Time to Surrender: “The War Over ObamaCare Is Over”
CBS’s Bob Schieffer: “They’re going to pass this [measure to defund ObamaCare] in the House, I would assume, and it’s going to go nowhere in the Senate. When the Wall Street Journal compares them to, you know, those Japanese suicide pilots in World War II, I wonder if it isn’t — I think that’s apt. But even more apt, you remember — way on into the 1950s when they go into the jungles of the Philippines and they find these Japanese soldiers that thought World War II was still going on?”
Co-host Gayle King: “Good analogy.”
Schieffer: “I mean, you know, the war over ObamaCare is over. You know?...I think in the long run this is going to hurt the Republicans.”
— CBS This Morning, September 20.
Slashing Ted Cruz: A “Sinister, Self-Assured” Exterminator
“I want to say a word about this Ted Cruz guy. Not since Joe McCarthy have we seen a senator with such sinister self-assuredness. The Senator from Texas knows who and what he hates. He hates everything about President Obama. His goal is to exterminate the entire Obama record, reject everyone Obama nominates for office....Cruz wants to kill the Affordable Care Act, which was legitimately enacted into law. He wants to bring the American government to a halt, renege on the national debt in order to get it removed. This is how he wants to be known. This is a brand he wants to establish for himself, even if it tears the government apart.”
— Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, September 23.
No Respect for Cruz’s “Bizarre” Anti-ObamaCare Fight...
“Breaking right now: One Tea Party Senator’s all-night marathon fight against the President in a bizarre, blockbuster speech on Capitol Hill....Ted Cruz has been going more than 16 hours. But can he really reverse the President’s health care bill?”
— Co-host George Stephanopoulos opening ABC’s Good Morning America, Sept. 25.
Co-host Matt Lauer: “Obviously, a lot of people are talking about Ted Cruz this morning. He’s getting the attention he wanted. I think a lot of people tuning in right now, just wondering how long he can keep his eyes open or, as Kelly said, stay on his feet. Is there anything real behind this political theater?”
Correspondent Chuck Todd: “Well, so far, no. I mean, it’s just nothing but the world’s longest ‘TED-talk.’”
— NBC’s Today, September 25.
...But a Pro-Abortion Filibuster Makes You a “Political Star”
“The marathon filibuster that went viral has turned a little-known Texas lawmaker into a national political star....Some political analysts are comparing it to the 1988 Democratic convention speech that catapulted Ann Richards to the national stage.”
— Correspondent Manuel Bojorquez on CBS This Morning, June 27, talking about state senator Wendy Davis’ ultimately futile attempt to block passage of a pro-life law in Texas.
Cokie Smears: “Some of This Tea Party Anger Is Racist”
“I also think and, you know, just calling it, that some of this Tea Party anger is racist, and that having a non-black person on the ticket will defuse it to some degree.”
— ABC News and National Public Radio analyst Cokie Roberts on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, September 25.
ObamaCare Opponents = Extortionists and Blackmailers
“This is really serious....The Republicans are out here, a group of them in the House, essentially using extortion and blackmail methods to say, ‘If we don’t defund ObamaCare, we’re not going to do the routine things of government.’”
— Washington Post’s Bob Woodward on NBC’s Meet the Press, September 15.
CNN Sneers: Founding Fathers Wouldn’t Approve
“Something approaching, really, a civil war has broken out among conservatives over who hates ObamaCare the most, and who is most willing to shut the government down to keep it from working....Congress passes a law, in this case ObamaCare, and then some of its members turn around and essentially try to sabotage it. Again, I repeat, it’s a law. Certainly not the way that the Founding Fathers maybe drew this thing up.”
— Brooke Baldwin opening the 2pm ET hour of CNN Newsroom, September 19.
“News” Anchor Scolds “Temper Tantrum” by Republican “Liars”
“Some lawmakers are a throwing temper tantrum, Tom, and yet again holding the American people hostage instead of telling them the truth....The American people are in peril. Livelihoods are in peril because some Republicans — not all, but some — have lied themselves into a corner and threatened to shut down the government unless ObamaCare is no longer funded. Talk about selfish. Talk about taking your marbles and going home.”
— CNN anchor Don Lemon during an appearance on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, September 24.
GOP Telling Young People to Die In Order to Hurt Obama
“The GOP is saying to young people, ‘We would like to have the government stick an unnecessary transvaginal probe in you if you want an abortion, but when it comes to health insurance, don’t take any government help. Don’t go to the state or federal government-operated insurance exchanges to buy private insurance. Stay away. Stay uninsured. Skip that pap smear. Skip that tetanus shot. Skip that prenatal care. Skip that cholesterol test. And if you die an agonizing and unnecessary death, one that could have been prevented by the health insurance reform that bears the President’s name, at least you know your death will have not been in vain. You will have died to serve the noble and patriotic cause not of conservatism, but of hurting this president and denying him a victory.’...They would sacrifice the lives of young people if it helped them score political points. That is not conservative. It is a national disgrace.”
