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Maher Charges GOP w/ Racism & Invokes N Word, New Yorkers Should ‘Forget About’ 9/11 Because Mastermind Caught

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday’s Larry King Live on CNN, comedian Bill Maher picked up on a recent contention by Newt Gingrich that President Obama is motivated by anti-colonialism which his Kenyan father felt as the Real Time with Bill Maher host smeared the potential 2012 Republican presidential field as racist: How are they going to out-firebreathe each other? I mean, where this rhetoric has gone to at this point. It’s only 2010, and we’re having Newt Gingrich, as we were talking about before, calling him an anti-colonial Luo tribesman. … That’s the new Kenyan, Larry. And Kenyan, of course, was code for n*****. But that’s where they are. They can’t say it out loud. But that’s where this whole campaign is going to be. You asked about racism. It’s all about racism. They cannot fathom this idea that there is a black President. And that’s what they are going to fight about. Maher also declared that, while he personally likes Delaware GOP senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell because she is a “nice person” who used to be a frequent guest on his Politically Incorrect show in 1990s, that he was also cheering for her and other “tea baggers” to win GOP primaries, declaring that “she’s going to get her Christian ass kicked in the general election.” And, as the topic turned to the Ground Zero mosque, while Maher acknowledged that there is a substantial amount of Islamic extremism in the world, he believed using the military against it makes it worse, and suggested that, because 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has already been captured, America should declare victory and New Yorkers should “forget about it.” Referring to the 9/11 mastermind, Maher declared: He was not really al-Qaeda. He went to bin Laden for financing. Bin Laden was like the studio. You know, he gave notes, but he gave financing, and he did his own thing. Okay, we got this guy. We water boarded him 183 times in one month. He’s behind bars. Why can’t we just say, okay, we got the guy who was behind 9/11. Now, hey, New Yorkers, forget about it. Not forget about it entirely, but, you know, we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave. We should act like it. Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Tuesday, September 14, Larry King Live on CNN, with critical portions in bold : LARRY KING: Bill, I know you have a personal interest in Delaware, which is, could be the big story of the night because the Republican establishment figure looks like he’s going to get beat. The Republican establishment saying they won’t support the woman who’s going to beat him, a Tea Party person, who you brought us. BILL MAHER: I really did. I mean, Christine- KING: Tell us. MAHER: -O’Donnell was one of our most frequent guests on Politically Incorrect. People who may not remember Politically Incorrect because they’re too young or they were watching Johnny Carson or something, no, I guess JJ was there in the ‘90s, may not remember that we created people like Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham. Oh, I could go on about the number of female- KING: How did you find them? MAHER: We used to, we liked to book, I don’t know. I drank a lot in those days, Larry. But we did like to book a lot of female conservatives. They were good press and they were good for the show. We loved Christine O’Donnell. I still like her. You cannot not like her. She is such a nice person. We have a great clip that used to be in our highlight reel of Ben Affleck on that show just saying, “Please, Christine, shut up.” Because I guess she would just go on. She was known back then as the girl from SALT. SALT being the Savior’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth. And I guess that’s still the shtick that she’s- KING: Evangelicals. MAHER: Right, absolutely. So part of me for sentimental reasons is rooting for Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. The other part of me is rooting for her because she’s going to get her Christian ass kicked in the general election. This is the great thing about the tea baggers and the Republican party. A year ago, we were debating whether tea baggers were even Republicans. Remember? They were very independent, and then a poll came out and we blew the lid off of it, okay, they’re really Republicans. Yeah, they’re really Republicans. And they’re taking over that party. KING: So who should worry about them more, Republicans or Democrats? MAHER: Democrats should be very happy that people like Christine O’Donnell are winning elections because in the general election, I think, now, of course, the Democrats are going to lose some seats, probably a lot. But not as many as they would have if the tea baggers weren’t winning the primaries because I think voters are generally conservative. And when I mean, when I say conservative I mean they’re not comfortable with people who are out there on the left or the right. And these tea baggers are out there. I’ve said it before probably on your show. When people get in a voting booth, it’s like when they go on an aeroplane. They get scared. They tend to do things that are conservative in nature, even if they’re liberal. And I don’t think even conservative voters will look at people like Sharron Angle or maybe Joe Miller in Alaska, although Alaska is a separate case because they’re very conservative there. But certainly Christine O’Donnell could not win in a state like Delaware because she’s just crazy. Even people who know- KING: How out there, when you say crazy, give me an example. MAHER: Well, I just think that people, they understand our country is in a lot of trouble. Even people who are angry understand that crazy people are not going to make it better. Christine O’Donnell like all these tea baggers has no plan, no agenda. No policy points. They have one advantage: They’re running against Democrats. That’s their big advantage. 　 9:05 p.m. KING: How did we get to this, though? MAHER: Well, you know, I have a theory that the Internet makes people stupider. And Also Fox News makes people stupider. You know the Pew group did a study recently and they found out that 10 years ago, Democrats, Republicans and independents basically got their news from the same sources, probably more from CNN, for example. Then we had this polarity. And now, you know, John Edwards said we have two Americas. We do have two Americas. We have the America that’s living in reality, the people who understand that Obama is a centrist liberal from Hawaii who’s trying to dig us out of the hole we’re in. And then we have this other Fox/Matt Drudge/Rush Limbaugh reality where he’s a Muslim sleeper cell, Manchurian candidate who was sent over by his Kenyan father- KING: What kind of intelligent person would believe that? MAHER: Intelligent person? Larry, we’re broadcasting in America. How ridiculous. Well, no, I don’t think intelligent people do believe it. But, you know, then we’re going to get into partisan bickering because more than half of Republicans agreed with a statement that said Obama is trying to impose Islamic law on America. I mean, that is a very radical thing to believe. And it’s more than half of Republicans – not tea baggers, not radicals – the mainstream Republican people. KING: Is there a racist tone in this? Is there a, in other words, is this racist, is this inherent racism? Where’s it