What's Needed Is "Courage" to Raise Taxes
"Paul Ryan has shown considerable guts, but you're [Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen] correct that nobody on the Republican side is showing any courage on the tax front. And unless taxes are part of the mix, every grown-up knows it can't reach a solution."
- Correspondent Andrea Mitchell on NBC's Meet the Press, May 22.
"What about raising taxes?...At some point, do you have to look at raising taxes, and do people have to pay more for what's needed in this country?"
- Co-host Erica Hill to GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on CBS's The Early Show, May 23.
"Racially-Tinged" to Point Out Obama's Horrible Economic Record?
Clip of Newt Gingrich: "You want to be a country that creates food stamps, in which case, frankly, Obama is an enormous success - the most successful food stamp President in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks?"
Host David Gregory, to Gingrich: "First of all, you gave a speech in Georgia with language a lot of people think could be coded racially-tinged language, calling the President, the first black President, a 'food stamp President.'...What did you mean? What was the point?"
- NBC's Meet the Press, May 15.
"Race and cultural otherness were powerful undercurrents in Republican politics long before the nation's first black President came along....Gingrich's 'food stamp' line is an homage of sorts to Ronald Reagan's 'welfare queens.'"
- New York Times political reporter Matt Bai in a May 17 column, "Race and Republican Attacks on Obama."
Blaming Non-Existent Proposed Medicare "Cuts" for GOP Defeat
"We begin with a seismic event in the political world. Democrats have pulled off a shocking upset, winning a special election in a staunchly Republican congressional district in upstate New York. The GOP candidate lost after backing that Republican plan to cut billions from Medicare."
- News reader Josh Elliot on ABC's Good Morning America, May 25. In fact, the Republican House-approved budget would increase Medicare funding by nearly 70% over the next 10 years, from $563 billion to $953 billion.
"Destroying Medicare" = "New Litmus Test" for GOP
"My favorite detail though of the whole Gingrich-Paul Ryan kerfluffle was not even two days had gone by before a White House aide sat up and said, 'Well this just proves that destroying Medicare is the new litmus test for the Republican Party primary.' So they see an opportunity here to just drive that whole debate further and further to the right toward the Tea Party, away from the center, and that's why they were happy about what happened."
- Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Duffy on PBS's Washington Week, May 20.
Tea Party: Nothing but a Bunch of Obama-Haters
"The marriage between the Republicans and the Tea Party is based on hatred, hatred of government, hatred of the Democrats, hatred of Barack Obama. What's love got to do with it? Zip....Republicans will not say what the Tea Parties live for, the hatred of government, of the Democrats, of President Obama. They have to hear he doesn't simply disagree with them, but that he's not one of them. It's evil, it's hatred of what works over there. And it's over there that spells political death for the Republicans."
- MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball, May 16.
CNN Host Converses with "Thoughtful" Obama...
Host Eliot Spitzer: "I read something in the paper this week a couple of days ago that actually made me - you know brought a smile to my face. It said the President of the United States calls you for wisdom and advice about issues around the world. So first, when he calls you, what does he say? 'Hi, Barack calling for Fareed?' What does he do?"
CNN's Fareed Zakaria: "Mostly it's been face-to-face meetings, you know, it's usually organized by Tom Donilon, the national security adviser. What I'm struck by, though, honestly, Eliot, is how much time he's spending thinking about the issues of the Arab Spring.... It's been a very thoughtful conversation."
- CNN's In the Arena, May 12.
...Then Lauds "Good" Speech from Our "Educator-in-Chief"
"It was his role as educator-in-chief that came out today....It was a good speech....He also gave a speech that I would be surprised if anyone in Israel would object to, because he was very clear that Israel's legitimate security interests have to be taken care of....He was quite even-handed while calling for a Palestinian state on '67 borders, plus-or-minus land slots."
- Zakaria commenting on CNN immediately after President Obama's speech on Middle East policy, May 19.
Defending Obama vs. "Rude" Netanyahu
"Even before he got on the plane, he criticized the President, and in such a fashion! He lectured him in the Oval Office. And if you look at that picture that you have up there right now, it was a stone-faced Barack Obama and Netanyahu basically treating him like a school boy. People even who work for Netanyahu, some Israeli officials, told him later that he went too far, that it was really rude, and that there would be blowback to this."
- NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell on Meet the Press, May 22.
As If Democrats Never Criticized Bush's Foreign Policy
"The political pitfalls of wading into the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate was on display today, with Republican presidential contenders piling on the President, 2012 hopefuls slamming Mr. Obama for saying that Israel should give up lands occupied since 1967....Whatever happened to politics ending at the water's edge?"
