Quote of the Day: Chuck Todd Edition

"Nobody's going to mistake Donald Trump for a presidential candidate ... other than Donald Trump."

Chuck Todd, on Meet The Press.

Quote of the Day

"Why doesn't Meet the Press make John McCain its host? He can interview himself every week and cut out the middleman."

Bruce Bartlett, on Facebook.

I'm holding out hope for McCain getting his own variety show.

Profile In Courage: Dubious Rubio

Sen. Marco Rubio is too scared to come out for or against the Arizona bill SB 1062. Rubio goes to great lengths to split hairs and try not to offend anyone. Short version: Rubio doesn't believe that gays should be discriminated against and Christian fundamentalists should be able to discriminate against gays. What a crystal clear position.

“Well, I don't believe that gay Americans should be denied services at a restaurant or hotel or anything of that nature. I also don't believe however that a caterer or photographer should be punished by the state for refusing to provide services for a gay wedding because of their religious held believes. We've got to figure out a way to the protect that, as well.”

Rubio doesn't have to worry about being challenged for babbling nonsense. Meet The Press anchor David Gregory is more likely to bust a move than ask a follow-up question.

Quote of the Day: Barney Frank Edition

"I do want to add one thing though to your question about those poor beleaguered bankers who have been forced to do so much to keep from not being able to pay their debts, that they can’t lend money. If they really are running businesses that are so stressed that they can’t do their basic work, why are they paying themselves so much money?"

Barney Frank, on Meet the Press

Daily Kos has the video of Frank's MTP appearance. Host David Gregory, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo were left speechless. These Wall Street apologists couldn't believe Frank spoke the truth about the unjustifiable executive bonuses.

Lloyd Blankfein was at the helm when Goldman Sachs almost went under. In 2012, Blankfein received a $26. million bonus. So much for the saying about cream rising to the top.

Rand Paul's Offensive Syria Remark

Republicans have been allowed to say racist shit for so long. Case in point is Senator Rand Paul on Meet the Press. Paul's reasoning for why the United States should not take military action on Syria is because Paul believes Bashar al-Assad is only killing Muslims.

“I don’t see American interests involved on either side of this Syrian war. I see [Bashar] Assad, who has protected Christians for a number of decades, and Islamic rebels on the other side who have been attacking Christians,” Paul said.

Paul comes from the Glenn Reynolds libertarian school of genocide against all Muslims. Fighting the entire Muslim population on the planet is impossible. The only way this makes sense is when people like Paul and Reynolds view national security through their racist beliefs. This other quote from MTP tips Paul's hand.

"I think the Islamic rebels winning is a bad ide for the Christians, and all of a sudden we'll have another Islamic state where Christians are persecuted," Paul said on NBC's "Meet the Press.

Paul has publicly voiced his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act. Paul hired neo-Confederate Jack Hunter to write his biography. It is certainly fair to question Paul's bizarre racial views.

David Gregory's Poor Journalism

I have not been a fan of Meet the Press host David Gregory. My long-standing view is that Gregory is a dancing buffoon that publicly admitted on Twitter it is not his job to fact-check the statements of his guests. This past Sunday, Gregory framed a question in a manner that accused Guardian columnist Glenn Greewald of breaking the law.

"To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even inhis current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?" heasked.

Greenwald replied that it was "pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselvesa journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies," and that there was no evidence to back up Gregory's claim that he had "aided" Snowden.

If this was an Obama administration official saying this to Gregory, the questions he should have asked were is the Justice Department going to indict Greenwald? How exactly did Greenwald aid and abetted Edward Snowden? Are you willing to go on the record with these accusations? If this administration official couldn't answer the first two questions and wad.'t willing to go on the record then he was bullshitting Gregory. Gregory could have checked with other sources. Most likely Gregory recited what his unnamed source told him ithout ever fact-checking his statements.

Quote of the Day

"But if we don’t pass immigration reform, if we don’t get it off the table and in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who you run in 2016. We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party. And the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community, in my view, is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don’t do that, it really doesn’t matter who we run in my view."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, on Meet the Press.

Graham is right. The Republican Party will lose in 2016 if there isn't a good immigration reform bill that gets signed by President Obama. Conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation is doing everything they can to kill immigration reform. A Democratic strategist said this to reporter Jamelle Bouie.

