you're not their
kind of Republican." Pelley also brought up how Bush would be the
first President in 100 years to lose the popular vote, so "does that
make a Bush presidency somehow less legitimate?"
Pelley began his December 5 interview by asking if
Bush considered Gore to be a sore loser, what would he say to Al Gore, can
he imagine any scenario in which he loses and how did the election night
concession retraction call unfold and was he "snippy" during it.
Then Pelley arrived at his more politically charged
topics: "In recent days and weeks we have seen your running mate Mr.
Cheney holding news conferences, opening the transition office, moving
things forward. We have not seen a great deal of you. Who's in
charge?"
Bush shot back:
"Vice President-to-be Cheney is doing exactly what I've asked him
to do..."
Pelley followed up with criticism of Cheney:
"Some people believe with the markets in the condition they're in,
for Dick Cheney to go out and say we're on the front edge of a recession
was irresponsible."
After getting Bush to agree that Colin Powell is in
line for a cabinet position, Pelley lunched his strange series of
questions about Jeb Bush: "Are you giving any thought to making your
brother Attorney General? John Kennedy did it for Bobby Kennedy."
Bush: "Yes
I've given it thought. I've spent about two seconds on it and the
answer is no."
Pelley, acting
shocked, with his voice raised: "No!? Any role for Jeb Bush?"
Bush: "First of
all, he didn't go to law school and secondly he is a fine man but he
needs to be in Florida doing the job of Governor of Florida. No he's not
going to be asked and he doesn't expect to be asked and so no."
Pelley:
"There's no cabinet role for your brother?"
Bush:
"None."
Pelley: "Sound
pretty decisive about that. You're not sore about Florida are you?"
Bush: "We're
going to win Florida. I'm thrilled that we won Florida..."
Pelley moved on to pointing out that by winning by a
mere 537 votes he hardly has a sweeping mandate, so how will he pull the
House and Senate together?
Next, Pelley took on Republican leaders as too
conservative: "You know the leadership in the Congress, the
Republican leadership in the Congress: Senator Lott, Congressman Armey,
Congressman DeLay -- they're not your kind of Republicans and you're
not their kind of Republican."
Pelley reminded Bush that Clinton embraced Federal
Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan. Bush replied that he is looking
forward to working with Greenspan, prompting Pelley to turn on his liberal
imagination: "If in that first meeting with Mr. Greenspan, the
Chairman of the Fed, he says to you, 'Mr. President, I think an across
the board tax cut is probably bad for the economy.' Will you
listen?"
Bush replied:
"Of course I'll listen. It doesn't mean I have to agree with him
because I happen to believe an across the board tax cut will be good for
the economy..."
(Wednesday morning on NBC's Today, MRC analyst
Geoffrey Dickens noticed, Katie Couric forwarded the same anti-tax cut
theme. She told economist Alan Sinai: "Now you say though there are
some things that can be done if the Fed acts appropriately and the
government takes some steps. For example across the board tax cut possibly
as Dick Cheney has recommended, that the economy can bounce back even
though some economists say across the board tax cuts are not the answer,
increased government spending is.")
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2
Gore's
fanciful imagination? During his appearance Tuesday before reporters on
the White House driveway, Al Gore embraced the Seminole and Martin County
lawsuits aimed at throwing out all the absentee ballots. The CBS Evening
News relayed, without contradiction, Gore's claim that Democrats and
Republicans were treated differently. But as Jim Angle pointed out on FNC:
"The local elections supervisor has given a sworn statement to the
court that no Democratic ballot requests were thrown out and there is no
such allegation in court."
ABC's World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News only
showed Gore predicting the two absentee ballot cases would eventually end
up in the Florida Supreme Court.
On the December 5 CBS Evening News, John Roberts
reported: "With options to count disputed ballots running out, Gore
today turned about face and for the first time publicly embraced two other
court cases that seek to throw out thousands of Republican absentee votes
in Seminole and Martin counties."
Roberts pointed out how Gore had stayed away from
the cases because they run contrary to counting every vote, but "Gore
today found a way to make them fit his philosophy by claiming that
Democratic voters were treated unfairly."
Gore: "There
were more than enough votes to make the difference. [edit jump] More than
enough votes were potentially taken away from Democrats because they were
not given the same access that Republicans were."
Jim Angle on FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume
played clips of Gore making the same claim, but Angle checked them against
reality. FNC showed Gore claiming: "I'm not a party to that case or
the Martin County case" and "there were more than enough votes
to make the difference that were apparently thrown into the, the
applications for ballots were thrown into the trash can by the supervisor
of elections there."
Angle informed
viewers: "In fact, the local elections supervisor has given a sworn
statement to the court that no Democratic ballot requests were thrown out
and there is no such allegation in court. Nevertheless, Gore insists
Democrats were hurt."
Gore:
"Democrats were denied an opportunity to come in, denied a chance to
even look at the applications and those applications were thrown
out."
