Conceivably one of the finest examples of hypocrisy and liberal media bias I’ve witnessed since this blog was created occurred on Sunday’s “The Chris Matthews Show.” The first subject for the panel – which consisted of Norah O’Donnell, Tucker Carlson, Andrew Sullivan, and Maureen Dowd – was – drum roll please – Mark Foley. As one would expect, there was tremendous disgust for Foley’s behavior, and the panel enunciated ties to Republican corruption and competence. Yet, when the discussion moved to Sen. Hillary Clinton running for president in 2008, and the possibility that she would name her husband as Secretary of State, no one on the panel, including Tucker Carlson, saw the inherent contradiction.
After all, the former president was sued, impeached, and implicated in several sex scandals. If Foley’s behavior was so atrocious to all four panelists, it quite appeared that such disdain was not shared for the former president’s behavior, and didn’t disqualify him from future service to the nation. For example, in the opening segment about Foley, Norah O’Donnell said:
I think this is an issue about bad behavior. I mean, and this is a, what Democrats will argue is this is an issue about competence and power. And did the leadership cover up or were there aides who covered up for their leaders and not taking action against someone who was potentially abusing children?
Abusing children? Like most of the drive by media, Norah conveniently ignored that seventeen-year-olds are not considered children in Washington, D.C. But, that’s beside the point, for Andrew Sullivan totally agreed:
I think Norah is right. What the real thing here is abuse of power. And, so it ties in with the corruption, the pork, the abuse of our troops in Iraq who have not been given the support they need or even a war plan to succeed.
So, a Congressman having salacious Internet chats with folks over the age of consent, and the possibility of a cover up, represents an abuse of power and a diminishment in competence so grave that the whole panel felt this would hurt Republicans in the upcoming elections. Yet, in the next segment, as the discussion moved to how Hillary could become the first female president, the solution was to place her sex-scandal-clad husband in an extremely powerful position in her cabinet:
Sullivan: Hillary’s solution is to be the warrior queen and to get the women’s vote by making her husband Bill Clinton Secretary of State. Now listen, Chris…Secretary of State Bill Clinton. That's how you solve the first husband problem.
Matthews: Then who is really president?
Sullivan: She's president. And when foreign leaders talk to him, they know he counts.
Matthews: Bill would be as important as Cheney is on that ticket.
Once again, we see the hypocrisy of the liberal media: Republican scandals must result in resignation and a change in leadership; Democrat scandals result in coronations and promotions. Frankly, I’m not sure which is more unbelievable: the fact that these supposedly intelligent folks stated such glaring contradictions on the same show, or that nobody noticed.
