Tag Archives: democrats

CNN Veteran Andrew Breslau Takes Helm at Far-Left Nation Institute

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Andrew Breslau, who for eight years ending in 2006 toiled at CNN “as a senior manager and producer,” has been named President of New York City-based The Nation Institute , affiliated with the far-left The Nation magazine run by frequent MSNBC guest Katrina vanden Heuvel , and home to Christopher Hayes, Rachel Maddow’s fill-in host. The institute’s August 18 press release described Breslau’s CNN duties: “Tasked with managing a team of journalists covering the U.S economy, he also helped cover events overseas that ranged from the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.” Prior to joining CNN, Breslau was quite active with a series of left-wing enterprises, starting in the mid-1980s writing for Mother Jones magazine and then helping to found Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting as its first associate director, the release from the institute’s Communications Director, Ruth Baldwin, recounted. Following several years in the early 1990s as “director of public affairs for Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger,” during the 1996 election cycle “he was the director of special projects for the Democratic National Committee, where he handled press relations and organized artists and celebrities on behalf of President Clinton and Democrats across the country.” Indeed, a  July 26, 1996, USA Today item by Jeannie Williams reported Breslau’s creation of “Artists for a Democratic Victory Committee.” Apparently, CNN decided that partisan activism qualified him for a slot as a producer and guest-booker.   Last week: “ AP White House Reporter Loven Jumps to Liberal Democratic Political PR/Lobbying Shop .” (My complete Obama-journalism revolving door list .) Since leaving CNN in 2006, Baldwin relayed, “Breslau has served as the Executive Director of City Futures, the parent organization of the public policy think tank, Center for an Urban Future.” The Nation Institute’s self-description: The Nation Institute’s dynamic range of programs include a bestselling book publishing imprint, Nation Books; the award-winning Investigative Fund, which supports groundbreaking investigative journalism; nationally televised town hall meetings and debates; the widely read and syndicated website TomDispatch; an internship program at The Nation magazine; Journalism Fellowships that fund up to 25 high-profile reporters every year and the prestigious Puffin/Nation and Ridenhour prizes that honor outstanding public citizenship and acts of truth-telling. Work produced by The Nation Institute has sparked Congressional hearings, new legislation, FBI investigations and the resignation of government officials, has changed the debate and has a powerful impact on the most urgent social and political issues of our day.

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CNN Veteran Andrew Breslau Takes Helm at Far-Left Nation Institute

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This Time Weigel Compares Right to Czars Who Butchered Jews

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Dave Weigel might have changed jobs, but that’s about all. Weigel, the one-time Washington Post blogger assigned to cover conservatives, but who actually bashed them on a regular basis, left the Post only to be hired by another Post-owned publication – Slate. Now that he’s at Slate, he’s also up to his old tricks, comparing opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque to the czars who used to murder Jews by the thousands. Oh sure, he doesn’t say that, but he does. First, the pretend conservative complains about the ” Greak[sic] Mosque Freak-Out of 2010 ” and how some Americans think Obama might be a Muslim. He then goes on to bash Powerline blog because they criticized Obama saying “he certainly isn’t one of us.”  But Powerline was clear, saying that the reason some are befuddled by Obama’s religion is those who are confused “interpret his aloof non-Americanism in this way.” After a brief and strident defense of American Muslims, the real Weigel shows up. Read his full comment from an Aug. 19 post dubbed ” The Big Bad Muslim Poll ,” “I’m remembering what Sarah Palin said about the ‘mosque’ that got liberals so angry: ‘peace-seeking Muslims, please understand, ground zero mosque is unnecessary provocation.’ Implicit in that statement is the belief that there are ‘peace-seeking Muslims.’ We’re learning about a lot of people who won’t go that far. They view Muslims the way that the czars used to view the Jews.” The way the czars used to “view the Jews?” Well the czars devoted a lot of energy into evicting Jews, killing Jews and more – like Nazis without the scientific process. It’s the kind of behavior that appears in the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” where a whole town was ordered out of their homes. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s turn to Aish.com – “the world’s largest Jewish content website, logging millions of monthly user sessions with 270,000 unique email subscribers.” The section begins with a headline ” Government-organized pogroms against the Jews deflected attention from the corrupt regime.” Aish.com defines pogroms as “mob violence against Jews.” Here are a few highlights: “[F]orced conscription of Jewish boys into the Russian Army.” “[B]oys were between the ages of 12 and 18 and were forced to serve for 25 years!” “[T]he Russian secret police began to circulate a forgery which became the most famous anti-Semitic ‘document’ in history – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” In Czarist Russia, there were so many pogroms against the Jews that it is simply impossible to even begin to list them all. (In one four year period there were 284 pogroms, for example.) So, when Weigel says some on the right view Muslims this way, he’s making the case that conservatives want to slaughter Muslims, evict them from their homes and more. That kind of propaganda is more appropriate for czarist Russia than a site owned by a theoretically legitimate news outlet. Like this article? Sign up for “Culture Links,” CMI’s weekly e-mail newsletter, by clicking here.

