Posted on 10/06/2006 5:32:15 PM PDT by Phsstpok
Preview and analysis for Weekend Talk Shows, 10-1-06 and 10-8-06
It's week five of the drive by media campaign to win back power in Washington for those who truly deserve it (in their minds), the Dhimmicrats. This week the attention shifts away from President Bush, because their lame but continuous attacks were beginning to work for him. Instead they are starting to point out to the ignorant boobs out there that the Republicans are really the party of homo values, kiddie porn, dirty talk and probably worse things, like drugs or even (horrors) rock and roll! They fully expect all right thinking conservatives (particularly those really stupid ones, you know, the Christians) to run away screaming and never support a Republican again. I think this scandal was set off about two weeks early and, if I'm right, it shows a high degree of desperation on the part of the party of Michael Moore. Not only weren't their attacks on Bush having the desired affect of "sealing the deal" for the dims, they were actually beginning to lose ground. The counter attacks by Bush and company on Iraq and the war on terror were a big part of it, but the biggest effect was coming from the drumbeat about who would be in charge if the Republicans get thrown out. The thought of a Speaker Pelosi or a Chairman Rangel just was too much for most Americans to take. Therefore, they needed to change the subject and fast. Unfortunately they did this clumsily and way too soon. The effect, if any, will have worn off long before election day and, in fact, the blowback might end up damaging the Soros/Clinton war machine most of all.
NBC Meet The Press has the fourth installment in their Senate debate series. This time it's Talent versus McCaskill for the seat Talent currently holds from Missouri. This is being touted as the "bell weather" race to watch on election night. If the Republicans can't hold this seat then they'll lose control of the Senate, "they" say. Talent has maintained a slight lead in all but the most tortured and tilted polls, but they keep plugging away and dumping millions of campaign dollars gathered from their billionaire sugar daddies via 527s. Reportedly they are even crossing the line and illegally using Democrat party resources in prohibited ways to support the McCaskill campaign (damn that CFR!). McCaskill seems to be an ineffective candidate, so watch for lil Timmah to carry more of the Dhimmicrat water against Talent in this weeks "debate." Following the Timmah/McCaskill tag team assault on Talent they'll try to resurrect the flagging fortunes of Bob Woodward's new book (which is losing big time to... OMG... O'Reilly!). Woodward was supposed to have at least a week where he "dominated the news cycle" to build up his book sales, provide fodder for the drive by media (DBM) and been given an opportunity to restore his reputation for bashing Republicans. Unfortunately the premature launch of La Cage aux Foley (hat tip for the phrase of the week to JER) has ruined that plan and Woodward clearly sees a future in the remainder bin for his latest tome. The usual suspects will try to revive this turkey. I give them little or no chance. "OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?" (apologies to Zaphod Beeblebrox).
CBS Face The Nation offers us a B team of minor leaguers from the House with Davis (R, VA) and LaHood (D, IL) squaring off over le affair Foley. The inclusion of LaHood will give them the chance to question the fate of Speaker Hastert, also of Illinois. Schieffer is joined by the Washington Post's political band director to try to get a little oompah out of the old dinosaur media tuba section. Watch for a lot of declarative statements and not much in the way of enlightenment or information.
Fox News Sunday provides a "panel of experts" to discuss the Foley scandal which is made up of a spectrum of "good" to "bad" conservatives. Representative Jack Kingston (R, GA) is the sole member of Congress listed and he has come out forcefully in support of Speaker Hastert. He has also called for Pelosi, Emanuel, Dean and other Democrats to testify under oath about what they knew and when they knew it regarding the potential crimes involved in Foley's nasty behavior. They then bring on the "bad conservative" Tony Perkins (Family Research Council). Perkins has committed the ultimate sin of being a Christian who actually dares to think that Foley's
sexuality and proclivity for preying on boys is relevant to the discussion. Not real informative, but helpful for the DBM sound bite brigade, I'm sure (unless Perkins gets really, really smart and messes with them). David Bossie (Citzens United) is trotted out as a conservative voice calling for Hastert's head (he will be celebrated in song and story by the drive by media) and Laura Ingraham, who may or may not be out for Republican blood. That makes it a panel of four conservatives, 2 to 1 against the Republicans, with one "easily dismissed religious fanatic." Chris Wallace's Coming Up on 'FOX News Sunday' piece speaks about there being discussions "with key congressional leaders," but no names are listed, other than Kingston. We'll have to see. Could it be a surprise list of guests not revealed to give the opposition a chance to counter program?
