I missed it. How did Tim Russert treat John Murtha on Meet the Press? Here’s the transcript. And there’s the new MTP Podcast — a feature that I’ll try to use tonight to hear the interview. What did Howie Kurtz prattle on about on his journalists’ gaggle show? Anything worth reporting from This Week, from Wolfie Blitzer? … See you all tonight … HUGS!
17 Comments
Murtha = Plain-spoken.
I may not agree with all of his reasons, but he’s changed the debate and provided a means out. Enough of the dithering already.
Did anyone see CNN interview of Richard Pearle and the supposed opposition Bob Kerrey? I missed it but I just wondered if they happened to mention the Kerrey was an original PNAC signatory of Pearls NeoCon Manifesto….
What I heard was that pearl was still in the defense mode. Kerrey was still in the go for war mode. Instead of saying we made a very bad mistake (which I think is a lame excuse) they keep the rheteric up. Nothing resolved IMHO
Kerrey was still performing his PNAC role to a certain extent. (And there was, predictably, no mention of his PNAC affiliatio.) He did, however, manage to make what I thought was one good point.
He said (I’m paraphrasing here), that because of the incompetence and the rigid adherence to fiction in the Bush regime’s handling of Iraq, BushCo has damaged our national security because the public, in turnng off to the Iraq mess will now be turning away from the the idea of the importance of supporting the (purported) broader war against the terrorist threat.
(I personally don’t buy into his argument completely, but I do think it’s useful that he’s separated the two diferent struggles in his mind and that he’s established a causative link between the behavior in one conflict adversely affecting our efficacy in the other.)
My heads spinning. I just finished watching Murtha on MTP, Faux News Sunday, McLaughlin Report and the last half hour of Wolfie. Too much to absorb quickly, but the tide in the MSM has definitely changed. Hard questions being asked – even on faux news.
Other than Murtha being strong, clear and powerful in his response to Russerts attempts to get him defensive, my favorite was watching Tony Blankley on the McLaughlin Report. He was really fit to be tied by all of this plain talk about the mess in Iraq. I just kept wishing they would double screen his attitude now with clips of how sanctimoneous he and that crowd were after the election. When they said things basically like “we won – so stfu.” My how times have changed!
My conclusions from all of this:
That sounds like a marathon TV session. I hope, I hope that you are right. The sooner we get out, the more lives saved.
You’ve got a stronger stomach than I do. I only watched This Week and McLaughlin. I can’t stand Russert. If you’re going to be partisan, please don’t pretend not to be, Timmy.
This Week was better than normal. Yes, George let Rumsfeld spout all kinds of disingenous crap — from ‘the commanders in the field have all the troops they want, because they’ve never asked ME for more (just higher level Generals who know better than to embarrass me by passing those requests up the chain to me, you see)’ to ‘the Iraqi army is swell, and of course they need support — our troops need support too, every army does (nevermind our troops are supported by AMERICAN units, and the Iraqi’s have no such units…)’. But at least the entire panel, including Resident Republican Apologist in Chief George Will rolled their eyes at Rumsfeld’s interview, and obviously discounted it as meaningless White House propaganda.
As for McLaughlin, my reaction to Tony was different than yours. I finally wrote to the show, expressing my concern that with Eleanor on the Left, and Buchanan on the Right, and the floating seat of mystery guests (today’s — a journalist from Al Jazeera), I’m not sure what the purpose of Republican Talking Points Tony is.
I mean, come on. Pat ran for President as a Republican, and he’s not afraid to say when the President screws up. Tony was a former aide of Newt Gingrich, and acts like he’s moved on to the propaganda division of the party. Ken Mehlman couldn’t be more pleased with the performance of Tony Snow if the man was on the RNC payroll. I get that he and John are personal friends, but seriously — c’mon John, there’s a difference between a reporter (Eleanor), a commentator (Pat), and a partisan shill (Tony).
Ah well, it’ll be another week before I have to subject myself to the media whores and right wing apologists spinning up a storm as the truth slowly leaks out about the organized corruption of the Republican party…
Actually, I believe Buchanan ran for president under the Reform party. (Not to pick nits or anything)
I mention this mostly because he’s been strongly opposed to the Iraq war from the get-go – and he’s certainly no cheerleader for this administration.
