Obama Can't Make Nice With Bloodthirsty Republicans
Obama Can’t Make Nice with Bloodthirsty Republicans
“All of these things we’ve said about what the President
could do, should do, might have, could have, but the central thing to keep in
mind is his opponents — you talk about taking them out to dinner, making nice
with them — these people, politically, want to cut his heart out and throw his
liver to the dogs. That does make it very, very difficult to come on nice to
them.”
— Ex-CBS Evening News
anchor Dan Rather on The Chris Matthews
Show, May 5.
Failure to Pass Liberal Agenda = Country Run by “Bunch of Buffoons”
Panelist Donny
Deutsch: “I want to go back to these Senators. Unfortunately, the next time
a crazy, or somebody who would have not gotten a gun from a background check,
kills somebody, I want to know what their response is going to be, because they
literally have blood on their hands....They have blood on their hands. It’s
that simple. There’s no gray, no abstract here. It is literally the dots are
that connected.”
Co-host Mika
Brzezinski: “I agree. I agree completely....This country — I mean, it’s
being led by a bunch of buffoons, I have to tell you.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, May 3.
Thrilled by Voters “Pushing Back” at Gun Rights Senators
“Pushing back. A tense moment as a U.S. Senator gets an
earful about her ‘no’ vote on gun control....Now to the lingering effects from
the recent ‘no’ vote on expanded background checks for gun purchasers....Polls
show nine of ten Americans support expanded background checks. And with
lawmakers now home on break, there is evidence they’re starting to hear about
it.”
— Brian Williams on
the NBC Nightly News, May 1.
“Guilty Monsters” of NRA Deserve to “Rot” in Gitmo Prison
“When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the
whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system
of justice? Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo
Bay for all eternity and let them
rot in their own mental squalor. No, no, no. Not the wannabe sick kid who blew
up the Boston marathon or the freak
that’s mailing ricin-laced letters to the President. I’m talking about the real
terrorist threat here in America:
the National Rifle Association.”
— Aurora (Colorado)
Sentinel editor Dave Perry in an April 25 column.
Obama Poised to Be “One of the Top American Presidents”
Financial Times editor Lionel Barber: “If we see 3.5 percent
growth [in] 2014-15, no conflict with Iran,
President Obama will go down as one of the top American presidents.”
Host Charlie Rose: “Really?”
Barber: “I believe so.... Solid economic legacy, growing the
economy, no war abroad. He will have brought the troops home. I’m writing a
biography already.”
— Exchange on PBS’s Charlie Rose, May 1.
Demanding “Sane Policy” of Even More Spending and “Smart” Tax Increases
“We’ve been trying to force ourselves to do austerity, which
has not worked in Europe, which has actually harmed the
European economy. And so without being able to do a robust agenda from Washington
that does smart spending and smart tax increases,...without being able to do
sane policy in Washington, you
can’t expect interpersonal relationship improvement to change the economy.”
— Joy-Ann Reid, editor of the NBC-owned TheGrio.com, on Meet
the Press, May 5.
Gloating How Tabloid Trial Eclipsed Obama Scandal
“Today was set up to be a big day, a very big day for Roger
Ailes; the Fox Network; Drudge Report readers; the denizens of Michelle
Malkin’s Web site, Twitchy; Sean Hannity’s radio audience; and Congressman
Darrell Issa. Why? Because today was ‘Benghazi
day.’...Fox was all teed up, promos had been made, hosts were properly
outraged, the coverage plan was in motion — and then the cable news apocalypse
happened.”
— MSNBC host Chris Hayes on All In, May 8, talking about how
the announcement of a verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial overshadowed the Benghazi
hearings.
Basic Reporting = Unacceptable Advocacy
“On the air and online, [CBS News correspondent Sharyl]
Attkisson has questioned the administration’s timeline and its response. She
has hunted down important eyewitnesses and pressed for release of documents
that might shed more light on the attack that killed four Americans, including
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.”
— Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi in a May 8 profile of
Attkisson.
vs.
“[CBS News] has grown increasingly frustrated with
Attkisson’s Benghazi campaign. CBS
News executives see Attkisson wading dangerously close to advocacy on the
issue, network sources have told Politico. Attkisson can’t get some of her
stories on the air, and is thus left feeling marginalized and underutilized.”
— Politico media writer Dylan Byers, May 8.
“Eye-Rolling” Over Conservative Cruz, “Looks a Little Like Joe McCarthy”
“So Ted Cruz is, just violates my sense. And I think if you
mention the name Ted Cruz to other Senators, you just get titanic oceans of
eye-rolling, because you’re a freshman, you don’t go in and take over hearings.
Like hang around and learn how it’s done. And it’s like the most
un-conservative act to come in two weeks into the job and decide the Senate
exists for you to take it over. And so I think he’s made a lot of enemies. It
doesn’t help that he has a face that looks a little like Joe McCarthy,
actually.”