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Time’s Sullivan Defends Obama’s Christianity, Attacks Conservatives for Perception by Some He’s Muslim

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The number of Americans from all kinds of demographics who are unsure that President Obama is a Christian have grown since he’s been in office. For instance, “fewer than half of Democrats (46%) know Obama is a Christian, down from 55% in March 2009. Barely four-in-ten African-Americans say he’s a Christian, down from 56% last year,” an exasperated Amy Sullivan noted in an August 19 Swampland blog post at Time.com. So who’s fault is that? Conservatives, of course, the religion reporter insisted: It would also be foolish and naive to pretend that conservatives who call Obama a Muslim are doing it in a neutral way and that their intention is anything other than to raise questions about his “otherness.” Sullivan failed to name which prominent conservatives in particular she felt were responsible for moving public opinion on the president’s religious loyalties. But in her zeal to vigorously defend Obama as a follower of Christ, Sullivan concluded by asserting that the White House has to take care to “offset those perceptions [that Obama is secretly a Muslim] with a little more openness about the president’s real Christian faith.”   Perhaps Sullivan was being extremely charitable and wished to avoid rank cynicism, but not once did it occur to her that President Obama might be an agnostic who, like many Americans, nominally associates with the Christian faith because it’s a proper thing to do.   Prior to his presidency, might President Obama have attended — albeit infrequently — Trinity United Church of Christ out of a mix of a vague sense of social and familial obligation and political calculus? Sullivan leaves that possibility unexplored.   To her mind, Obama is unquestionably a Christian and that story must be put out there by the White House PR shop in order to bolster Obama’s connection with the electorate (emphasis mine): I suppose you could call the White House’s complete lack of concern about Obama’s religious image admirable. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine a crafty political adviser marching into the Oval Office and insisting: “Mr. President, I’m sorry, but we have to have you walking into a church every Sunday morning, preferably with a big Bible under your arm.” And i n a perfect world, nobody would give a hoot whether the president went to church or said grace before meals or ever uttered one word publicly about his religious beliefs. But these Pew results suggest that nearly two years after Americans elected Obama, they know less about him than they did when he was a presidential candidate still making his way onto their radar. Forget the question of what that means for 2012– it’s already a problem for a leader who wants to connect with the country. One last note on another finding I found fascinating: Of those Americans who think Obama is a Muslim, nearly one-quarter (24%) told Pew pollsters they think he talks about his faith too much. Which is impossible, of course, because Obama is not a Muslim, so he’s spent exactly zero minutes talking about being one. What the result really illustrates is how thoroughly those who oppose Obama are willing to read everything he says and does through a filter of distrust. Sixty percent of those who think Obama is a Muslim say they got that idea from the media. But interestingly, one-in-ten say they got it from Obama’s own behavior or words. They hear the Cairo speech or see the outreach to Muslim countries and assume, well of course, it’s because he’s Muslim. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t engage in the outreach–far from it. But it does make it even more important for the White House to offset those perceptions with a little more openness about the president’s real Christian faith.

