Free Republic

Politico’s Mike Allen reported this morning that MSNBC has hired the Democratic National Committee’s director of video production to become a producer for one of the cable network’s weekend political talk shows. DNC video production director Anne Thompson was reportedly given a farewell party at the DNC, replete with ice cream and refreshments, as she sets out to become segment producer on Up with Steve Kornacki, MSNBC’s new weekend show. As Politico reported, Thompson was behind dozens of the DNC’s 2012 election videos and ads, notably including the parodic song, “Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan:

The Obama administration is flatly denying a blaring British newspaper report that the U.S. diplomats in Libya were killed as a result of a “continuing security breach,” and that “credible information” about possible attacks had been ignored. A U.S. official told POLITICO: “There's no intelligence indicating that the attack in Benghazi was premeditated.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81198.html#ixzz26P9XMG6i

If between now and Election Day unemployment numbers improve, particularly if they dip below the 8% barrier, you know President Obama, with an MSM assist, will be out there pounding his chest about the number of jobs "he created." But when the unemployment numbers remain weak? Well, that's not Obama's fault. Just ask Mike Allen of Politico. On today's Morning Joe, trying to explain Obama's early campaign stumbles, Allen declared that certain factors, including the bleak job numbers, were "beyond the control" of Obama. View the video here.

The Romney campaign, renowned for its oppo-heavy strategy, didn’t even have an oppo book on Rick Santorum a few days before the Iowa caucuses, so surprised were they by his surge. Jon Huntsman nearly decided in November to leave the GOP and run as an independent. And before one of the debates, Rick Perry sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in a restroom. These details are from Mike Allen and Evan Thomas’ new e-book, Inside the Circus, as are these additional factoids below. Mitt Romney raised millions in March by warning would-be donors a brokered convention could mean a...

Newt Gingrich is cutting back his campaign schedule, will lay off about a third of his cash-strapped campaign’s full-time staff, and has replaced his manager as part of what aides are calling a “big-choice convention” strategy, communications director Joe DeSantis told POLITICO. Michael Krull, a former advance man and a college friend of Callista Gingrich’s who took over the campaign after a staff exodus in June, was replaced last weekend by Vince Haley, who has worked for Gingrich for nine years and currently is deputy campaign manager and policy director. “We’re focusing exclusively on what it’ll take to win what...

The surging Newt Gingrich has mastered debates — and disguise. The debate part is clear: The former Speaker of the House comes to play and owns the stage with an uncanny capacity to connect with the grievances of conservative voters. The disguise part is clear, too. Gingrich has used his debate skills — and his instinct to hit the raw nerves of conservatives — to camouflage considerable weaknesses as a candidate. The three wives, and cheating on and leaving the first two while they were ill; inconsistency on the most consequential conservative causes of the past decade; episodic bouts of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go to the audio sound bites, because Nancy Pelosi has opened her cavity. Two things. Pelosi's out there saying, (paraphrasing) "We don't really have that much to do with Occupy Wall Street. No, no, no. We're not tied to that group." So that's not gonna make them happy and it's a clear indication that the Democrat calculation is that the Occupy crowd is a drag on 'em. Then Pelosi, at a Politico Playbook Breakfast yesterday, was interviewed by White House correspondent Mike Allen, who said, "You think the Republican right is intentionally digging in, assuming a...

With not one Republican primary vote cast yet, we're getting way ahead of ourselves by speculating about whom Mitt Romney might pick as his vice-presidential running mate. But Willie Geist did invite Politico's Mike Allen to make his "bold predictions" for 2012. And Allen delivered, prognosticating that Romney would pick Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman as his ticket-mate. Mark Halperin strongly seconded Allen's assertion. View the video here.

Was this sober political analysis, or merely an MSMer pining for the good old days of Speaker Pelosi? On Morning Joe today, touting a Politico Pelosi puff piece about her "golden touch," Mike Allen claimed it was "very possible" that Democrats would retake the House majority in 2012. View the video here.

How does the liberal media turn a positive for a Republican front-runner into a negative? Ask Mike Allen of Politico. Instead of focusing on the political pluses of Chris Christie's endorsement of Mitt Romney, Allen has twisted the event into a negative that revealed the "very ruthless" efficiency of the Romney campaign. Moreover, if there's a politician around today who thinks for himself, it's Christie. Yet Allen insinuated that rather than making a reasoned decision, Christie was "roped" into endorsing Romney. Allen made his sour-grape remarks on today's Morning Joe. View the video here.

