Hey Janeane, it's supposed to be pronounced "Reichhhhhhh-uh".
Posted on 08/21/2003 11:37:14 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Another round of looniness from left-wing activist/actress Janeane Garofalo as the co-host in the left chair on CNN's Crossfire this week. On Monday she held the Bush administration "responsible" for the blackout. On Wednesday afternoon she blamed the Bush team for the terrorist attack on the UN hotel: "It is the Bush/Cheney cartel's fault for this."
Railing against the Bush administration's efforts to pass and now argue in favor of the benefits of the Patriot Act, Garofalo raised Nazism. Playing off how George W. Bush is the 43rd President, she charged: "It is in fact a conspiracy of the 43rd Reich."
In between, she contended that the war in Iraq "was an attempt at a corporate takeover. This was about oil. It wasn't about human rights. It's not about human rights." And she spewed: "Team Bush is more radically corrupt than Richard Nixon ever tried to be."
Some highlights of Garofalo's rants during the "Political Alert" segment at the top of the August 20 Crossfire at 4:30pm EDT:
Co-host Tucker Carlson: "Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is making up for his lack of personality with an oversupply of vehemence. After yesterday's truck bombing at the UN's Baghdad headquarters, Graham put out a statement saying quote, 'Had the president pursued the war on terrorism prior to initiating military action against Saddam Hussein, as I advocated last year, it's likely that al Qaeda and other terrorist networks would not have been able to take advantage of the chaos that now exists in Baghdad,' end quote.
"In other words, yesterday's tragedy was the President's fault. Only Bob Graham could have prevented it. The moral of the story: No event, not one, is so tragic that it can't be turned into a political opportunity for a presidential candidate. That's axiomatic. Everybody knows that. But it's still revolting, I have to say, to see it."
Garofalo: "Well, I would say that he is partially right. I blame the President. I blame the media cheerleaders, I blame the pseudo patriots. Iraq was not the threat."
Carlson: "Wait. What about the terrorists who did it?"
Garofalo: "You just did a whole read-through. The lie that brought us into war was that Iraq was a threat to us. Well, now it is a threat. Now it is a terrorist hotbed. The fiction is now reality. And now we have to deal with it. It was an attempt at a corporate takeover. This was about oil. It wasn't about human rights. It's not about human rights.
Carlson: "Terrorists just murdered innocent UN peacekeepers."
Garofalo:
"Yes, they did. Yes, they did."
Carlson: "And you're blaming the President, the media and corporations."
Garofalo: "I am blaming the occupation that the terrorists are resisting."
Carlson, waving arm as if to bring her in from far left field: "Come on home, Janeane. You're out there."
Garofalo, to cheers from the audience at George Washington University: "You're politicizing it. And it is the Bush/Cheney cartel's fault for this."
Garofalo set up the next topic: "This summer's hottest and most pandering concert tour is U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's 'Scare the dopes and promote the Patriot Act' tour. Today, he took the tour today to Cleveland and Philadelphia. This is an elaborate pre-campaign commercial, not an honest effort to explain why government agencies need to withhold any information we might need to function as a democracy. The Bush administration wants to expand its powers of surveillance over your life, while simultaneously rolling back the Freedom of Information Act. Team Bush is more radically corrupt than Richard Nixon ever tried to be."
Carlson, after applause for Garofalo's line: "You know what? Statements like that just show -- and I mean no offense by this -- but how out of it the left is. There's actually a lot to criticize about John Ashcroft, his total mishandling of the anthrax investigation, for instance, blaming a potentially innocent man, etcetera. But instead, you hear all this whining, nonspecific whining, about the Patriot Act, which passed with complete bipartisan support. Nobody ever points to anything specific in it. It's just, oh, our civil liberties are gone."
Garofalo: "OK, first of all, the Patriot Act passed in the fear of the aftermath of 9/11. It was passed very hastily. It was passed without any congressional scrutiny, because this administration operates like a private corporation, no public oversight, no congressional scrutiny."
Carlson: "What are you talking about?"
Garofalo: "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You have to live here, too, Tucker. And you pretend. And you've got to live with this, too."
Carlson, mocking her: "It is a conspiracy, Janeane. I agree with that. We're powerless, not really a democracy."
Garofalo, at same time as Carlson and in a comment missed by the CNN transcribers for the posted transcript: "It is in fact a conspiracy of the 43rd Reich."
Carlson, ridiculing her: "It's like Apollo 13. There was no moon landing. That's tomorrow's show!"
CNN deserves some criticism for giving someone as far out as Garofalo a credible spot on one of their shows.
An item in the August 19 CyberAlert recounted how Garofalo contended on Monday's Crossfire that "the majority of people in Iraq and Afghanistan no longer see us as liberators, but as occupiers and trespassers." The now-blonde Garofalo also held the Bush administration "responsible" for the blackout. In a diatribe delivered back in June, Garofalo charged that "the dumb and the mean love patriotism." She impugned conservatives: "What you have now is people that are closet racists, misogynists, homophobes and people who love tilted playing field and the politics of exclusion identifying as conservative."
See: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030819.asp#2
..that's on the next show...she's gracing CNN's Crossfire for a week.
I think this stategy is going to backfire for 'em though. This is way too early before elections. People have an entire autumn and winter to reflect on how crazy what Garofolo is saying is. She is the poster child of the left- all rant no ideas- no connection to reality.
Hey Janeane, it's supposed to be pronounced "Reichhhhhhh-uh".
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - a breath of fresh air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like she's auditioning for the role of Hillary's press secretary...
I think this is a blunder on CNN's part also.
Viewers are leaving them in droves not only because of bias, but more importantly because of tone.
The left, finding itself in the unenviable position as having been proven wrong on ALL its predictions to date, having positioned themselves to have to root against America in the war, and root for the economy to fail, now resort to shrill, nails on chalkboard, void of substance rants and accusations, and I think that, other than die-hard Che Guevara types,even some left of center grow tired of it quickly.
CNN is so pessimistic, and the folks at Fox are having a ball.
This is what I don't get. The left routinely derides the concept of patriotism. Then they complain when they're supposedly accused of being "unpatriotic". Wouldn't that be a compliment?
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