Oh my, Rush should have played this during the Judge, now Justice :), Alito hearings when he was being badgered about not remembering much about a college organization that he once belonged to.
Did you see the column on the third pick?
BUT MONKEY
Stupidity In Planning - How the Democrats (Still) Miss The Big Picture
I watched little Timmy Russert and Meet The Press this morning. As always, Timmy was rude and self-impressed, but his selection of topics was interesting.
First, Russert sat down with Michael Chertoff and tried to blame the Head of the DHS for what Russert described as the failure by the Federal government to do enough for Katrina victims. I notice that Russert made no mention whatsoever of local or state responsibility for their agencies or plans, but preferred to blame everything, as much as he could, on the Bush Administration. Unfortunately for Russert, Chertoff was reasonable and professional, and explained the timeline, actions, and options both concisely and in context. My only disappointment was that Chertoff did not remind Russert about the media’s hysteria and exaggeration, which did nothing to help the victims or inform the public. Of course, the MSM is still attempting to exaggerate the damage and deaths, as well as misportray the responsibility of various agencies and individuals, for which Mayor “Chocolate” Nagin and Governor “wait” Blanco must surely be grateful.
Having failed to blame President Bush for an act of nature, and for the local and state failures in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, Russert then turned to the loudest press tantrum of the week - the accidental shooting of Whittington by Vice-President Cheney, and the inability of the White House Press Corps to find out news on their own. Unfortunately for Russert, his first guest was Mary Matalin, who set him straight on the major points rather quickly. Russert described the shooting as a “major news story”, but Matalin reminded him that most of America has a different, and better-balanced, idea of what makes a ‘major’ news story. She reminded him that the White House Press Corps (D-DC) paid almost no attention this week to events in Iran, to the incitement of riots by militant Muslims by Jihadist provocateurs, or to the Senate discussions surrounding the NSA surveillance of terrorist contacts, which used to be a high priority with the rather whimsical MSM.
Having dismally failed to demonstrate any sort of error by the White House in the way the shooting story was relayed to the public, Russert instead brought David Gregory, the WHPC representative for MSNBC who vaguely admitted he “over-reacted” by yelling at the White House Press Secretary, cutting him off repeatedly and demanding that McLellan admit that the White House was somehow covering up a scandal by calling law enforcement and letting them do their job, instead of beginning with the media. Matalin shot him down straightaway, and managed to demonstrate Mr. Gregory’s lack of maturity in the process.
The two-on-one gang having failed, Russert opened up the discussion to a round table, adding Maureen “Ms. Scream” Dowd and Paul Gigot, of the Wall Street Journal. Gigot made the best point of the morning, when he reminded Russert that while the MSM considered the shooting a news event, Cheney was in shock from accidentially shooting a friend, and his reaction was reasonable when you consider the personal dimensions of the event. Matalin went on to remind Gregory that law enforcement was imemdiately contacted by the Secret Service, but that local and county law enforcement in South Texas means something different than what the D.C. types might expect. That is, that the decision by the Constable to interview the witnesses before anyone else, was in no way an unusual thing, but is actually the normal process in such situations, as many Texas hunters have already confirmed here and in other blogs. Matalin also quickly shot down the ‘drinking’ slander, pointing out that the witness testimony was clear and unanimous on this point.
The significance of today’s episode was not that the MSM would try to lie about Bush and his associates; that’s nothing new. But the selection of two such non-events in so many people’s minds, demonstrates why the Left is losing so many battles. They just are not being very smart about picking their fights, and so present themselves, accurately, as bitter malcontents with no substance or greater purpose beyond trying to attack someone doing his job. Like Howard Dean, Russert damages his own side by his behavior, and he doesn’t even realize it. Like David Gregory, his ego simply does not allow a better perspective.
UPDATE: Spelling corrected.
http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=12477
Both from GOP Bloggers
http://www.gopbloggers.org/
MSM Digging Its Own Grave
When it is under assault, why does the MSM continue to make criticism of it so easy?
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2ch.htm
This just in... Both TIME and NEWSWEEK are planning high impact covers of Cheney for newsstands starting tomorrow, with each magazine rolling out top staff bylines and thousands of words on the hunting incident...
On CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES, WASHINGTON POST reporter Dana Milbank fretted that the White House is exploiting the public's growing disdain for the mainstream media. "Of course they succeed,” Milbank said of Bush aides. “The press always looks awful. They will once again make us look awful.”
CNN's Candy Crowley added: "The perception is that we're whining."
White House correspondent Bill Plante of CBS agreed.
"The vice president and the White House have both used the constant press coverage of this story as a wedge,” he told RELIABLE SOURCES host Howard Kurtz. “It plays to the prejudices of the people who are predisposed not to like us, and it's one way to distract attention from what happened.”
Once again, by choosing to focus on this non-issue while Iran goes nuclear and entitlements go bankrupt, the MSM proves the point that it slants its coverage not to the most important issues of the day but the most politically useful...in its warped, self-defeating view.
Also:
Hamas Renounces Treaty
Here's another example why the Palestinian Arabs are not deserving of a state, and another example of why they cannot be trusted.
http://www.dartblog.com/data/005078.html
Low comedy from deep within the Muslim world, newly represented by double talking terrorists. Just yesterday, Hamas came into power. As I noted, its first order of business was to indemnify itself—rhetorically http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021800558.html , if not legally—from the obligations of Oslo, and to assert that, no, the nation of Israel does not have the right to exist in this world. Despite Hamas’ being essentially a successor government (and thus required under international law to abide by treaties to which the previous government acceded), the party has renounced any treaty that recognized Israel.
Can you guess what the second order of business was? That’s right: http://www.ba.no/nyheter/urix/internasjonale_nyheter/article1962552.ece to condemn Israel’s decision to cease sending cash to the Palestinian Authority. Specifically, $42.2 million. Since the PA and its new Hamas bosses run almost entirely on the swiftly-eroding goodwill of the rest of the world (terrorism doesn’t pay very well), Hamas is now demanding that Israel reconsider its decision to cut funding. A representative said: “This is a faulty decison, and the Israelis must reconsider their decision. It will only increase hatred.”
Georgian Help for Possible Iran Strike?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395445405&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