“Voting against this bill is a disaster for the Republican Party…They need to be reminded there are sound policy reasons to vote for it but also significant political reasons as well.”

That could be what happens when the bill reaches the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner has repeatedly proven incapable of rallying his caucus.

John McCain's Meet the Press Benghazi Hissy Fit

I am no fan of David Gregory. Sen. John McCain has accused the Obama administration of covering-up what happened during the attack on the Benghazi consulate. Gregory asks McCain a fair question about what the Senator thinks the administration is concealing from the public. McCain goes on a tirade and questions whether Gregory cares about the Americans killed at Benghazi. McCain never gets around to answering the question.

McCain: Do you care....do you care, David....do you care, David....do you care....I'm asking you, do you care....I'm asking you, do you care whether four Americans died?

Gregory: You said there's a cover-up. A cover-up of what? A cover-up of what?

There are actually legitimate questions about why Christopher Stevens requests for extra security were ignored. Unfortunately, we have a Republican Congress that is incapable of governing and congressional Democrats that do not want to make President Obama look bad. It appears we will never get those answers. John McCain doesn't even know what the questions are.

Rand Paul Running From Media

Comic by Mike Luckovich

Rand Paul is the political equivalent of a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Paul is shellshocked from his dismal performance on Rachel Maddow's show. Paul is backing out of appearing on Meet the Press.

At the end of a rocky week, newly chosen Senate nominee Rand Paul (R-KY) has canceled a planned interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" citing exhaustion. It's only the third cancellation from a major guest in 62 years, the show's Executive Producer Betsy Fischer said in an interview this afternoon.

"It is a big deal when somebody cancels an appearance," she said.

Meet the Press host David Gregory is best known for refusing to fact-check guests and a weird penchant dancing on-air. Paul is scared if he can't do a softball interview with Gregory. Man, talk about a Tea Party candidate not ready for prime time.

Wingnut of the Day: Tom Coburn

On Meet the Press, David Gregory asked Sen. Tom Coburn about tea bagger protesters bringing guns and comparing President Obama a Nazi. Gregory made a reference to Timothy McVeigh and the threats of violence against Democrats.

"Well, I’m, I’m troubled anytime when we, we stop having confidence in, in our government," Coburn said. "But we’ve earned it."

Coburn was asked about possible threats to Democrats. Coburn said the tea baggers "earned" their anger. Gregory had to stop Coburn.

"I am talking about violence against the government." Gregory said. "That’s what this is synonymous with."

Coburn justified the behavior of tea baggers.

"What, what is the genesis behind people going to such extreme statements?" asked Coburn. "We, we have lost the confidence."

Coburn panders and plays to the fears of the tea baggers. It is despicable.

Fortunately, Rachel Maddow was on the panel.

MS. MADDOW: Whether or not, whether or not the government has acted in a way that you feel is defensible, I don’t think the government has done anything to earn, in your words, the, the, the threat of—that the blood of tyrants must run in the streets, which is what the literal threat was from that man with the gun strapped to, strapped to his leg in New Hampshire. I also don’t think that, that there is an equivalence between what moveon.org has done and with the comparisons of the president to Hitler that we’ve seen so often in this debate. I mean, some of the major organizations who are organizing these events, like Americans for Prosperity, a group that has some similarities to FreedomWorks but definitely a different group, they’ve had speakers going around the country not only comparing healthcare reform to Hitler, but comparing them to Pol Pot and Stalin, saying “Put the fear of God into your members of Congress.” I don’t think the government has done anything to earn that.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Quote of the Day

"I think there is a national leader, his name is President Obama."

Gov. Charlie Crist, on Meet the Press.

Crist is a smart pol. He understands Republicans are getting smashed in the polls by Obama. Secretly, Republicans want the stimulus bill to pass. Gov. Sarah Palin made a stimulus wish list and went to Washington to lobby for passage of the stimulus bill. Publicly, Palin said, "I agree with the decision of Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young to vote NO on the package."

Senator Arlen Specter had this exchange with a fellow Republican.

Arlen Specter was one of just three Senate Republicans to buck his party and vote in favor of President Obama’s stimulus package. After he announced his decision, he says, a fellow GOP senator approached him in private to offer congratulations.