— New York Times columnist David Brooks in a 92Y Campaign
for the American Conversation discussion hosted by former ABC, CBS and CNN
reporter Jeff Greenfield, April 21.
Hating Red States: South Carolina = “God-Bothering Yahoos” with “Lizard Brains”...
“This is no longer an election. This has become a tribal
conflict, and [GOP candidate] Mark Sanford’s tribe is bigger....Most of the
god-bothering yahoos were quite upset with Sanford’s intercontinental sins of
the flesh but, deep in their lizard brains, they know what counts and Sanford
gave them the proper totem to hate and soon, the fever swamps resounded with whooping
and hollering and chanting and the reek of burning entrails. This is not
political. It is theological. It is not people going to the polls. It is
people, maddened by thirst, wandering through the Sinai screaming their prayers
into the undying sun.”
— Esquire’s Charles Pierce in a May 6 “Politics Blog” post
about the special election in South Carolina.
...North Carolina = “An Insane Right-Wing Dystopia”...
“Since the election of Republican Governor Pat McCrory in
late 2012 to preside over both a Republican house and a senate, [North
Carolina] has started to turn into an insane
right-wing dystopia.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on All In, April 30.
...And Kansas, Killed by a “Dramatic Swing to the Right”
Hutchison (Kansas) News editor Jason Probst, reading his
editorial: “The great state of Kansas passed away on March 31, 2013 after a
long and difficult battle with extremism....Kansas is survived by widespread
poverty, low-wage jobs, poorly educated children, out-migration,
lobbyist-funded legislators, a maniacal hatred of government, and children who
dream of living anywhere else.”
NPR anchor Jacki Lyden: “For a small-town newspaper,
Probst’s obituary for Kansas went
viral. Tens of thousands of people read it, and many are fellow Kansans who
wrote to Probst to say they, too, are disturbed by their state’s dramatic swing
to the right.”
— NPR’s All Things Considered, April 27.
Fretting the Sequester’s “Silent Victims”
“By fixing only the flight delays and other high-profile
effects of the sequester, some Democrats say less vocal victims of the budget
slashing have been left out in the cold....That leaves millions of Americans
harmed by the sequester wondering what Washington plans to do for them.”
— Correspondent Chip Reid on CBS This Morning, April 29.
Co-host Natalie Morales: “I mean, so many are hurting from
the sequestration. I mean, a lot of people are losing hours, losing, you know,
their jobs in the process as well. So, you know, there has to be some sort of
resolution fairly quickly.”
NBC’s Tamron Hall: “And there’s the silent victims. Because
again, we’re hearing about the air travelers because you’ve got pilots getting
on the planes saying, ‘That one-hour delay, blame the U.S. Government.’...But
the Head Start mom — you know, I saw one story on a Head Start mom, I think in Ohio,
who is like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ You know? It’s crazy.”
Co-host Willie Geist: “Not to mention seniors who need Meals
on Wheels.”
— Discussion on NBC’s Today, April 26.
A “Fear” Never Expressed About Liberal Newspaper Owners
“The billionaire Koch brothers may buy some of the nation’s
biggest newspapers. Why critics fear politics could get in the way of
journalism.”
— Co-host Charlie Rose teasing an upcoming segment on CBS
This Morning, May 10.
The Media Obviously Favor Conservatives and It’s “Silly” to Think Otherwise
“It’s silly that there’s a liberal bias in media. Obviously,
there are liberal voices and there are conservative voices. But overwhelmingly,
media in the United States
— television, newspapers, and that sort of thing — the bias shifts towards the
right. It’s a center-right media in this country.”
— Former NBC reporter and New York Times columnist Bob
Herbert on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, April 27.
Even Obama Knows MSNBC Is in the Tank for Him
“Some of my former advisers have switched over to the dark
side. For example, David Axelrod now works for MSNBC — which is a nice change
of pace since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod.”
— President Obama talking about his longtime political
advisor at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, April 27.
CBS Host Stoops to Hurling Insults at Gun Rights Senators
“Jeff Flake, our ‘Stooge of the Night’...Reminds me a little
of Gomer Pyle.”
— Host David Letterman on CBS’s Late Show, April 23.
“Senator Cruz voted ‘no’ on gun control reform. He recently
received $14,000 in contribution from the Gun Owners of America and the
National Association for Gun Rights. Senator Ted Cruz, there he is...How about
a background check on his barber?”
— Letterman the next night.
“Kentucky Senator Rand Paul voted ‘no’ on gun reform
legislation....Did he have to get a background check before he bought that
toupee? I don’t know....You folks in Kentucky
elected a toupee to the Senate.”
— Letterman on his May 8 show. As of his Friday, May 10,
show, Letterman had singled out for ridicule 15 U.S.
Senators who had voted against the liberal gun control bill.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
TIMESWATCH: Clay Waters
NEWS ANALYSTS: Scott Whitlock, Brad Wilmouth, Matthew Balan, Kyle Drennen and Matt Hadro
INTERNS: Jeffrey Meyer, Matt Vespa and Paul Bremmer