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Time’s Sullivan Defends Obama’s Christianity, Attacks Conservatives for Perception by Some He’s Muslim

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Stewart Rips Fox’s GOP Contribution, Ignores Viacom’s Dem Donations

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday bashed Fox News for parent company News Corporation’s $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. Unfortunately, Stewart failed to inform his viewers that Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central, has so far given disproportionately to Democrats this year. Also missing in the “Daily Show” host’s attack of FNC and Glenn Beck was that News Corp. prior to this contribution had historically given more to Democrats than Republicans. Such facts were unimportant Wednesday evening, for Stewart was on another in a long line of Fox News is the devil incarnate rants (video follows with commentary): The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c News Corp. Gives Money to Republicans www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party JON STEWART: I really think if anything the Republicans should be paying Fox News millions and millions of dollars.  If Stewart is indeed concerned with “following the money,” maybe he should look at the contributions by his own company. After all, according to Open Secrets, Viacom’s Political Action Committee has so far this year contributed 62 percent of its money to Democrats and only 38 percent to Republicans (h/t Lachlan Markay): In 2008, this ratio was 58 percent Democrats, 42 percent Republicans: Beyond this, as NewsBusters reported hours before Stewart made his comments, prior to this $1 million donation, News Corp. had actually given 54 percent of its donations to Democrats and 46 percent to Republicans. The “Daily Show” host didn’t mention this inconvenient truth Wednesday evening. More importantly, since for his part Stewart has historically bashed Republicans and Fox News far more than he’s attacked liberal politicians and their shills at MSNBC, maybe the Democrats should be paying Comedy Central millions and million of dollars. 

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On Page One, N.Y. Times Plays Up Sharron Angle’s ‘Awkward Retreats’ from ‘Hardline Positions’

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Following in the footsteps of The Washington Post , Wednesday’s New York Times put Sharron Angle on the front page, pushing strongly on Harry Reid’s notion that her extremism and ineptitude are working in Reid’s favor. Reporter Adam Nagourney played up Republican pessimism:  Since Ms. Angle won, her campaign has been rocked by a series of politically intemperate remarks and awkward efforts to retreat from hard-line positions she has embraced in the past, like phasing out Social Security. There have also been a staff shake-up and run-ins with Nevada journalists, including one in which a television reporter chased her through a parking lot trying to get her to answer a question. Republicans in this state are concerned that what had once seemed a relatively easy victory is suddenly in doubt, with signs that Ms. Angle’s campaign is scrambling to regroup. “Reid had no chance to win before,” said Danny Tarkanian, one of the Republicans who lost to Ms. Angle. “He has a shot to win now. He could still lose, but I have to say he is favored.” Nagourney does not suggest “Landslide Harry” is a terrific candidate. He makes it clear that the Democrats need an anti-Angle vote to win:  If Mr. Reid is doing better than he once was, it is still relative; he is a politician in deep trouble. A Mason-Dixon poll last week found that 51 percent of Nevadans held an unfavorable opinion of him, a toxic number for an incumbent. That poll found Mr. Reid and Ms. Angle in an effective tie. “I’ll say this about Angle: I still think when we get to the end, it’s still going to be about Harry Reid and whether Nevada voters want to get rid of him and send a message to Washington,” said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon. “They may still hold their nose and vote for Sharron Angle even if they don’t agree with a lot of things that she says and does.” Mr. Reid’s advisers made clear that the only way they could win was to make Ms. Angle so distasteful to Nevada voters that they would vote for Mr. Reid or someone else — it is possible here to vote for “none of the above” — or stay home. “I’m not discounting her,” Mr. Reid said. “In the spite of the work we’ve done, people need to understand more about her. There are some unusual stands she has.” But Nagourney’s story makes no serious attempt to understand the “why” of Reid’s unpopularity — particularly as Reid wants to note the other candidate’s hardline ideological stands and gaffes. Nagourney avoids Reid’s list, like Reid declaring it should be impossible to be both Hispanic and Republican — the Times continues to avoid that gaffe completely. There’s no mention of Reid’s gaffes about how Obama won election because he was a “light-skinned black” with “no Negro dialect.” There’s no mention of Reid claiming the war in Iraq was “lost” and the surge accomplished nothing.  It’s too bad that the Times didn’t offer more of his interview with Angle in the paper, like this exchange in the transcript they posted : NAGOURNEY: do you think President Obama represents the values of this country, in your view? ANGLE: President Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi represent what mainstream America is rejecting about Washington, D.C. And that is this out of touch with the people. When Harry Reid was asked to do town halls, for instance, on Obamacare, he refused. Now people want to talk about these things. They want to talk to their representatives about it. And certainly there was a mainstream reaction, a majority reaction, against Obamacare, and yet they passed it anyway. That portrait of hardline ideology doesn’t match the liberal-media storyline — even if it explains a Republican advantage at the polls.