coming from? MAHER: Does the Pope go to the bathroom in the woods? (LARRY KING LAUGHS) MAHER: Yes, Larry, it’s extremely racist. I mean it’s so funny because the tea baggers, the one thing they hate is when you call them racist. The other thing they hate is black people. (LARRY KING LAUGHS) MAHER: But they won’t say it. I mean, if you saw what Newt Gingrich was saying. KING: Oh yeah, oh. MAHER: Okay. For those who know, and I don’t even know if I can even recount it in a way that makes sense to people. But he was quoting from an article by Dinesh D’Souza who is, by the way, is an amoral person who was the guest on my show on the night six days after 9/11 when I got into all that trouble for saying that the people who flew planes into the building were not cowards. He was the one who started that discussion. He said it over and over. He, I was agreeing with him when I got thrown off the air. But he never ever came out and said, you know what, I started that, I should defend Bill Maher . Rush Limbaugh came to my defense and a lot of other people, but not the guy who actually made the statement. Anyway, Dinesh D’Souza, who said a lot of crazy things, he is saying now, and Newt Gingrich says this is what he believes, that Obama is getting his philosophy from his father who he spent about a month with in his whole life when he was eight years ago old. And that his father was a Luo tribesman from Kenya who was mad at white people. And so Newt says that he’s anti-colonial like that’s a bad thing. You know, like when George Washington was fighting the British. … MAHER: The girl from SALT, praise Jesus, has won the election. She will never win in November, by the way. That is an impossibility … KING: How do you defeat terrorism? MAHER: You don’t. That’s the key, Larry. You don’t defeat it. You have to understand it’s always with us. It’s like saying how do you defeat crime? You can’t defeat crime. This idea- KING: Violent crime is down in America. Three straight years. MAHER: Down, right, and we’ve made terrorism go down. And, by the way, Obama has been President for 20 months and there has not been an attack. Bush was President for nine months when we got hit. So on that score, he’s kept us safer. KING: But they’ll, you’re saying there will always be, a terrorist is born today? MAHER: Of course. Especially since we do things like invade Muslim countries. KING: Should we not have called it a war on terrorism? MAHER: Exactly. We should not have called it a war. KING: Because there won’t be a victory day? MAHER: There will not be a victory day. Exactly. And, you know, this war in Afghanistan, I never read a good thing about it. The longer we’re there, the stronger the Taliban gets. I mean, I read bad things about the government of Karzai. I read bad things about the Afghan army, about the Afghan police. I read bad things about our soldiers. And, of course, they’re put in an impossible situation and they’re doing the best they can and they’re very brave, but five of them are now up for murder charges. I read horrible things about what ordinary people in that country do. They stoned a woman a couple of weeks ago for eloping, for the crime of eloping. And this wasn’t just the Taliban. This was the whole village came out, her own relatives. That’s got to hurt when the rock comes and it’s from your mom. (KING LAUGHS) Mom, I’m- (ACTS LIKE HE’S BEEN HIT IN HEAD WITH ROCK AND LAUGHS) MAHER: You know. It’s not- KING: And Pakistan? Where do we deal with that? How do we deal with them? MAHER: Well, we’re not dealing with them. What, I mean because they’re a Muslim country who has nuclear weapons? (KING LAUGHS) KING: Yeah. MAHER: And, well, that happened while we were trying to get the nuclear weapons that weren’t in Iraq out of Iraq. I think that genie is out of the bottle. 9:28 p.m. KING: Okay, Sarah Palin. I don’t have to say anything else. MAHER: Well, I don’t either, you know. She’s got a show on the Learning Channel. That’s like me having a show on the Christian Broadcasting Network. (KING LAUGHS) I think she’s going to run for President, for one. KING: Could win if there’s enough candidates- MAHER: Well, I’ve, I don’t know about that. KING: I mean to win the nomination. MAHER: I cannot wait to see the Republican debates in 2012 when you think about who is going to be on that panel. Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, John Bolton, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney. How are they going to out-firebreathe each other? I mean where this rhetoric has gone to at this point? It’s only 2010. And we’re having Newt Gingrich, as we were talking about before, calling him an anti-colonial Luo tribesman. Luo tribesman. That’s the new Kenyan, Larry. And Kenyan, of course, was code for n*****. But that’s where they are. They can’t say it out loud. But that’s where this whole campaign is going to be. You asked about racism. It’s all about racism. They cannot fathom this idea that there is a black President. And that’s what they are going to fight about. The other thing about Sarah Palin is that if you read that Vanity Fair article this month, if you read the Newsweek cover story a few months ago where she was praying on the cover, she’s a true religious nut. I know people are saying, oh there goes, Bill Maher. He’s always talking about religion. Well, read the article. Read about her. There’s a part where it says they were giving her books to study up on. And they came back and said, did you read any? She said, No, I haven’t looked at the books. I’m just reading the e-mails from my prayer warriors. Prayer warriors. These are people, and she’s one of them, who believe there are demons in the world. Everything in her world view is about demons or angels, people who are with us and people who are against us. You know, when liberals say things like, well, when you fight the mosque, building the mosque in New York, you’re just encouraging a war with Islam, they don’t understand, people like Sarah Palin want a war with Islam. That’s what it says in the Bible, bring it on, let’s get it over with. So that’s who could be running our country in four years, two years. … 9:37 p.m. MAHER: And the third thing I would like to say is that when people say, and some liberals get mad when they say, that Islam is a religion that is more prone to violence, yes, we have to recognize that, too. I think I misspoke on Leno last night when I said what would happen if they burned the Koran – nothing. Well, no, plenty would happen. There would be protests. There would be probably deaths. People would die if we, if they burned the Koran. That’s not going to happen if they burn the Bible. Okay? We have to recognize that civilization-wise, the radical fringe of the Muslim religion is bringing up the rear. And it’s the duty of Muslim people to deal with that. … Bush used that guy. Bush, that administration sent him overseas. Yes, that’s the way to fight terrorism. That’s the way to win the war, is to get those people on our side, not to alienate them. KING: How big do you believe the Muslim fringe is? MAHER: Bigger than our fringe. I think it’s sizable, but not the majority, for sure. I mean, the biggest population of Muslims in the world is Indonesia. They’re not crazy. The second biggest is India. There’s 150 million Muslims in India. They’re not crazy. But Saudi Arabia, they’re crazy. The Taliban in Afghanistan, they’re crazy. Parts of Pakistan are crazy. Hamas is crazy. There’s enough of them to worry about. KING: How does a civilized world deal with crazies?