Later on the CBS Evening News, Jim Axelrod provided
a full story on the Seminole case but failed to raise Angle's angle.
Picking up on how Democratic lawyer Harry Jacobs is suing, Axelrod
asserted: "He says the Republican supervisor there let Republicans
tamper with absentee ballot applications. Dirty politics says his lawyer,
and illegal." After letting a Bush lawyer call it a minor violation,
Axelrod concluded by hitting both sides:
"So tonight the
survival of Al Gore's count every vote strategy may rest on some ballots
being excluded and it is Republicans who are in the streets demanding
every vote be counted. Poised for battle it is consistency that could be
the first casualty."
Axelrod failed to pick up on a connection
between those bringing the absentee ballot lawsuit and the Democratic
National Committee, FNC's Brit Hume highlighted Tuesday night:
"The
Orlando Sentinel, which earlier reported that the case was filed after
consultation with Gore lawyer and fund raiser Mitchell Berger, now reports
that Democratic National Committee lawyer Mark Herron also advised the
plaintiff about his lawsuit before it was filed. Herron, you may recall,
was also the guy who wrote the memo telling Democratic observers how to
get military absentee ballots disqualified."
To read the Orlando Sentinel article, go to:
http://orlandosentinel.com/automagic/news/2000-12-05/ASECjacobs05120500.html
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3
Andrea
Mitchell's fairy tale about Hillary Clinton's arrival in the Senate.
On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News Mitchell effused her awe over Hillary
Clinton's "modern fairy tale" transformation into a Senator as
she reported on her first day of Senate orientation.
Mitchell began her piece by gushing: "It's a
modern fairy tale. From First Lady entertaining 20,000 guests at 26
Christmas parties to just another freshman Senator today arriving for
orientation in an SUV, no limo. From America's finest antiques to
unpacking boxes in a basement office. From foie gras to Senate bean soup.
The Senator-elect goes to the Capitol."
Hillary Clinton:
"I hadn't spent much time in this building since 1974 when I worked
for the Congress and 1968 when I was an intern."
Mitchell continued,
as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "Her husband tonight
goes to his first official event, dinner at the Supreme Court, as a Senate
spouse."
Bill Clinton:
"Thank you, Senator."
Mitchell:
"Friends say a tough transition for him leaving power, an uncertain
future and a huge challenge for her."
Trent Lott:
"When she raises her hand and says 'I do,' she's a Senator. And
she'll be treated accordingly."
Mitchell: "A
lot more welcoming than last month when Lott said quote, 'Maybe
lightning will strike and she won't get to the Senate.'"
Hillary Clinton:
"I've had a number of very pleasant social occasions with Senator
Lott and his very gracious and lovely wife."
Mitchell:
"To prevent resentments in the Senate, friends say they've told her
to give up Secret Service protection, especially inside the Capitol."
Bob Dole:
"Maybe there's a very good reason for her to have Secret Service,
but we have a very good police force in the Capitol. U.S. Capitol Police
do a great job."
Mitchell
concluded: "But friends say she plans to keep the Secret Service
protection. And when Hillary Clinton starts making Senate speeches for
$141,000 a year, her husband will make $100,000 a speech supporting his
Senate wife in style."
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4
If all
were perfect not a 23,000 vote Gore win but a Gore win, maybe, by 409
votes. FNC's Brit Hume Tuesday night pointed out how a liberal reporter
contradicted the claim of a one professor, whose analysis the Miami Herald
plastered on its front page, that in a flawless election Gore would have
won Florida by 23,000. ABC's World News Tonight ran a full story Sunday
night on the theory, the December 4 CyberAlert detailed.
Hume recalled on his
December 5 show: "The Miami Herald reported over the weekend that by
projecting the voting percentages which Bush and Gore got in each of
Florida's counties against the number of votes not counted statewide
because counting machines threw them
out shows that Gore could have won the
state by at least 23,000 votes."
Hume then alerted viewers: "But Jacob Weisberg
of the liberal online publication Slate notes that The Herald included
ballots in that tally that were thrown out because they were marked twice
or more for President. He points out that such ballots are never counted,
recount or no recount, anywhere. He then did his own calculations of what
would have happened if the same kind of manual recount that was done in
Broward County, where a very liberal standard was used in determining
voter intent, were done statewide, and determined Gore would still have
come out 709 votes short."
Since posting that analysis Monday night on
Slate, Weisberg was forced to update it as readers found some errors in
his calculation. Weisberg's revised guestimate posted Tuesday afternoon:
"If all of Florida's counties had done a hand recount using the chad-counting
rules employed by Broward County, Al Gore would not lose Florida by 709
votes, as I predicted yesterday. Gore would win Florida by 409
votes!"
Of course, that means he still would lose using Palm
Beach County standards for not counting dimples.
And either way the professor's analysis
legitimized by the Miami Herald was way off base.