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Ex-Dem Aide Stephanopoulos and Ex-Dem Congressman Discuss Impact NY Mosque Will Have on Democrats

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Rather than focus on the rightness of building a mosque near Ground Zero, or investigating the potential funding of the construction, Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday spent an entire interview with Harold Ford Jr. focusing on how it could damage the Democratic Party. Stephanopoulos began the segment by asserting, “They really hope this goes away at the White House. ” Talking to the former Democratic Congressman, the GMA co-host highlighted Barack Obama’s comments on the issue and speculated, “But, is this something that’s going to linger through November or go away with- once everyone’s back from Labor Day break?” Stephanopoulos zeroed in on the political ramifications, wondering, “And, Harold, I know you think that the President did the right thing on this issue, has the right position. But did he do it in the right way?” Highlighting the mosque and other potential problems for the Democrats, Stephanopoulos closed by quizzing, “Put the campaign hat back on. How do you run as a Democrat in this environment?” To recap, Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic operative, interviewed a former Democratic Congressman about the impact this issue could have on the Democratic Party. A transcript of the August 17 segment, which aired at 7:07am EDT, follows: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: They really hope this goes away at the White House . Thank you, John. For more on this, we’re joined by former Congressman Harold Ford, now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and the author of a new book, More Davids Than Goliaths: A Political Education. Excellent title. Thanks for joining us this morning. HAROLD FORD JR.: Thanks for having me. STEPHANOPOULOS: And, Harold, I know you think that the President did the right thing on this issue, has the right position. But did he do it in the right way? FORD: He probably could have spoke more artfully the first day and more clearly. STEPHANOPOULOS: How so? FORD: I think that- Well, if he believed that there’s a right to build, but perhaps it should not build in that location, he probably should have just said that. I think the follow-up has created some confusion. And probably will create some consternation in political circles within the party. Harry Reid announcing his opposition to building the cultural center- it’s interesting. The terms of the debate has been defined by the other side- It’s not a mosque, but a cultural center that’s going to be built- has now said that he’s opposed to building it there. What looks like could happen, George, is a consensus could build around maybe building it a few blocks away- moving the construction of the cultural center or the locating of the locating of the center, a few blocks from where they have planned it now. It might be- STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, there was a rumor yesterday, that that came up. That the leaders of the Senate were thinking about that. It was first reported in Israeli press, but they came out and said no way. Would that take the issue off the table for Democrats now? FORD: Well, it might. If you take Reid at the core of what he’s saying. He saying, “I support it, but just not there.” So, you might be able to find some agreement around it. I think Mayor Bloomberg will obviously play a