Tag Archives: eugene-robinson

Matthews Gets Another Tingle for Obama’s ‘Cute’ ‘Wonderful’ ‘Boyish’ ‘Smile We All Love’

Barack Obama's tax compromise victory has got tingles running back up Chris Matthews' leg. After showing a clip of the President at Friday's bill signing, the “Hardball” host raved to guests Eugene Robinson and Howard Fineman about the Commander-in-Chief's “cute smile we all love…That wonderful, boyish smile” (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more

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Matthews Gets Another Tingle for Obama’s ‘Cute’ ‘Wonderful’ ‘Boyish’ ‘Smile We All Love’

Pulitzer Board Moves Further Left, Picks Up WaPo’s Eugene Robinson

Columbia University announced Thursday that Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson will join the Pulitzer Board, which gives out the renowned journalism awards each year. Robinson, who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the 2008 presidential race, will strengthen the leftist complexion of the board, which already has a meager presence of conservative minds. In fact, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot seems to be the only “openly” conservative member of the board. read more

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Pulitzer Board Moves Further Left, Picks Up WaPo’s Eugene Robinson

Washington Post/MSNBC’s Robinson Plagiarizes Peter Jennings on Electorate’s ‘Temper Tantrum’

The late Peter Jennings, shortly after the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994: “Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week.” Washington Post Associate Editor Eugene Robinson , a frequent guest analyst on MSNBC, in his Friday column on polls showing voters will throw out Democrats, again, in November: “This isn’t an ‘electoral wave,’ it’s a temper tantrum.” More Jennings from 1994: “Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old.” And more from Robinson this year: “The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.” James Taranto highlighted the similarities in his Friday “Best of the Web Today ” for the Wall Street Journal’s online opinion page. Then-ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings in his daily ABC Radio commentary of November 14, 1994, the winner of the “ Sore Losers Award (for Midterm Election Reporting) ” in the MRC’s “ The Best Notable Quotables of 1994: The Seventh Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting .” Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It’s clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It’s the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week….Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old. Robinson’s September 3 column, “ The spoiled-brat American electorate ,” began: According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they’re ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans — for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum. Later: But there’s no mistaking the public mood, and the truth is that it makes no sense. In the punditry business, it’s considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, it’s impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.

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Washington Post/MSNBC’s Robinson Plagiarizes Peter Jennings on Electorate’s ‘Temper Tantrum’

WaPo’s Eugene Robinson Dismisses MLK Niece Alveda King as ‘Figurehead or Puppet’ of Glenn Beck

Appearing as a guest on Friday’s Countdown show on MSNBC, during a discussion of conservative talker Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson dismissed Dr. Alveda King – niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former Georgia state representative – as a “figurehead or puppet” of Beck because of her scheduled participation in the rally. And, even though she and her father took part in the Civil Rights Movement and even endured having her home bombed in the 1960s, Robinson went on to suggest that she really is not one of the “keepers of [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s] legacy” because she is supposedly “estranged from the rest of the King family.” Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, August 27, Countdown show on MSNBC: KEITH OLBERMANN: Lastly, Alveda King’s appearance there, Dr. King’s niece and her appearance tomorrow. Is there anything to say about that? EUGENE ROBINSON, WASHINGTON POST: Just that she becomes a very convenient figurehead or puppet or whatever you want to call her for Beck’s view. She’s a fundamentalist, very conservative Christian. That’s how she would describe herself. She’s estranged from the rest of the King family, and from the keepers of his legacy. She has her own, they believe that gay marriage is genocide, and that’s who she is. And so she’ll be there. And they’ll make a whole lot of the fact that an actual relative of Dr. King is there at the march speaking.