— Co-host Krystal Ball on MSNBC’s The Cycle, September 24.
Republicans Want to “Destroy America” and “Repeal the 20th Century”
“The Republican Party is destroying America. Harsh words, yes. But inescapably true. It’s a bit of a murder-suicide. House Republicans’ willingness to lay waste to the country to satisfy their fringiest faction will ultimately guarantee the GOP irrelevancy as a national party, unless they change their ways. In the meantime, they seem determined to take us all down with them.”
— Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers in a September 19 article posted at The Daily Beast Web site.
“They [the Tea Party] want to repeal ObamaCare. They want to repeal the 21st century. They want to go back and repeal the 20th century. They’re gunning for Social Security and Medicare and New Deal protections of workers. They really want to send us back to a day when women were in the kitchen, where people, where workers didn’t have protections, where there were no wage protections, and, of course, there was no guaranteed health insurance.”
— Salon.com editor Joan Walsh on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, September 23.
CNN Tries to Blame Budget Cuts for Shooting Rampage
“We’re talking a lot about what happened here [at the Washington Navy Yard] yesterday, the tragic events, and one of the questions being raised about yesterday’s shooting rampage, did government cuts put security at risk?...[later, to Rep. Mike Turner] I want to ask you about sequestration, because D.C.’s mayor came out and said sequestration is partly to blame for this. Do you agree?”
— Anchor Carol Costello on CNN Newsroom, September 17, as an on-screen headline read: “Did Government Cuts Put Lives at Risk?”
Ed Schultz: “It Amazes Me that People Don’t Love Obama”
“I just cannot believe this number. Seriously. President Obama’s handling of the economy. Only 45 percent of the American people think he’s doing a good job on the economy and 52 percent disapprove? You mean to tell me we’ve had 41 months of private-sector job growth? We’ve got a stock market that is absolutely going through the roof? We’ve got record profits? People’s 401(k)s are in the market and that’s the best people think? You know what that is? That is a lot of negative campaigning in the media. That is the Republican, conservative effect on how we think as a country....It amazes me that people don’t love Obama.”
— Host Ed Schultz on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, September 13.
MSNBC Even Tries to Spin Syria Debacle as a “Big Win” for Obama
“You know, doesn’t President Obama actually come out the big winner here ultimately? Because without firing a shot, you said you believe that Syria will get rid of its chemical weapons....Do you think ultimately that President Obama is the big winner here? Because look what is going to be accomplished if this deal is followed through without the launch of one missile....The President having achieved his stated goal of getting Bashar al-Assad to stop using chemical weapons, and now it may play out that way without one single missile being fired.”
— Anchor Alex Witt to various guests on MSNBC Weekends with Alex Witt, September 14.
PBS Host Chagrined to Hear Talk of “American Exceptionalism”
“The President recently, much to my chagrin, spoke of, advanced once again, this notion of ‘American Exceptionalism,’ and clearly he isn’t the only one in town who likes to push that notion that we as Americans are exceptional. The reality is that this week alone gives us all the evidence we need to push back, to question that particular claim. When Republicans want to shut down the government over political posturing, when you can kill innocent children at Sandy Hook and there’s no real gun control debate, those who we are supposed to protect, our babies, now you can fire indiscriminately on those who protect us....If we don’t course-correct soon, we are going to lose our democracy. It’s that serious.”
— Tavis Smiley on Meet the Press, September 22.
Without Anti-Conservative Vitriol, It’s Not “Good Journalism”
“The Republican-led House yesterday voted to make deep cuts to the food stamps program that has kept millions of American families from going hungry since the recession hit, saying its response to growing need was instead a sign of bloat and abuse....I decided to closely examine this morning’s coverage of the vote because such a blatantly absurd and cruel move struck me as a good test of whether the Washington press corps could ever bring itself to call things as they so obviously are — or whether they would check their very good brains at the door and just write triangulating mush that leaves readers to fend for themselves.”
— Ex-Washington Post writer Dan Froomkin in a September 20 Huffington Post article, “Writing a Neutral Story About Something So Heartless As the Food Stamp Vote Is Not Good Journalism.”
Hollywood’s Concept of a “Republican” News Anchor
“I call myself a Republican because I am one. I believe in market solutions and I believe in common-sense realities, and the necessity to defend ourselves against a dangerous world, and that’s about it. The problem is, now I have to be homophobic. I have to count the number of times people go to church. I have to deny facts and think scientific research is a long con. I have to think poor people are getting a sweet ride. And I have to have such a stunning inferiority complex that I fear education and intellect in the 21st century. But most of all, the biggest new requirement, really the only requirement, is that I have to hate Democrats. And I have to hate Chris Christie for not spitting on the President when he got off Air Force One.”
— Fictional news anchor “Will McAvoy,” played by actor Jeff Daniels, on the Sept. 15 edition of HBO’s Newsroom.
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