ABC This Week brings on the A team partisan pairing for the Foley scandal with the heads of the Republican and Democrat House campaign committees, Tom Reynolds (R, NY) and Rahm Emanuel (D, IL). If the Republicans were going to go with the aggressive strategy of calling out the Soros/Clinton war room over the Foley scandal this would be the place to do it, but ABC has made sure that Reynolds is damaged goods in this regard and he may well be checkmated from pursuing this tack with Emanuel. This is because one of the most likely sources (according to "leaks" from ABC (Brian Ross, no doubt) and assorted Dhimmicrat sources) of the incriminating emails and instant messages is Reynolds' gay chief of staff, who is Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham (Blackmail target of Mike Rogers, but ABC won't mention that). Also, Reynolds is said to have "convinced" Foley not to retire and therefore "keep this seat Republican," which is now being portrayed as the ultimate act of political cynicism. Fordham will be the "guest who speaks but is not on the shows" this week, as quotes from him will shower down like a bad thunderstorm, particularly on this show. Reynolds is a clear target of ABC's plan in this whole thing. If they can't get Hastert they'll be happy to settle for Reynolds. And to complete the trifecta for ABC their next guest, James Baker, has a new book and a "bipartisan report" that bashes the Bush policy in Iraq. He will probably be kept away from the Foley controversy as he has come out strongly against "sacrificing" Speaker Hastert this week (good imagery about throwing someone off the sled to keep the wolves at bay). My great hope is that they've once again misunderstimated the Bush strategery because Bush is the one who appointed Baker to the Bipartisan Iraq Study Group which issued the "critical report" on Iraq. Some on the left are beginning to smell a Rovian plot and warn of Bush's own October surprise and many tie it to the recommendations coming out of this group (see show links for some of the silliness). Right now Baker is being feted by the drive by media and the left because he's criticizing Bush's policy, but what if Bush takes the Study Group's advice? Bada Bing, Bada Boom! This Sunday might tell the tale on that. I will look at Baker's appearance on This Week with a magnifying glass. George Will, Cokie Roberts and Fareed Zakaria will be called on by Steponallofus to "explain" the true significance (read "doom for the evil Republicans") of all of this in the roundtable segment. ABC is working hard to pay back their Clintonian Overlords for daring to show that awful "Path to 9/11" thingy, dontcha know?
CNN Late Edition trots out the Iraqi foreign minister, no doubt to ask him to confess that our Iraq policy is a disaster and that we've actually made things worse since toppling Saddam, who was truly harmless, after all. I think that is a minor, almost pro-forma part of the show this week. Cornyn (R, TX) is set to face off with Biden (D, DE) over all things to do with foreign policy, including the border fence and middle east policy. Biden is pushing the old Europe like "let's divide Iraq" plan and I think Cornyn will gut him like a fish over this issue, if given a chance. Cornyn's cynical statements about funding for the border fence will be used as a starting point for the discussion of that issue, which puts him on the defensive and lets Biden pontificate about how evil and racist Republican immigration policy is while also claming that Dhimmicrats have a real plan to protect our borders (no doubt he wants to eliminate our borders, then they can't be threatened, of course). The co-authors of the new political book "The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008" will work to position themselves as good members of the DBM, since they are being criticized by the MoveOn left over whatever conclusions they draw in their book. My guess is that they argue that to win you have to support America against those who want to destroy America, which Dean, Pelosi and Moore would of course find objectionable. Watch for fierce anti-Bush spinning with very little reference to what's really in the book. CNN's Dana Bash has also been criticized from the left for her recent reporting, primarily that it wasn't sufficiently slanted against Bush (she bothered to include facts, which messed up the narrative they wanted to achieve). Wolfe will give her the opportunity to correct those "errors." And then they offer up Ted Turner's idea of a "real" conservative, Pat Buchanan, in all his wild eyed, racist and jingoistic glory. Wolfe will give him a free field of fire to attack Bush while still spouting off offensive comments that they will then try to tie to all conservatives, especially Bush. It's a win-win for the MoveOn crowd, and good ol' Pat has filled this role faithfully for years.