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WaPo’s Eugene Robinson Dismisses MLK Niece Alveda King as ‘Figurehead or Puppet’ of Glenn Beck

WaPo’s Eugene Robinson: Obama Is On A ‘Winning Streak’

What kind of shameless shill do you have to be to claim the President is on a winning streak as his poll numbers plummet, the economy teeters on a double-dip recession, and his Party is facing historic losses in both chambers of Congress? A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and former managing editor of the Washington Post, that’s who. Consider that just days after numerous polls were released showing America’s confidence in Barack Obama at an all-time low, and stallwart supporters such as CNN and the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd claimed that even George W. Bush was better at delivering a coherent message to the American people, Eugene Robinson wrote the following Friday: This is a radical break from journalistic convention, I realize, but today I’d like to give credit where it’s due — specifically, to President Obama. Quiet as it’s kept, he’s on a genuine winning streak. Robinson then listed the following items by way of recent headlines: “Last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq” “General Motors to launch stock offering” “Gulf oil spill contained” But here was the best one. In fact, it’s so good it requires a serious warning to remove all fluids, combustibles, and sharp objects from proximity to your computer: And finally, “President wades into mosque controversy”: Yes, I’m serious. Supporting the mosque in Lower Manhattan didn’t score any political points. But Obama saw his duty to uphold the values of our Constitution and make clear that our fight is against the terrorists, not against Islam itself. Instead of doing what was popular, he did what was right. He still hasn’t walked on water, though. What’s wrong with the man? Yep. Robinson is so captivated by this President that he even believes Obama has handled the Ground Zero mosque situation well. Now THAT’S some impressive shilling, wouldn’t you agree? This is sooooo good it requires what Hillary Clinton would call a willing suspension of disbelief. For instance, here are some recent headlines one would have to ignore to come to the conclusion Obama is on a winning streak: Jobless claims hit 500K, a nine-month high New jobs numbers: Bad for economy, worse for Democrats US unemployment figures increase fears of double-dip recession Critics say Obama’s message becoming ‘ incoherent ‘ If polls are any indication, GOP can expect big gains in the fall Even the Poor Are Abandoning Obama , According to Gallup Poll Data ‎ Obama Sees New Lows in Job Approval Obama Receives Low Marks in Economic Poll ‎ Poll: Majority now disapprove of Obama’s job performance 1 in 5 Americans Thinks Obama Is Muslim If this is what Robinson thinks is a winning streak, I can’t imagine what losing looks like to him.

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WaPo’s Eugene Robinson: Obama Is On A ‘Winning Streak’

Our Rangel Game: Which Eugene Robinson Is It?

