One of my local tv stations did an interview with death panel queen Betsy McCaughey yesterday. It was almost identical to the Stewart interview she did, the one James Fallows described as “weirdly effective”: she bought a thick binder purporting to contain the first half of the bill, she made statements that were so disconnected from reality that they flummoxed the interviewer (for example, her claim that we could insure everyone by using unspent stimulus money), and so on. I thought that McCaughey seemed much less weirdly effective (though equally weird) in this interview, perhaps because her shtick felt old the second time through. I did like this question from the interviewer:
Building health care is like building a ship. One side says it’s sturdy and will take us where we want to go. The other side says it’s leaking and will sink us. But you’re saying, forget all that, there’s a dragon in the sea that will come up and eat us. Looking back, do you feel badly about that?
Try to imagine Dancin’ Dave Gregory asking that question.
Dan
Fluffyhead would say, “Some have claimed there is no dragon in the sea – what are your thoughts?”
Mr Furious
Replace Gregory with that interviewer immediately!
asiangrrlMN
WTF the question? Do I need to be drunk to understand it? As for the Queen of the Death Panels, she is truly vile.
Robin G.
I maintain that her interview with Stewart wasn’t weirdly effective — it was just weird. Regardless of anything that was actually said, I felt she came across like a used car saleswoman — obviously *selling* a product, rather than submitting to an interview. She never once talked to Stewart. Her mannerisms put me off almost more than anything she said; had she been on mute, I would have hated her all the same.
Maybe that’s just me… but it seems like there would surely be a number of others who would find her equally off-putting, no matter what was coming out of her mouth.
tc125231
How could she feel badly? That would require either a conscience, or a brain with the software necessary for self-criticism.
Comrade Jake
One of the things she did in the Stewart interview that I think many missed was when Jon challenged her with information FactCheck had provided.
She responded by saying that a better name for the outfit would be “Spot Check”, since they’re not careful.
I know this lady is a nitwit, but I thought that was very clever. A blatant lie, but clever. If that particular talking point/parry doesn’t pick up steam on the right, I’ll be very surprised. The right certainly does have an interesting relationship with the truth these days.
The Grand Panjandrum
Was the next segment an interview of Congressman Wiener? No. Where was the interview of Howard Dean? Your local affiliate should be ashamed for having this fucking disingenuous corporate shill on the air. Without providing some balance to this obfuscation. Did they disclose her relationship with the interested anti-reformists?
asiangrrlMN
@Robin G.: I agree with you. I saw a few minutes, and she wasn’t effective to me at all. She was vapid, stupid, and idiotic. Yes, all of them.
Comrade Darkness
A dragon in the sea?
Clearly this guy is trying out for jon stewart’s job.
OriGuy
Is a dragon in the sea worse than a bear in the woods?
The Grand Panjandrum
@OriGuy: Either way you still have to avoid the shit.
gwangung
Yeah, a blatant attempt to do the he-said, she-said meme, with each side with their own set of facts.
Sorry, ma’am, but there’s only one objective reality out there and YOU’RE the one who’s not careful.
BB
Apparently, Mr. Dawson ruffled Ms. McCaughey-
Ross’faithful teabag viewers.13wham.com/content/blogs/story/Was-I-Too-Rough-In-My-Interview-With-Betsy/RDcX9cWw5UGkIdzZdcB5Vw.csp…
To his credit, he’s having none of the crap. He lurches toward some false equivalency on the 2/3rds waste and fraud stuff, but mostly just maintains he was right to ask her about her wrongness and let her stew in said wrongness.
Betsy is the brand of crazy that lots of people don’t catch right away. Ask George Pataki. One of my favorite political stories is how during his 1996 State of the State address, she just stood up for the whole thing. Just standing there, in the chamber, with the Governor…just lookin’ around and standing and being her crazy self. Picture Nancy Pelosi doing likewise. It’s a heapin’ helping of WTF.
God, that story cracks me up.
JK
Here’s another interview with Betsy McCaughey from WNYC, my local NPR station
wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2009/08/31/segments/139666
McCaughey is combative and interrupts as often as she can. She gets especially defensive towards the end of the interview when asked about her resignation from the board of a company that sells medical devices.
AC
I read the Fallows post and didn’t see where he said “weirdly effective.” Did you mean to link to another one, or did Fallows edit the phrase? Or what?
Thanks!
Wile E. Quixote
OriGuy
Not as long as you have rough men standing ready in the night to defend you from them.
Bubblegum Tate
@Comrade Jake:
They don’t need it because they’ve already come up with their way of dismissing FactCheck: “It’s a part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center–WILLIAM AYERS!*” Seriously. When I cite FactCheck links on wingnut blogs, they scoff that I’m citing “soshulist spin and liberal bias.”
*I’m sure it will come as a shock to absolutely nobody that the wingnuts are, of course, utterly wrong. The Annenberg Public Policy Center has nothing to do with the Annenberg Challenge Ayers was involved with. But when has a niggling little detail like that ever mattered to wingnuts?
ricky
@Bubblegum Tate:
The salient point on the right and facts:
“within our culture we have a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity that is bred from birth, through home school, Christian school, evangelical college, whatever to reject facts as a matter of faith.”
Frank Schaeffer on the Rachel Maddow Show
ricky
“Looking back to you feel badly about that?”
“I have no time to look back. I must look forward. Just because we sailed past the dragon does not mean we shouldn’t watch to see how close the edge of the earth is ahead.”
Augustine
@Bubblegum Tate:
Of course the Annenberg Center has everything to do with the Annenberg Challenge.
They both have the exact same word in their title. You don’t think those nine letters got there by accident, do you? Isn’t it just a little suspicious how the exact same name is being used twice? Convenient, I’d say.
Plus, too, what kind of name is Annenberg, anyway. 50cia1i5t j3ws, all of them. Such as.
Corner Stone
@Wile E. Quixote: I just can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished for rough men to defend me in the night.
Good call.
ricky
@Augustine:
So are you named after the Saint or the grass?
gwangung
They truly don’t know who Annenberg is????
Augustine
@ricky:
i figured SedNoliModo would have been a little too obscurantist.
Zuzu's Petals
It’s BIIIIIGGGGG ! ! ! !
No kidding, lady. It’s a complicated subject.
I was glad to see him call her on the “death panels” nonsense too. Good for him.
Roger Moore
@gwangung:
They don’t need to know. All a wingnut needs to know is whether you agree with him. The Annenberg Public Policy Center is interested in facts, with their well known liberal bias. That makes it a liberal front organization no matter how good the founder’s conservative credentials.
MR Bill
Annenburg, like “Pelosi” and “Obama”, sounds foreign…And that’s good enough for Wingnuttery.
I wonder if the “dragon in the sea” is some sort of reference to the old Reagan “some say there is a bear in the woods” ad?
wasabi gasp
If you run into a dragon, make sure to have a 12pt double-spaced bible on hand for which to kill it with one blow to the noggin.
gwangung
@Roger Moore: Well, I guess so…a commitment to truth and accuracy above party means you’re a traitor to the Republicans.
someguy
The mere existence of people like McCaughey is a strong argument in favor of death panels for pundits.
Jacquelyn
But did you see the part of the interview on
that stuck? As in…sticky notes marking the pages? Interesting how that helps her cause NOT ONE WHIT, er, WIT!
catclub
Anyone catch the scoop by Rolling Stone
reported by Crooks and liars
that McCaughey was hired by Philip Morris to help
kill Clinton’s health reform?
ctjack
McCaughey’s input is accurate and appreciated. I hope she stays in the fight