lead role in brokering this. He’s been such a staunch- and I think had the right position on this. Not only for New York, and for the country. If you can’t build this in Manhattan and New York City, if we can’t foster a center, build a center that fosters conversation about tolerance and understanding, here, where else can you do it? What better place to do it? But, it may be that the politics have gotten so intense, that you may have to consider moving this, just a few blocks away. Perhaps you can find Democrat, Republican, liberal support for this. STEPHANOPOULOS: How big a deal do you think this issue is? I mean, obviously, you saw the President’s opponents pounce hard over the weekend, which is part of the reason he seemed to backtrack on Saturday. You see Reid breaking away from it. But, is this something that’s going to linger through November or go away with- once everyone’s back from Labor Day break? FORD: Well, jobs and the economy are foremost in people’s minds. This is, in lot of ways, a distraction. Not that it’s not an important issue. But it’s a distraction in that regard. But, as you and I know in politics, these kind of distractions can define campaigns in the last eight weeks. New York City, we are approaching the anniversary of 9/11. Obviously, from what I hear, Newt Gingrich and others plan to speak that day at the sight, where the cultural center is planned to be built or plan to be located. It certainly will- Politics will certainly be around this until election day. I think Reid’s comments yesterday opened the door for all Senate candidates to be asked about this- STEPHANOPOULOS: And break with the President most likely. FORD: Exactly. Reid has given his colleagues and those running for office covert in saying that we sport the right to build. But this may not be the place to build. STEPHANOPOULOS: Put your old campaign hat back on. You ran for Senate back 2006 and write about it in More Davids Than Goliaths. This is a tough, tough environment for Democrats right now. You’ve got this job situation, high unemployment. You’ve got ethics problems. You’ve got the former chairman of the Ways and Means committee, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters facing trial in the House. Now you’ve got this issue. Put the campaign hat back on. How do you run as a Democrat in this environment? FORD: I think Democrats, when they return in the fall, and I talk about this in the book, when I ran for leader in 2002, about how the message has got to lead. I think the tax cuts should be extended. Make the middle-class ones permanent. Phase in the top level. I think, two, I think you- STEPHANOPOULOS: So, break with the President on that? FORD: Well, the President’s given some wiggle room there. He has indicated that he’d like to make these middle-class rates permanent. But, I do- I have some different opinions about some of the other rates, particularly the business rates.  I don’t think you out to add more uncertainty to the marketplace now, particularly for any size business. Two, take some of the unused stimulus and apply it to deficit reduction, to apply projects, infrastructure projects that are read to be moved on. And, finally, I think you have got to come out with some of the deficit reductions of that commission right away. If raising the retirement age is on the table, if there’s consensus with Simpson Bowles, you got to be willing to do that for people under 45, including myself STEPHANOPOULOS: So, get spending- Okay, Harold Ford. Thanks very much.

