The Media vs. Anti-Tax Hike Conservatives
“Unelected” Norquist Condemned by Unelected Journalists
“Speaking of the fiscal cliff, there’s been all this focus on one dangerous man who stands in the way of a deal that could avert it, Grover Norquist. He is neither elected, nor has he ever run for office, so why is Washington so scared of him?”
— CNN’s Ali Velshi on CNN Newsroom, November 30. [MP3 audio (0:29)]
“Behind it all, this man, Grover Norquist, considered one of the most powerful men in Washington....The pledge is the biggest obstacle to any deal that would raise taxes.”
— Correspondent Jonathan Karl on ABC’s World News, November 26.
“It’s also politically smart to cut the knees out from under Grover Norquist. I mean this guy is, you know, who is he? He’s an unelected lobbyist....But a certain amount of saying ‘the emperor has no clothes,’ and to say that is I think very useful.”
— ABC’s Cokie Roberts on This Week, December 2. [MP3 audio (0:37)]
“Dark Hearted” Norquist = Republicans’ “Evil Overlord”
“Someday someone will write a dark history — a farce, really — of how he [Norquist] managed to bring nearly all of the Republican Party to heel, compelling legislator upon legislator to lash themselves to his no-new-taxes pledge. Until then we’ll have to content ourselves with his misfortune over the last few days....Senator John McCain signaled a receptiveness to new revenue, another dagger to Norquist’s dark heart....It’s as if some spell has at long last been broken, and the formerly bewitched villagers are rising up to defy their evil overlord and insist on the possibility of life and even mirth without a deduction for corporate jets.”
— New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni in a Nov 27 piece titled “Is Grover Finally Over?”
“But Grover, only you in America believes that there has to be this — what I believe to be really farcical, now, absolute pledge for life about these kind of things....Everyone [is] laughing at you from afar.”
— CNN’s Piers Morgan lecturing Norquist on Piers Morgan Tonight, November 26.
Ha, Ha, Ha — Let’s Drown Grover in the Bathtub
Former Senator Alan Simpson: “So how do you deal with guys who came to stop government or Grover [Norquist] wandering the earth in his white robe saying he wanted to drown government in the bathtub? I hope he slips in there with it....We’ll put some soap in the tub. Throw it in there.”
Host Chris Matthews, laughing: “Well, I can’t beat that....I’m with you on the full metaphor there.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Hardball, November 27.
Nothing but an Anti-Tax “Ayatollah”
“By the way, a long time before the Tea Party existed or had a name, Grover Norquist, the famous anti-tax lobbyist in Washington, was running around beginning to enforce, Ayatollah-style, his edict about taxes.”
— Longtime Newsweek correspondent Howard Fineman on MSNBC’s Hardball, December 3. [MP3 audio (0:32)]
“Apologies to Grover Norquist and his Muslim wife for inadvertent slur on #MSNBC #Hardball, calling him ‘Ayatollah’ of GOP anti-tax movement.”
— Tweet from Fineman a few hours later.
Pushing Talking Points Even Rice Now Admits Were Wrong
Time’s Joe Klein: “The talking points were accurate.”
MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle: “For two weeks?”
Klein: “They were absolutely accurate.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “Were they really?”
Klein: “They were. It was a spontaneous demonstration by extremists....”
New York’s Jon Heilemann: “The administration was asked for nine days, ‘Was it an act of terror?’ The administration, Jay Carney, the President, declined to call it an act of terror.”
Klein: “He called it an act of terror the day after.”
Heilemann: “He really did not.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “Oh, my God, Joe. Seriously?”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, November 26. [MP3 audio (0:58)]
vs.
“The talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi.”
— U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in a November 27 letter to Senate Republicans.
It’s Racist to Criticize Susan Rice; She Was “Basically Right”
Anchor Andrea Mitchell: “There have been issues raised as to whether she [Susan Rice] was being attacked, criticized because she’s a woman, because she’s African-American....”
Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus: “I think there is a little bit of a double standard, not necessarily with the punishment for the talk shows, because I don’t think this is really about some comments that were basically right, that she made on Sunday talk shows.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports about criticism of Susan Rice, November 29. [MP3 audio (0:52)]
“I’ve said it before and I will say it again: There has been a witch hunt against every prominent person of color that has served alongside the President. And this is part of it.”
— MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe on Now with Alex Wagner, November 27.
Wishful Thinking at CNN: “Is the Tea Party Dead?”
“Many in the Tea Party movement lost their congressional seats this past election. So is the Tea Party over?...Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and now Florida Republican Allen West, the list of Tea Party candidates who suffered defeat in the last election just keeps growing. Founders of the Tea Party movement say their cause is very much alive, though, that they’ve been called down for the count since their inception. But now with more key members losing their seats in Congress, are we seeing an end to the Tea Party movement?... Is the Tea Party dead?”
— Anchor Carol Costello during the 10am ET hour of CNN Newsroom, November 21. The on-screen headline read “End of Tea Party Movement.”
Blame Racism for Tea Party’s “Vitriol”
“Do you think the vitriol that came out of some elements of the Tea Party would have been at the same level had this President not been African American?”
— PBS documentary film maker Ken Burns talking about the Tea Party on NBC’s Meet the Press, November 25.
“Controversial” to Say Media Not Critical of Obama?
“There was an awkward backdrop to this snap shot [of Romney and Obama in the Oval Office]. It comes on the heels of controversial comments: Romney saying President Obama won because he gave gifts to key constituencies; and former top Romney adviser, Stuart Stevens, wrote about the President’s victory in the Washington Post. Quote: ‘He was a charismatic African-American President with a billion dollars, no primary and media that often felt morally conflicted about being critical.’”
— White House correspondent Kristen Welker on the November 29 NBC Nightly News.
Exploiting Tragedy to Push Liberal Gun Control Agenda
“I think most reasonable people think we do not have sufficient controls on the availability of guns and ammunition....Common sense tells us the culture is overrun by guns and that many people who possess them are dangerous or careless.”
— NBC sportscaster Bob Costas as quoted by New York Times writer Bill Carter in a December 3 “Media Decoder” Web article, amplifying on-air comments he made during a December 2 NFL broadcast.
“What I was talking about here, and I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear to everybody, was a gun culture. I never mentioned the Second Amendment. I never used the words ‘gun control.’ People inferred that. Now do I believe we need more comprehensive and more sensible gun control legislation? Yes, I do.”
— Costas on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, December 4.
“Quite incredible that Bob Costas makes an impassioned plea for less handguns, and Americans go crazy with indignation. He’s 100% right.”
— CNN host Piers Morgan in a December 3 posting to Twitter.
Like Hitler in ’36, Loser Republicans Blame Minorities
MSNBC political analyst Howard Fineman: “As if that’s some kind of explanation for the weird phenomenon of the fact that the Republicans didn’t win — there was this extraterrestrial force out there of African-Americans and Hispanics. Well, duh. That’s the country. That’s the United States.”
Host Chris Matthews: “The last person to say that — and I hate to, and this has no bearing on the Republican Party, and these references are always dangerous, but I’ll take it anyway — the last guy to refer to the black auxiliary was Hitler....During the ’36 Olympics, we had Jesse Owens and a couple other guys winning the Olympics and they were saying, ‘Well, they had their auxiliary out there.’”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball, November 26. [MP3 audio (0:52)]
Another Example of Liberal Compassion
“I just wish there was an Angel of the Lord that would pass over, instead of killing the first born in all the households of Egypt, just wipe out all the teabaggers. Just, you know, the terrible swift sword, just [mimics sound of sword cutting through the air] lop their heads off.”
— Left-wing host Mike Malloy on his November 26 radio show. [MP3 audio (0:27)]
Bill Clinton = Your Best Route to Heaven?
“I don’t think anybody — and we agree on this — did a better case of making the case for Obama than Bill Clinton....I have to tell you, who would you rather have make your case to Saint Peter than this guy? This Bill Clinton, this guy can sell.”
— Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, December 5.
Honoring “Our Lord and Savior, Barack Obama”
“First of all, give an honor to God, and our Lord and savior, Barack Obama.”
— Actor Jamie Foxx during the Soul Train Awards, November 25 on BET. [MP3 audio (0:23)]
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