When asked, however, that unknown senator declined to join Specter because he was too afraid of drawing a primary challenge. He was glad somebody was doing the right thing, but he wouldn’t risk it himself.

As Specter put it, “there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation. … I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted.”

"They're like sheep in a way," former Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said of fellow Republicans. "They're looking for someone to tell them what to do." Beltway Republicans were under the misguided impression John Boehner, Eric Canter and Mitch McConnell are more politically astute than Barack Obama. Obama got his stimulus package passed and Congressional Democrats are polling better than Republican rivals. The stimulus package hasn't hurt Crist's numbers, either.

Why are Congressional Republicans listening to the leadership that lost the past two elections? I don't know why, but it makes me happy.

Why the Hispanic Vote Matters

Mel Martinez on Meet the Press.

Hispanics are going to be a more and more vibrant part of the electorate and our party better figure out a way to talk to them," Martinez said, asked about why Hispanics had flocked to Democrats last Tuesday. He cited some GOP'ers anti-immigration rhetoric as a turnoff for many Hispanic voters.

The GOP can't call themselves a big tent and pander to racists. It one or another. The Southern Strategy is dying. Obama changed race in American politics.

I disagree with Martinez on McCain.

He noted that "Sen. McCain did not deserve what he got, he valiently fought for immigration reform, but the (anti-immigration voices in our party, if they continue we're going to be relegated to minority status."

McCain publicly disown his own immigration reform bill. Hispanics are the largest growing voting group. It was a act of political stupidity and McCain was justly punished.

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

Colin Powell grows a spine and endorses Barack Obama.

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well. I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.

Update: the Meet the Press panel discusses how the Powell endorsement hurts John McCain. Joe Scarborough makes a strong case on how the endorsement will help Obama with Florida's retired military voters.



Update: Pam Spaulding has quotes of Freepers dissing Colin Powell. The General partly endorsed Obama because the GOP has become less inclusive. Free Republic is proof of the fringe taking over the Republican Party.

Why Lieberman Will Go To GOP Convention

Photo by Larry Downing

The suspense is killing no one. Tom Brakaw asked Joe Lieberman if he will speak at the Republican convention. Lieberman give a feeble "we’ll see." Crooks and Liars has the video. Senator John Kerry was also on the panel.

Brokaw: Are you going to speak at the Republican convention? […]

Lieberman: That decision hasn’t been made. If Senator McCain feels that I can help his candidacy, which I think it’s so important to elect him our next President, I will do it. […] And frankly, I’m going to go to a partisan convention and tell them — if I go — why it’s so important that we start to act like Americans and not as partisan mud-slingers. […]

Brokaw: Sounds like you’re going to go.

Lieberman: Well, we’ll see.

Kerry: Sounds like that to me too.

One obvious motivation is Lieberman has always been a DINO. Lieberman made is national reputation trashing Bill Clinton, Grand Theft Auto and Melrose Place. Lieberman is conservative and unprincipled. In 2006, Lieberman begged Obama to endorse him. Lieberman vowed that he would help get a Democrat in the White House. He is reneged on that promise.

Lieberman's poll numbers dropped in a July Quinnipiac University poll.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman gets a 45 - 43 percent approval, down from 52 - 35 percent March 27 and his lowest score ever.

"Sen. Lieberman's approval rating has dropped below 50 percent for the first time in 14 years of polling, with nearly two-thirds of Democrats giving him low marks, probably because he is campaigning for Sen. John McCain," Dr. Schwartz said.

Lieberman will not have a political party to back him in the 2012 election. Lieberman needs John McCain to appoint him to a cabinet position.

Personally, I am glad that Lieberman is a McCain surrogate. Joementum was a horrible running mate for Al Gore. Getting beat in a political debate by Dick Cheney isn't anything to brag about. Republicans may enjoy listening to Lieberman bash Obama. There didn't love him when he was the Vice-President candidate and they don't now. People find him grating. This explains why Lieberman went from VP pick, crash and burn presidential candidacy, kicked out of his own party to low approval ratings.

Side note: I question Obama's judgement for endorsing Lieberman. Obama tends to play it safe and get burned. In politics: if Lieberman pleads for an endorsement then Obama should be able to call in an IOU. Obama didn't even get that. That is incredibly stupid.

