Posted on 06/18/2006 5:26:52 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
The Talk Shows
Sunday, June 18th, 2006
Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:
FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): White House press secretary Tony Snow; New Democrat Network President Simon Rosenberg; former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta.
MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister, ConocoPhillips Corp. Chairman James Mulva, Chevron Corp. Chairman David O'Reilly.
FACE THE NATION (CBS): Snow; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
THIS WEEK (ABC): L. Pre-empted for World Cup coverage.
LATE EDITION (CNN) : Snow; Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Brilliant post and insight here Phsstpok.
G'morning and Happy Father's Day to y'all!
I'm gonna treat myself to a Father's Day gift and avoid the barking moonbats today in favor of your observations and analysis.
This is mean (maybe) but I would so love for Russert to be disgraced and go the way on the late, unlamented Dan Rather.
There's just something about his fat, smug, lying face that riles me up.
Would it be ok if he took Feinstein, and Sissy Matthews into retirement?
LSOS
My pleasure, patj. Thanks.
Both Tony Snow and Pat Roberts refused to confirm or deny Suskind's account of the almost poisoning in the New York subway.
Feinstien is saying that they passed a resolution that this year there would be a phased redeployment of troops. That was not in that crappy resolution.
Indeed. Thanks for clearing it up.
In the probe of what became known as the Abscam bribery scandal, Murtha was the only congressman involved in the complex case to emerge without facing criminal charges. He declared he was innocent, saying he had "met with two men who I believed had a substantial line of credit that could provide up to 1,000 jobs for the district. I broke no law. I took no money." A grand jury and the House ethics panel cleared Murtha of any wrongdoing.
http://asp.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/CandidateProfile.aspx?ci=462&oi=H
I'll drop it since they couldn't prove it... like his brother's company and the defense contracts with Pelosi's nephew.
Yet for some reason, this still bothers me...
This includes his reported role as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Abscam bribery scandal of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Abscam ("Arab scam") was a FBI sting:
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Murtha was one of eight members of Congress lured to a Washington, D.C., townhouse by a team of FBI agents posing as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik. They handed out briefcases filled with $50,000 in return for helping the sheik gain residency in the United States."
But:
Noting that Murtha "is not squeaky clean," the Brattleboro, Vt., Reformer reported that the congressman "did not take the cash" offered by the agents. Instead, "he asked the fake sheik to consider investing some money in his struggling home town, Johnstown."
And:
But, a videotape of a Jan. 7, 1980 Abscam-related meeting involving Murtha shows that the congressman's rejection of the offered bribe was less than definite. "I'm not interested. I'm sorry," Murtha told the FBI agent, but added that he meant "at this point... You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't," Murtha said on the FBI videotape.
So, according to CNS News: the FBI tried to get Murtha to take a bribe as part of a sting. Murtha refused the bribe but suggested the Sheik invest money in his hometown. So, he could have been offering the Sheik a quid-pro-quo: you help me out, and perhaps I'll help you out later.
This snip from admirers at common dreams:
The second brick destined to crash through the Murtha family parlor window is Abscam. Mr. Murtha was one of eight members of Congress lured to a Washington townhouse by a team of FBI agents posing as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik. They handed out briefcases filled with $50,000 in return for helping the sheik gain residency in the United States.
Mr. Murtha is on videotape telling the agents, "Not interested," but inviting the sheik to invest a few million in his struggling hometown, where unemployment reached 25 percent.
Mr. Murtha's probity might have been in doubt at that moment. Certainly he played the political coquette, suggesting they might do business later.
But where his companions were stuffing their pockets, he was trying to figure out how to get a fake prince to open a factory in Johnstown. Among agents of the government operating a fantasy, Mr. Murtha was attempting to get something real accomplished. That is what he is like.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1120-20.htm
Be sure to catch FNS later today. Not a smack-down, but Brit made the point well for fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq to Juan. On commercial break now, but maybe, maybe, Juan will get it this time.
Barone may or may not be a conservative, but he seems to be a man who can think.
I enjoy his books greatly.
Thanks for your quick reply. I had to leave the room for a bit. You're right. That photog should never be allowed on another trip.
I wasn't passing judgement on the topic as a valid point to raise when discussing Murtha. I don't have enough information. I was just answering the question of whether or not he was involved in Abscam in any way.
I do have a general discomfort with these types of "blasts from the past," but I also think we too often ignore obvious and egregious problems on the dims side when we "rise above it." They never rise above anything and they never let anything go, even when the Republican is not just not indicted but is explicitely declared innocent. They still maintain that during the 1980 campaign George HW Bush borrowed (!!!???!!!) an SR71 to fly over to Paris and meet with the Iranian's to cut a deal on the hostages to hurt Carter. Things like the TNG accusations keep getting recycled as if they were true, no matter how many times they are proved wrong, and they score points every time with the uninformed.
We have to be careful not to stoop to their fraud tactics, but if there really is something there we can't gloss over it. It's like this White House conceding the WMD argument when that debate, IMO, is far from over. Bush wanted to change the tone and they conciously decided not to fight issues like that. I think they were wrong.
ref #180, they absolutely are using him because of his Military Background and his Place on the Military Appropriations Committee. They also have him by the throat so that he will be their little propagandist and they will protect him for the ethics violations that will be coming up soon. Like most Dementia victims he will sound fairly normal today and for the rest of the week be incoherent. It is an everyday mystery kind of thing, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Pelosi looks very nervous and eye-popping to the max when she is talking about Murtha. He can only be programmed so much, and he strays off their reservation on a regular basis.
I will always believe Murtha was really dirty in ABSCAM, but escaped the proof. I also believe all the rest of the story that keeps coming out with him. These guys keep crying corruption because they're guilty of it and want to deflect anything coming their way.
Culture of corruption, indeed.
As he did when he announced he was running for majority leader. Loose cannon.
Speaking of media mythology - and somewhat off the subject - but did anyone see the best seller's list?
Our local papers: The Tampa Tribune didn't run the list - and the St. Pete Times seems to have run last weeks list. Or maybe they're always a week behind and I never noticed. Ann's book didn't make the list at all in the Times. Does anyone know what's happening? Correct me, please.
That's ONE of the problems the dems have.
They have to stick with their crazies, because the pool of non-crazies is so small.
They really had to work hard at bringing themselves to (somewhat) distance themselves from William Jefferson (D).
Murtha needs to look around and see what kind of people are standing with him.
Snort. You democrats are all alike. Bush and Rove have this amazing ability to control every entity in this nation, yet they are sooo stupid they've lost control over every entity in this nation. Find a new talking point. No one is buying this crap anymore.
And by the way, the USMC runs its own judicial procedures. Real Marines know that.
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