On August 5, 2010, The Washington Post published a short editorial by Eugene Robinson with the title “Charlie Rangel’s no crook.” But on October 9, 2009, the same Eugene Robinson penned a column titled ” Charlie Rangel’s Cloud: An Ethics Case Could Drag Democrats Down.” The closer we get to elections, Robinson seems to get progressively less impressed with the case against Rangel. This is his new Rangel-name-is-cleared line: Charlie Rangel’s no crook. He’s right to insist on the opportunity to clear his name, because the charges against him range from the technical all the way to the trivial. All right, there’s one exception: On his federal tax returns, Rangel failed to declare rental income from a vacation property he owns in the Dominican Republic — a mortifying embarrassment for the one-time chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the tax code. But certain facts about this transgression rarely get mentioned. For one thing, Rangel’s so-called “villa” can’t be very palatial, since it cost only $82,750 when he bought it in 1987. For another, Rangel has already filed amended tax returns and paid everything he owed, plus penalties and interest. The remaining charges are yawn-inducing. Even assuming that the allegations, as presented to the House Ethics Committee, are wholly true, the case against Rangel has a Gertrude Stein problem: There’s no there there. Compare that mistakes-were-made line to what Robinson wrote last fall:  House Democrats had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously. I know it’s difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill’s hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of “mistakes were made” — which a lot of Democrats would like to reach — doesn’t cut it in the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously. Welcome to Eugene vs. Eugene. He is seriously beating himself up. There’s more from last year: If you win big majorities in both the House and Senate by railing against a “culture of corruption” in Washington, as the Democratic Party did, voters tend to get the wacky notion that you actually mean what you say. The violations that Rangel is alleged to have committed are, inconveniently for him, easy for anyone to understand. The most serious, perhaps, is the allegation that he failed to pay taxes on about $75,000 in income from renting out a beach house that he owns in the Dominican Republic. For the chairman of the House committee that writes tax legislation not to pay his fair share in taxes would be as bad as, say, for the secretary of the Treasury not to pay his fair share in taxes. (Hold it, maybe that’s a bad example .) The most stunning alleged violation is more of a technicality: That on required financial disclosure forms, Rangel failed to list more than $500,000 in assets. The average citizen isn’t likely to have half a million bucks somehow slip his mind, since the average citizen doesn’t have anything near half a million bucks. And we’re not talking easily overlooked “Antiques Roadshow” assets — a dusty painting in the attic that turns out to be the work of a second-tier Old Master, or a rickety chair in the basement that experts date as 18th century. What Rangel failed to declare were liquid assets — a credit union account worth more than $250,000 and an investment account also worth more than $250,000 — plus some real estate he owns in New Jersey and assorted stock holdings. If you quoted this column back to New Eugene, he might accuse you of being a partisan Republican hack. New Eugene also had this to say on MSNBC’s Morning Joe (as MRC’s Rachel Burnett found). Scarborough said the messes around Rangel and Maxine Waters aren’t good for the Democrats as a whole, even though Joe likes Maxine “very much.” Robinson replied that Rangel’s replies were changing his formerly tough journalistic mind: On the other hand, it is what happens if you run against culture of corruption; you actually crack down and ramp up the ethics committee and, you know, look for the stuff you find it. I think my assessment of the two cases would actually be a bit different from yours, actually. I haven’t read that deeply into the Waters case but that really sounds pretty bad. I mean, on its face it sounds like there should be a refusal by her and stayed away from that. I have, however, gone through Charlie Rangel’s 32-page response to the charges against him. And it’s still very bad for him politically . I think he’s not without any legs to stand on, however. We keep saying 13 ethics charges. It really boils down to three or four incidents and when you actually look at them, you know, some of them are not all that troublesome. So I actually understand why he wants to have his day in court. PS: In 2005, Robinson giddily looked forward to Tom DeL:ay in jail in a piece titled “Immoral Majority.”   So pardon me for going way beyond schadenfreude to outright giddiness at the prospect that the Hammer will finally get nailed. It may be too much to hope that the former House majority leader — and how good it feels to write “former” — will actually be convicted and do jail time. The indictment for criminal conspiracy returned by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday is for alleged campaign finance violations that are the rough equivalent of money laundering, which is not the easiest crime to prove in court. Five years later, and Eugene’s still waiting for that conviction. 

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Our Rangel Game: Which Eugene Robinson Is It?

Catching Heat From Left, Obama Meets With Liberal Commentators to Discuss Gulf Spill

President Obama met with a group of prominent liberal commentators on Thursday to discuss the Gulf oil spill and the administration’s response. The meeting came in the midst of a rare firestorm of criticism from the left over the president’s response to the spill. It was surely not coincidence that the journalists seen leaving the White House that afternoon–the New York Times’s Gail Collins , the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson , MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow , and the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib –were some of the more prominent critics of the president’s Oval Office address on Tuesday. The meeting demonstrates two facts: the White House is trying furiously to spin media coverage of the federal response to the spill in the administration’s favor, and the old White House double standard towards the news media persists. Though hardly shocking, the Obama administration continues to employ a vicious double standard that dubs any news organization that criticizes the president something short of legitimate. Lest anyone has forgotten, two top White House officials–chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and political advisor David Axelrod –both rhetorically negated Fox’s credentials as a legitimate news organization. Thursday’s meeting suggests another layer of partisanship that, though hardly surprising, is still quite telling. While Fox is demonized, some of the left’s most partisan commentators are not only granted the White House’s seal of legitimacy, but are even give privileged access to the president. The meeting also suggests that Obama is devoting more effort to spinning his administration’s policies concerning the gulf spill than he is with actually devising more effective policies. His meeting with these lefty journalists was, after all, roughly three times as long as his meeting with BP CEO Tony Hayward.

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Catching Heat From Left, Obama Meets With Liberal Commentators to Discuss Gulf Spill

Sarah Palin on Sarah Palin’s Climate Change Flip-Flop

That Palin is a character. First she was totally for responding to climate change, for political expediency

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Sarah Palin on Sarah Palin’s Climate Change Flip-Flop