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Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus ‘Despondent’ Over Castle’s Defeat and O’Donnell’s ‘Scary’ Win

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus raced to her keyboard on Tuesday night to express her upset with the result of the Republican Senate primary in Delaware. In “ Why Christine O’Donnell’s victory is scary ,” posted at 10:15 PM EDT on the paper’s “ PostPartisan” blog for its opinion writers, she seemed more scared by Mike Castle’s defeat than by Christine O’Donnell’s win. While Democrats may be “delighted” by the prospect of facing O’Donnell, Marcus declared: “I’m despondent.” But not, of course, because it means the Democratic candidate will beat O’Donnell. No, the Post’s deputy national editor from 1999 to 2002 ( bio ) is “despondent” because it ends her dream of “a more robust cadre of moderate Republicans” in the Senate and the “ripple effect” means incumbent Republicans “will be that much more watchful of protecting their right flank,” which will cause them to “be that much less likely to take a political risk in the direction of bipartisanship.” Horrors. Indeed, Marcus feared “a bolstered Jim DeMint caucus, following the disturbingly powerful junior senator from South Carolina : Sharron Angle (Nev.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Ken Buck (Colo.) — plus the two other incumbent-slayers of the primary season, Mike Lee in Utah and in Joe Miller in Alaska. Scary. ” An excerpt from her post: Partisan Democrats are delighted about Christine O’Donnell’s Republican primary victory over Rep. Mike Castle in the race for the open Delaware Senate seat. I’m despondent. From the Democratic point of view, the defeat of the moderate, well-known Castle turns what had looked to be a lost cause into a likely win….So the folks who focus on electing Democrats and keeping a Democratic majority can’t be blamed for breaking out the champagne over O’Donnell’s win. Not me, for two reasons. First, I had thought the silver lining of this election year might be to produce a Senate with a more robust cadre of moderate Republicans. That caucus has pretty much dwindled to the two senators from Maine, with very occasional company from colleagues such as Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and departing Ohio Sen. George Voinovich. It’s awfully hard for a caucus of two to break with the party…. There is strength in numbers, and you could imagine a bolstered group of (at least relative) moderates made up of the likes of Castle, Carly Fiorina (Calif.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) or Dino Rossi (Wash.) Now, it’s as plausible to envision a bolstered Jim DeMint caucus, following the disturbingly powerful junior senator from South Carolina: Sharron Angle (Nev.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Ken Buck (Colo.) — plus the two other incumbent-slayers of the primary season, Mike Lee in Utah and in Joe Miller in Alaska. Scary. But not as scary as reason number two: the ripple effect of victories such as O’Donnell’s on other Republican lawmakers. Republican members of Congress look at races such as those in Utah, Alaska and now Delaware and think: There but for the grace of the Tea Party go I. They will be that much more watchful of protecting their right flank against a primary challenge. They will be that much less likely to take a political risk in the direction of bipartisanship….

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Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus ‘Despondent’ Over Castle’s Defeat and O’Donnell’s ‘Scary’ Win

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Steve Malzberg Destroys Joy Behar: ‘You Represent a Radical Leftist View’

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Conservative radio personality Steve Malzberg on Tuesday told Joy Behar exactly what the vast majority of right-thinking Americans would love to say to this “View” co-host if given the opportunity: ” You represent a radical leftist view in this country; it`s a very small minority .” Chatting with Behar on the CNN Headline News program bearing her name, Malzberg told the comedienne turned political commentator a thing or two about the Democrat President she adores, the former Republican President she hates, and why those controlling Congress are to blame for the sagging economy. After only three minutes of having her poorly-founded opinions challenged, Behar quickly dismissed Malzberg to bring on a friendlier guest (video follows with transcript and commentary):  JOY BEHAR, HOST: Well, it`s back-to-school season. You know what that means. Time for some schools in Texas and Colorado to screen President Obama`s speech to children to make sure it`s fit for their ears. Hide your children. I`m about to play a piece. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nobody gets to write your destiny but you. Your future is in your hands. Your life is what you make of it and nothing, absolutely nothing is beyond your reach. So long as you are willing to dream big. So long as you are willing to work hard. So long as you`re willing to stay focused on your education. (END VIDEO CLIP) BEHAR: Good thing they screened that because if you play it backwards it`s actually socialist propaganda. Here with me now are Stephanie Miller, host of “The Stephanie Miller Show”; Steve Malzberg, WOR radio talk show host and columnist for Newsmax.com. Hi Steve, how are you? STEVE MALZBERG, WOR RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good, Joy. How are you? BEHAR: Good. What is the paranoia about on the right Steve? Tell me what it`s about. MALZBERG: You can`t ignore what happened last year with the Department of Education put out a directive to schools all over the country on how to handle Barack Obama`s speech last year to kids. BEHAR: What are they afraid of? MALZBERG: First of all, they backed off. They must have been — well, what is who afraid of? What are parents afraid of or what is the Department of Education afraid of? BEHAR: What are they afraid that he is going to say that is going to be so harmful to children? MALZBERG: Well, we know that the school wanted the kids to write letters on how they would help Barack Obama achieve his policies. And the Department of Education must have known they did something wrong because when that was discovered, they backed off and they told teachers not to have kids do that. So you`d have to ask the Department of Education what they did wrong last year that made them change what they did. Look, Barack Obama is the most divisive president we`ve ever seen. BEHAR: Come on. MALZBERG: That`s not just me. You can read Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell, two life-long Democrats who wrote in the “Wall Street Journal” a column called “The Divisive Presidency.” BEHAR: You know, can I just say Steve that — MALZBERG: Sure. BEHAR: I think that the tipping point for divisiveness was when the Supreme Court said that George W. Bush was the president and not the people — of the United States. I think that was the moment when the divide began. Don`t blame it on Barack Obama. MALZBERG: The people of the United States voted. It was the Supreme Court who deciphered the votes. BEHAR: Oh, come on. They never counted all the votes in Florida. There were more hanging chads there — come on. MALZBERG: You represent a radical leftist view in this country; it`s a very small minority. BEHAR: And what do you represent? MALZBERG: I represent the majority of people. BEHAR: Oh, the moral majority? MALZBERG: I didn`t say moral. I said look at the polls. He lost all his independent support because he is a radical, divisive figure. Why do you think all the independents have deserted him? White, educated women have deserted him. BEHAR: What is so divisive about trying to get health care for everybody, about trying to redo the financial situation in this country that he was left with, by President Bush in the previous years — (CROSSTALK) BEHAR: By trying to end the war in Iraq which was an immoral war and a political war that had nothing to do with the truth? What is so divisive about that? Tell me that. MALZBERG: First of all, the Congress has been Democrat since 2006. I don`t know if you know that. But aside from that — BEHAR: I love how the right wing, they blame the Democratic Congress when it suits your side. MALZBERG: Well, you say — well, everybody assumes that the Democrats took over with Obama in `08 and are trying to save us. The unemployment rate when the Democrats took over Congress was 5 percent. It went up to where it is now under a Democratic Congress. That aside — BEHAR: Come on. Cut the guy some slack. You see what he inherited. I really have to go. Thanks, Steve. Let me turn to Stephanie Miller now. Yeah, let’s turn to Stephanie Miller, someone who’s much more likely to agree with Behar. Of course, parents with children watching should be advised to quickly change channels, for after Behar showed a campaign ad mocking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Miller asked, “Is it wrong that I want to pour hot coffee in my genitals just from having been subjected to that?” Now that’s some classy material for a cable news network during prime time. What must CNN have been thinking giving this cretin her own show? On the other hand, that’s a silly question given the recent hiring of Kathleen Parker, Eliot Spitzer, and Piers Morgan, isn’t it? And they wonder why their ratings are plummeting faster than the President’s they helped get elected. Nice job, Steve! Bravo!