Howard Dean on Meet the Press

Howard Dean answers questions about the Florida and Michigan delegate situation on Meet the Press.

"You've got to keep order, and that's part of my job is to keep order," Dean said on Meet the Press. "It's understandable that the folks you call out because they think they're more important than everybody else are going to be upset about that. We did keep order, we do have an orderly process. I'll defend the process."

But Dean said he believes politics - not the voters - are to blame.

"The voters of Michigan and Florida were not the people that screwed this all up, it was politicians," Dean said, later adding, "I believe Michigan and Florida should be seated in some way because ...their voters did not cause this problem. This was caused by a political problem, not the voters' problem."

The problems with Florida and Michigan were political. Both states' Democratic party leaders moved up their primaries against repeated warnings from Dean and the Democratic National Committee. The problem with settling the delegate seating is Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have too much sway in the process. Candidates for the presidency can't be unbiased about how the delegates are seated.

The DNC's duty is too get Democrats elected. Not play election officials. Florida and Michigan party leaders placed a task on the DNC they weren't meant to handle. A few state party leaders moved up the primaries to curry favor with the candidates. The voters and party have suffered because of their aggorance.

Romney On Meet the Press

Willard Mitt Romney on the Issues
Uploaded by petulant

Mitt Romney discusses with Tim Russert why he is against the morning after pill and turning over Roe vs Wade. Romney wants to turn abortion laws back to the states. The man is hameless in his pandering. Romney has flip-flopped on abortion so many times.

The weakness of the anti-abortion position is they refuse to prosecute women getting illegal abortions. Anti-abortion advocates failed make abortion illegal in South Dakota. The movement understands that arresting woman would deep six their slim support.

Romney is forced to explain how he could be a member of a church that didn't allow blacks to join the Preisthood until 1978. Romney defends himself by dicussing his parents civil rights record. The Mittster lacks his own accomplishments in standing up for minorities.

Once again we are lef6t won

Don't Cry For Rudy

Rudy Giuliani's Meet the Press appearance maybe remembered as the moment his campaign official crashed. Tim Russert asked Giuliani about Giuliani using New York City tax dollars to provide security for his (then mistress) Judith Nathan. Russert quotes Bernard Kerik stating that no NYPD officer provided security for Nathan at that time. Giuliani attempts to explain his way around it. Only a fool would believe Giuliani's story.

Russert asks Giuliani about his foreign policy adviser Norman Podhoretz's statement of on Iran.

“Well, if we were to bomb the Iranians as I hope and pray we will. We’ll unleash a wave of anti-Americanism all over the world that will make the anti-Americanism we’ve experienced so far look like a lovefest.”

The last things Americans can stomach now is another President starting a preemptive war in the Middle East.



An ABC News poll shows Giuliani polls numbers dropping nationally. A little Rudy doesn't go a long way.

Revisionist Tim Russert

Tim Russert shows his usual lack of balance. He did not challenge Senator John McCain for his vote to give President Bush the power to declare war on Iraq.

RUSSERT: In hindsight, was it a good idea to go into Iraq?

McCAIN: You know, in hindsight, if we had exploited the initial success, which was shock and awe, and we succeeded, and we had done the right things after that, all of us would be applauding what we did. We didn't. It was terribly mismanaged. It was -- I went over there very shortly after the initial victory and came back convinced that we didn't have enough troops on the ground, we were making the wrong decisions, and that [then-Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld was badly mismanaging the conflict. And I spoke about it and complained for years.

So, if we had succeeded and done the right thing after the initial military success, then all of us would be very happy that one of the most terrible, cruel dictators in history was removed from power. Now, because of our failures, obviously, we have paid a very heavy price in American blood and treasure and great sacrifice.

RUSSERT: So it was a good idea to go in?

McCAIN: I think at the time, given the information we had. Every intelligence agency in the world, not just U.S., believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He had acquired and used them before. There's no doubt that he was going to acquire and use them if he could. The sanctions were breaking down. The Oil for Food scandal was in the billions of dollars. And, of course, at the time, given the information we had -- hindsight is 20/20. If we'd have known we were going to experience the failures we experienced, obviously, it would give us all pause. At the information and the knowledge and the situation at the time, I think that it was certainly justified.