To read Weisberg's original piece, go to:
http://slate.msn.com/code/BallotBox/BallotBox.asp?Show=12/4/2000&idMessage=6613
For his revised analysis:
http://slate.msn.com/code/BallotBox/BallotBox.asp?Show=12/5/2000&idMessage=6624
Speaking of Hume, over a graphic of the ABC logo
with this text below, "More Americans can't turn to ABC News for
this story," Hume picked up and expanded on an item in Tuesday's
CyberAlert:
"The Supreme
Court on Monday sent the Florida Supreme Court's ruling
extending the deadline for recounts in Florida back to that court
for clarification. But the high court also vacated -- that is to say,
nullified the Florida court's order as you've heard. But
you would have been hard-pressed to discern that from the coverage
Monday night on ABC and NBC News. Neither network's evening
news program ever said the Supreme Court had vacated the Florida
court's order. And readers of The New York Times did not find that out
until the fourth paragraph of The Times front page story."
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5
Two
liberals getting paid as reporters, George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan
Alter, have offered foreboding predictions about a soon to be implemented
strategy to de-legitimize George Bush after inauguration: Liberal groups
will take advantage of Florida's sunshine laws to count ballots
themselves and declare Gore the true winner.
-- George Stephanopoulos. On ABC's Good Morning
America on December 5 Charles Gibson asked: "Let me ask you sort of a
very hypothetical question. Let's say that the Vice President loses in the
Florida Supreme Court, it's over, George Bush is sworn in as President.
Someday, somebody's going to look at those 14,000 votes."
Stephanopoulos
warned, as transcribed by MRC analyst Jessica Anderson: "Not so
hypothetical, Charlie. Remember, Florida has sunshine laws. They say that
everyone can come in, petition and examine the ballots. What is most
likely is that you're going to have several different recounts in Florida.
You'll have People for the American Way doing one recount that'll probably
show that Al Gore won. You'll have Judicial Watch doing a recount that
shows that Al Gore lost. But I think that over time, and one of the things
that's fueling the Gore fight, they believe that when impartial historians
look at those ballots, look at the votes, they'll say that Al Gore won the
state of Florida, and that's helping him continue."
Gibson: "It
would make for a very strange situation, though, if they found that the
votes were there and you had the other man serving as President."
Stephanopoulos:
"But there's nothing you can do at that point. It's past January
20th."
-- Newsweek's Jonathan Alter on CNBC's Rivera
Live the night before. MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed how Alter
alerted Rivera: "The other thing to keep in mind Geraldo is with
these 14,000 ballots or the 10,000 anyway in Miami-Dade. Eventually we
will know. The Sunshine state has one of the most permissive sunshine
laws, public access laws of any state in the union. So some kind of
liberal legal gadfly, maybe you Geraldo, will eventually apply-"
Rivera: "Could
be. I'm a radical, I'm not a liberal."
Alter: "-and a
court will, a court will grant permission. It's almost inevitable that
sometime in the next six months a court will grant permission to do what
Larry Klayman did in Palm Beach. Go an review the ballots. So eventually
we may find out that actually, it's conceivable that Gore won the
election after all. Then what will [we] do when Bush is President? Will
everybody go: 'whoops?!'"
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6
The end
must be near for Al Gore. Two of the media's biggest liberals, Geraldo
Rivera and Bryant Gumbel, have lost faith that he can win.
Bryant Gumbel opened a December 5 Early Show
interview with the Hotline's Craig Crawford: "Gore didn't just lose
in Leon County, he got trounced. Fair to say the decision was much worse
than Gore or his advisors expected?"
Gumbel also betrayed his lack of faith in Gore's
cause in another question picked up by MRC analyst Brian Boyd: "What
about the Supreme Court, I mean, realistically having had their wrists
slapped in Washington is it realistic to think the seven justices on
Florida's Supreme Court will be anxious to help Al Gore a second
time?"
Gumbel's last inquiry for Crawford assumed Gore
will concede: "Final note, your best guess, when's Al Gore
concede?"
Monday night on his CNBC show Geraldo Rivera
insisted Gore really did get more votes than Bush in Florida, but he's
resigned himself to reality as he rued:
"The rules are
the rules, the other guy is the luckiest presidential candidate in the
history of this country. He has squeaked in on a technicality. But I
don't think there is any budging that reality that George W. Bush will,
unless lightning strikes, be the next President of the United States. So
I'm saying for our title tonight: 'Down for the Count?' I put the
question mark on it because I want to be nice to my pals the Democrats but
I think that this thing is all over but the shouting."
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7
Gore
joking about refusing to leave the VP residence or hijacking Air Force
Two? Claire Shipman wrapped up a piece on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News by
relaying:
"It's not all gloom and doom in the Gore camp. The Vice President,
we're told, does joke about his situation. He and top aides recently
kidding around, for example, about the fact that if they lose before
Florida's Supreme Court they could always blockade the vice presidential
residence or take off on Air Force Two and refuse to come down."
Can we be sure he's really joking? -- Brent Baker
>>>
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