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N.Y. Times: Obama’s Mosque Tolerance Upsets Those Who Want a ‘White and Largely Christian’ America

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

As President Obama struggled to step back from what the New York Times called a “strong defense” of the Ground Zero Mosque proposal, Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg felt the president’s pain in a Sunday “Political Memo” article , arguing that his shifting stands on the issue betray that this debate “is riskier for him than for his predecessors.” Stolberg wrote this is because his enemies want to live in a white, Christian-dominated country: From the moment he took the oath of office, using his entire name, Barack Hussein Obama, as he swore to protect and defend the Constitution, Mr. Obama has personified the hopes of many Americans about tolerance and inclusion. He has devoted himself to reaching out to the Muslim world, vowing, as he did in Cairo last year, “a new beginning.” But his “new beginning” has aroused nervousness in some, especially those who disagree with his counterterrorism policies, or those more comfortable with a vision of America as a white and largely Christian nation , and not the pluralistic melting pot Mr. Obama represents. It’s riskier for Obama because people perceived the last president as staunchly Christian, unlike Obama, the president who often golfs on Sunday and claims a few e-mails of religious quotations on his BlackBerry qualifies as quality religion time: Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, also held annual Ramadan celebrations and frequently took pains to draw a distinction between Al Qaeda and Islam, as Mr. Obama did Friday night. But Mr. Obama, unlike Mr. Bush, has been accused of being a closet Muslim (he is Christian) and faced attacks from the right that he is soft on terrorists. She did follow up by letting former Dennis Hastert aide John Feehery suggest it was “a blunder,” and noted “Few national Democrats rushed” to his defense. She also found that in Florida, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink distanced himself from it, while former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist supported Obama. In a front-page article in Saturday’s paper , before Obama backed off his “strong defense” of the mosque proposal, Stolberg found: “Aides to Mr. Obama say privately that he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque, but the White House did not want to weigh in until local authorities made a decision on the proposal, planned for two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.” He “always felt strongly,” and then backed off within hours. In the Saturday story, Stolberg included critiques from Republican Rick Lazio, but also disappointment from a radical-left Muslim voice: Mr. Obama ran for office promising to improve relations with the Muslim world, by taking steps like closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and more generally reaching out. In a speech in Cairo last year, he vowed “a new beginning.” But Ali Abunimah, an Arab-American journalist and author, said the president has since left many Muslims disappointed. “There has been no follow-through; Guantánamo is still open and so forth, so all you have left for him to show is in the symbolic field,” Mr. Abunimah said, adding that it was imperative for Mr. Obama to “stand up to Islamophobia.” Stolberg did not explain that Ali Abunimah is a co-founder of the website Electronic Intifada , where he has argued that Hamas and Hezbollah are hardly terrorist groups: Nothing could be easier in the present atmosphere than to accuse anyone who calls for recognition of and dialogue with Hamas, Hizballah and other Islamist movements of being closet supporters of reactionary “extremism” or naive fellow travelers of “terrorists.” This tactic is not surprising coming from neoconservatives and Zionists. What is novel is to see it expressed in supposedly progressive quarters… Hamas and Hizballah emerged in the context of brutal Israeli invasions and military occupations. Their popular support and legitimacy have increased as they demonstrated their ability to present a credible veto on the unrestrained exercise of Israeli power where state actors, international bodies, the peace process industry and secular nationalist resistance movements notably failed. If the Times thinks President Obama really needs to make sure he’s better respected by bloggers at Electronic Intifada, then perhaps they’re not understanding why the conservative blogosphere is alarmed, and it’s not trying to limit tolerance to “white and largely Christian” America.

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N.Y. Times: Obama’s Mosque Tolerance Upsets Those Who Want a ‘White and Largely Christian’ America

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Amnesty Bill will mean Anarchy

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

This is from CNN it is not from FOX News. Obama and the Democrats are going too far now. http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/17260182/1610997888/name/ftc-vi26.wmv added by: ReverandG

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Clinton Denies WH Claim That He Intervened in U.S. Senate Race in Pennsylvania