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Steve Malzberg Destroys Joy Behar: ‘You Represent a Radical Leftist View’

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Center for Responsive Politics: Journalists Give to Dems Over GOP By Nearly 2 to 1 Margin

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Outrage over political donations by Fox News’s parent company News Corp. always seemed like a bit of a stretch when it implied that those contributions affected Fox’s political coverage. Many news media outlets are owned by larger companies. Those companies’ activities don’t ipso facto affect news coverage at their media subsidiaries. So when NewsBusters pointed out that 88 percent of political donations from employees of the three TV news networks went to Democrats, it was really just to note the double standard at work (surely, numerous employees have nothing to do with the news operations). New data revealed by the Center for Responsive Politics, however, suggests a real bias at play. According to Meghan Wilson, who writes for the Center’s site OpenSecrets.org, 65 percent of donations from 235 self-identified journalists have gone to Democrats this cycle. Wilson reported (h/t ): Hayes is one of 235 people who identified themselves on government documents as journalists, or as working for news organizations, who together have donated more than $469,900 to federal political candidates, committees and parties during the 2010 election cycle, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates. People identifying themselves as working for hard news outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, News Corp., Vanity Fair and Reuters are among the listed donors. Also listed are employees from outlets offering lighter fare — ESPN, Vogue — or community news. Some have donated thousands of dollars. The average contribution per person identified is eight times Hayes’ amount, and because of some big-spending media professionals, that number is slightly skewed upwards — with the median amount donated coming in at $500. Sixty-five percent of all identified donations went to Democrats, the Center’s research indicates. Unlike either the News Corp. “controversy” or the numbers concerning network employees, these donation figures demonstrate a clear political slant among those who actually report the news. In other words, if you “follow the money,” as many Fox-haters are wont to do, it leads to a clear liberal bias among the nation’s most prominent journalists.

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Center for Responsive Politics: Journalists Give to Dems Over GOP By Nearly 2 to 1 Margin

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Brooks: ‘Tragedy’ If Republicans Reject More Government, Higher Taxes

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

If a RINO is a Republican In Name Only, let’s coin a new acronym for David Brooks: RINYTO: Republican In New York Times Only.  For only in the Gray Lady’s bailiwick could Brooks be considered much of a Republican. Take his current column in the Times.  Brooks warns Republicans on the verge of regaining power that it would be nothing short of a “tragedy” if they were to oppose . . . more government and higher taxes. Excerpt [emphasis added]: If the current Republican Party regards every new bit of government action as a step on the road to serfdom , then the party will be taking this long, mainstream American tradition and exiling it from the G.O.P. That will be a political tragedy. There are millions of voters who, while alarmed by the Democrats’ lavish spending, still look to government to play some positive role. They fled the G.O.P. after the government shutdown of 1995, and they would do so again. It would be a fiscal tragedy. Over the next decade there will have to be spending cuts and tax increases. If Republicans decide that even the smallest tax increases put us on the road to serfdom , then there will never be a deal, and the country will careen toward bankruptcy. Brooks apparently believes we don’t have enough government and that taxes are too low.  I’d say that makes him a Republican only in the rarefied air of 8th Ave. between 40th & 41st streets.

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Brooks: ‘Tragedy’ If Republicans Reject More Government, Higher Taxes

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Meredith Vieira to GOP Young Guns: What’s So Good About Tax Cuts?