One more data point demonstrating the leftward tilt of the purportedly non-partisan Politico: In his Playbook of today, Politico's chief White House correspondent Mike Allen depicts a "grand bargain" on the credit ceiling, which inevitably would include huge tax increases, as an "historic achievement" for which President Obama and House speaker John Boehner would "rightly get credit." In contrast, Allen suggests that Republican leaders Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy are refusing a grand bargain out of personal political ambition. Read more here.

Mike Allen, appearing on Morning Joe, November 23, 2010.

. . . Present among the bloggers, reporters and editors were a number of professional political operatives, including top White House economic advisors, key Obama political appointees, and Democratic campaign veterans . . . Two of the administration’s chief economic advisors, Jared Bernstein, the vice president’s top economist, and Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, were members of Journolist until they began working officially for Obama. Ilan Goldenberg, now an advisor on Middle East policy at the Pentagon, was a member until he joined the administration. Moira Whelan left Journolist to work at the Department of Homeland...

The now closed down JournoList, has caused considerable controversy in recent weeks. According to its opponents, JournoList, teamed up some 400 prominent "progressive" journalists in an effort to smooth Barack Obama's path to the White House. There have been accusations that "Journolitstas", deliberately sought to downplay Obama's association with the marxist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and tried to smear conservatives, or opposing journalists as "racists". This post looks at 106 reported "Journolistas" to look for connections or common threads. Of the known "Jounolistas" and organizations listed below, many can be linked back to two interrelated groups Democratic Socialists of America, the...

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

The following 65 names are confirmed members of the now-defunct JournoList listserv. 1. Ezra Klein 2. Dave Weigel 3. Matthew Yglesias 4. David Dayen 5. Spencer Ackerman 6. Jeffrey Toobin 7. Eric Alterman 8. Paul Krugman 9. John Judis 10. Eve Fairbanks 11. Mike Allen 12. Ben Smith 13. Lisa Lerer 14. Joe Klein 15. Brad DeLong 16. Chris Hayes 17. Matt Duss 18. Jonathan Chait 19. Jesse Singal 20. Michael Cohen 21. Isaac Chotiner 22. Katha Pollitt 23. Alyssa Rosenberg 24. Rick Perlstein 25. Alex Rossmiller 26. Ed Kilgore 27. Walter Shapiro 28. Noam Scheiber 29. Michael Tomasky 30....

Mike Allen, chief political correspondent, POLITICO: "We saw the President in the Oval Office using commander-in-chief language, asking the country to think big, talking about his battle plan, talking about how he's informing not asking BP what's going to happen about how he refuses to let the Gulf Coast suffer anymore than it has to. This was a chance for the President to say I'm in charge, I get it and we have a plan to make this better."

Enraged voters, too dumb to appreciate the purveyors of pork . . . That was Mike Allen's complaint on Morning Joe today. Politico's chief political correspondent labelled "absurd" the decision of Utah and Nevada voters not to re-elect Bob Bennett [done deal] and Harry Reid [likely goner]. And why is it such a bad mistake? Because Bennett and Reid are proven pork providers for their states. Allen offered his analysis in response to Mike Barnicle's suggestion that in the current political climate, bringing home the bacon might actually backfire on politicians. View video here.

When you're an MSMer, you're an MSMer all the way--even when faced with facts that might make you like, well, ridiculous . . . Mike Allen, appearing on Morning Joe, has declared the NY-23rd race a "real toss-up" despite a new poll from a respected organization showing Doug Hoffman with a 17-point lead. The claim by Allen, Politico's chief political correspondent's, was so absurd that, on the spot, host Joe Scarborough offered 3:1 odds to Allen and anyone else wanting to place a few kopeks on Dem Bill Owens. View video here.

Mike Allen has tried to throw a bucket of cold water on Doug Hoffmann's candidacy. Again. Yesterday, as noted here, Allen said Republicans would be "crazy" and "suicidal" to support the conservative in the special congressional election in New York's 23rd CD. Today, Politico's chief political correspondent has claimed that a Hoffman victory would spell "chaos" in Republican ranks. And check the video for Mike Barnicle making an elitist crack about the upstate NY district, and Chuck Todd trying to embarrass RNC Chairman Michael Steele . . . View video here.