- Andrea Mitchell anchoring her 1pm ET MSNBC program, Andrea Mitchell Reports, May 20.
Bad Weather = Chance to Hype Global Warming Fears
"It was an incredible weekend of tornadoes, 70 of them in seven states. And so many people have been asking the same question: Is this it, this is the evidence of a kind of preview of life under global warming?..."
- Anchor Diane Sawyer on ABC's World News, May 23.
"What about climate change? You have many people who see these severe storms - and not just the tornadoes, but the strength of hurricanes and even severe storms. We're getting hail and high winds right now from Texas, I believe, all the way through the Midwest. Is this a result of climate change or an effect of climate change?"
- MSNBC daytime anchor Tamron Hall, May 23.
Obama's Blessing Triggers "Metamorphosis" for Al Sharpton
"Say 'Al Sharpton' and most people probably think 'loudmouth activist' and 'provocateur.' Well, that certainly was his image in the '80s and '90s. Well, the Reverend Al has gone through something of a metamorphosis. Today, he's downright tame, so much that he's made his way into the establishment. It's been quite a trajectory: from street-protest agitator to candidate for President in 2004, to now, a trusted White House adviser who's become the President's go-to black leader...."
- Lesley Stahl setting up a profile of Al Sharpton on CBS's 60 Minutes, May 22.
Another Day, Another Display of Liberal Civility
"[Republicans are] not thinking about their next-door neighbor. They're just thinking about how much this is going to cost. President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday, but you know what they're talking about? Like this right-wing slut, what's her name, Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she's a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama's doing it, they're working him over."
- Ed Schultz on his radio program, May 24. The next night, Schultz appeared on his 10pm ET MSNBC show to apologize: "I used vile and inappropriate language when talking about talk show host Laura Ingraham. I am deeply sorry, and I apologize." [MP3 audio [1] (0:54)]
"You know, when you hear the word 'slut,' - I mean, I even hate to say it on our air, to be honest with you - but there are mixed interpretations about the word."
- CNN's Randi Kaye to media critic Howard Kurtz on Newsroom, May 26.
Reagan Cartoon = "Cambodian Re-Education Camp"
Host Chris Matthews: "Next up, through the looking glass. 2012 contender Mike Huckabee is producing animated history lessons for children. What was America like before Ronald Reagan? Here's the conservative spin."
Animated character: "The downturn in the economy is killing us, people are out of work, and some of their morals are just gone."...
Cartoon version of Ronald Reagan: "God had a plan for America. I see it as a shining city on a hill. If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under."
Matthews: "You know, I don't know whether that's right from a Cambodian re-education camp or it's Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. What propaganda!"
- MSNBC's Hardball, May 12 [Audio/video (1:15): Windows Media [2] | MP3 audio [3]]
Newt Gingrich: Always Wrong About Everything
"He's [Newt Gingrich] an idiot who has always been wrong about every single thing he's ever talked about."
- HBO's Bill Maher on his Real Time show, May 13.
Better Mark Him Down as "Undecided"
"Shameless. That's the word for this entry. Newt is the guy who brought nastiness to the U.S. Congress in the 1980s. Newt is a downward influence on American politics. He not only behaves nasty, he sells nasty....He robs the political arena of joy and humanity and screeches anger and menace. I cannot believe there are young Republican idealists out there, young people with hope who want our country to be good and have good politics, who want to resurrect this element of Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street politics."
- MSNBC's Chris Matthews on the May 12 Hardball, talking about Newt Gingrich's presidential candidacy. [Audio/video (0:47): Windows Media [4] | MP3 audio [5]]
Scorning "Eye-Poppingly Awful" Rush Limbaugh
"Not to be unoriginal but Beck and Limbaugh are eye-poppingly awful. It would be easier to buy their love of America if they didn't have such hate for Americans. They're my generation's Joe McCarthy - tarring anyone who disagrees with them with schoolyard epithets and, of course, being 'un-American' or even on the side of America's enemies - but they reach a much, much larger audience than McCarthy did. They appeal to the worst in the worst among us and squander an opportunity - all those eyes and ears - to inspire."
- Writer and producer Aaron Sorkin talking about his "media diet" [6] to The Atlantic's John Hudson, May 18.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoff Dickens
NEWS ANALYSTS: Brad Wilmouth, Scott Whitlock, Matthew Balan, Kyle Drennen and Matt Hadro
INTERNS: Alex Fitzsimmons, Eric Ames