Russert does not challenge McCain on his vote. He takes a different tone with Senator Joe Biden.

RUSSERT: But when you read the National Intelligence Estimate, which has now been released, there are a lot of caveats put on the level of intelligence about the aluminum tubes and everything.

BIDEN: Absolutely.

RUSSERT: General [Anthony] Zinni, who's been on this program a few weeks ago, said when he heard the discussion about the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam had, he said, "I've never heard that" in any of the briefings he had as head of the Central Command. How could you, as a U.S. senator, be so wrong?

BIDEN: I wasn't wrong. I was on your show when you asked me about aluminum tubes, and I said, "They're for artillery. I don't believe they're for cascading."

RUSSERT: But you said Saddam was a threat, that he had to be --

BIDEN: He was a threat.

Is that the fairness and the balance or the B.S. I am smelling?

Russert's questioning of John Edwards reads as a replay of his attack on Biden.

RUSSERT: General [Brent] Scowcroft, former President Bush's national security adviser, and the National Intelligence Estimate that was given to you, and now made public, had some real caveats, and this is one of them: "The activities we have detected do not add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing what the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research would consider to be an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons." Do you remember seeing that?

EDWARDS: I did see it. I mean, I think it was -- there were serious questions about whether -- again, we're looking back. Now, we know none of this was true. But, at the time, there were serious questions about any effort to obtain nuclear weapons, which is what that statement just was. All of us believed there was no question that he had chemical and biological weapons, and there was at least some scattered evidence that he was making an effort to get nuclear weapons.

RUSSERT: But it seems as if, as a member of the Intelligence Committee, you just got it dead wrong and that you even ignored some caveats and ignored people who were urging caution.

It's nice to see a pundit who mislead viewers about his role in the Valerie Plame scandal take others to task for their integrity. Russert didn't mention it on the show until he was subpoenaed.

In 2003, Russert has pushed bogus tales of Iraq's WMD program.

Inspectors never found any nuclear weapons program in Iraq until 1995, when Saddam’s son-in-law defected and revealed secret nuclear program unknown to the inspectors. It was sheer luck, not the inspections, that kept Saddam from building 21 nuclear bombs by 2003.

The weapons facility Russert speaks of was destroyed during the first Gulf war. I support Democrats being held accountable for their vote. Russert lacks the credibility to be the interrogator.

Classic David Broder

It is amazing that the Dean of Comedy can pack so much humor into his September 4, 2005 column. Satirist David Broder never fails to provide the funny. He writes how Katrina will help President Bush's political standing.

We cannot yet calculate the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and its devastating human and economic consequences, but one thing seems certain: It makes the previous signs of political weakness for Bush, measured in record-low job approval ratings, instantly irrelevant and opens new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public.

Broder continues to be on a roll. He blames the Congressional Democratic, who were in the minority, for the lack of oversight hearings.

The decline of oversight hearings on Capitol Hill reflects what many of the commentators called a loss of institutional pride in Congress. Majority Republicans see themselves first and foremost as members of the Bush team -- and do not want to make trouble by asking hard questions. Democrats find it more rewarding to raise campaign funds and cultivate their own constituencies.

My guts are about to burst from so much laughter. The staff at The Onion have nothing on Broder. What other comedian would have the brilliance to go on Meet the Press to suggest the Democrats were hurt after Trent Lott stepped down for his pro-segregation remarks. Younger comics like Sean Hannity should take note of the Dean.

BRODER: I think there are two losers, Tim. I think the Democrats lost ground, in part. Former Senator Al Simpson from Wyoming said to me, “They have defanged Daschle now.” Daschle can go stand up there and point his finger and talk about those rotten evil Republicans, and people are going to see Bill Frist standing across the aisle from him, who doesn’t look rotten or evil.

The other reason I think the Democrats are losers is that when they had a moral issue in front of them with President Clinton, they denounced him, but they never acted against him. Indeed, they rallied around him. And I think that contrast is one that people will remember.

Not to be outdone, fellow funnyman Tim Russert called Broder "the most objective and respected reporter I know in this town."

Hollywood will never beat the Beltway in the humor department.