(As a small bit of Minnesota trivia, Jesse Ventura originally ran for governor under the Reform party, but later established the Minnesota Independence Party to distance himself from Buchanan)
You’re from MN too? That makes 3 of us here that I know of, including NL.
Yeah, I find myself really respecting Buchanan. He’d never be my first choice for anything, but at least the man has convictions and won’t sacrifice them for ‘party’. And his opposition to the war and general agreement with Eleanor has been a highlight of recent McLaughlin Group’s. That and outsourcing makes him more ‘liberal’ than most of our House and Senate — how sad is that? (Oh, I know he’s hardcore Conservative in other realms — I’m not voting for the man, just respecting him for what he is).
As for your comment below — Well, if you’ve ever seen Pat and Bay on screen at the same time, the family resemblance just jumps out and scare’s ya 😉
As for Jesse, I knew he ran as Independence, but didn’t know about the Pat Buchanan connection. I always figured it was to ditch the Ross Perot taint.
If only the Dems would have reached out to the Ventura voters, instead of hiding in their old ossified shell. I’m still peeved at how they cozied up to the Repubs to destroy Ventura’s sane budget plans in favor of the same old accounting tricks. Pawlenty led the Repubs in that, and in return he’s now Governor. How sickening.
Good afternoon, Ya –
For what it’s worth, I drafted a response to your post. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line I transformed into Runaway Train Woman!! (Which I confirmed when I copied the text to Word and discovered my comment was three pages long – at an 8 point font. And I wasn’t yet finished with my thoughts. Nix.)
Obviously, if I’m going to post the comment, I have some cleaning up and reining in to do beforehand. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I haven’t ignored you.
As far as site members from Minnesota – there’s also Scribe (who I believe has breakfasted with NL in the past, and has invited other locals to join them). There was also Slacker, Inc. and Angry One – but I don’t recall seeing either of them in quite awhile.
If I find the time, I’ll narrow the scope of my draft response, and I’ll post the revised version. Until we meet again – have yourself a fabulous day. (Are you located in the Cities?)
Yikes! 3 pages? And I thought I could be verbose. That sounds more like a diary to me…
Quite of few of us MN’s here, ya?
I’m down in District 1, with Gil Gutknect (proud co-signer of the ‘revoke Davis-Bacon’ request…)
No pressure on that comment, tho. I’ll eagerly read it when you have the time. But post it on your schedule 😉
Regarding my post above, allow me to correct myself (partway). Buchanan ran as a Republican in 1992 and 1996 – and under the Reform party in 2000.
(What I didn’t know is that Bay Buchanan is his sister – never thought to put 2 and 2 together)
Did any of you see this a–hole on with Wolf Blitzer?
Reuel Gerecht: Former Middle Eastern Specialist, Central Intelligence Agency
He kept pronouncing Valerie Plame’s name as Valerie PLUM.
Plum? Was that on purpose? Doesn’t he hear words properly?
Bizarro. And he said that Larry is wrong about her being a NOC if she went to the CIA headquarters. The other guest, Melissa Boyle Mahle: Former Middle Eastern Specialist, Central Intelligence Agency, countered his remarks quite well.
Yes Susan, I heard that very clearly! He has always been a trash drager. He is one of the followers of the neocon group and in the AEI. Thre is ntohing else to be said of him.
She was very good in my opinion. She has the credentials to say those things too.
He was really creepy. Wonder where they dug him up. Seemed to be pretty much shilling the Bushco line. And just how patronizing can one man be?!
I noticed how he mangled Plame’s name too – seemed to be doing that on purpose.
Is Melissa the same woman who was on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago speaking as a friend of Plame’s?
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a pompous academic whose main talent seems to be to distort information and otherwise deceive those who he can get to listen to him. He’s a former CIA analyist and evidently was a CIA recruiter at one time. He was busy even during his time at CIA trashing CIA, and it’s not clear if this was because he felt slighted by being held at a desk job or because he was just an ambitious ideological hack seeking to elevate himself by disparaging others.
He’s a big shot at both AEI and PNAC, and virtually anythinghe has to say should be regarded as factually suspect. He has a reputation for misrepresenting things.
Here’s a little item from a review of one of his books.
A pure propagandist is our Gerecht, I’d say.
Felt like a return to an old clear spring.