"YOU REALLY LET US DOWN TOM" !!

MRC ^ | 10.06.02 | Brent Baker

[fight_truth_decay]

"You've got a President with big deficits, you've got an economy in the doldrums, you've got major corporate scandals, you've got a President talking about taking the country to war, which is never popular, and still you couldn't beat him." -- Charles Gibson to Tom Daschle on Wednesday's Good Morning America.

Network reporters politely -- albeit not cheerfully -- acknowledged the Republican near-sweep that ended Tom Daschle's days in charge of the U.S. Senate, and they credited vigorous campaigning by the President for the GOP's success.

But some journalists actually suggested that the voters' message yesterday was that both parties should become more liberal. While they blamed mushy moderation for the Democratic disaster, reporters warned Republicans to forget about a conservative agenda and hug the center if they wanted to maintain their new hold on congressional power. The media's unsolicited advice to both parties, from last night and this morning's TV coverage:

> Diagnosis: The Democrats were too conservative. "Did you run too close to the middle? There's grousing already in the Democratic party that Democrats didn't act like Democrats, they acted like watered-down Republicans," CBS's Harry Smith scolded Democratic boss Terry McAuliffe on this morning's Early Show.

> Maybe a big government program would have helped. "Do you think the Democratic Party has made a mistake pulling back from those grand initiatives like health care?" MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey shortly before 11pm last night. When Kerrey reminded him that Democrats wanted taxpayers to pay for senior citizens' drug bills, Matthews scoffed: "That's pretty small bore, isn't it?"

> Or maybe they were too frightened of President Bush. "The knock on the Democrats tonight is that there was no consistent message, there were so many messages, and moreover you were intimidated by the President and you wouldn't speak out on the economy, and you wouldn't speak out on the war," Peter Jennings lectured Democratic Senate campaign chief Patty Murray during ABC's 1am EST (10pm PST) news special.

> Conservatives will be Bush's biggest problem. During CNN's coverage early this morning, analyst Jeff Greenfield> hoped Bush had the willpower to just say no: "His one problem is going to be that the Republican base, movement conservatives, are now going to say to him, 'You've got the power, now use it, now get the agenda done.' And they may not want that agenda pushed quite as hard as the movement conservatives do."

> Rewarding loyal conservatives would just be a cynical "payoff." CNN's Paula Zahn warned Republican Senate leader Trent Lott this morning that "there are those out there who are saying...the President is going to have to be realistic about the amount of pressure put on him by the conservatives and religious right. What is your assessment of that? I mean, they are basically saying it's payoff time."

> Conservative legislation would be divisive. "The margin of victory is so narrow in so many of these races and it's just a razor thin difference in some cases between the parties, does that give you a responsibility to govern from the middle or with the majority do you go all the way to the right?" CBS's Smith asked Lott. His plea to "govern from the middle" came just minutes before Smith fretted to McAuliffe that Democrats had "acted like watered-down Republicans."

> If Bush gets a swelled head, he could get a lot of people killed. "Do you think there's a danger of hubris?" Chris Matthews asked Kerrey on MSNBC. "If he does very well and he grabs the United States Senate tonight...is there a chance, in fact, a likelihood, that he might get a little bit overzealous about his power and maybe draw us into a war with greater alacrity than he should?"

Does anyone remember the last election night when media mavens faulted the Republicans for being too moderate or warned Democrats against fulfilling their liberal promises? Or do reporters really think both parties should lurch further to the left?

END Reprint of Media Reality Check

Cueball covered by a trash can. To see a still shot from CNN just past 11:30pm EST on election night when a depressed James Carville put a trash can over his head, go to the MRC home page. The picture is permanently posted in this morning's: CyberAlert:

-- Brent Baker

Rich Noyes

[fight_truth_decay]

Those Dems are getting a REAL TONGUE LASHIN'! Those network types Just Don't Get It!

[Bahbah]

We need them to believe that they have become too moderate. I would love to see it.

[SES1066]

Those network types Just Don't Get It!

AND they are really hurt that THEIR PARTY did so badly!

[n2002duke]

Just as they were after Nixon's re-election, the liberal media is going to be on the warpath.

They simply will not accept that their smug liberal elitism is so far to the left of the views of the silent majority.

[Robert357]

In Zen, silence is an important part of the music.

In reading the news commentators criticism of Democratic leaders, I am struck by the lack of comment on the role of Bill and Hillary or Al Gore and Lieberman. These four have been pretending to be the "spokespeople" of the Democratic Party.

The Silence regarding these four among the talking Democratic media heads is deafening! I thought that the Democrats feed on their own. If so, the feeding frenzy should be in full swing as there is lots and lots of Democrat-political-blood in the water.