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

NBC’s Meredith Vieira, on Tuesday’s Today show, demonstrated just how out of touch she is on the Tea Party and the economy as she questioned GOP House members, “Are you worried about the influence of the Tea Party?” and even doubted the positive effect tax cuts can have on creating jobs as she questioned: “What’s so good about them?” [ audio available here ] On to promote their new book Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders, Republican Congressmen Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy were on hand to school the Today anchor, with Cantor having to explain to Vieira that “the last thing you want to do in an economy like this with 9.6 percent unemployment is have a big tax increase on small businesses,” as seen in the following exchange: VIEIRA: One of the key issues also heading into the midterm elections, is this expiration of the tax cuts, Bush’s tax cuts. Over the weekend, your leader I guess, your boss, Minority Leader John Boehner said that he would support tax cuts for just middle income earners, if that was his only option. Yesterday he took that back, he did an about-face. Why? CANTOR: I think sort of fundamental to everyone right now watching this show, whether it’s a working mom, a small business owner, or an investor, I think none of, none of those type of people, no American really thinks that raising taxes is a good idea, especially in a recession. And I think that’s what John Boehner was trying to say. And the Republican position has always been and will be – we don’t believe there ought to be tax hikes. And so I do think, Meredith, you’re right. That’s going to be a critical issue over the next several weeks, as we go back to Washington today. VIEIRA: And yet these tax cuts have been in existence for quite a while, these Bush tax cuts. If they were designed to stimulate the economy and to create jobs, they didn’t succeed. So what’s so good about them? The following is the full interview as it was aired on the September 14 Today show: MEREDITH VIEIRA: Speaking of the House, Republican Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia is the House Minority Whip, Kevin McCarthy of California is Deputy Whip and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the ranking member on the House Budget committee. And together, they have written a new book, Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders. Gentlemen, good morning to all of you.  [On screen headline: “‘Young Guns’ New Generation Of Conservative Leaders”] REP. PAUL RYAN: Good morning. REP. ERIC CANTOR: Good morning. VIEIRA: Before I get to the book, I want to talk about the Delaware primary. You have Mike Castle, the moderate versus Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party candidate whose views, as Kelly just pointed out, on social issues may not sit well with swing voters. Castle has said if O’Donnell wins today, this primary, then the Republicans will lose the seat in November. Eric, do you agree with that? CANTOR: Meredith, what’s going on now across the country is obviously people are very upset with Washington. They’re tired of politicians who made promises that they just can’t keep. And so we’re, we’re seeing across the country some very active primaries. And, you know, what we have done here is we’ve gotten together a couple of years ago and we put together an effort in search of candidates who could actually respond to that very issue. VIEIRA: But do you agree with Castle? That if O’Donnell wins and, I’ll ask you this, well, that, that in fact, the Republicans will lose the seat? RYAN: No, not necessarily so. I think things are shifting in politics these days. The, the conventional wisdom in politics is not going to be what’s going to happen in 2010. So I would not necessarily say that, that the seat is gone. It’s probably going to be more challenging, more competitive. But Delaware voters, voters all over America are really upset with the fiscal direction of this c ountry. VIEIRA : Are, are you as, who are not members of the Tea Party, worried about the influence of the Tea Party? REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: No. You look what’s happening here is, the Tea Party is organically grown. It’s individuals getting out, frustrated with where this country is going, not seeing solutions out of Washington. It’s a real challenge for anybody who’s an incumbent. So that’s a tough part for Republicans in a primary. Come November, it’s gonna be a very difficult part for the majority party, the Democrats. That’s why the House is even in play. It brings intensity for individuals to turn out. VIEIRA: And in this book you talk about the failings of the Republican Party- RYAN: That’s right. VIEIRA: -the reason why they lost control of the House. So is that part of the reason why you’re in the situation that you are right now? MCCARTHY: Yes. We were fired in 2006. And part of what this is about, Young Guns, is finding candidates that will run on ideas and actually solve problems using the conservative beliefs. And I think that’s a fundamental difference you’ll find in this election. VIEIRA: One of the key issues also heading into the midterm elections, is this expiration of the tax cuts, Bush’s tax cuts. Over the weekend, your leader I guess, your boss, Minority Leader John Boehner said that he would support tax cuts for just middle income earners, if that was his only option. Yesterday he took that back, he did an about-face. Why? CANTOR: I think sort of fundamental to everyone right now watching this show, whether it’s a working mom, a small business owner, or an investor, I think none of, none of those type of people, no American really thinks that raising taxes is a good idea, especially in a recession. And I think that’s what John Boehner was trying to say. And the Republican position has always been and will be – we don’t believe there ought to be tax hikes. And so I do think, Meredith, you’re right. That’s going to be a critical issue over the next several weeks, as we go back to Washington today. VIEIRA: And yet these tax cuts have been in existence for quite a while, these Bush tax cuts. If they were designed to stimulate the economy and to create jobs, they didn’t succeed. So what’s so good about them? CANTOR: Well Meredith, first of all, remember half of all small business income will have a huge tax increase in January, 70 percent of our jobs come from small businesses. So the last thing you want to do in an economy like this with 9.6 percent unemployment is have a big tax increase on small businesses which is the engine of job creation in America. That is not good policy. The problem with this January tax increase is it’s followed up by another tax increase in 2013. So we think the fiscal direction of this Congress, of this country is in the wrong way. That’s part of the reason we wrote this book, is to say look, when we were in the majority last time, we didn’t do things right. We need to own up for that. And we want to have a fiscally conservative majority, if we’re given the opportunity to lead, and that is the whole point. Raising taxes in this kind of economy is a bad idea. VIEIRA: Kevin, let me ask you, 49 way days away from the election, if you look at the polling, Republicans, a generic ballot against Democrats hold about seven-point advantage. And that’s without any grand plan like the Contract with America back in 1994. In fact, a lot of people see you, continue to see you as the party of no. So was it good enough, this time around, just to say no, we’re not Democrats. Is that good enough to win? MCCARTHY: No, it’s not. And we’ve had a lot of ideas out there. I mean we produced our own stimulus that focused on private sector jobs, where they went out and produced one on public, where it costs a trillion dollars with interest, Keynesian view. You ask the American public, more people today believe Elvis Presley is alive than the stimulus created jobs. But you’re gonna find, in less than two weeks, we will come out with a full new agenda that lays out things that we can do right now, to create jobs, cut the spending and reform the culture of Washington itself. VIEIRA: Well congratulations on the book, by the way, Young Guns. How old are you guys? (Laughter) CANTOR: Listen, we want, we want to take the opportunity to do the promotion here. Thank you, thank you for that. So- VIEIRA: Answer? Not answered. Congressman Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan. Thank you all.

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CBS: ‘Controversial Tea Party Candidate’ In Favor of Abstinence, Against Porn