With the exception of the Journal Editorial Report I am singularly uninterested in the Saturday shows this week. Mort and Fred are really getting tiresome with their inside the beltway conventional wisdom. I long ago decided that this isn't a "conventional wisdom" election, good or bad for us, and they just keep on keeping on with the same old tired analysis. Russert's Danforth hagiography will likely be truly offensive. I wonder if Timmah will ask him about his uber liberal US church leaders rejecting the Bible, at least as far as the leaders of his church in the rest of the world are concerned (except dhimmi England, of course)? Nah! Fox News Watch is simply boring, as their "defend journalists at all cost regardless of any fraud" approach is way too predictable at this point and totally uninteresting. When Neal Gabler is the only voice remotely interesting on this show you know they're in trouble. I keep saying that Fox should turn this into an hour, give half to the guys from Media Research Center and half to the Soros moonbats from Media Matters and let them have at it, with a panel of adults to hose down the rhetoric between segments. Now that would draw an audience! But JER may redeem Saturday for reasoning hominids. They deal with the Foley mess, but it appears to be a throwaway for them. They're real focus is American demographics, like Social Security a controversial topic that everyone simply wants to ignore but one which will clearly affect all of our lives far more than almost anything else on the world stage today. Bravo, folks. Let's hope it starts a meaningful dialogue on this complex and important topic. Wait, what am I thinking. This is dinosaur media TV (even if it is cable). They will be a lonely voice, crying in the wilderness. Noble effort, but will anyone notice?
So, what's the bottom line this week? This is a week of frantic spin where the DBM and the Dhimmicrats try to frame yet another new "winning argument" to replace their latest "losing argument" (number 974). Watch for lots of declarations of victory for the forces of Soros that ring increasingly hollow. The question at this point is how desperate will they be to shut down the investigation if it dares to look at "what the Dhimmicrats knew and when they knew it." Several senior members of the moonbat left may be seriously at risk over this whole Foley affair. I'll be interested to see how the gay community ends up reacting to being used as a stalking horse and sacrificial lamb in this way. I've talked before about a potential sea change in racial politics coming out of this election. Could there be a sea change in the politics of sexual orientation? Will the Log Cabin Republican types (R and D?) realize and communicate that Republicans may not approve of their lifestyle or agenda, but they don't want to set them up for lynching, while Nancy Pelosi isn't averse to that as a tactic, so long as it buys her power? The ultimate denouement of this part of "la cage aux Foley" may be whether Mike Rogers is investigated (dare I say indicted?) for having blackmailed a gay Republican Senator (reportedly over the Alito vote, which would probably make the target Lincoln Chaffee). If he faces serious jail time for that little bit of political theater (which he has trumpeted publicly) what doors might he kick open? I wonder if he knows where Fort Marcy Park is?
This has been cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com. This post exists primarily as a heads up for who is on the weekend talks shows, what they've been invited on to push (based on their recent pronouncements) and the spin (meme) the DBM is likely trying to push based on that information. All of this is prep work for the weekly Sunday Morning Talk Show thread posted by Alas Babylon!. That thread provides a live commentary and analysis of the Sunday talking head shows, with rare insight and exceptional fact checking. we are the Jedi Council of FreeRepublic, at least in regards to these DBM gabfests. You wanna know what was said and what it meant, as well as where they messed up? Read that thread!
I'll post a link to Mark Kilmer's excellent preview of the Sunday shows over at RedState.COM when it is up.
I'll also post a link to this Sunday's live thread here when it is up.
Brilliant post AB.