I do so love it that my Senator Patty (tennis shoes) Murray is the chief of the Democratic Senate campaign. I hope she is now toast and slinks off into the shadows.

[RAT Patrol]

Conservatives will be Bush's biggest problem. During CNN's coverage early this morning, analyst Jeff Greenfield> hoped Bush had the willpower to just say no: "His one problem is going to be that the Republican base, movement conservatives, are now going to say to him, 'You've got the power, now use it, now get the agenda done.' And they may not want that agenda pushed quite as hard as the movement conservatives do "Movement conservatives?" That's new. Maybe they're gonna replace the "religious right" as the new "Goldstein." (Orwell's 1984)

[mykdsmom]

Wow, ole cueball never looked better.

MKM

[RAT Patrol]

And....

I don't remember hearing anything about narrow margins and not being divisive when the Senate majority was swiped by a disgruntled RINO and handed to the 'rats.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Note to the media elite:..On November 5th 2002, George W Bush WON THE POPULAR VOTE!

[EBUCK]

reporters warned Republicans to forget about a conservative agenda and hug the center if they wanted to maintain their new hold on congressional power.

BWAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

IOW, Great job winning both houses on Conservative platforms but you're gonna have to go ahead and enact the RAT policy if you want to keep them!

Crock-O-$hit!

EBUCK

[Mercat]

If someone could just take snake head and blow up (photographically of course) that picture of him, I would love to use it as my wallpaper this week.

[dead]

The right has an enormous political victory of historical proportions and uber-liberal, overlord, master idiot Harry Smith sees a need for a leftward lurch in both parties.

Great stuff.

[aristeides]

The silence about the Clintons is indeed deafening. What do you suppose accounts for it?

[aristeides]

Who do you think will be the next Dem to dare say President Bush is "selected, not elected"?

[Prodigal Son]

We need them to believe that they have become too moderate. I would love to see it.

Exactly. I went over to Democratic Underground before it went offline. There is a funereal atmosphere over there. If they had simply treated Wellstone's funeral with the same tone of mourning and grief that they are treating this election- they might not have fared quite as badly. Instead they used his casket for a campaign platform with scarcely a tear shed for the corpse that lay within. Today they're all tears.

All they care about is power. But they are about power of the thuggery kind- that's all they understand- con games, runarounds, grandious lies and two faced deception. The voter, in their view must be "tricked" into voting for them and then the voter must be "softened up" with government handouts to keep him dependent on the democratic teat.

Their actions betray them time and time again. They care not for the ordinary human, even thought they sing loud choruses proclaiming their love of mankind. The masses are merely a vehicle for the liberals- the "exploited working man" is simply the lever with which they hope to pry wealth from those who created it and to tighten the screws ever tighter on human freedoms.

Many posters at DU are saying they lost because the Democratic Party isn't far enough Left. This is the perfect illustration of the profound stupidity of the liberal- they lost because they are too far left and their solution would be to move even further in the wrong direction.

The Earth, it was eventually demonstrated, is round and contrary to the myths of sailors one would not fall off the edge if one sailed too far in any direction. But the World of Politics is not strictly bound by spherical geometry and Newtonian physics- there is indeed an edge and if the liberals sail too far along the azimuth they've plotted, they will no doubt find themselves falling into a void from which there will be no return.

I say- "Anchors Aweigh Lefties!!!" You've got a hot wind at your backside, hoist up the cloth and chase the setting sun as far as you can manage. Reminds me of a Stephen Crane poem:

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never -- "

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

[Mike Fieschko]

We need them to believe that they have become too moderate.

Yeah ... they shouldn't have run Mondale, they should have run McGovern.

[fight_truth_decay]

THIS LOOKS EVEN BETTER.

[maxwellp]

The liberal media, like the Democrats, are talking to themselves. The great American people, also known as The Silent Majority, voted and told them where to go. The liberal media under-estimated the intelligence of the American people, many of them at any rate, and are astounded that these folks voted for America and not for a bunch of do-nothing, no solutions, raise taxes idiots. My faith in America and the American people has been restored. God Bless America and President Bush.

[Robert357]

The silence about the Clintons is indeed deafening. What do you suppose accounts for it?

Perhaps a knowledge that Bill and Hillary have had people killed in the past.

Perhaps a knowledge that Bill and Hillary still may have copies of FBI files on people; remember their plan for a scored earth impeachment fight. If Bill and Hillary are flamed, they could likely increase the size of the fire rather than slithering away like the reptiles they are.

Could it be the fear that vindictive Hillary still could become more powerful at some point if the Dems regain the senate?

It is hard to say, but I sure hope the Republicans prime the pump on this and see if the Democrats pick up the chant.

[TC Rider]

Maybe they're gonna replace the "religious right" as the new "Goldstein." (Orwell's 1984)

I bet you've read 'Slander' more recently than '1984'.