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In a report on the Republican senate primary in Delaware on Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Nancy Cordes portrayed tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell’s conservative social views as being on the fringe: “[She] has crusaded for abstinence and against porn. Writing once that ‘when a married person uses pornography, it compromises the spouse’s purity.'” Cordes noted O’Donnell’s position on those issues following a sound bite of primary opponent Mike Castle declaring: “I think she’s too extreme for Delaware.” In another sound bite after Cordes’s comment, editor-in-chief of The Hotline, Reid Wilson, explained: “If Christine O’Donnell wins the primary election she’s going to have a very difficult time winning in what is still a very blue, very Democratic state.” In concluding the report, Cordes observed: “…until recently this seat in Delaware seemed like it was in the bag.” Fill-in co-host Erica Hill replied: “Ah, but no longer.” Following the report, Hill interviewed O’Donnell, focusing on the candidate’s position in the polls and financial issues being raised in the campaign. Throughout the interview, the headline on screen read: “Primary Day; Controversial Tea Party Candidate Takes On Establishment.” Here is a full transcript of Cordes’s September 14 report and Hill’s interview with O’Donnell: 7:00AM TEASE: ERICA HILL: Primary day. Voters in more than half a dozen states head to the polls today and all eyes are on tea party candidates looking for big upsets, including a key Senate race in Delaware. We’ll speak with the woman at the center of the contest. 7:01AM SEGMENT: HILL: First, though, we turn to politics this morning. The tea party and voter anger. There are more primary elections today around the country and tea party candidates are hoping to upset some more established Republicans. CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes is in Washington this morning with the latest. Nancy, good morning. CORDES: Good morning, Erica. There are primaries in seven states and D.C. today. But the one that everyone is watching is in Delaware, because who wins there could very well determine whether Republicans have a shot at taking control of the Senate. It was a $250,000 pledge from the Tea Party Express that vaulted Republican Christine O’Donnell from dark horse to contender in the Delaware Senate primary. CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: There’s a tidal wave coming in Delaware and we’re riding it and my opponent is drowning in it. CORDES: Everyone thought her opponent would be a shoo-in. Mike Castle is a popular nine-term Congressman and former Delaware governor. But the newest polls show them neck and neck. MIKE CASTLE: So I think she’s too extreme for Delaware. CORDES: O’Donnell, a former marketing consultant, has crusaded for abstinence and against porn. Writing once that ‘when a married person uses pornography, it compromises the spouse’s purity.’ REID WILSON [EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE HOTLINE]: If Christine O’Donnell wins the primary election she’s going to have a very difficult time winning in what is still a very blue, very Democratic state. CORDES: And that is why Republican leaders are putting all their muscle behind Castle. CAMPAIGN AD: She didn’t pay thousands in income taxes, had to be sued by a university for thousands in unpaid bills. CORDES: O’Donnell is hoping to even the score with a late endorsement from Sarah Palin. Who’s also recording robo-calls for her. SARAH PALIN: Christine will help usher in the real change that we need to get America on the right track. CORDES: The stakes are so high in Delaware because Republicans must win this special election for Vice President Biden’s former seat if they want a real chance to reclaim the Senate. They need to win ten Senate seats to do that, and until recently this seat in Delaware seemed like it was in the bag, Erica. HILL: Ah, but no longer. CBS’s Nancy Cordes joining us from Washington this morning. Nancy, thanks. And Republican U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell joins us this morning from outside a polling station in Wilmington, Delaware. Good to have you with us this morning. O’DONNELL: Good morning, Erica. Thank you for having me. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Primary Day; Controversial Tea Party Candidate Takes On Establishment] HILL: As we just heard from Nancy, you have the support of Sarah Palin at this point, you have the support of the Tea Party express. But Freedom Works, which is the group backed by Dick Armey which has backed a number of tea party candidates, has not given you its support, saying that they see you as a weak candidate, they don’t believe you can win in a general election. But as Nancy noted, some of those polls showing you creeping up. Why do you feel that you can not only win here but also convince moderates and even some Democrats to vote for you come November? O’DONNELL: You know, people didn’t think that we would get this far in the primary, either. And I think that that’s a lazy way out to say that we can’t win. We have a winning message that after the primary we’re going to take into the general election. A message that resonates with independents and Democrats. Because the people who are struggling economically, it doesn’t go by party lines. Our message is that we need real economic growth, based on the private sector. We need to create jobs by getting the government out of the way of the small business owner and the entrepreneur. We can’t afford more of these big spending bills that my Republican and Democrat opponents support. Commonsense men and women here in Delaware know that that’s not sustainable. And I’m fortunate, because my opponent has – he can’t stand on his record, so he’s resorted to character assassination. And it’s backfired. It’s really exciting that the voters are seeing right through that. They’re tired of politics as usual, and they’re rallying behind me, because they trust me to represent them in Washington, a much-needed real change in Washington. HILL: There’s been some focus on both your experience, you’ve never held an elected office, and also some questions raised about your own financial history. It took 12 years for you to get your college degree because you hadn’t paid off some loans. There were some leftover campaign debt. You mentioned the importance of finances, and of the economy, and of jobs. Can voters trust you, then, someone who has had financial trouble? O’DONNELL: Absolutely. Erica, thank you for this opportunity to clear the record. All of those accusations are addressed on my website, Christine2010.com. And when the question of financial responsibility comes into question, you have to look at how I handled those financial difficulties. I’m an average hard-working American. I’m not a multimillionaire like my opponent. Of course in this economy I’m fallen on hard times. But I worked hard, I sacrificed, I made the decision that I needed to make things right. I came through to the other side in a very strong position. I made it through the difficult times. That’s what the voters are seeing. Financial responsibility is making your obligations right. My opponent has cashed a government paycheck, a taxpayer-funded government paycheck, for over four decades. So when he makes those accusations that that’s irresponsible because someone has struggled, he’s insulting the voters. And I think that’s where the backlash has come from. And that’s why so many former people who once supported my opponent are now on my side. Because it’s this obnoxious sense of entitlement that this position should be handed to the next anointed king. It’s sad. HILL: I want to take a look – I want to take a look at your support before we let you go. You’ve had some endorsements from outside the state of Delaware. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has endorsed you and we mentioned Sarah Palin. How much of your funding, though, how much of your volunteer staff, is actually coming from within the state of Delaware? There’s been some criticism that too much of it is a national, not a local level. O’DONNELL: Well, we have an army of volunteers that have given us the strength we need to get the national attention. And my opponent, over – about 70% of his donations come from out-of-state corporate special interest PACs. So we’ve got a lot- HILL: Why do you feel that national attention is so important to this race for the state of Delaware. Why do you need it? O’DONNELL: Well for us, we’re relying on the grassroots support. We are not a party apparatus. So when the – when Palin and DeMint and Sean Hannity and others have come in and gotten behind our grassroots effort, it was a vote of confidence for we, the people, and a vote against the politics of personal destruction. So what they were saying was, enough is enough. This election, the focus of this election, should be how we’re going to get private sector jobs back in Delaware. How we’re going to defend the security of our homeland. How we’re going to take care of our veterans. When the national support came in, it was saying enough is enough. Let’s talk about the real issues- HILL: Okay, we’re going to have to leave it there O’DONNELL: And that excited our war-weary troops who have gotten us this far.                      HILL: We’ll have to leave it there. O’DONNELL: Thank you very much, Erica. HILL: But we’ll be watching the results. Christine O’Donnell, thanks.

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Rick Sanchez: Some ‘Far-Right’ Tea Partiers Wouldn’t Vote for Reagan, Too Liberal