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

Reigniting a political controversy, former President Bill Clinton this week contradicted the Obama White House, telling a Pennsylvania TV station that he never encouraged U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak to drop out of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race – as the White House claimed in May.   On Tuesday, Aug. 10, as Clinton campaigned for Sestak in Scranton, Pa., a reporter with the NBC affiliate in Wilkes-Barre asked Clinton why he was in Pennsylvania campaigning for Sestak if he had once tried to get him to drop out of the Senate race. “I never tried to get him out of the race,” Clinton  replied . “I’ve never even been accused of that,” he added in response to a follow-up question.   Clinton’s denial on Tuesday represents a third version of events, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been looking into the matter.    “You know the saying there’s three sides to every story — well, now we have it,” Issa said.    In the first version of events, Sestak repeated for months that the White House had offered him an administration job in exchange for dropping his Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter. Specter said such an offer would legally constitute a bribe.    In version two, the White House — after months of refusing to answer questions about what happened — issued a memo in May saying the White House had asked Bill Clinton to talk to Sestak about serving on an unpaid advisory panel while continuing to serve in the House. The memo, written by White House Counsel Robert Bauer, referred to discussions in “June and July of 2009” and said that nothing improper had happened.   Version three came with Clinton’s denial on Tuesday.   “Admiral Sestak has repeatedly said he was offered a ‘job’ in an effort to obtain his withdrawal from the Senate primary,” Issa said on Thursday. “The White House has said ‘efforts were made in June and July’ in said job as well as the admission that they ‘enlisted’ former President Clinton to make the overture. President Clinton says he ‘never tried to get Sestak out of the race.’ Who’s telling the truth?”   As CNSNews.com has  reported , White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would not say what position Sestak was offered.    After Bauer’s memo was issued in May, Sestak said he believed he was offered a spot on the president’s intelligence advisory board. Regarding his conversation with former President Bill Clinton, Sestak told reporters, “I heard presidential board and I think it was intel.”    Bauer’s one-and-a-half memo explained that former President Bill Clinton, acting on behalf of the Obama administration, had offered Sestak an unpaid role on a presidential advisory board.    According to the Bauer memo, “efforts (plural) were made in June and July of 2009 to determine whether Congressman Sestak would be interested in service on a presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board, which would avoid a divisive Senate primary, allow him to retain his seat in the House, and provide him with an opportunity for additional service to the public in a high-level advisory capacity.”   However, the memo mentions only one conversation between Clinton and Sestak.    The Bauer memo said that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recruited Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an unpaid position on a presidential advisory board while remaining a U.S. congressman.    But as a House member, Sestak could not serve on an executive branch board. As the White House Web site  notes , the president’s intelligence advisory board “consists of not more than 16 members appointed by the President from among individuals  who are not employed by the Federal Government .”   (emphasis added)   Sestak faces Republican Pat Toomey, a former congressman, in November. Crossposted at NB sister site CNSNews.com

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Maureen Dowd Hysterically Claims MSNBC Is Tearing Down Obama

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

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said Sunday MSNBC is tearing down President Obama. More amazing than that, she was actually serious. In her ” No Love From The Lefties ,” Dowd bashed “progressives” for not staying on the President’s bandwagon. This includes MSNBC who she hysterically claimed “is trying to make its reputation by tearing down [Obama]”: One of the most disgusting things about Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl, and now the former maverick John McCain, is that they are happy to be co-opted by the radicals in their party to form one movement against President Obama. On the Republican side, the crazies often end up helping the Republican leadership. On the Democratic side, the radicals are constantly sniping at Obama, expressing their feelings of betrayal. Fox built up a Republican president; MSNBC is trying to make its reputation by tearing down a Democratic one. Assuming you haven’t passed out from lack of oxygen during an uncontrollable fit of laughter, there’s more: The lefties came to the defense of the centrist Clinton during impeachment. Now that Obama is under attack, however, they are not coming to his defense, even though he has given more to the liberal cause than the scandal-stunted Clinton ultimately achieved. He has shepherded the biggest expansion of social programs since the Great Society and spearheaded the biggest spending program with the stimulus. But for the left (and for some economists), it was not as big as it ought to have been. Most telling was that Dowd earlier in the piece mentioned “Michael Kinsley’s maxim that a gaffe is just truth slipping out” for the Times columnist was certainly letting her readers in on just how far she’s willing to shill for the President she helped get elected. More importantly, she will publicly scold her colleagues if necessary. After all, MSNBC is still a devout Obama and Democrat supporter along with a unabashed conservative basher. That some of its hosts have on occasion in the past year expressed disappointment with the President by no means qualifies the network as tearing him down. Dowd herself has surprisingly addressed her own concerns for the current White House resident. In June, she wrote about him being “thin-skinned and controlling.” She even scolded, “Like many Democrats, he thinks the press is supposed to be on his side.” Is she the only liberal media member allowed to do so in her view, or are his plummeting poll numbers and a dismal midterm election cycle ahead changing Dowd’s mind about she and her ilk ever being honest when it comes to this President? 

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Maureen Dowd Hysterically Claims MSNBC Is Tearing Down Obama

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