Democrats and the media have taken the concept that "perception is reality" so far out there that it honestly becomes funny. I believe we have to take the threat seriously but we should stop taking these media and Democrat operatives seriously as well. We are giving them far more credibility than any of them have earned or deserve.
First we have to learn IF there is a problem with the pages in DC. If there is, we'll fix it just as we have done with other problems. The very idea a Pelosi, Conyers, Franks, Jefferson, Rangle or any other Democrat fixing any congressional problems is ludicrous on its face. Someone, anyone, please tell me one problem Democrats have addressed or fixed in twelve years? Who in their right mind actually believes the Democrat party has held any member accountable or responsible for their actions in our generation?
Okay, now for the media and pollsters. Someone, anyone, tell me which media network or pollster has predicted the results of any major national election correctly within thirty or sixty days of that election since 2000?
It should not be a surprise that if a political party is incapable of the leadership needed to govern a country, they should not be elected. The global war on terror is going our way, the economy is doing great, tax revenues are up, interest rates down, unemployment is down and Republicans are advancing bills addressing the issues the country is concerned about such as illegal immigration. Let's face it, the Democrats have nothing but this Foley incident and their relentless blind opposition to President Bush and the war on terrorism to talk about.
Our job is to fend off the B$, return the national conversation to issues critical to our country and educate voters as we are getting out the vote in thirty days. Voters have to know the plan Democrats are advancing is based on eliminating funding for the war on terrorism and Iraq, raising taxes, eliminating the tax breaks people already have, open the borders, register illegal aliens to vote and spend money to investigate President Bush, VP Cheney and DOD Sec. Rumsfeld. This isn't us saying that, this was put forth by both Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangle. And I won't even bring up Majority Leader Murtha.
Laura Ingraham has been almost unlistenable this week. She is on a power rant similar to her days on Harriet Myers.
I like reading your weekly previews, BTW.
I have no use for any of them, and I no longer will buy their books or listen to anything they have to say.
I believe when they are deprived of income perhaps THEN they might get a clue.
Your right. I was stuck on the notion of Republican vs Democrat on each panel and just went with that.
My only excuse is that CBS was one of the last to post (CNN was last this week) and I was stuck in a groove.
I could never tell which was which in the cartoons!
Ironically, tonight Fred was off and Bill Sammon subbed. I enjoyed him much better. Mort got more absolute in his declarations about how doomed the republicans are and Sammon just wouldn't buy it. He didn't get loud or nasty, he just quietly ripped Mort a new one...
Bill Sammon is always level-headed and right on the money. Thanks for reporting what he said, since I have had grandkids here today and mostly our TV has been on kid shows.
Fred Barnes is brilliant, but yikes!!! That stuttering has got to go. He just can't get his points across well enough, and watching the articulate Sammons just proves the point.
But what do I know, I can't even find the Sunday Talk Show thread!!!
I love Julie. She can make some very good remarks. I did not know her sister has been a missionary for 15 years.
It's not up yet :)
It just occured to me, because I seem to channel your and Miss Marple's thoughts that Beltway libs must believe that all conservatives think like Paul Weyrich, and Richard Viguerie, and Tony Perkins and sadly Laura Ingraham, who seem to be motivated by some kind of utopian ideals.
Or maybe they believe that we follow the lead of these purists, instead of dealing in the real world and thinking for ourselves.
Dennis Hastert is part of the real world, and I support him.
I do get antsy don't I? Well, caffeine overload and Chris Matthews at 6 am in the morning will do that to you.
I'm going to try to memorize what you wrote about leftist 'thinking'. It is so true and explains how they manage to be such hypocrites. It works with all of their 'constituencies.' In Maryland, our candidate for Senator is being criticized for talking like a white man.
How can blacks claim that they are put upon by whites, "we are unfair" when they do not even want to accept that talking standard English is a good way to be successful in America.
Here's a link anyways: Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 8 October 2006
It in the beltway vrs the real world. IN the beltway they think this is a golden opportunity to force out a guy they don't like so they can get a guy they want in the job. Inside the beltway they are surrounded so much by the Democrat Media Political complex they simply lose touch with reality.
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