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

CNN’s Rick Sanchez thinks that Ronald Reagan wouldn’t even be conservative enough for certain members of the Tea Party. In lieu of tomorrow’s Republican Senate Primary in Delaware, Sanchez gave his take on the prospect of the state’s Tea Party voters ousting another moderate Republican establishment candidate in favor of a more conservative choice. “But you know what’s interesting about this,” Sanchez remarked, “I mean if you put this in perspective, Ronald Reagan would be taken out of the mix by some of these more far-Right Tea Party folks. Richard Nixon would never have become the President of the United States.” “I mean, there’s really a move that comes not even right-of-center, really far Right, pushing out the guys that are closer to the middle,” Sanchez stated. He asked if it wouldn’t be harder for Republicans to win an election with a fringe candidate rather than with an establishment candidate. Meanwhile, CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin disagreed with him over his assessment of Tea Party voters and Reagan. “One, I suspect many Tea Party activists would disagree with you on Ronald Reagan, because Reagan is a hero to many of them,” Yellin responded. But Sanchez wouldn’t budge. “We would quibble back with immigration, for example. Ronald Reagan would say – Ronald Reagan would be called by anyone in the Tea Party today a “pro-amnesty Republican. That’s what he would be called.” “Well, everybody reads history the way they want,” Yellin answered. Sanchez described the establishment candidate in the primary, Congressman Mike Castle, as “respectable” and “conservative enough” for the region. Castle has a lifetime ACU rating of 52. A transcript of the segment, which aired on September 13, at 3:21 p.m. EDT, is as follows: RICK SANCHEZ, CNN anchor: Not finding Congressman Mike Castle, Republican, conservative enough, the Tea Party is now pushing candidate Christine O’Donnell in the Republican primary. And Jessica Yellin’s all over this primary for us. I mean, this is interesting. Because, you know, once again, you got a guy like Mike Castle, most people think Mike is a, you know, respectable, Republican, conservative enough, especially considered for his region. I mean, we’re talking about a Republican from the Northeast, we’re not talking about an Arizona Republican for example. And yet, they want to crush this guy. What’s going on? JESSICA YELLIN: Well he’s a middle-of-the-road Republican in a state that’s pretty middle-of-the-road, and he’s very well-known and popular statewide, Rick. But he – but tomorrow when the primary is held, only Republicans can vote. Democrats and Independents cannot vote in it. So it’s a close primary, and this year you know what has happened to moderate, middle-of-the-road Republicans. They’ve largely been targeted by these Tea Party candidates, and the latest development is that Sarah Palin has now recorded a robo-call for Castle’s opponent, Christine O’Donnell, which she’s broadcasting on the radio here. And it essentially accuses “establishment Republicans” of being desperate in trying to smear O’Donnell with “vicious” personal attacks. So it’s become very personal, very mean, in a state that really is not used to this kind of harsh campaigning. It’s very new to Delaware voters. SANCHEZ: But you know what’s interesting about this, I mean if you put this in perspective, Ronald Reagan would be taken out of the mix by some of these more far-Right Tea Party folks. Richard Nixon would never have become the President of the United States. I mean, there’s really a move that comes not even right-of-center, really far Right, pushing out the guys that are closer to the middle, which means when they do have a general election, they probably will get the support; or I imagine they’re thinking about this, and I don’t know if we’ve done any reporting on this – would it be harder for them to win some of these elections, in Delaware, for example, if you’ve got somebody who’s on the far right as opposed to the middle or even right-of-center?” YELLIN: Two points. One, I suspect many Tea Party activists would disagree with you on Ronald Reagan, because Reagan is a hero to many of them. And you can quibble about whether his policies actually square with what they say now, which is – SANCHEZ: Well, you can start – well, you could, you could – I mean, we would quibble back with immigration, for example. Ronald Reagan would say – Ronald Reagan would be called by anyone in the Tea Party today a “pro-amnesty Republican.” That’s what he would be called. YELLIN: And I’m sure they’d be – I’m sure they’d be happy to quibble with you over it, Rick. But – SANCHEZ: Well they couldn’t, it’s the policy! He’s the guy who – I mean they couldn’t. He’s the guy who actually did that – YELLIN: Well, everybody reads history the way they want. SANCHEZ: Alright, go on. YELLIN: Um, the, uh – the point that you’re making, which is that are some of these candidates unelectable – is actually a point that some Tea Party groups are concerned with. You know Dick Armey who runs FreedomWorks, that very active national umbrella group that supported a lot of Tea Party candidates, his group says no, they’re staying out of this race and they’re not going to back Christine O’Donnell, this Tea Party candidate because they don’t think she’s electable. There’s just too much, and too many reasons why they don’t think she’ll win. So that’s an unusual wrinkle this election season. And there are a lot of Democrats that are excited about the prospect of O’Donnell winning, because they actually think that means Democrats would hold the seat statewide. Democrats agree she is not electable statewide. So she’s a risky gamble for the Republican Party.

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Matthews Admits: Maybe I Was Smart Not to Run For Office This Year

