Everyone should be thankful that MSNBC has hired the outspoken angry critics and has managed to keep them out of the circles of power in government.
Case in point – MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, who [1]was considering a run for the North Dakota’s open senate seat, which is being vacated by Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan, gave his thoughts on how President Barack Obama should handle embattled oil giant BP as he address the nation about the Gulf Coast oil spill.
“That's really what we want to know tonight, Mr. President – can you stand up to BP?” Schultz said on his June 15 program. “BP has vast oil reserves and a big bank account, but getting money out of these guys is like getting blood out of a rock. Look at all of the different incidents that they've been involved in and have been able to weasel out of it legally in the past with minimal price paid.”
Earlier in the day, [2]Schultz had made a similar call, but he was more animated as he explained he wanted to see the administration follow through with its “boot-on-the-neck” response and called for Obama to “kind of” act like a dictator. [Emphasis added]
“Mr. President, I want to see the boot on the neck of BP tonight. I want to see some finger-pointing whether it's in your personality or not and it's OK tonight to act kind of like a dictator and call the shots saying this is the way it's going to be. BP has lied to the citizens of this country long enough. It's been one misstep after another. One lie, one half-truth after another. It's time for the President of the United States to lay it out there in full force for the citizens of the United States and make it very clear that BP is going to make us whole, whole again and whole for a long time.”
But he used that rhetoric not once, but twice in this broadcast. In a later segment interviewing Rep. Dennis Kucinich, he raised the point again that perhaps Obama should act like a dictator. [Emphasis added]
“Don't you think this is a moment where President Obama has to make sure that he lets everybody know that he's calling the shots, and almost in words of maybe a dictator, that this is the way we're going to do it? And when I hear reported today by Chuck Todd here on MSNBC that the Obama administration is negotiating with BP over a third independent party as to whether they're going to oversee the claims process, it just makes me think that BP is calling the shots and not the American people.”
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