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Well you have to give Chris Matthews credit for admitting the obvious. On Monday’s Hardball, as he overlooked the bad environment for Democrats this midterm season, Matthews appeared grateful he didn’t make his much rumored run for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, as he asked one of his guests: “Do you think it could be the year where guys…like me were smart not to make the run?” [ audio available here ] The admission came during a segment in which Matthews, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and local radio talk show host, Dan Gaffney of WGMD, were breaking down the prospects for Christine O’Donnell to upset Republican Mike Castle and go on to win the general election for the Deleware Senate seat with Gaffney explaining that it was a distinct possibility since there is “a lot of anti-establishment, anti-incumbent sentiment” in that state, calling that race “a crap-shoot.” This caused Matthews to wonder, if in fact, that attitude extended to Pennsylvania as he asked Gaffney the following question: Let me go to Gaffney, a fellow Irishman, while I’ve got you on the show, I’ve got to ask you this. Do you think it could be the year where guys like Beau Biden and guys like me were smart not to make the run? I’m looking at this situation. You cannot predict this year! It is a crap-shoot! And they’re so anti-establishment out there, that they recognize your name and they say, “I knew that name three months ago.” They don’t like you. Isn’t that true? The following exchanges were aired on the September 13 edition of Hardball: CHRIS MATTHEWS: Welcome back to Hardball. The Republican primary in Delaware, the little state of Delaware, tomorrow could have big implications for the Republicans nationwide and their ability to take over the U.S. Senate, which is possible. Republican Mike Castle is fending off a tough challenge from Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell and polls show she’s in the race of his life, actually that’s a close, too close to call. … MATTHEWS: Joining me is Delaware radio talk show host Dan Gaffney and WashingtonPost.com managing editor Chris Cillizza. Dan, give me a sense do the voters of Delaware know how important this vote is tomorrow. That this could affect the, I guess you could call it the outside chance of the Republicans grabbing the Senate as well as the House, come November. DAN GAFFNEY: Yeah, I think many of them do, but some of my talk radio callers don’t care. They are more interested in winning the actual battle than the war and there’s such a wind of anti-Castle, you know there’s a wind of anti-Castle wind in the air and even when presented the fact that Castle has a better chance of beating the Democrats, many people don’t care. They want to vote him out any way. MATTHEWS: Boy that sounds like the Democratic left sometimes. That sounds like November Doesn’t Count. I grew up with it, it’s called NDC. Cillizza, you’re, you’re shaking your head positively. The one thing about a polarized electorate is it doesn’t care about practical electoral consequences. CHRIS CILLIZZA, WASHINGTON POST: Yep. MATTHEWS: By the way, I want to give a salute, if not a positive salute, a reality check to the far right. Bob Bennett was knocked off, the guy that beat him, Lee is going to win the general. Crist, Crist has been bumped out of his party but Rubio could well win that. He’s ahead in the polls down there. Specter was knocked out of his party, but Toomey is well ahead by about seven points in PA. And who am I missing? Murkowski. Well I gotta bet, what’s his name up there, Joe Miller is gonna win that, or if he gets in that thing clean, one on one. So you could argue that the Tea Parties have had a pretty good record of positioning themselves to win generals. Maybe not in Nevada, but other places. CILLIZZA: Chris, first of all, isn’t it amazing that we’re talking about Delaware? You’ve got the New Hampshire Senate race, you’ve got New York, you’ve got Wisconsin, we’re talking about Delaware. This is a state we never thought we would be talking about. Number two, that states you just listed: Alaska, Utah, those kind of states. The one thing that’s different, this is Delaware. This is a Democratic state. Mike Castle’s been elected for more than 40 years. He’s been the governor of the state. He’s been the at-large representative. This is not a state where whoever winds up being the Republican nominee, Utah, Alaska, has a big leg up in winning. Not sure if they’re gonna win, but that’s a big leg up. MATTHEWS: Okay let me give you, let me give you, let me give you some history, young fellow. Joe Biden, back in 1972, bumped out a guy who had won the House seat, and let’s go in here Dan, you’re the expert, had been a House member, a Senate member, for x many terms, and a governor, just like this guy Mike Castle. Joe Biden, at the age of 29, knocked him out of the seat and held it for what? 40 years. So isn’t it possible that Christine O’Donnell could be a senator for life. We don’t know. GAFFNEY: Well let me tell you, what my original opinion was that if she wins the primary tomorrow, we would say “Hello, Senator Coons.” That was my original opinion. MATTHEWS: Right. GAFFNEY: But now I’m starting to think that if she pulls it off tomorrow, if, that’s a big “if”, she could do anything. If she can beat Mike Castle in this state, she can do anything. MATTHEWS: What’s your state like these days? Is it as unhappy as the rest of the country and could it say, you know what if she isn’t quite prepared or maybe this other fellow Coons has more executive experience, the usual logic way we make decisions may not be in play this year, there’s so much anger. GAFFNEY: No it’s very emotional Chris. MATTHEWS: Yeah. GAFFNEY: It’s very emotional. There’s a lot of anti-establishment, anti-incumbent sentiment. The Tea Party movement is strong. There is a strong sentiment, especially in the southern part of the state. There are only three counties, the two lower counties, much more conservative, much more likely to go to Christine O’Donnell. The upper county, Newscastle, is urban, it’s the city of Wilmington. Much more likely to go toward Mike Castle. However, will he win enough in Newcastle to take the whole state? It’s a crap-shoot. All of my political pundit friends are saying the same thing to me, “I don’t know.” MATTHEWS: Well Let’s talk about the country. Chris go back, let’s pull back and look at the whole country. CILLIZZA: Sure. MATTHEWS: People watching now from California want to know this. It’s possible with Boxer in play, with Patty Murray in play, with Harry Reid in play, with Russ Feingold in play- CILLIZZA: Yep. MATTHEWS: That the Democrats could lose the Senate. It’s very possible, on a bad night, a what do you call it, a wave night, well you’re the expert, right? Delaware matters. CILLIZZA: Look I would say Delaware, you used the word in the intro Chris – shoe-in. And I thought to myself, that’s exactly right. We considered this like, I met Chris Coons, I like Chris Coons, I didn’t think Chris Coons was gonna beat Mike Castle. I agree that Christine O’Donnell, you never know what’s going to happen if she wins, but she’s not as strong a candidate as Mike Castle in the general election. Doesn’t mean she can’t win, but she’s not as strong a candidate. So if you take Delaware and move it into the “We don’t know” category. Now you’re looking at rather than winning two out of the three of Wisconsin, Washington and California, now you’re talking about winning all three. Is it possible? Yes it’s absolutely possible. MATTHEWS: Ha! I love it! CILLIZZA: Polling, polling in all three suggests it could happen, but it seems odd to me. I think Wisconsin, in order, I think Wisconsin, California, Washington, even the most sort of optimistic Republican strategists I talk to say, “Look we’d love to win two out of three of them that would make a great night.” But two out of three and losing Delaware that means they’re probably not in the majority. MATTHEWS: Okay there’s others than. I think you’re so smart. Let me go to Gaffney, a fellow Irishman, while I’ve got you on the show, I’ve got to ask you this. Do you think it could be the year where guys like Beau Biden and guys like me were smart not to make the run? I’m looking at this situation. You cannot predict this year! It is a crap-shoot! And they’re so anti-establishment out there, that they recognize your name and they say, “I knew that name three months ago.” They don’t like you. Isn’t that true? GAFFNEY: Well I think Beau Biden, yeah it is true. Beau Biden should have gotten in this year. I mean he, he probably is… MATTHEWS: Could he have beaten either of these candidates? Could have beaten Castle or beaten O’Donnell? GAFFNEY: Yes, I think he could have. Not that I would’ve supported him but I think he could. Yes. MATTHEWS: Really? GAFFNEY: Beau Biden? Absolutely.

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Another Fact Ignored in NYT Boehner Hit Piece: Pelosi Gets Far More Lobbyist Cash

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

“Mr. Boehner’s ties to lobbyists seem especially deep,” New York Times reporter Eric Lipton wrote of the House Republican Leader yesterday. Well, they’re not, and therein lies the problem: Lipton apparently premised his article not on facts and data, but on what he thought seemed reasonable. Had Lipton stooped to investigate some of the serious claims he was making, he might have discovered that Nancy Pelosi has raised almost twice as much money from lobbyists this cycle as has Boehner. He might also have revealed that Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Blanche Lincoln all raised more money from lobbyists this cycle as Boehner has since 1999. Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney, who did the legwork on these numbers, also noted that Boehner’s name does not appear on the Center for Responsive Politics’s list of the top 20 recipients of lobbyist cash. Eighteen House Democrats have received more such money than Boehner has this cycle. “Sure, Boehner is too close too lobbyists,” Carney writes, “but the money trail says he isn’t closer than Nancy Pelosi.” So why didn’t this (quite obvious) fact make it into Lipton’s Sunday article? It doesn’t fit the narrative. As I wrote yesterday , the Times has spent the past two years playing up GOP connections to lobbyists, while all but ignoring prominent Democrats’s blatant connections to powerful industry groups and their paid representatives. The Times’s omissions are all the more shady given the timing of Lipton’s piece – it came mere days after the Democratic attack machine set its sights on Boehner. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs heavily promoted the piece on the White House press office’s Twitter feed. This week, the DNC is slated to run a series of television ads targeting Boehner’s lobbyist ties. Hypocrisy in the political realm is nothing shocking. Politicians are not “objective,” and they don’t claim to be. But the New York Times seems to be throwing its weight, and its self-proclaimed mantle of non-partisanship behind a political attack ground in total hypocrisy. Perhaps the Gray Lady should adopt a strict policy of reporting what is, not what “seems” to be. Isn’t that the purpose of the news media?

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Another Fact Ignored in NYT Boehner Hit Piece: Pelosi Gets Far More Lobbyist Cash

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